Uncle Jim, undiluted

Status
Not open for further replies.

James D. Macdonald

Your Genial Uncle
Absolute Sage
VPX
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Feb 11, 2005
Messages
25,582
Reaction score
3,785
Location
New Hampshire
Website
madhousemanor.wordpress.com
Learn Writing with Uncle Jim, Volume 1
Page 322
03-07-09

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

Yes, painting your cat is more socially acceptable, but shaving and waxing your cat (since it takes longer) is more useful to writers who are trying to put off writing.

If you have a poodle you can do even more astounding things to put off the moment when you start writing.

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

Oh, and since to be a novelist is to know mankind, here are True Porn Clerk Stories. A young lady takes a temp job while waiting for the freelancing thing to work out.

Insightful and funny. What's not to like?

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

For New Hampshire plants and animals, your first stop should probably be the NH Fish and Game site.


80 miles west of Manchester is somewhere between Walpole and Keene. So, let's see: Walpole has a population of around 3,500, which I think is about what you wanted for your story? Hit Google Images for Walpole, NH, then hit your local library for tourist books on the North East, and for books on plants, birds, flowers, and so on, for the North East.

Tourist books are wonderful for the writer who can't visit the places, as long as you don't have people giving each other as-you-know-Bob descriptions of local places and events.

(If you want a smaller town, Gilsum, NH, has a population of 811. If you want a larger one, Keene is a college town, with a population of 22,500.)

Google images with the town name is a quick shortcut to finding all the pictures you want on one page.

Research one real town, then re-name it. That's how to cheat.

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

Tonight on CNN:


"Can't we English-speakers just agree upon a gender-neutral pronoun?" attorney Paul Easton recently Twittered. "Tired of PC grammar gymnastics."

Easton isn't alone. There have been at least 18 recent tweets about the fact that English has no grammatically correct substitutes for words like "he," "him," and "his" that do not have a gender implied.

Consider the sentence "Everyone loves his mother." The word "his" may be seen as both sexist and inaccurate, but replacing it with "his or her" seems cumbersome, and "their" is grammatically incorrect.

Nonsense! "Their" is perfectly grammatically correct. The objection to the singular their is another of the botches created by the Latinate prescriptive grammarians of the 18th century. (Along with, more famously, not ending a sentence with a preposition, and not splitting an infinitive (both forms that we all use, perfectly correctly, every day).)
Chaucer used the singular their. The King James Bible uses it. Shakespeare used it. Jane Austin used it. George Orwell used it. F. Scott Fitzgerald used it.

And I use it.

Go, my children, and say "Everyone loves their mother."

It's correct.

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

The Walpole, NH, weather cam.

Walpole images (Google) Everything from the town's tourist board photos to snapshots of people's weddings.

And New England Travel Guides.

You'll probably also want to find a copy of Curious New England.

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

Splitting infinitives:

Okay.

In English, an infinitive is a verb in the form "to [verb]." E.g: to love, to warn, to rule, to hear.

In Latin (and other inflected languages), you can't split infinitives because the infinitive form is one word. E.g: amare, monere, regere, audire.

But in English, since the infinitive is two words, you can put other words between the "to" and the verb. Famously, from Star Trek, "to boldly go where no man has gone before."

English has always split infinitives. But when the Latinate Prescriptive Grammarians came along in the 18th century, to impose the grammatical rules from Latin onto English in order to make English respectable (since Latin was the perfect language) they decided that it was therefore wrong to split infinitives in English.

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

There are two kinds of grammarians in the world: Descriptive and Prescriptive. The Descriptive Grammarians find the way that the language works based on the way native speakers use it. The Prescriptive Grammarians figure out how they want the language to work, and try to get native speakers to go along with it.

Descriptive Grammarians win.

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

Pitfalls? Same as in any other story: Confusing the readers.

(Perhaps you're asking the wrong person: we wrote and sold a short story that was entirely in dialog. When I say "entirely," I mean it: there weren't even any dialog tags.)

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

Excellent, Euclid!

Ours was "Nobody Has To Know," which appeared in Jane Yolen's Vampires.

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

The biggest risk to a writer isn't piracy. It's obscurity.

Given that the number one reason anyone buys a book is because they've read and enjoyed another work by that same author, I don't mind people reading my stories where ever they find them.

Note that I've posted a bunch on my own webpage.

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

T I just wish I was more interested in magic, though!

What could be more magical than thought transference to create a world in a reader's mind?

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

Take a paperback copy of your favorite novel (or, any novel picked at random from the Three Books for a Buck bin at your local bookstore).

Take a highlighter.

Go through and highlight everything that fits that definition of exposition.

There is your answer.

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

Allen, if it's not too much trouble, could you try that with one of my books?

(I wonder... if something's happening on every page will the experiment give a false positive?)

----------------------The Highwayman by Alfred Noyes

Beware the Burly Detective Syndrome.

"Burly Detective" Syndrome

Fear of proper names. Found in most of the same pulp magazines that abound with "said" bookisms and Tom Swifties. This is where you can't call Mike Shayne "Shayne" but substitute "the burly detective" or "the red-headed sleuth." Like the "said" bookish it comes from the entirely wrong-headed conviction that you can't use the same word twice in the same sentence, paragraph, or even page. This is only true of particularly strong and highly visible words, like, say, "vertiginous." It's always better to re-use an ordinary, simple noun or verb rather than contrive a cumbersome method of avoiding it.

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

Sure it can be done.

The question is, can you do it?

There's only one way to find out.

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

100K (if they're the right 100K) is fine with US publishers.

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

I don't think there's a publisher on the planet who is going to say, "This book is wonderful! Fantastic! Astounding! I couldn't put it down! But it's 6,500 words too long. Reject!" That's a tiny percent difference and your book will probably swing more than that one way or the other during editing anyway.

(Unless the guidelines say "Don't even think about submitting anything over 100,000 words, suckah!")

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

And the discussion of torture is over. Now.

-------------------------------
Bad guys?

The first thing you need to know is that they don't know they're bad guys. Everything they thing and do is perfectly reasonable and logical to them. They think that they're doing good and right.

The second thing that you need to know is that while you are writing that person you'll have to agree with him/her.

Don't preach. And when you're giving that person's opinions play fair. Give strong and convincing arguments to your subtle bigot.

The thing is, your hero will win. But giving the bad guy a Come Uppance for his Evilness is so very Hayes Code. You can do better than that.

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


BTW, it wouldn't be a bad idea to memorize "The Highwayman."

That way you'll always have a party trick....

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

There will be no discussion of torture here, and I remind everyone that I have the power to delete posts.

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

Do you, yourself, know anyone named Spike?

As to who to root for: Who's the first person to show up in the book? Who's the person on page one? The readers will be rooting for that person unless you work to change them.

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

Thinking of heroes and villains may be limiting you. Think of protagonists and antagonists.

As to workshops and conferences -- some people find them useful. Some don't. Check with your local librarian to see if there's anything near you, or look at a local community college. You can often find small, free, conferences and workshops in either place.

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

Doubleday is the publisher.

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

Doubleday has been around in one form or another since the late 19th century. If you hear writers talking about "BDD," that's Bantam/Doulbleday/Dell. At the moment BDD is part of Random House, which is owned by Bertelsmann, a German media conglomerate.

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

That's more-or-less an establishing shot.

I'd replace "populated by" with "filled with", and I'd replace "frequented" with "visited."

Is one of those men sleeping under cardboard a viewpoint character?


(There are no unbreakable writers' ordinances, other than, perhaps "thou shalt be entertaining.")

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

I'm not entirely sure you aren't in that character's POV. I mean, he's aware of his location, isn't he?

How is a "shallow doorway" different from a "doorway"?

"Dumpster" is a trademark, and should be capitalized.

(Was changing tense deliberate?)

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

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.)

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

This tool removes all versions of Conficker.

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

This tool removes all versions of worry.

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.

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

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.

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

Hi Uncle Jim,

Off topic question. When changing POVs in a story does the different POV need to be in italics or would a lead in be better to let the reader know that a change in viewpoint is coming up?

Line break, and continue in the new POV.

Just make sure the readers aren't confused.

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

Macs are, financially the overall better buy.

I wouldn't take another Mac as a gift. If you work as a freelancer you can't afford the repairs and the time the thing is off in the shop.

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

I've already mentioned mine: Just type "Suddenly, without warning, a naked woman screamed," and continue from there.

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

Don't worry about making wrong choices in your writing. You'll be re-writing the book a couple of times at least before you're done. I've written books in first person that were third person by the submission draft, and vice versa.

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

Say what you will about Twilight, ol' Stephenie surely did something right!

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

Page 331

04-01-09
 

James D. Macdonald

Your Genial Uncle
Absolute Sage
VPX
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Feb 11, 2005
Messages
25,582
Reaction score
3,785
Location
New Hampshire
Website
madhousemanor.wordpress.com
Learn Writing with Uncle Jim, Volume 1
Page 332
04-02-09

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

How does this benefit the author? How much royalty would he/she get from a 1 cent sale?

There aren't any additional royalties. The author already got paid for that physical copy.

Remember that the number one reason anyone buys and reads a book is because the reader already read and enjoyed another book by that same author. So the author benefits that way -- the creation of another loyal fan.

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

Pen Names. How do they work, and who decides them--you, the publisher, the agent?

The short answer is: All of the above.

How they work is this: That's the name printed on the front of the book under the word "by."

As to why you might want one:

1) You're writing a series book. The publisher owns the name, and that's the name on all the books in that series. Examples include the Tom Swift novels by Victor Appleton, Hardy Boys books by Franklin W. Dixon, and Nancy Drew books by Carolyn Keene.

2) It simplifies things. When a pair of authors work together, they may have a pseudonym for their joint effort. For example, when Henry Kuttner and C. L. Moore wrote together, they published their novels under the name Lewis Padgett.

3) Your name might be confused with some other author's. If your name was Joanne K. Rowling or Stephen King or Dan Brown, your publisher would probably want you to write under a pseudonym.

4) The author may be very prolific, and may not want to go into competition with himself. Say there's an author who writes six novels a year. He may put those out under three different names, so that someone in the bookstore may say, "Wow! A new Charles Collingwood, a new Frederick Fane, and a new Rosa Belinda Coote! I like 'em all! I'll buy 'em all!" rather than saying, "Hmmm... three books by Charles Collingwood. I'll get this one."

5) The author may hate his name. For example, Sherwood Smith's name isn't Sherwood or Smith, but she really loathes the name that's on her driver's license.

6) Genre conventions dictate a particular kind of name on the jacket. Men's action/adventure novels usually have male names on 'em, romances usually have female names on 'em, regardless of the plumbing of the author.

7) The author may want to keep the various genres she writes separate, so that fans of her gritty urban procedurals won't be confused by picking up one of her cozy mysteries. Just as the number one reason someone reads a novel is they read and enjoyed a previous work, if they read and hated a previous work they won't pick up the next one by that same author.

8) The author may not want family/friends/church to know that he's writing steamy bodice-rippers (with a side-order of bodily fluids). Or an academic may not want the tenure committee to know that she's writing charming YA fantasies, lest they think she "isn't serious about academia."

9) The author may be caught in the order-to-net Death Spiral, where the only way out is to change the byline. (This is sometimes referred to as the "DAW Witness Protection Program.")

10) Or, maybe, the ever-popular Other.

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

Names that are difficult to spell, difficult to pronounce, or embarrassing, are, indeed, other places where you'll see pseuds.

John Shithousen will probably want to have some other name on the dust jacket.

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

That's the situation I'm in, and I haven't decided yet whether to submit with a pen name when I get to that point.

You and your editor will have a lot of time to discuss this while the book is in editing and production.

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

Calliopenjo: It's entirely possible.

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

Either. Both.

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

Any advice for those of us killed by the writing how-to?

Go get a whole pile of novels. Read 'em just for fun. Don't analyze, don't think, just read and enjoy. This is just for fun and to clear your palate.

Then sit down and write. Write without thinking. Write without going back to edit. If you're a good-enough touch-typist, write without looking at the screen of your computer. (I sometimes look out the window while writing. Other times I turn the monitor off.) Just blast it out. Don't write a novel; ignore plot and prose. Just tell me a story.

When you've reached 300 pages, see what you have.

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

A post about writing that I made elsewhere.

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

That would be the Metric Day, with 10 seconds to the minute, 100 minutes to the hour, and 100 hours to the day.

1 English hour = 4.167 Metric hours

The Metric Hour (otherwise called the Kilosecond) is scheduled to replace the English hour at midnight Greenwich time on July 12, 2015, under the terms of the International Time Standard Treaty of 2007. Scientists, who already use the Metric Hour for most computations, look forward to the change.

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

Do we really need to discuss UTC (Universal Time Coordinated) here? Of course we do!

That's going to be a plot point in the next Peter Crossman novel (The Gates of Time, about which the editor is bugging me....)

And how about Sidereal Time, where time is measured by the rotation of the earth, not against the sun, but against the First Point of Aries.

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

Uncle Jim,
Do you think you need more of an imagination to write fantasy or science fiction than to write in other genres?

More imagination? No. Just a different set of writing protocols, to be interpreted by readers using a different set of reading protocols.

What do we mean by reading protocols?

In a science fiction novel, if I describe what's on a desk, the reader will use this to figure out the level of technology in the society.

In a mystery novel, if I describe what's on a desk, the reader will understand that one of those objects is a clue.

In a literary novel, if I describe what's on a desk, the reader will understand it to be a metaphor for the protagonist's mental state.

And so on.

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

Stacks of books, papers, DVDs about the American Civil War, a flashlight, and a set of 19th century surgical tools. My computer, an action figure of Laura Croft, and an action figure of Emma Frost (the White Queen) with a little comic balloon above her head that says "Write your book. Now." Plus three different coffee cups.

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

The book is as long as it turns out to be. When we got to 300 pages we were done.

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

As far as more potential in the storyline, in your better books (such as I *koff koff* write), you should have a feeling that there's a whole universe out there.

In fact, there's a short story set in the same universe, with one of the same characters, that came out in the Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction about a year ago, and will be reprinted in Year's Best Fantasy 9 (ed. Hartwell and Cramer) this June. (We just got the check for that this morning.)

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

"There are eight million stories in the Naked City; this has been one of them...."

Your protagonist didn't only have one adventure in her life, right? She woke up and did something on the day before the first day you recounted in your novel. If one of her jackets has frayed sleeves she wore it a lot.

Story is all around us.

Meanwhile, in a more appalling vein:

Writers Should Know Better from How Publishing Really Works, QueryFAIL! from Editorial Anonymous.

O my children, go forth and do not do likewise....

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

As it happens, I've seen one of Stephen King's original manuscripts, from after he'd already become Stephen KING. Y'know what it was? Courier 10, black on white, single-sided, double-spaced, with one-inch margins and a running head.

Nothing beats following the guidelines. They're designed to make things easier for the customer to buy the product, the customer being the editor and the product being your book.

All that the editor and/or agent owes you is a single word: Yes or no. Anything beyond that is gravy.

And if someone, anyone, critiques your book, and they're totally wrong about everything, don't get what you were saying, and have nothing but stupid comments, the harshest thing you should say is, "Thank you very much!" and mean it.

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

As it happens, I've seen one of Stephen King's original manuscripts, from after he'd already become Stephen KING. Y'know what it was? Courier 10, black on white, single-sided, double-spaced, with one-inch margins and a running head.

Nothing beats following the guidelines. They're designed to make things easier for the customer to buy the product, the customer being the editor and the product being your book.

All that the editor and/or agent owes you is a single word: Yes or no. Anything beyond that is gravy.

And if someone, anyone, critiques your book, and they're totally wrong about everything, don't get what you were saying, and have nothing but stupid comments, the harshest thing you should say is, "Thank you very much!" and mean it.

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

If you're totally fascinated, double-space after a full stop is sometimes called "English spacing" and single-space after a full stop is sometimes called "French spacing." These long pre-date typewriters. There were also rules about spaces before and after other punctuation marks. As an aside, also dating to the days of hand typesetting, cliches were common phrases cast as single slugs to speed composition.

See also: Upper case, lower case, boiler-plate, and stereotype.

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

I learned a new word today: struthionine.

It means "resembling an ostrich; in an ostrich-like manner."

I doubt I'll be using it in conversation very often....

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

Could be something, could be nothing. It's first draft. What can I say? You won't know what you have until you write it.

Now here's a Flash Fiction I just wrote:

Serial killer pretends to be literary agent to lure girls to New York and into his clutches. Bad stuff ensues. Good guys win. Film at eleven.

---------

If anyone wants to use that one, do so with my blessing. (That is, incidentally, a novel-length idea.)


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

Alternate history is a branch of science fiction, yes, but literary publishers do publish science fiction (see, for example, The Road).

I'm worried about your book, though. Do you like it? What are its good points? If you weren't the author and were trying to convince a friend to read it, what would you say?

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

In the wake of the great Queryfail flap (Google on "Queryfail" if you're totally curious), here is a summary of Lessons Learned.

Y'know how I keep saying "submit your book to worthwhile agents and legitimate publishers, following their guidelines to the letter"?

Note the very first lesson:

1. Failure to follow directions is an automatic rejection.

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

AAR? Well-known and widely respected.

Not all worthwhile agents are members, but until you know the landscape that's the way to bet.

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

I write out-of-order all the time. As scenes become clear to me, I write them. Later I decide (or Doyle does) which scenes are part of this book, and where they go.

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

Would royalties be paid to authors for normal sales of new books through amazon?

Yes, of course they are.

An author is paid once, and only once, per physical volume. When the publisher gets money for the sale, they send part of it to the author.

After that it's like used cars: If you buy a car from some bloke that you found through a newspaper advert, neither you nor he has to send a check to the Ford Motor Company. The only folks who send money to Ford are the new car dealers.

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

Okay...

What about ebooks? Say you had established an ebook store (online or brick & mortar) and sold copies there to folks off the street. Each ebook could, arguably, be considered a new volume.

In my opinion, not that it counts, an ebook dealer should pay royalties to the author (or at least pay the wholesale rate to the publisher so the author would get a cut of that at least), but that's just my opinion.

And, except for the pirates, ebook dealers do exactly that.

Want to buy some of my books in electronic format?

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

If you want to sell ebooks, talk to the publisher. Someone owns the rights; find that person/company and make a deal.

I don't think this is the right thread for this discussion.... but I bet there is such a thread somewhere at AW.

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

But Uncle Jim -- what do you do on those days where no scene is clear to you?

Throw any BS that comes into my head up on screen.

Let's see:


"There's a scene here," Maincharacter said. "Why the foo aren't you writing it?"

"Because I don't friggin' see it," the author replied.

"As if I'm going to take that for an excuse? Look, Lady McSwiggin is going to have to lose her necklace if Fred is going to find it in time for the action/adventure climax. So why not do that bit?"

"Because there isn't a Lady McSwiggin isn't in this book. Who the foo is Lady McSwiggin?"

"Hey, are you expecting me to do your job for you?" Maincharacter looked at the author with exasperation dripping from his mustache. (He had bought the exasperation at Al's House of Nouns; it was his last bottle.) "I suppose I do. She's the character with the necklace."

"That didn't clarify things. What necklace?"

"The cursed one."

"Cursed one?"

"Is there an echo in here? The cursed blue one."

"You just stacked two adjectives on one noun."

"La-di-friggin'-dah. Look who's going all English Major on me now. If you don't start writing your book, if you make me write your book, you won't believe what I'm going to do to the prose."

"Okay, okay!" Suddenly, without warning, a naked woman screamed!

It was Lady McSwiggin, and she was standing at the door. "Open up right now," she screamed again.

Maincharacter turned the knob and pulled the door in. "My lady!"

Lady McSwiggin stepped inside, as Maincharacter shut the door behind her. "Would you like a pair of jodhpurs?" he asked. "I think I have some that will fit you...."

"Never mind that. I need you to hide something for me." She reached behind her neck and unclasped the necklace that she wore. The blue pendant, a diamond the size of a dwarf hamster, lay distractingly between her breasts. "Take this," she said, pressing the necklace into Maincharacter's hand. "Lord Halfbaked must never find it!"

And so on.

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

Do you and Doyle have a lot of laughs while sharing these parts?

We absolutely do. Laughing a lot is part of our writing life.

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

Present tense is getting more common than it used to be (styles change). Some small parts of Land of Mist and Snow are in present tense. But none of our longer works are fully in present tense.

This isn't because I don't like present tense (there's nothing wrong with it if it's the best tense for telling your story--All Quiet on the Western Front comes instantly to mind), it's just that so far I haven't. Past tense for storytelling is merely a literary convention.

If you're using two different tenses, the trick is to do the transitions well. (Isn't that the trick in all of writing? To do what you're doing well?) Don't confuse the reader.

Should you try in a first novel? Why not? If it doesn't work, fix it. No one sees your first drafts but you.


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

Usually, numbers from one through ninety-nine are written as words; numbers 100 and over are written as digits.

But if Mom was turning tricks, I'd hope she was making more than $655 a week, lol.

So this young lady goes to the bank with $655 in quarters and asks to open an account.

"Goodness," says the teller, "Did you hoard all of these quarters?"

"Oh, no, m'am," says the young lady. "My sister whored half of 'em."


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

As long as you're consistent, the publisher will regularize 'em to house style somewhere in the copyediting stage.

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

I'd give Lat and Long (and grid coordinates) in digits. (And expect most people to skip 'em and say "Oh, there's a number there.")

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

One of my tours of duty was as Navigator on an FF as well.

More and more these days you see lat and long listed with minutes of arc, and, rather than seconds, decimal minutes. Thus: 20[SUP]o[/SUP] 12.85' N 74[SUP]o[/SUP] 44.36' W.

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

I italicize (and italics are indicated with a single underline, thus).

Use this sparingly. It verges on giving stage directions. If you've written your characters well the readers will know how they'll deliver a line of dialog.

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

Underlining is never wrong unless the guidelines of the place you're submitting the work to specifically say otherwise.

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

I've never understood why you would underline in fiction?

You would underline in fiction if you intended some word or words to be set in italic.

Uncle Jim,

One more question. Is it:

To comfort the ache
To help you comfort from the ache.

Neither?

I have no idea what you're trying to get across. More context?

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

Oh, and here's agent Jessica Faust on whether you should write short stories or keep a blog as part of your effort build a platform to sell your novel: http://bookendslitagency.blogspot.com/2009/04/building-platform-for-fiction.html

I’ve received a lot of questions about the importance of building a platform for fiction writers. Should you write platform-building pieces under your real name or the pseudonym you want to use? What if you wrote mystery short stories, but now want to write romance novels? Do those short stories even count toward your platform? Do you need to worry about blogging now to build a platform or should you just write?

Bet you'll never guess what she recommends.

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

Also, the fellows who are typesetting your book know that underlines are set in italics. If you don't underline the italics the copyeditor will have to underline them by hand before the book goes to typesetting. It's easy to miss italics in a manuscript. It's hard to miss underlines.

========

How about "this will make you feel better"?

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

Let me paraphrase a line from one of my favorite movies (All That Jazz):

Listen. I can't make you a great writer. I don't even know if I can make you a good writer. But, if you keep trying and don't quit, I know I can make you a better writer.

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

Rules? In a knife fight?

There is only one rule: If it works, it's right.

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

Wrong. Not over here in Europe we don't. There was another one came up some time ago that "everyone knows" but I didn't. Can't remember it now, some branch of the security service with an F in for Firearms.

You're probably thinking of BATF (Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms). I recall one story where sugar was regulated and it was the BATC: Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Confections.

Think of your audience. Not every book is meant for every person on the planet.

Often context will take care of the problem. Other times you might want to define the term in dialog the first time it shows up. You can do this: Literary dialog is a convention of art, not a natural depiction of actual human speech. (If it were natural speech, um, like I was saying, you know, looks like it's raining out.)

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

BATC: Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Chocolate! Open up!

Crook: You can't touch me, copper! Ain't nothing here but lemon drops! Ha ha ha ha ha!

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

Don't confuse your readers.

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

Any advice for those days when you feel your writing is dry and your plot is pointless?

Yes.

Write anyway.

(If you need a Permission to Write Badly certificate, I can give you one.)

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

Print up as many as you need. Discounts for writing groups!

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

Not to disagree with the man whose name is on the thread, but...

If it's entertaining it's right.

Yeah, that's one way it could work.

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

I've been telling you this for years.

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

And it's time to play First Page!

1. First Sight

My mother drove me to the airport with the windows rolled down. It was seventy-five degrees in Phoenix, the sky a perfect, cloudless blue. I was wearing my favorite shirt--sleeveless, white eyelet lace; I was wearing it as a farewell gesture. My carry-on item was a parka.

In the Olympic Penninsula of northwest Washington State, a small town named Forks exists under a near-constant cover of clouds. It rains on this inconsequential town more than on any other place in the United States of America. It was from this town and its gloomy, omnipresent shade that my mother escaped with me when I was only a few months old. It was in this town that I'd been compelled to spend a month every summer until I was fourteen. That

Okay, everyone! Do you turn the page, or do you put the book back on the shelf?

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

Page 341
04-21-09
 

James D. Macdonald

Your Genial Uncle
Absolute Sage
VPX
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Feb 11, 2005
Messages
25,582
Reaction score
3,785
Location
New Hampshire
Website
madhousemanor.wordpress.com
Learn Writing with Uncle Jim, Volume 1
Page 342
04-22-09

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

For our work in progress, I think it would be better to use Share Your Work, elsewhere on this board.

In a bit, a line-by-line on the book excerpt above.

I know I've suggested this before, but I'm going to suggest it again: Go down to a bookstore and watch people as they decide what book to buy. What do they look at first? What is the last thing they do before they either put the book back on the shelf or walk over to the cash register?

As far as Steinbeck: By the time he wrote East of Eden he was a known quantity. People who read and liked his earlier work would give him far more room than they would give the same book with a different name on the cover. Remember that the last chapter of your current book sells your next book.

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

1. First Sight

My mother drove me to the airport with the windows rolled down. It was seventy-five degrees in Phoenix, the sky a perfect, cloudless blue. I was wearing my favorite shirt--sleeveless, white eyelet lace; I was wearing it as a farewell gesture. My carry-on item was a parka.

In the Olympic Peninsula of northwest Washington State, a small town named Forks exists under a near-constant cover of clouds. It rains on this inconsequential town more than on any other place in the United States of America. It was from this town and its gloomy, omnipresent shade that my mother escaped with me when I was only a few months old. It was in this town that I'd been compelled to spend a month every summer until I was fourteen. That

Hi ho and away we go!


1. First Sight​

A book with chapters, and the chapters have titles. We're going to be introduced to something new, here. What's the first thing that comes to mind when you see the word-cluster "first sight"? Very likely "love at first sight." So, looks like we're in a romance.

My mother drove me to the airport with the windows rolled down.​

First person. Past tense. We have two characters in the first two words: the narrator, and his/her mother. We have action going on: driving to the airport. Which suggests a place: we're in a car, on a road, going to said airport. We have some sensual detail, "with the windows rolled down." That's well-done. Twelve words.

It was seventy-five degrees in Phoenix, the sky a perfect, cloudless blue.​

Answering the question, "where, exactly?" Expands on "the windows rolled down." Going to an airport suggests going on a trip, and a journey is a classic plot/metaphor for personal discovery. We're stressing light and perfection. Twelve more words.

I was wearing my favorite shirt--sleeveless, white eyelet lace; I was wearing it as a farewell gesture.​

Okay, our narrator is female. That "farewell gesture" suggests that a door is closing. The classic place to start a novel is when a door closes behind the protagonist, leaving him/her in an unfamiliar and uncomfortable place with no way back to the past status quo. Eighteen words.

My carry-on item was a parka.​

Right. This is very well done. The contrast is that the weather where the protagonist is going will be cold, and the item is carry-on because she'll need that parka right away. A parka, with its concealing hood, long sleeves, and hip-length, contrasts strongly with that white sleeveless openwork shirt. Six words. Half the length of the shortest sentence so far. Good impact. The word in the position of power is "parka."

End of paragraph one.

In the Olympic Peninsula of northwest Washington State, a small town named Forks exists under a near-constant cover of clouds.​

Answering the question "where is she going?" "Forks," as in forks in a road, implies choices. Keeping on with the journey. Contrasts the clouds with the brightness of Phoenix. Contrasts the size of the town with the size of Phoenix (no need to state that Phoenix is a large city; we all know that). The word-order choices are non-conventional, to put stress on 'exists' and 'clouds.' Alliteration on constant cover clouds. Twenty words, changing pace from the first paragraph. Slowing down the reader. Semi-infodump, but a well-done info dump.

It rains on this inconsequential town more than on any other place in the United States of America.​

Not just a small town, an inconsequential town. A big word for such a small town. And a trivia fact. Is it true? Dunno, but the reader will go along with it because the author says so, and the forward motion of the story (and it is moving forward, the car is going to the airport, and the narrator is dreading the end of the journey, producing tension) induces believe. No one counts the rivets on a moving train. Spelling out the full name of the country, rather than just saying "America." What's up with that? Trying to put off the arrival? Eighteen words.

It was from this town and its gloomy, omnipresent shade that my mother escaped with me when I was only a few months old.​

Not just small, not just inconsequential, but filled with shade (and shade, we know, is another word for 'ghost'). That shade/those shades aren't just shady, they're gloomy. The shade isn't just gloomy, it's omnipresent. Wow. That's some industrial-strength shade there. Revealing the character's state of mind. More contrast with the bright sunny sky we saw in paragraph one. A place to be escaped from. A place that a mother would flee, taking a tiny baby with her. A place where you need a parka right away. Twenty-four words make this the longest sentence so far. Slowing down....

It was in this town that I'd been compelled to spend a month every summer until I was fourteen.​

Ah, so it isn't just a place she's heard of. She know for herself how dreary it is. Only compulsion would put her there. A mother fleeing alone with a child and that child compelled to spend a month every year suggests a divorced dad with court-ordered custody. The protagonist is apparently young, but still undefined. Right now, her mother, her protector, is sending her back despite her obvious reluctance. Yet more tension. Nineteen words.

That


The paragraph continues on the next page.

Let's see what words are in positions of power:

rolled down
cloudless blue
farewell gesture
parka

clouds
United States of America
old
fourteen

Of them all, "parka" is the strongest.

Four sentences in the first paragraph, at least five in the second.

I think it was nicely done, and reads aloud very well.

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

Oh, browsing the internets I spotted this bit of depression: http://goodexperience.com/2008/07/following-up-on-these.php. Can I have your thoughts, Uncle Jim?


I'm not going to do a line-by-line. Attentive readers of this thread will already know what I think on most of those subjects.

I will comment that he seems to be talking about non-fiction, and the non-fiction world is a bit different from the fiction world. I will also comment that the phrase "commercial publishing" has two words.

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

Uncle Jim,

What is considered a typical word count for first novel?

What genre? What do the guidelines say for the publishers in that genre? 80-100K most places.

Somebody from my writing group asked that question. If you need specifics, it's around 60K words, around 300 pages, and a romantic mystery.

How do you get 60K words to fill 300 pages?

Mysteries can be short, but 60K is sliding toward the novella area. In romance you can sometimes see books with two or three novellas in them, so it isn't impossible.

If they're the exactly right 60K words, then there you go, and look at publishers' guidelines.

What would an agent see as appropriate for a first attempt?

What do their guidelines say? Usually a query letter, a one-page synopsis, and the first three chapters.

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

Dunno about present day, but James M. Cain was a master of dialog.

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

A Clockwork Orange opens with dialog.

Try it. If it works ... go with it. If not, try something else.

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

Basically, would your analysis of the same page be the same before and after you've read the book?


As it happens, I've never read the book. (I got the text by using the Look Inside feature at Amazon.)

...but I haven't been able to get my hands on one. I can't order online--no credit card.

Interlibrary loan.

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

One difference is that I wouldn't outline a short story....

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

Seriously, a short story has one single point. A novel has many. A short story is a single joke. A novel is a comedy routine.

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

In a short story you don't have the room to put in anything that isn't purely part of the story.

A novel is doing aerobatics at 10,000 feet. You have room to recover.

A short story is doing aerobatics at 500 feet. You don't have much of a margin of error.

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


What do you do when this happens to you? Simply jot down notes and get back to your normal WIP? Halt the WIP completely to write what you're currently drawn to? Or something in between?

So you stop writing your current WIP, and start on the new, glorious idea that seems to write itself. And half-way through that novel, you have a great idea that begs to be written, so you stop your work in progress and start writing that new novel. And half-way through writing it, you have an astounding idea ...

...and thirty years from now you have sixty half-novels in your attic.


If something begs to be written, write it. But you don't get to stop doing two hours a day on your current WIP, all the way through to The End.

her page in before getting to the "action scene"

What are your thoughts?



What does the scene accomplish?

What's the tone of your novel?

Does Character B (the one who doesn't reappear until 2/3 of the way through the book) need to be in the story at all?

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

What do you think?


You've read your book. Your betas have read your book. I haven't.

If the character vanishes for 2/3 of the novel he doesn't seem all that essential. Could this character be combined with some other character to simplify things?

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

He's not essential....

That means that he may not belong in this book. Fun is always good. Please consider making him essential.

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

Uncle Jim,

Just because I'm curious...

How many words of fiction do you estimate you've published?

Somewhere above two million.

When did you begin creative writing? In high school? College?

In elementary school. I wrote a Hardy Boys novel when I was ten.

Did you ever work as a potato farmer? Or undercover as a janitor on an inter-galactic warship?

No, and no.

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

When you feel you've actually finished writing the novel and wou're all drained, and you need another ten or twenty thousand words.

Or, if every word is the right word and you've told your story ... find a market that accepts that length in that genre.

Electronic media, in particular, are open to shorter lengths.

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

What ever became of that? And was it any good?

I found it again a couple of years ago, when cleaning out the house after my mother's death. She'd kept a copy, you understand.

It had its moments.

I showed it to one of my editors, who remarked, "Even if it didn't have a name on it I'd know who wrote it."

That's because "style" is what you can't help doing. (Though it is a bit disheartening to learn that I haven't changed since I was ten....)

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

No, I haven't done that. But I've suggested that people take cheap paperbacks, highliters, and mark things like dialog tags, passive constructions, appearances of minor characters, and other things to make more obvious the way the blocks fit together.

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

It's okay to mark library books - apparently.

People who mark library books go to a special Hell.

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

Uncle Jim,

When writing novel outlines, do they look like the outlines you learned how to make when you were a kid? Or do they look different? I tried researching it but I'm getting different answers.


That's because there are as many different answers as there are writers.

No, your outlines don't have to have all those Roman numerals and capital letters and small letters and such. But I'm sure that somewhere there's a writer who does it.

Usually my outlines are about 3/4 of the length of the finished book. But your outline doesn't have to look like that, either.

Some folks outline on file cards. But you don't have to.

Find something that works for you; some way to arrange your story so you know that you have a whole story. Something that you can work with.

If it works, it's right.

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

First: Land of Mist and Snow is about 65,000 words. It's a relatively short novel.

Next, the layout was as much a surprise to me as to anyone. I had nothing to do with which line ended the first page. The book's designer is the person who did that, not me. My part was to try to make sure that every sentence led compellingly to the next one.

I often fall short, but that's my goal.

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

James Joyce has a lot to answer for.

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

It isn't that the words are strong, it's that the place they occupy is strong. The readers will notice them, and hold them. Location, location, location!

Jacket, coat, and parka are all equally strong or weak; each could be the right word or the wrong word depending on what we want the reader to take away.

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

Say we ended the paragraph with:

I packed a sandwich and a parka.​

Compare that with :

I packed a parka and a sandwich.​

In which sentence is the parka more important? In which is the sandwich more important? How does each help create a mental picture of the place where the speaker is going?

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

Does that mean that the visual brought about by the word "parka" was the most suggestive?


No, it means that "parka" was the last word in a paragraph.

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

Put the important part in the main clause.

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

Your stories should follow a rising interest curve so that the most interesting parts, the strongest parts, and the climax, come at the end. If you've done it right, within inches of each other.

If you finish strong the entire work will seem, to the reader, to have been stronger than it really was. (Conversely, if you finish weak, the rest of the work will seem, in retrospect, weaker.)

Shall we now go read The Wonderful One-Hoss Shay?

I think we shall. Go, read it. Come back when you're done. Understand it and you understand much.

(That Oliver Wendell Holmes, by the way, was Dr. Holmes, the father of the Supreme Court justice of the same name.)

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

The Deacon's Masterpiece has lasted much longer than one hundred years. Examine it.

How does Holmes present his story? How does he present his information?

Notice that there's a punchline--a climax. How does he set that up? Where's the foreshadowing? What's the poet's relationship with the audience?

But mostly, where does he put the important words?

(Note the use of dialect. This has fallen out of favor. Who knows? Someday it may make a return.)

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

I've recommended Duotrope several times.

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

I ask because I've read stories that voice qualities are used in describing someone. So I'm thinking this is normal.

Opinion?

I'd decide if the more important quality of the voice is smooth, or if the more important quality is soft, and use just one adjective.

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

Nevertheless, stacking up multiple adjectives on the same noun is poor form.

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

Of course, if it's necessary to use two or more adjectives on a noun to achieve the effect you need, do so.

The overriding rule is (all together now!) If it works, it's right.

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

She put her lips next to the crack in the door. "My mascara is starting to run," she said.

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

Well, folks, it's time to play First Page again.

Here's the first page from a published novel. The question is: Do you turn the page?


Milburn Observed Through Notalgia

One day early in October Frederick Hawthorne, a seventy-year-old lawyer who had lost very little to the years, left his house on Melrose Avenue in Milburn, New York, to walk across town to his offices on Wheat Row, just beside the square. The temperature was a little colder than Milburn expected so early in its autumn, but Ricky wore his winter uniform of tweed topcoat, cashmere muffler and gray, no-nonsense hat. He walked a little briskly down Melrose Avenue to warm up his blood, moving beneath huge oaks and smaller maples already colored heart-wrenching shades of orange and red--another unseasonal touch. He was susceptible to colds, and if the temperature dropped another five degrees, he'd have to drive.

If you do turn the page, here's an assignment for you: Write the second page (250 words).

Write it in one of the following genres, maintaining this author's style:

Romance
Fantasy
Horror
Science Fiction
Mystery
Mainstream
Literary
Erotica
Memoir

Then write another second page in a different genre. That's 500 words, total. Shouldn't take more than hour, even if you only type twenty words a minute and spend ten minutes staring at the ceiling.

If you don't want to turn the page: Rent a movie you've never seen before, and watch it with sound (and subtitles) off. Write an outline of the plot. You aren't allowed to take notes while watching it.

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

Page 351
05-09-09​
 

James D. Macdonald

Your Genial Uncle
Absolute Sage
VPX
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Feb 11, 2005
Messages
25,582
Reaction score
3,785
Location
New Hampshire
Website
madhousemanor.wordpress.com
Learn Writing with Uncle Jim, Volume 1
Page 352
05-09-09

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

It's a certain P.S., the finest genre writer, living or dead, IMO.

So, have you done your assignment?

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

Post them at SYW, if you must post.

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

"Mainstream" is the stuff shelved in "Fiction and Literature" at the bookstore, as opposed to SF/F, Mystery, Romance, etc.

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

Milburn Observed Through Nostalgia

One day early in October Frederick Hawthorne, a seventy-year-old lawyer who had lost very little to the years, left his house on Melrose Avenue in Milburn, New York, to walk across town to his offices on Wheat Row, just beside the square. The temperature was a little colder than Milburn expected so early in its autumn, but Ricky wore his winter uniform of tweed topcoat, cashmere muffler and gray, no-nonsense hat. He walked a little briskly down Melrose Avenue to warm up his blood, moving beneath huge oaks and smaller maples already colored heart-wrenching shades of orange and red--another unseasonal touch. He was susceptible to colds, and if the temperature dropped another five degrees, he'd have to drive.

As many have noted, this is the first page of Ghost Story by Peter Straub.


Milburn Observed Through Nostalgia​

Chapter title. Placename and an emotion: the longing for things of the past, often in idealized form. Observed rather than seen or viewed, therefore more active participation by the person who is doing the observation.

One day early in October Frederick Hawthorne, a seventy-year-old lawyer who had lost very little to the years, left his house on Melrose Avenue in Milburn, New York, to walk across town to his offices on Wheat Row, just beside the square.​

Quite a long sentence to lead off. A classic opening (much like Pawn to King Four), with a person in a place. The first words are very close to the also-classic "once upon a time." The person is in motion, walking. His age is emphasized, as is his profession. This should be the protagonist. The impression is that this is a small town, since an elderly man can walk across it.

The temperature was a little colder than Milburn expected so early in its autumn, but Ricky wore his winter uniform of tweed topcoat, cashmere muffler and gray, no-nonsense hat.​

"Ricky" is a bit informal for a 70-year-old lawyer. We've had his age emphasized in the first sentence. Now we get "autumn" and "colder" and "winter." That looks a lot like foreshadowing. We learn more about the character in the description of his clothing (so far we know nothing about his personal appearance--the readers will have to fill in what they think an older lawyer looks like.) He seems prosperous.

He walked a little briskly down Melrose Avenue to warm up his blood, moving beneath huge oaks and smaller maples already colored heart-wrenching shades of orange and red--another unseasonal touch.​

Warming his blood. Leaves changing colors. This is emphasizing the age-and-decay and end-of-life motif. Oaks are traditionally solid, and are notably long-lived. The word-group "heart-wrenching" is an odd choice.

He was susceptible to colds, and if the temperature dropped another five degrees, he'd have to drive.​

So he, too, has a hint of decay in him. Susceptible to colds, and needs to warm his blood. He has a car, but walks by choice.

That's it, the entire first page, the entire first paragraph. Four sentences (not counting the chapter title). What we've done is introduce a character and, without describing him, allowed the reader to create a pretty decent picture. So far no problems, other than getting to work and needing to avoid catching cold.

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

One Paragraph. Surely you could give a book more than one paragraph before you turn to a movie

Readers in bookshops, editorial assistants with slush--one paragraph may be all you get.

Make that paragraph count. Here we have a person in a place with a (very minor) problem. The person is in motion. But that's all we have.

If the longer, more descriptive sentences aren't what you're looking for, this book may not be for you.

(Someone who has read and enjoyed a previous book by the same author will likely give more of a chance, but that's stripped out by not posting titles/authors when we play this game.)

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

In other news: My novel, The Apocalypse Door, will be reprinted in paperback this coming December.

Preorder now! Beat the rush!

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

The genre is Urban Fantasy, and it was written without Dr. Doyle's assistance.

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

This is an odd sentence: What does he mean by "its autumn"?
Also, he refers to his winter clothes as a "uniform" which is a little odd. Suggests a man of habit (excuse the pun).


It's the autumn belonging or pertaining to the town of Milburn. The author could have said "Milburn's autumn," but that might have been clunky.

And yes, Ricky does seem to be a man of reliable habit. This tends toward characterization.

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

In general: Readers need far less description and less backstory than you'd think.

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

Stories and artwork gone dreadfully, dreadfully wrong.

(These are far worse than the Archie Meets the Punisher crossover....)

Sometimes you can learn more from failure than from success.

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

That's disheartening in its stupidity. It's no wonder the book stores are overflowing with crap.

If the author is functionally illiterate, or has a written something that your house doesn't publish (or pretty much anything in Slushkiller categories 1-6) you'll be able to tell in a paragraph--or less.

As to readers in bookstores, heaven love 'em, have you ever watched them? There are no more selfish individuals on earth than readers picking books. "What's in it for me?" is their battle cry. If you can get them to read one paragraph you're already ahead. To get them there, they have to have pulled the book off the shelf (rather than walking right by it), and they have to have glanced at the cover and not instantly put it back. They may not even open to the first paragraph. They may open to page 134. So you have to make sure that all of your paragraphs are good, not just the first one that you've workshopped to death.

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

I've added characters to books somewhere in the between-first-and-later draft stage.

I did this once to editorial request after submission and acceptance. (Simon here.)

This requires a ground-level full-book rewrite to smooth it all out. If the character isn't fully integrated he/she will need to be cut out again, which rather defeats the purpose.

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

A room can sit at the end of a hallway. A house can sit on a hill. A dish can sit on a shelf. A couch can sit against the far wall.

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

But, couldn't you also say.
The room at the far end of the hallway. The house on the hill. The couch against the wall. Etc.

Why use sit at all?

Because sometimes sit is the right word.

Also, consider:

"The house sat on the hill" is a complete sentence. "The house on the hill" isn't a sentence.

============

Now, in tonight's episode of Talk Like An English Major, it's Vocabulary Time!

Tonight's word is epiphora. "What's epiphora?" I can hear you ask. Epiphora is the repetition of a word or phrase at the end of two or more clauses. E.g.: "When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child."

Do you need to know the term? Only if the the Final Jeopardy! category is Rhetorical Devices. But even if you don't remember the fancy Greek name, epiphora is a tool for your toolbox.

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

As in "When I was born I was only a baby."
Or "I was born at a very early age."

No, not even close. Epiphora requires repeating the exact words.

BTW, the quote was from the Bible (1 Corinthians 13:11).

-----------


Next vocabulary word: anaphora.

Anaphora is repeating words or phrases at the start of clauses.

Thus, Lincoln's "we cannot dedicate—we cannot consecrate—we cannot hallow—this ground" or Churchill's "...we shall not flag or fail. We shall go on to the end, we shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our Island, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender...."

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

Now I also find that I've got this second one (I'm in rewrite, so this is mostly hypothetical). If the second one is ready before the first is actually accepted by an agent, should I begin sending it out separately, or save it for later (and start on a third one)?

When the second one is finished (all the re-writes, all the beta-reads, everything) start sending it around as if the first didn't exist, and at the same time start writing your third.

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

Say you re-write. Say the next agent says "The book is too fast." What are you going to do then?

The reason you started sending it around was because you'd made it as good as you could.

If the agent says, "Make these changes and send it back," that's one thing. But if not, send the book to the next one on your list and continue working on your present WIP.

Remember, unless the first work sells, there isn't going to be a sequel. Make the sequel stand alone.

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

Now that we've looked at epiphor and anaphor, let's look at another -phor, diaphor.

Like epiphora and anaphora, diaphora is a kind of repetition. Diaphora is the repetition of a common term so that it has two different meanings. It doesn't necessarily imply a comparison (there's another -phor that does that).

For example:



That lie shall lie so heavy on my sword (Richard II (Shakespeare))

We must all hang together, or most assuredly we will all hang separately. (B. Franklin)

You can also have diaphora by changing the type of sentence:

De Valvert: Villain, cad, stupid flat-footed fool!
Cyrano: Ah? And I am Cyrano Savinian Hercule de Bergerac.

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

Will anyone use epiphor, anaphor, or diaphor when an editor and/or agent looks at your manuscript?

Will someone say, "Wow! Great diaphora!" No, probably not. Will someone say, "Wow! Great writing!" Well, I certainly hope so.

Knowing the kinds of things you can make words do can't hurt. But you aren't required to memorize the names. There won't be a test in the morning.

See also the array of intimidation tactics used by the Piranha Brothers.


(The dia- in diaphor, by the way, is the same dia- as the dia- in dialog, diarrhea, and diabolic.)

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

Next on the -phor hit parade comes metaphor. This is the one everyone knows about.

Metaphor is comparison. Not the wimpy comparison of simile, where you use "like" to show that one of these things is (in some manner or way like another), you just come out and say that one of these things is the other.

"O, my love is like a red, red rose..." (R. Burns) is a simile.

"Love is a rose..." (N. Young) is a metaphor.

Other examples of metaphor:

"Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage
And then is heard no more. It is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing."


Observe the reasons for using metaphor here at OWL.


Two ways metaphor can go badly wrong: cliche and mixed metaphor.

There's a special way metaphor can go wrong if you write fantasy or science fiction: your readers may take your metaphors literally. "He was a walking skeleton" would be read differently by a fantasy reader and a mainstream reader.

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

This list came from one of the members of my writing group. It's a list of similies, analogies, and whatever. Some are really funny.

Those, and more, come from here and here.

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

"Is it okay to introduce a character you plan to do more with in a later book?

Of course it is.

As long as the character belongs in this book too. And I mean belongs.

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

For the outline:

Your choice. Tell the story of your novel. Keep it around ten pages single-spaced. Make sure you include the end.

(I do work from outlines, but my outlines are about 3/4 the length of the finished book.)

Now, as to "a couple of stories," beats me. Are you pitching a collection? Do you have a couple of stories lying around that work out to around fifty pages in total?

Easiest probably to just saw off the first fifty pages of your novel and send them along.

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

Picked this up in another thread here, and now I bring it to you.

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

But I would like to know how much validity there is to the statement that agents toss out anything with a prologue.

None.

Prologues can be done badly or they can be done well. It's incredibly easy to do them badly.

Figure that half of your readers will skip the prologue. Will your novel make sense to them?

Have I used prologues? Yes, of course I have. Did I do them well? Of course I did! Brilliantly! For I, Wile E. Coyote, am a Super genius!


So, let me show you a prologue from one of my books.

Right here.

Maybe, when I'm done with my current project, I'll put up the first chapter from that book side-by-side with it.

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

Now I want to read the book :tongue

Don't let me stop you....

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

If the agent is still reading on Page Fifty, and wants to turn to Page Fifty-One, you've done well. Regardless of whether you call it Prologue, Chapter One, or Fred.

Similarly, if the agent pushes the work aside after Page Ten and reaches for the return envelope, you haven't done so well. Regardless of whether you calll it ... y'know.

What agents and editors are: A class of reader. Think of them as Super Readers.

What you are trying to do is satisfy your readers. This starts (most times) with the Super Readers.

They are all playing gigantic games of Would You Turn the Page. Just like we do here. Only with real money on the line.

We've said this before: Agents and editors are professional gamblers. Professional gamblers don't make their money by winning every hand. They make their money by making the right bets on the hands they're dealt.

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

Is that really a prologue, Jim? It reads more like a blurb for the book, to me.


Scroll down the page, Euclid. The prologue is the part that's labeled "Prologue."

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

Why it's a prologue:

Because it's a short story, set in the same universe as the rest of the novel, with the same main characters, but separated in time and space from the rest of the action.

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

Well, I'd wanted to write when I was young. And I did write a lot during middle school and high school. Then one day, when I was 19, I stopped (I even remember the last words I wrote on that occassion). And I didn't write a word of fiction again until I was 35.

I haven't stopped since.

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

That job was US Navy, but I was assigned to an overseas shore command with regular hours. I went directly from Uncle Sam to full-time writer.

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

Getting too much accomplished? Managing your time well? I have a solution!

Observe, if you will, the narrative web-comic Girl Genius by Phil and Kaja Foglio.

Notice several things:

First, the authors get the story across by means of narrative and dialog. "Narrative," here, is the artwork. The equivalent of the descriptions in your novel. Dialog is dialog.

Your dialog tags are the way the balloons are drawn. Notice that most of the balloons are smooth ovals. But sometimes you'll have jagged balloons or other shapes to indicate shouting, whispering, or other tones of voice. These are rare.

Note too, in long-running narrative (and this story started in 2002 and has been running three times a week for the past six-and-a-half years), that the authors are using positional play. Interesting things are placed in the narrative that aren't picked up again for years, but then become important to the plot. Those things are a) interesting when they first show up, so that they're b) memorable when they're brought back into play. But they also make sense (or at least don't stand out as nonsensical) when they first appear.

One of the limitations of the serial form is that you can't go back and revise if you suddenly discover that you need something in a later chapter. So you have to have interesting/multipurpose things all the way along. Give yourself a large supply of parts with which to build your plot.

Okay, what else do we notice? When there's a huge expository lump, having something else that's inherently interesting going on at the same time. This can be something as simple as having the characters running around while pumping out the exposition, or throwing in a shapely young lady in her undies. (Nothing wrong with cheap tricks as long as they work.)

Pray notice too the smaller narrative arcs, the overall narrative arc, the use of comedy relief, and ending darned-near every page on a cliffhanger.


(People who are looking for a shorter story can check out Revenge of the Weasel Queen.)

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

And it's time for another first page:

I. Mandeyn: Embrig Spaceport

At well past local midnight in Embrig Spaceport--port of call for the wealthy provincial world of Mandeyn--the Feddisgatt Allee ran almost deserted from the Port Authority offices to the Strip. The warehouses lining the Allee blocked most of the skyglow from the lighted docking areas beyond, and Mandeyn's high-riding moon shed its pale illumination only in the center of the broad Allee.
Beka Rossalin-Metadi whistled an off-key tune through her front teeth as she took a leisurely return walk down the Allee to her ship. The black wool cloak she wore against the cold of Embrig's winter night swirled around her booted ankles, and if she'd put a bit of extra swagger into her stride as she left eh Painted Lily Lounge--well, she figured she was entitled.

Damn right you're entitled, my girl, she told herself. You made a tidy profit on carrying those parts for Interworld Data, and you've got another good cargo already

Will you turn the page?

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

One of the neat things about Girl Genius is that you can watch the Foglios' artwork and writing improve as the years pass.

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

Oh, gracious.

I'm not going to take offense at anything said. That's indeed the first page from my second novel written (seventh published). The first novel (not counting the Hardy Boys pastiche in my youth) has never seen the light of day. I should certainly hope that I've improved as an artist since then!

My unflinching egotism, though, may soon post the second and third pages. (I'm being slowed in this by my need to retype; no electronic copies exist in any form usable by me--the original was on 5.25" Atari floppy disks.)

If I were to delete anything, it would be off-topic chatter. We're talking about writing here.

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

Still too much time on your hands?

Watch the story-telling and dialog in this silent classic, Pandora's Box, starring the lovely Louise Brooks, directed by the great G. W. Pabst.

Plot and story, kids. Plot and story.

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

The other day I was down at the lumber yard (getting boards to fix the floor of my porch), when the young man who worked there worked up enough courage to ask a personal question.

"Mr. Macdonald," he said (for I have grown so old that the young address me thus), "Does it cost a lot of money to publish a book?"

"No," said I. "It doesn't cost anything. Publishers pay authors, not the other way around. If someone comes up and says, 'If you give me money I'll publish you,' that person is a scammer. Rely on it."

I gestured around the lumber yard. "You don't pay to work here, do you?" I asked.

And he was enlightened.

=================

I know all of you know it, but "How much did you pay to get published?" is a question that anyone who writes for a living hears all the darned time.

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

"Start with dialogue?" Mary asked. Her fingers drummed on the table beside her computer keyboard.

"I think it's a bad idea," Judy replied. "It's too easy to do badly."

"Yes, but I'd do it well."

Birds flitted outside. Hummingbirds, hovering flower to flower, ignoring the feeders that Ruth had hung beside the windows to lure them nearer.

"That's what you said about starting your novel with a description of the weather," Judy said. "Remember how that turned out?"

"'It was foggy along the coast, highs near fifty with a 40% chance of showers in the afternoon, snow in higher elevations overnight,'" Ruth quoted wistfully. "l really thought I had something."

"You had something, all right," Judy said. "Just what it was, though...."

"What it was, was better than your second-person-present-tense exploration of coming-of-age-in-the-South," Ruth said, annoyed.

"I don't know why that couldn't sell," Judy says. "It's jam-packed with sex and magnolias." She leans forward in her chair, her pert bosom jutting even more noticeably. You turn away, embarrassed, yet oddly drawn to the mystery that her cleavage presents. The scents of honeysuckle and magnolia blend with the odor of high-school-minx-in-heat to make a heady olfactory brew.

"That wasn't exactly what the beta-readers said. Now about starting my novel with dialogue?"

"Do it if you must," Judy said. She poured a heavy shot of bourbon over the remains of the ice in her Old Fashioned glass. "The worst that it could do is suck."

See also:

Basic q: is starting a story with dialogue a no-no?

First line of first chapter: Dialogue? Description?

Starting a novel with dialogue

Are dialogue-driven novels a bad idea?

OK to start a novel with dialogue?

Never Start with Dialogue

===========

Originally posted here in Starting With Dialog


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

You thread started with “Learning to write”, well it does not get more basic than “why write in the first place”.

If you don't know, I can't help you.

Also: while you may not know, if you aren't writing, you aren't writing.

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

Being a writer is defined by the act of writing.

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

Apocalypse Door is being reissued in paperback this coming December. Pre-order now and beat the rush! (Flog flog floggity-flog flog flog.)

"Stealing God" has been reprinted in several anthologies, and in my little chap book.

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

If y'all want to put up that sig widget yourself (or put it on your web page, or whatever), you can get it here: http://www.danasoft.com (callalily61--only you can see that you're logging in from work. Everyone else sees tomorrow's lottery numbers.)


Duncan: Which scene would that be? I'd hate to have cut it in the final draft if you're waiting for it.

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

There are lots of ways to show out-of-sequence scenes in novels. The big question is why do you want to do 'em? Strict chronology should only be broken for the very best of reasons.

Coming right out and saying, "Four years earlier...." is probably the easiest. Time/date/place tags in chapter headings are another common trick.

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

In one of my own works, I went from first person to third person for the flashback sequences.

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

Page 363

05-05-09
 
Last edited:

James D. Macdonald

Your Genial Uncle
Absolute Sage
VPX
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Feb 11, 2005
Messages
25,582
Reaction score
3,785
Location
New Hampshire
Website
madhousemanor.wordpress.com
Learn Writing with Uncle Jim, Volume 1
Page 364
06-06-09

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

Re: showing thoughts.

I've seen well-done examples of all the possible styles, from not marking thoughts in any way (neither tags nor italics), to nailing them down (tags and italics) with variations of all kinds in between (including, but not limited to, marking off thoughts with asterisks rather than quote marks).

The rules are: 1) Don't confuse the readers, and 2) Be consistent.

Be guided by your ear and your writer's sensibility. You are the artist.

In practical terms, as a new writer, what I'd do is find a book that I admired, see how the author of that book showed thoughts, and do likewise.

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

Is that also a common use for noting language difference?

Dunno if it's common, but that's how we did it, and the editor didn't object.

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

A twist on thoughts in italics is use of a different font. Three books I've read that focused on communication with animals and other non-humans used this successfully.

One thing I always think about is, "How will this work if it's a Book On Tape, or in Braille?

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

Hi James,

I've been reading this thread up to about page 17, to learn more about plotting. I've already gained a lot but a slight peeve comes up.

Worked great two (or was it three?) software and hosting-service changes ago. Just cut from the http:// to just before the next quote mark (in this case, ) and paste it in your navigation bar, then hit your Enter key.


Is it basically a hijacking of the first arc by an overwhelmingly powerful second one?

No.

Suppose the first arc is aaaaaaaaAAA (where AAA is the climax). And suppose the second arc is bbbbbbbBBB (where BBB is the climax).

The finished story with the surprise twist ending goes aaaaaaaabbbbbbbAAA.

(Q. How many writers does it take to screw in a lightbulb? A. Two. One to screw it nearly all the way in, the the second to add the final surprising twist.)

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

What happened to BBB, the climax of the second arc? Shouldn't that be in there somehwere?

The point is that AAA replaces BBB, substitutes for it, and becomes it. The readers will say both, "Wow! I didn't see that coming!" and "Of course!"

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

Will putting telepathic dialog in quotes confuse the reader?

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

by the way, Uncle Jim, any recommendations for good research material on Faeries? Seelie Courts and that sort of thing. I haven't found much net-wise. I remember the Faerie Queens featuring in one of your books - and being pretty nicely done.

Yes.

Facts On File
Encyclopedia of World Mythology and Legend


You should be able to find a copy in your local library.

After that, research. Go to libraries. Remember interlibrary loan. Keep your fantasy magic as strict as you would the tech in your science fiction. Everything happens for a purpose. Everything has a cost. Every advantage comes with a limitation.

For on-line sources:

Fairy and Folk Tales of the Irish Peasantry
Edited and Selected by W. B. Yeats

(Yes, that William Butler Yeats.)

I first ran into that book in the library when I was in grade school, and it made a big impression.

Also on-line:

Teutonic Mythology
by Jacob Grimm

(Yes, that Jacob Grimm.)

I ran into this one in college.

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

My Brother said the book might be formulaic, if it had a cliffy at the end of every chapter, and I think he is right. So what's the best policy on cliffys?

Keep 'em relevant to plot, character, and theme.

And ... it isn't necessary to end every chapter on a cliff hanger. That's very Hardy Boys. What you do need is a reason for the reader to start the next chapter (other than out of idle curiosity...).

There's an art (as you might guess) to finding the right ending point for your chapters. (And recall that you don't need to have chapters at all.)

UJ, Can a writer create too much/many, (in trouble out of trouble in trouble, situations) in a book?

It's way easier to put in too little plot than too much.

If too much is happening, your editor will tell you.

But recall, too, that contrast is important. The quiet bits tell us what's loud. The fast bits tell us what's slow. The funny bits tell us what's sad.

Please be ware of do-loops. Actions that have no purpose other than filling pages.

If the use of certain formatting will be up to the publisher, should we just go with what we "know" (coff) to be correct, knowing that they will reformat it if it isn't the way they do it?

Follow the publisher's guidelines.

If not specified in the guidelines, follow standard manuscript format.

Okay, so the bbb arc doesn't necessarily have a climax?

Yes, it does have a climax, and the climax is AAA.

Yes, but that could also be put to good use.

Confusing your readers is almost never a good idea.

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

You could write your manuscript in standard format (courier, one inch margins, etc.). I do. Or you could write in double-column triple-spaced 45 point Wired Caffeine Nervous Bold Italic, if that's what it takes for you to put words on paper.

No one sees your first draft but you.

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

I use Dark Courier 10, double spaced, one-inch margins, running head in the top right margin.

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

It substitutes for the BBB part entirely.

Observe, if you will, this Bill Cosby routine:

http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=4393284

Gur (n) cybg: Ovyy Pbfol jnagf gb fyrrc

Gur (o) cybg: Ovyy Pbfol'f jvsr guerngraf uvz jvgu ivbyrapr.

Gur rkcrpgrq (O) pyvznk: Ovyy'f jvsr jvyy npghnyyl cresbez ivbyrapr.

Gur (N) pbapyhfvba fhofvghgrq sbe O: Ovyy trgf gb tb onpx gb fyrrc.

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

Remember, plot =/= action.

Meaningless action, action that does not move the story forward, is as deadly as any other element that doesn't move the story forward.

The slush heaps are full of stories where nothing happens. Where at the end, everyone is still where they started. The literary equivalent of watching paint dry.

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

Remember, in the Cosby routine, the b arc is pointing to actual physical violence as its climax. We never get that.

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

The biggest mistake you can make?

Replying in any manner whatsoever to a negative review.

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

Yes, I've read Sun Tzu (hasn't everyone?). But as far as being useful to me as a writer, only in so far as it gives insight into human psychology. (Not that this is a small thing.)

If you find contemplating The Art of War helps you plot, by all means do so.

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

No, that isn't what "enclave" means. Are you sure you didn't intend alcove? (And that probably belongs in Basic Writing Questions or SYW.....)

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

Euclid:

New Hampshire is one of the New England states.

Steve: Genres I've written (been published) in: SF, Fantasy, Horror, non-fiction, humor, technothriller. Both book-length and short story. My only poetry has been (dare I say it?) self-published. See the AW library (where I really need to fill in more stuff, if I want it to be complete.

But this is not the Jim Macdonald Thread, this is the Learn Writing Thread (which happens to be guided by Jim Macdonald).

So, to that end:

If anyone who is reading this responds to any Google Ads for any writing-related service (such as you can see at the top of this very page), I will come to your house and mock you in person. The ads themselves range from misleading to dishonest to fraudulent, and lead to places that range from Very Bad Ideas to Utter Scams.

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

A far more appropriate place to discuss all that would be on my personal homepage.

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

Why not just say "Stephen Jay Gould"?

Your editor will eventually help you with this. Concentrate on telling the story for right now.

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

Decoder Ring

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

Don't mistake incident for plot.

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

There's a lovely line in the movie Cross of Iron.

"I can not give you a Cross of Iron, but I can take you where they grow."

In the same way:

I can not give you a publishing contract, but I can take you where they grow.

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

Uncle Jim, can you explain the proper use of semicolons to me? Thanks.

http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/607/04/

I second that question, and could you comment on the use of semicolons in dialogue. I was told by a beta reader that it's not done. Is this true?

No, it is not true.

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

Way back on page 3 of this thread, I recommended some books that y'all should have in your offices or on your desks. I included handy links so you could buy 'em if you didn't already have 'em.

Please, folks, go get 'em.

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

The "Hey, Look, Ma, I'm Writing!" style of writing?

I think Guthrie is warning against over-writing. What Mark Twain meant when he said "Eschew obfuscation."

Here's the full text of Guthrie's #11:

11: Avoid sounding ‘writerly’. Better to dirty up your prose. When you sound like a writer, your voice has crept in and authorial intrusion is always unwelcome. In the best writing, the author is invisible.

But I tell you true: What's really going to hurt is if you change levels or styles within your work. The contrast will make one or another section seem grotesque.

The full of Guthrie's advice.

Take what you need. Leave the rest.

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

You're quite welcome.

Since we're handing around lists of Writers' Advice, here's a great list from John Scalzi.

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

Unfortunately, the writer is always a character. Even an "invisible" writer is an invisible character.

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

Style is what you can't help doing.

So, if you sound schoolmarmish, and can't help it, pick stories where that's a plus.

(As far as Tom Clancy: Many years ago, when I was with Uncle Sam, here's how I was introduced to his novels. I walked into the wardroom, where one of my brother officers was reading Hunt for Red October, and my comrade looked up and said, "Hey, Mac! Someone told this guy that LORAN-Charlie works!")

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

Since we're going off-site to look at things, here's The Story Is All: Ten Fiction Editors Talk Shop.

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

Profanity: Like every other word in your book it must reveal character, support the theme, or advance the plot.


If some word does none of those things, cut that word.

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

Why not write up the adventures of Patsy Wentzel, Schoolmarm For Hire?

Patsy adjusted her pince-nez then took the ransom note. "Someone," she said, "does not have very good penmanship."

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

That isn't the way that I do it, but you know the mantra.

I suggest that at least you put little check-marks in the margin to indicate "There was something else here I wanted to do."

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

What's the agent sold?

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

In case I forgot to recommend this essay (if I already did, here it is again): Joe Bob Briggs on writing.

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

Personally, I like this list:

1. Get paid.

Sometimes trickier than it looks.

=======================

More links for you:

Displaced advice, and other sorts

Like expertise, only different

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

If I'm going to be Your Genial Uncle, I have to delete My Bitchy Posts. Else I'd have to change my description to Your Bitchy Uncle and where would be the fun of that?

Something else fun for y'all: http://sydneypadua.com/2dgoggles/lovelace-the-origin-2/

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

Varieties of insanity known to affect authors

============================

Meanwhile, back at the ranch....

Just turned in a novel. It starts with a prologue. Then the first paragraph of chapter one is a weather report.

Darned thing only runs 60K.

This probably has a lot to do with why I've been feeling so bitchy lately.

Just so you know.

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

Another pair of eyes will help you to see the light. At least that is assuming you were the author.

Oh, I was. Or, co-author, actually. But since in the eyes of God and Man my wife and I are one ... well, anyway.

Not to worry. The editor will now get to make cogent comments. By the time we're done with revisions who knows what'll be there.

This is another Civil War fantasy.

Next project (and gonna power right through it this time) the next Peter Crossman novel.

After that, a new Mageworlds novel.

After that, I'll see where we stand.

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

Went to the local library looking for

Allan Guthrie - never heard of him

Scots crime fiction author.

John Scalzi - who?

American science fiction author.

John D. MacDonald - no, sorry.

American crime fiction author, now deceased, best know for his Travis McGee novels.

Have you read P.D. James? We have him.

They meant, "We have her." "P. D." stands for Phyllis Dorothy James.

And your point is? That you have a lousy library that can't do simple lookups even on UK authors?

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

Well, you never get over the feeling that you're just faking it and that any minute now your editors and the reading public will figure this out and you'll have to go get an honest job.

Yeah, I know that I've said that the real way to learn to write a novel is to write one. But that isn't strictly true. What you learn by writing a novel is how to write that novel. You're going to have to go back to learning all over again on the next one.

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

Can you offer any thoughts on "dead character as main character," and how one best handles that throughout the story?

No, I can't. But you can. And, with the aid of your beta readers, you will.

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

Uncle Jim, How do I stop the desire to "fiddle" with a book that is finished, has been finished, might still need a little (editorial) work, but is essentially fine the way it is, and get on with writing the next book?


Book's finished, right? Good as you can make it? You're putting in a comma in the morning and taking it out in the afternoon?

Okay. I'm giving you a deadline. Tomorrow or you have to give back the advance.

Put it in the mail tomorrow morning, go have lunch, roll a clean sheet of paper into your typewriter and get the first 250 words of your next pumped out before you go to bed.

There! That was easy, wasn't it?

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

Books are never finished. They escape.

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

No advance or anything yet (not even an offer, but that's because I've been fiddling with it for so long). I do have a query and the first 14 pages out to an agent...

I'm just saying, pretend there's an advance. Then you really will have to send in what you have on the day.

Meanwhile, it's perfectly okay to query several agents at the same time.

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

Greg: This is the same story as we were discussing last August?

http://www.absolutewrite.com/forums/showthread.php?p=2665399#post2665399

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

If the genre is one where the reader needs to connect (emotionally) with the characters, how is this done?

By making them interesting.

Do your characters:

a) Have free will?
b) Exercise it?
c) Have a reason for moving?
d) Move?
e) Interact with their environment and each other?
f) In a recognizably human way?
g) With a goal?
h) Which is either accomplished or not?
i) Causing some recognizably human reaction?

See also Mark Twain on the rules of literary art:

10. [The rules] require that the author shall make the reader feel a deep interest in the personages of his tale and in their fate; and that he shall make the reader love the good people in the tale and hate the bad ones. But the reader of the Deerslayer tale dislikes the good people in it, is indifferent to the others, and wishes they would all get drowned together.

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


Anyway, George told me the three rules of writing from their book:

1.You have to put it in a form someone can use.

2. You have to make it interesting enough to be worth the editor’s time and the reader’s money.

3. You have to put it where someone can read it and buy it.

That really does cover it. The best writing advice tends to be very simple. It’s using it that’s the trick.[/QUOTE]

Previously linked. Now quoted for the benefit of folks who can't be bothered to follow links.

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

You show Small Caps with a double underline.

Single underline = italics
Double underline = Small Caps
Triple underline = CAPITALS
Wavy underline = boldface

You may also find copyeditors putting "Sm Caps" or "S.C." in the margin, circled, where there's a word in Small Caps. You may also use Small Caps for, for example, street signs, or labels on instrument panels.

That's more of a house style kind of thing.

There isn't (in my opinion) any such thing as a purely character-driven or a purely plot-driven story.

In character-driven stories the unique characters and their interactions push the plot along. In a plot-driven story the unique set of events pulls the characters along. Regardless, you'll want strong story.

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

Action may be interior, symbolic, or psychological.

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

Jim,

When I need (normal) capitals in my ms, I use them (with the shift key): LIKE THIS
(Is this not the right thing to do?)

Yes, it's the right thing to do. When you get the galleys of your book back and you see "General Wyme was assigned to nato," you'll take your red pencil and triple-underline "nato." For that matter, if you see "General wyme was assigned to NATO," you'll triple-underline the "w" in "Wyme."

If I need to use small caps, couldn't I just use them?

You could. Then, when you get the galleys back and discover that they're set as either caps or small letters, you'd take your red pencil as above.

I also use italics directly, as this seems to be preferred in the UK.

Then, when you get your galleys back, and discover that the words you wanted to be set in italic were set in roman, you'd take your red pencil, as above....

I have never used boldface.

This was probably a good choice.

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

Page 373
06-06-09
 

James D. Macdonald

Your Genial Uncle
Absolute Sage
VPX
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Feb 11, 2005
Messages
25,582
Reaction score
3,785
Location
New Hampshire
Website
madhousemanor.wordpress.com
Learn Writing with Uncle Jim, Volume 1
Page 374
06-26-09

----------------------
What do you think about Mr Butcher's ideas on the "craft of writing", Jim?

I've never read what he had to say about the craft of writing. I am 100% sure, however, that whatever he says is completely true, for him.

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

I always write "The End."

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

I write "The End" so that, if someone accidentally drops the manuscript, they don't waste any time looking for missing pages.

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

I wonder if we could, perhaps, stick to commentary that's more closely allied to writing novels.

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

Uncle Jim, You've probably gone over this before, but have you ever been editing a book of yours and realized you made a horrible mistake with a character and then had to go back and track down every reference to that character and scenes he's in or wherever he's mentioned and fix it all?


Oh, heck, I've done worse than that. Doyle and I once realized that we had a major scene missing from the middle of a novel while on the way to turn it in, followed by rewriting and printing out the entire book that same night. All the foreshadowing and all the consequences of the formerly missing scene having been added on the fly, rewriting the later chapters while the first ones were printing out (this being in the days of NLQ dot matrix on fan-fold paper, which was slow).

If you don't do it, you'll rue it.

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

What's a struggling writer supposed to do?

Write your damned novel.

If how-to-write books are standing between you and finishing your book, throw the how-to-write books out the window.

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

I'm turning that puppy around and subbing it to the next publication on the list ....

Go, you!

Don't let a manuscript sleep over.

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

There is no word that you shouldn't use if it's the right word.

Courier is a non-proportional font. Times Roman is a proportional font.

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

(I used to advise them to stop asking me questions and read chess theory).


Keep going in the thread, Rupert. Before long you'll find me advising young writers to read chess theory.

Oh, and welcome.

I wish I had a penny for everytime this question has been asked.

So do I, brother. So do I.

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

I took the posts here, just mine, at one point. They come to over a thousand pages in manuscript format.

My co-author (in her copious free time) is editing it down to ... something reasonable.

We'll see.

A big part of my reluctance to actually write such a book is because writing how-to-write books is often a passtime indulged in by writers whose careers have cratered on the runway. It's like methadone that way. It takes some of the edge off the writing jones without being really writing.

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

Hi again Uncle Jim:

I did see where you advised them to study chess theory, and I really did used to advise the same thing. That was what got me thinking about the similarities.

Again, thanks,

Rupert

And I am so totally in agreement with your comments on What Lawyers Should Know About Storytelling. Humans define themselves by story. We writers are the ones who tell our readers what it's like to be human.

And the rules of narrative are the same. Fiction, non-fiction -- the difference is in where the lies are coming from. We fictioneers tell our own lies. The non-fiction writers tell someone else's lies.

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

I posted in another thread, but I figure y'all will be interested too:


There are also two increasingly common factors in UK publishing which may/may not be applicable in the US. The first is sliding-scale royalties - ie 10% for the first miserable couple thousand, then up to 15%, and even to 20% if you sell enough of the things. If the original article had applied a system like this (which any decent agent should be able to get you in the UK) the math would have come out very, very differently.

Very common in the US too. I've had 'em on books since I've been writing, and that's been over twenty years.

The second is relatively new, which is the bonus system. One of the publishers interested in my book offered a system whereby certain sales levels would earn me a bonus independent of royalties - ie string-free money over and above the percentage of the book price I'd get as agreed in the contract.

They're called "escalators" here, and they click in for things like "Author appeared on The Tonight Show, $X. Book is on the New York Times Best Seller List in the Top Ten for more than six weeks, $X. Book made into a movie that opens in the top ten, $X." And so on.

Now here's the deal on that "Low Advance, High Royalty" idea, and why it's a cruddy one for authors:

First, you have to understand that books become profitable for the publisher long before the advance earns out.

Second, you have to understand that it is not unknown, right here and now, for publishers to set print runs so that it is mathematically impossible for the book to earn out, even if every single copy sells. The advantage for them is that they have a predictable profit. Makes planning easier.

They make their predicted profit, the book goes out of print and reverts, and they go on to publish other books without the hassle of cutting small checks every six months. The publishers are happy.

What happens with the Low Advance High Royalties plan? The publisher pays the low advance, sets the print run to a point where it is still mathematically impossible for the book to earn out even if all the copies sell, they make their predicted profit, plus the added profit from paying the lower advance. The book goes out of print and reverts. The publishers are even happier!

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

Sounds publishamerica—ish.

Not really. We're talking about, say, $20,000. You keep the $20K, and you get the rights to your book back to sell again to someone else. What's not to like?

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

I meant the low advance high print run senario.

Seems to me if they give you, say, 2,000 advance, set the print run too high, the writer gets screwed.

You never see any royalties, and the publisher sells above the advance. When the book dribbles to a slow crawl in sales, and doesn't sell through and reverts, well. Someone got tricked. Shady tactics at best.


Not "low advance, high print run"; it's "low advance, high royalties." With the print run set so that there can't be any royalties. Which works out to plain old "low advance."

The rule for any working writer is this: The advance is the only money you're ever going to see.

Now about reversions:

If your book has reverted you can resell it to anyone. Including the previous publisher. If you're suddenly a hot property, they'll bid.

The only way to make a living as a writer is to keep writing. And keep selling. (Which is the trick, isn't it?) But the key to keeping selling is to keep getting better.

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

All right,

So in keeping on the current couple of posts about royalties and advances, say the same author gets his second book published. In order to make more sales I presume that with the release of a new book the publisher wants to also make more sales off of the first book that went out of print at the time. Would royalties come in for book number one while book number two is being sold?


One of the nice things about a new book's publication is that your backlist may well be put back into print and resolicited. (Resolicited: The publisher's sales force goes out and actively solicits bookstores to shelve it.) For the publisher, that's found money: They've already sunk the costs of acquistion, editing, artwork, and design. All that's left is printing, which is cheap, and distribution, which they're doing anyway because that's their core job. If the earlier book hadn't earned out before, any new revenue is put toward the advance. It it has earned out, then the author gets the money (after figuring reserve-against-returns and all the other sorrows of the writers' life).

That is if the publisher thinks that your new book is strong enough to pull other sales along with it. The publisher may not think so. In which case the earlier book continues to stumble its way toward reversion. (Without getting into the various tricks and traps, like "Permanently Out Of Stock" which is used to avoid "Out of Print," since the latter triggers reversion but the former does not. The publisher might do this, figuring that you aren't famous now, but you could become famous someday, and at that hypothetical point your backlist will be valuable. This is one place where having an agent suddenly becomes Very Very Useful Indeed.)

For the variations on this theme, see the details of your contract. Please have an expert read that contract and advise you before you sign. Good intentions don't count.

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

If you're going to be an alcoholic writer -- first become a writer. You can always work on the alcoholism later.

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

We're going to ReaderCon this coming weekend.

Here's the sked:


>>>>> Readercon 20 Participant Schedule: James D. Macdonald

Saturday 11:00 AM, VT: Group Reading

read (30 min.) Debra Doyle, James D. Macdonald

Doyle and Macdonald read from a work in progress.

Saturday 2:00 PM, ME/ CT: Panel

I Spy, I Fear, I Wonder: Espionage Fiction and the Fantastic. Don
D'Ammassa, C. C. Finlay (M), James D. Macdonald, Chris Nakashima-Brown,
John Shirley

In his afterword to The Atrocity Archives, Charles Stross makes a bold
pair of assertions: Len Deighton was a horror writer (because "all cold-
war era spy thrillers rely on the existential horror of nuclear
annihilation") while Lovecraft wrote spy thrillers (with their "obsessive
collection of secret information"). In fact, Stross argues that the
primary difference between the two genres is that the threat of the
"uncontrollable universe" in horror fiction "verges on the overwhelming,"
while spy fiction "allows us to believe for a while that the little people
can, by obtaining secret knowledge, acquire some leverage over" it. This
is only one example of the confluence of the espionage novel with the
genres of the fantastic; the two are blended in various ways in Neal
Stephenson's Cryptonomicon, Tim Powers' Declare, William Gibson's Spook
County, and, in the media, the Bond movies and The Prisoner. We'll survey
the best of espionage fiction as it reads to lovers of the fantastic. Are
there branches of the fantastic other than horror to which the spy novel
has a special affinity or relationship?

Sunday 12:00 Noon, Salon F: Autographing

Sunday 1:00 PM, Vineyard: Kaffeeklatsch




===========

The reading will be from the current Civil War novel, which is going to be called
either To Look Beyond the Union or Not A Single Star Obscured. Or perhaps
something else.

We're looking for something pithy from Daniel Webster to express a time-traveling
alternate history fantasy in which sometimes the Confederacy wins, and sometimes
it doesn't, and sometimes Abe Lincoln lives to retire back to Springfield, and
sometimes he's assassinated in Baltimore before he can even take the oath of
office.

Which I hope is a fun read.

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

For those who might be interested: The VP XIII Student Handbook.

Some stuff is generally applicable to folks who won't be on Martha's Vineyard in the fall.

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

In AP style and Chicago style, the letter-grade F isn't set off in any way.

The plural, F's, has an apostrophe.

You can do anything you please, provided you're consistent. The publisher's copyeditor will change whatever you do to house style.

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

According to Anne Stuart, there are three secrets to a fabulous writing career. Unfortunately, because they're so secret, no one knows what they are.

Therefore you have three not-so secrets:

1) Keep writing, even when you aren't inspired.
2) Keep submitting, even when you're discouraged.
3) Keep improving what you do, with a critical rather than an indulgent eye on your craftsmanship.

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

Readers are unable to distinguish between talent and hard work.

Dave Barry once commented that he worked all week every week to write columns that looked like he'd knocked them off in forty-five minutes over a six-pack.

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

Should I just work on one story and save the other one for a second novel?

Yes.

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

Welcome, 5bcarnies! Has it really been six years? Well, I've been having fun.

Carimel: For a mystery, I really suggest doing an outline. One form of outline you might consider is a Ghod's-eye-view, where you write down what really happened, in chronological order, noting down when other people learn the facts, who they learn them from, and who they tell them to. This may help keep things consistent.

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

Can anyone suggest some?

Red Harvest, Dashiell Hammett.

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

And now, to prove that I don't know nothing, we have this morning's headline on CNN:

Federal buildings get 'F' after bombs smuggled in
Though exactly how they'd punctuate it if the headline were to be "Ten federal buildings get F's after bombs smuggled in" I don't know.

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

euclid, don't they have Interlibrary Loan in your county? I have a tiny branch library in my tiny town, but I can get almost any book that exists anywhere in the United States through it.

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

For Boston area fans: I'll be at Readercon this weekend. We have a reading at 11:30 on Saturday morning, and a book-signing at noon on Sunday.

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

Greg, somewhere upthread I mentioned how I do 3x5 cards. (They're my preferred method.)

A far better worked-out and explained method of using 3x5's is to be found in Magic and Showmanship (Nelms).


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

Everyone's line is in a different place, I suppose. And you never really get over the jitters.


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

Here's my WorldCon sked. (WorldCon is in Montreal this year.)

Session ID: 28
Title: Plotting Austerity
Description: Most of us have grown up in a world of
abundance (if
only for others): what are the challenges in envisaging a
truly
austere world?
Language: English
Track: Science and Space
Moderator: Jon Courtenay Grimwood
Location: P-518BC
When: Sun 7:00 PM
Duration: 1:00 hrs:min
All Participants: Cara C. Sloat, [email protected], James D.
Macdonald,
Jon Courtenay Grimwood, Emily Wagner, Lauren Beukes

Session ID: 39
Title: Dealing with Disasters
Description: Overpopulation, climate disruption, genetic
engineering,
antibiotic overuse have all produced candidates for a
world-changing
plague, but how will we deal with it?
Language: English
Track: Science and Space
Moderator: Yourself
Location: P-511BE
When: Mon 2:00 PM
Duration: 1:30 hrs:min
All Participants: James D. Macdonald, Sparks, Perrianne
Lurie, Dave
O'Neill

Session ID: 76
Title: The Science of Risk
Description: How well do we judge risks? How does this
affect
individuals and society? From vaccination to security,
judgments of
risk are now more important than ever. Should we just
leave it to
politicians and newspapers?
Language: English
Track: Science and Space
Moderator: Yourself
Location: P-522B
When: Mon 11:00 AM
Duration: 1:00 hrs:min
All Participants: Dr Dave, David M. Kushner, James D.
Macdonald

Session ID: 104
Title: Bio-Ethics
Description: Medical experiments, drug companies,
cloning, insurance,
bookies and you.
Language: English
Track: Science and Space
Moderator: Laura Anne Gilman
Location: P-513A
When: Thu 12:30 PM
Duration: 1:30 hrs:min
All Participants: Alison Sinclair, Howard Scrimgeour,
James D.
Macdonald, Laura Anne Gilman, Russell Blackford

Session ID: 228
Title: Author Reading
Description: Kristine Kathryn Rusch; James D.
McDonald; John C.
Wright.
Language: English
Track: Reading
Moderator: <Not Available>
Location: P-522A
When: Sun 5:00 PM
Duration: 1:00 hrs:min
All Participants: James D. Macdonald, John C. Wright

Session ID: 271
Title: What to Do in an Emergency
Description: What should you do when something bad
happens? We've all
heard stories of quick-thinking kids saving grown-ups in
trouble. You
make up the bad situation, and our panelists will tell you
how to
handle it.
Language: English
Track: Kids Programming
Moderator: Yourself
Location: P-510C
When: Sat 10:00 AM
Duration: 1:00 hrs:min
All Participants: James D. Macdonald, Kathleen Sloan

Session ID: 888
Title: What Fans Don't Know about Publishing Scams
Description: All you need to know before entering the bear
pit.
Language: English
Track: Human Culture
Moderator: Yourself
Location: P-512BF
When: Sun 12:30 PM
Duration: 1:30 hrs:min
All Participants: James D. Macdonald, Teresa Nielsen
Hayden, Ginjer
Buchanan

Session ID: 897
Title: The Inspiration of Failed Art
Description: Sometimes it's the really bad, not the really
good,
that's inspiring....
Language: English
Track: Human Culture
Moderator: Sonya Taaffe
Location: P-512CG
When: Mon 10:00 AM
Duration: 1:00 hrs:min
All Participants: Alter S. Reiss, James D. Macdonald, Sonya
Taaffe,
Emmet O'Brien

Session ID: 917
Title: Future Health Care
Description: At a time when the U.S. health care system
seems to be
breaking down, while other systems around the world are
worrying, yet
many people in the world have no heath care structures at
all, what
does the future hold? What paradigms shape the
arguments?
Language: English
Track: Human Culture
Moderator: Carole Ann Moleti
Location: P-512CG
When: Sat 9:00 AM
Duration: 1:00 hrs:min
All Participants: Carole Ann Moleti, David M. Kushner,
James D.
Macdonald, Perrianne Lurie, Richard Crownover, M.D.,
Ph.D.

Session ID: 1623
Title: James D. Macdonald
Description: A chance to ask those burning questions.
Language: English
Track: Kaffeeklatsch
Moderator: <Not Available>
Location: P-521A
When: Mon 12:30 PM
Duration: 1:00 hrs:min
All Participants: James D. Macdonald

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

I'd number the character cards. They get inserted where the character is introduced.

Plot overview I might put on a separate sheet. Check out what works for you.

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

Well, I wouldn't use "smiled," "shrugged," or "grinned" as dialog tags in place of "said." That's for sure.

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

Does that sound reasonable to you so that I have a specific map of the community that I can always refer to and track my character's movements or is it too much detail (I won't go that far in the book, obviously)?


Sure, it's reasonable for you. The readers don't have to know it, but it's probably good for you to know exactly where everything is. (I had a large-scale map of Chicago in 1927 on my wall whilst writing Timecrime, Inc.) (I also had a calendar with important dates noted, so I knew things like the fact that Bugs Moran got out of jail (where he'd been on a Loft-and-Safe beef) on a Sunday.) That material never made it into the finished book, but my knowing it made my writing more confident.

No one but you ever sees anything but the final draft.

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

Steve is correct. Instead of revising the current work, write the next one.

If the agent thinks the work is publishable, and asks for a full, send her the new version. If you have other agents on your list, send them the revised version.

Resolve that your next work (which you are writing right now) won't be sent out until the desire to do major revisions has passed.

And learn from this. The only lesson that is wasted is the one from which you learn nothing.

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

The only time you should revise is when the editor's checkbook is open.

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

It bothers me that this would be necessary. My novel starts out normally and gets weirder as it progresses. Starting out with the action would ruin that flow.

No one ever said your book had to start with action.

What it has to start with is a reason for the reader to turn the page.

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

...at which time I intend to resubmit to some (not all) of the agents I submitted to before (including Mr. Maass).

Did any of them invite you to resubmit the work after you'd made revisions?

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

This looks more like SYW material.

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

I thought the opening should create a bond between the reader and the MC and provide a strong element of tension relevant to the plot/theme of the book.

That sounds a lot like something out of a how-to-write book.

Have you found this to be true of any published work you've ever read?

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

Yes, it's my interpretation of what I've been reading in how-to-write books. It seems fairly non-controversial, though. It must be important to make a connection (a bond) between MC and reader as early as possible. The reader has to care about the MC and what happens to him/her.

All that's required for the reader to bond to a character is for that character to appear. Readers are like baby ducks that way: they'll imprint on and follow the first moving object they see. That's why it's good for the first moving character the readers see to be the main character.

I have a number of examples from Maass's book. The Road, by Cormac McCarthy is one that I've actually got here.

The road is a dead-standard piece of post-apocalyptic science fiction. The difference between McCarthy's piece and any random Baen book in the same subgenre is if it were published by Baen they'd have cleaned up the punctuation and spelling, and it wouldn't have been reviewed in The New Yorker.

In the case of my own book, Chapter 1 used to start with dialogue: The MC is being questioned by a policeman, following the discovery of a body. I have now added 300 words that make a huge difference, as the dialogue has much more meaning, now that the MC had introduced himself.

We've just finished several threads on starting novels with dialog elsewhere in this forum (and I'm sure it'll come around again). The reason you should think carefully about starting a book with dialog is that it's very easy to do badly.
I think you are less than enamoured of how-to-write books (?) Time to publish your own, perhaps? :)

Yeah, someday. Meanwhile, read back through the couple-hundred pages of this thread.


I had a look for "Logical Chess" but it's not available in the library. I'm pretty sure I read it aeons ago. I'm not sure I really need it, anyhow, as I have played chess at competition levels and I have several other books on chess strategy, notably Point Count Chess by Horowitz et al., and Nimzowitsch's (rare and wonderful) My System. Am I right in assuming your direction to read Logical Chess is aimed at people who don't actually play the game (much)?

No, my direction to read Logical Chess is aimed at people who want to learn to write. In brief: It explains every move. The goal is to have a reason for everything you do. You need to put your pieces (and your pawns) in the places where they are most likely to do you some good later on, even if you don't know now what that good will be.

I can see several problems with the analogy: First, chess is a battle between two opposing minds. Each of my moves will be countered by my opponent and his move choices will influence mine. Where's the opposing mind in writing fiction?

The usual name for the opposing mind in writing fiction is "conflict." You, the author, are making it tough for your characters to reach their goal.
Second, a game of chess is not predetermined.

It totally is. Either white will win, or black will win, or there will be a draw.

None of the moves (apart from the first) can be written down beforehand except as conditionals (if he does this, then I'll do that). I have to have a detailed plot outline in place before I start to write. I can't write a book by making it up, one chapter at a time.

Oh really? And where exactly does that plot outline come from?

I have a great anecdote about Blackburne that's relevant here, but which I'll save for another time.

I can see I'm going to have to import a post from another thread and disassemble it here.

Third, in chess, you can't move any of your main pieces (characters) without first moving one of your minor ones. (The knights are exceptions, of course).

In chess the game doesn't start until something moves. In novels, the same.

Fourth, which of your chess pieces stands for your main character? The king? He hardly moves before the endgame. The queen? It is considered unwise to move her too early. The rooks are no good; They're hemmed in at the corners until the mid-game. So, we're left with the bishops and the knights. That's four equal characters...

None of them stand for your main character. Or, they're all main characters. If you were to ask the apothecary in Romeo and Juliette, "Who's the main character?" he'd say, "There's this apothecary, y'see....." (Next assignment: Watch Shakespeare in Love.) The characters aren't the point of your novel anyway: The climax is the point. The moment when someone says "Checkmate!" That is the point.


I suppose I'm missing the point as usual...

Perhaps. You're familiar with Alice in Wonderland?

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



It's stupid question time. I'm nearing the end of my story and I'm wondering how would I know if an epilogue is necessary.

You feel like it.

Your beta readers ask for it.

Your editor suggests it.

Think of your epilogue as your curtain calls. It's removed from the climax. It presents a different view of the characters. And ... Some of your audience is already headed for the exits.

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

Page 383
07-14-09
 

James D. Macdonald

Your Genial Uncle
Absolute Sage
VPX
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Feb 11, 2005
Messages
25,582
Reaction score
3,785
Location
New Hampshire
Website
madhousemanor.wordpress.com
Learn Writing with Uncle Jim, Volume 1
Page 384
07-14-09

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

Okay, to thrash another post from another thread.

The thread is: Five irrefutable reasons you need to outline your story before you write it.

(If you're interested in knowing those five irrefutable reasons, they're:

1) Because I said so,
2) Because I said so,
3) Because I said so,
4) Because I said so, and
5) Because I said so.)

Be that as it may. The OP says:


I say this is an insane way to write a book. Why? Because you can develop the story, or at least 95 % of it, BEFORE you write a draft. You can engage in the very same wonderful creative exploration process without spending two months of your life writing a draft. When you become an architect of your story in the form of a blueprint, or a sequential outline and a list of checklist-driven components -- imagine a builder arriving at a job site with the intention of "just start building" with the hope of coming up with a functional design after several tries... even King and Deaver would think this is nuts... -- it all goes faster, it's smoother, it's clearer, and it takes a fraction of the time. And what you end up with is orders of magnitude BETTER than if you just winged it.

Where he goes badly wrong is this:

The novel on the bookstore shelves is not analogous to a finished building ready for occupancy. The novel on the bookstores shelves is the blueprint for the work of art that the reader will construct in his or her head.

Do you know how the architect arrived at the blueprints he's holding the day construction starts?

You do not.

Maybe the architect drew dozens (or hundreds) of sketches. Maybe he built a model. Maybe she fired up the CAD program. Maybe he figured out where the plumbing was going to run and planned outward from that. Maybe she looked at the landscape, considered contrasting siding materials, then worked inward to what kind of structure would be needed to support them. Maybe it came to him in a dream. Maybe the architect spent a week on the plans. Maybe the architect spent a year on them.

You don't know. You don't care. And it doesn't matter what the process was.

At some point in the process you're just going to have to wing it. Even if you're the most detail-oriented obsessive-compulsive in the world and you plan the plan to make your plans ... at some level you're just going to have to make stuff up.

Either that or find a job outside of the creative arts.

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

I balk at "outline" (choke, gag, ugh-- leftover from junior high probably) but I can do synopses until forever. So I make my synopsis my outline.

You shouldn't make your outline for your novel be one of those insane Roman Numeral things.


Or, you could. If that's what works for you.

An outline is a tool, not a pair of handcuffs.

An outline can be in prose English at novel length and divided into chapters if that's what works for you.

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

Or should I go with the flow and just double check what the agent/publisher lists as their desired font?

The guidelines for the market always take precedence.

Meanwhile, if not stated, while Times New Roman may be acceptable, Courier is acceptable.

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

Being a writer means that you will read differently than you did before.

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

If you really, really feel the need to bump any thread, please do it with an on-topic, thought-provoking question or observation.

For example:

Let's look back a few years to some total nonsense that nevertheless got published in Salon: The confessions of a semi-successful author

I commented about it at the time.

But I'm going to comment on it more, because it's still ripe for mockery.

Let me give "Jane Austen Doe" some advice.

1) Don't kid yourself. You aren't a midlist author. Frontlist money and backlist sales don't average out to midlist.

2) That first book of yours, the one that's out of print, but people still ask about? I'm sure it's reverted by now. Find a small press that'll put it back into print. Don't expect a six-figure advance. Don't hold out for a five-figure advance. Heck, take a publisher with decent distribution and forget the advance. You aren't getting any money or any readers with it right now, are you?

3) That ghostwriting gig? That's good money and it's easy work. See if your agent can round up more of those. Do one a year and think of it as your day job.

4) The single-author collection of short stories? What are you, nuts? Sure, do it if you must, but don't let it keep you from writing books. That's where the money is.

5) Consider a pseudonym. The DAW Books Witness Protection Program was made for people like you. You can write publishable prose and that's a rare quality. Start over as someone new. Yeah, you'll get first-book advances. No, first-book advances aren't generally $100K. Take anything that's offered and be grateful to get it.

6) News Flash: Publishing didn't just become a business. It's been a business for centuries.

7) Don't be an idiot when it comes to money. Treat every check as if it's your last ... because it could be.

8) Write your damned book. And stop whining. No one loves a whiner.

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

Plots? We got plots!


http://oaks.nvg.org/folktale-types.html

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

Fixed

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

Today's official weirdness:

A poem that Doyle wrote over thirty years ago, written on a guard tower in Iraq.

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

A couple of years ago I did a week on the Appalachian Trail (in the White Mountains -- it was like a week on a Stairmaster). It was great.

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

Greg, which answer is likely to a) not confuse the readers, b) not annoy the readers, and c) be consistent?

(And must the AI-as-character name and the ship's name be the same? In 2001, note HAL 9000 and Discovery.)

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

The Unspeakable Horror of the Literary Life, Part 29,308,543.

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

What you're seeing there is catastrophic loss of faith in the editor. And it's the editor's fault.

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

I recall another anthology, many years ago.

The editor had assembled a bunch of stories, both original and reprint. This was a well-known editor, working with a well-known publisher. All's well.

Then the publisher, for reasons that seemed good to them, decided that one of the stories Needed Changes if they were going to market the book in a certain region of the country. So they passed on to one of the authors that his/her story would need to have cuts made.

As it happened, it was one of the reprint stories, so it was already out in an original version. And they were only talking about reprint money to start with. And the author said "Not only no, but heck no," or words to that effect.

Which left the editor with a 4,000 word hole in his/her anthology, with press time in one week. This was a slender anthology to start with, and the deletion (aside from affecting the balance of the entire book--anthology editors consider that sort of thing--made it unpublishably short.

A week of scrambling followed.

So this sort of thing happens. Not unknown.

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

Uncle Jim, If you were going to start an e-zine specializing in a particular genre, how much money would you be willing to spend on a per word basis to pay your contributing authors?

Five cents a word, minimum.

Also, in a more novel-related vein, I've been reading quite a bit lately from some "authors" regarding what they see as the need for future novelists to "give away" substantial portions of their work until they get established in order to draw a publisher's attention. These folks have recommended using blogs and websites to publish early works and to get attention from people and publishers.

Oh, you mean Cory Doctorow?

But as far as putting up early works, please, don't do it. I know of more than one author who has spent substantial amounts tracking down, buying up, and burning their early works. Or at least quietly dropping them from their bibliographies.

Just as the number one reason someone buys a book is because they read and enjoyed another work by the same author, if someone has read and loathed a work by an author subsequent sales won't happen with that reader. So posting not-ready-for-prime-time works isn't doing you any favors.

If you mean early works that were published, have reverted, and aren't getting reprinted for one reason or another ... well. I have some complete stories up on my own web page, and I have the first chapters (at least) of most of my novels posted as well.

My own inclination is that these ideas are only a step or two removed from vanity sites where an author has to pay to get his work published, if you can call it that, and that it would incentivise publishers to require writers to pay to get them to even take a look at the writer's work. This is especially true in that most publishers would consider anything published on a blog or website to have been previously published and therefore would command only reprint rates.

There's a huge line in the sand between posting work for free on your web page or your blog, and paying someone to publish it. One is self-publication, the other is vanity publication. There are all kinds of reasons to self-publish, and making money is only one of them.

Editors (generally) aren't going to be looking at your web pages anyway (though it's been known to happen). (Because it's been known to happen does not mean it's the Wave of the Future or even necessarily a good idea.)

The Baen Free Library has been an interesting experiment: Full texts of currently in-print books, offered free. The result has been an increase in sales of the print versions of the same works, to the great joy of the authors.


But, more and more, recently, I'm seeing writers or "authors" recommending "giving away" some of their work in order to draw attention to themselves. What's your feeling in this regard?

To draw attention to yourself? No. But there are lots of other motives for posting things for free on the web that aren't for the purposes of drawing attention to yourself.

The word-count I have in this thread alone is astounding, though I'm not making a dime off it, and making money isn't its point or purpose.


(Yea! My 1000th post)!!!

Go, you!

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

Plots, We Got Plots, Part II.

As I've remarked elsewhere, the oldest engines pull the heaviest freight.

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

His dialogue is presented in italics with a dash and no quotes....


You can use anything at all to delimit dialog. Including nothing, if that's how you roll. As long as you don't confuse the reader, you're golden.

Rules? In a novel?

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

Yes, but maybe not if you're trying to get a debut novel published.

Not really.

Charles Frazier's Cold Mountain was also a first novel, also had non-standard quotation styles, and also sold very well.

You aren't going to hear editors say, >>This is a gripping story filled with fascinating characters that fits squarely into our genre, but I'm not going to buy it because it has non-standard quote-marks.<<

Maybe Tom Rob Smith had contacts in publishing and maybe he didn't (he was a scriptwriter before he turned his hand to novels), but that makes remarkably little difference. All that being the editor's best buddy gets you is a faster read, and a faster rejection if you don't have that gripping story and those fascinating characters.

Know what you're doing and why you're doing it.

Get the gripping story and the fascinating characters: Everything else follows.

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

You mean that writers can work hard and write well and get published, and still be rejected at the last second on the basis of some random editor's misconception?!

Oh, yeah. That ain't the half of it. You should listen to writers at the bar at a convention somewhere, when it's just them talking. The whips and scorns of time have nothing on the literary life as far as making you long for that bare bodkin.

As to reading books with male/female protagonists: When I was young I read all the Nancy Drew books at the same time I was reading all the Hardy Boys books. But then I'm atypical. I grew up to be a writer.

We can say that America still has some issues that it's working through.

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

I went to a mixed-gender parochial school*, then an all-male Catholic high school.

*The same school produced two other professional SF writers: James Patrick Kelly, two years ahead of me, and Elizabeth Hand, two years behind me.

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

I've been going through this thread and it's a gold mine!

Uncle Jim, I see that you write in multiple genres.

1) a) Do you do it all under the same name?

Not always.

b) I'd like to write in multiple genres as well, some under a pseudonym. How easy/hard is it to conduct all business under the fake name? (getting paid, signing contracts etc)
All the contracts (and all my checks) are made out in my real name.

Depending on the state you live in, cashing checks made out to some other name may be as easy as filing a DBA (Doing Business As) at the bank.

Again depending on the local situation you can use whatever name you please, provided you aren't doing so for the purpose of fraud.



2) Do you work on different projects of different genres at the same time, or do you work in one genre at a time? Does it make a difference?
Yes. No (heck, it's hard for me to point to one of my works that's all the same genre inside itself). Not to me it doesn't.

Using dashes for dialogue was actually nearly mainstream for a certain time period. (I think in the 30s - 40s, but I'm not sure).

Given that Child 44 is set in Stalinist Russia....

It's vividly bleak, desperate and suspenseful from the very first line; there's no agent on earth who wouldn't read on.

Tom Rob Smith already had an agent. And Child 44 was originally written as a film script. It was his agent who suggested re-writing it as a novel.

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

See also: James Tiptree, Jr.

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

Author photos aren't universal (or even necessary), and signings are such pains in the patootie that no one will think twice if you decide to skip the honor entirely.

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

How many signings does it take to get to that point?


Just one, if it's bad enough.

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

jinap--I'm going to pose your question to Uncle Jim as he is the closest well-published author I know of (he posts here) who probably gets that kind of mail.

Jim--When someone takes the time to write you a nice letter and addresses it appropriately (ie through your agent or publisher) so that it does get to you, what is your protocol for responding? Do crayon scratches on wax foil get immediately circular-filed? Do copies of their Harry Potter/HP Lovecraft/Danielle Steele cross-over fanfic get reviewed? Or do you sic 'the boss' on the mail? I'd enjoy knowing Debra's response too.

I try to respond personally to everything. It isn't hard to get a writer to write, y'know?

One young fan sent a crayon illustration of one of our Circle of Magic books. I hung that on the refrigerator just like our own kids' artwork.

The annoying ones are when you get thirty letters all at once because some teacher made "Write to an author" be a class assignment.

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

I'm wondering how best to signify a chapter that basically takes part in a dream. Besides the character noticing things are different from her real world, should there be a different font? Different tense (like 1st person)?

Every reader I've had so far has figured out what's going on as they get into that chapter, but I still don't want to confuse.

Changing font is something that's beyond your control. That's going to be the book designer's problem. (And how will the changed font show in the audiobook version and the Braille version?)

You could change person. Or, you could just set it off between two linebreaks (without having read your book I'd favor that, myself.)

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

jinap--I'm going to pose your question to Uncle Jim as he is the closest well-published author I know of (he posts here) who probably gets that kind of mail.

Jim--When someone takes the time to write you a nice letter and addresses it appropriately (ie through your agent or publisher) so that it does get to you, what is your protocol for responding? Do crayon scratches on wax foil get immediately circular-filed? Do copies of their Harry Potter/HP Lovecraft/Danielle Steele cross-over fanfic get reviewed? Or do you sic 'the boss' on the mail? I'd enjoy knowing Debra's response too.

I try to respond personally to everything. It isn't hard to get a writer to write, y'know?

One young fan sent a crayon illustration of one of our Circle of Magic books. I hung that on the refrigerator just like our own kids' artwork.

The annoying ones are when you get thirty letters all at once because some teacher made "Write to an author" be a class assignment.

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

I'm wondering how best to signify a chapter that basically takes part in a dream. Besides the character noticing things are different from her real world, should there be a different font? Different tense (like 1st person)?

Every reader I've had so far has figured out what's going on as they get into that chapter, but I still don't want to confuse.

Changing font is something that's beyond your control. That's going to be the book designer's problem. (And how will the changed font show in the audiobook version and the Braille version?)

You could change person. Or, you could just set it off between two linebreaks (without having read your book I'd favor that, myself.)

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

Incidentally, Person is first, second, or third.

Tense is past, present, or future.

Voice is active or passive.

(Aspect is perfect or imperfect, but let's not go there.)

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

I'm learning a lot more by actually writing.

That's the way it works.

The best way to learn to write a novel is by writing a novel. (The dreadful realization comes later: All you've learned how to do is write that novel. The next novel has something else entirely to teach you.)

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

To:

Author
c/o Publishing House
Where Their Book
Is Published.

It's polite to include an SASE.

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

From my own Circle of Magic, a scene begins: Randal dreamed, and knew that he was dreaming....

=========

Other unusual dream sequences: Alice in Wonderland is one long dream sequence.

One of the reasons that Wes Craven had a hard time selling Nightmare on Elm Street was that it started with a dream sequence (dream sequences in general were out of fashion at the time). As that movie progresses, the dream sequences become more frequent, and more seamlessly intertwined with the real-world action (particularly after the main character realizes what's going on and tries to keep from sleeping at all, then starts having hypnagogic hallucinations) until at the end the dream world and the waking world become one.

Really, A Nightmare on Elm Street (the first one) is a masterful use of dream sequences.

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

Speaking only from my personal experience, I was contractually-required to provide an author photo (taken at my own expense) for the book. Maybe my agent could have gotten that struck from the contract, but it wasn't a fight I wanted to have.

For me, I've only had the contractural requirement for an author photo a couple of times, and the photo wasn't always used.

Also, I had my first signing this past weekend at San Diego Comic-Con (actually, I had two). I suspect it was very different from the usual signing experience, since I was told where to be and when, and I had no other responsibilities besides bringing a pen I liked.

Being told where to be, at what time, and only bringing a pen, has been my usual experience.

Since the early days (and some notable disasters) I've taken to doing a little bit more: I send press releases with cover flats to local newspapers a month before the signings are scheduled, because I have no faith in bookstores' ability to do any publicity at all.


It was nice to meet people who were about to read the book (not fans, since I was signing ARCs and no one had a chance to read it yet but the bookstore staff) but I wasn't prepared for the number of people who asked for advice breaking in to publishing.

That's pretty common. The second most-asked question (after "Where are the bathrooms?") is "How can I be a writer?" (and the ever popular "How much did you pay to get published?")

If I'd had my wits about me, I'd have directed them here.

There's always next time.

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

No photo, no biographical information, nothing. I thought that very strange.


Not that strange.

Perhaps in non-fiction it's true that "to sell the book first you have to sell the author," but over here in the world of novels that advice is, in a word, bullshit.

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

The way to handle fanmail is to write a reply right then.

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

I think you said somewhere, Jim, that the double-spaced typescript and the finished book will equate in number of pages,

I don't think I said that, because it's not true. The book's length in pages will be whatever the book's designer wants it to be.

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

Euclid, I have two assignments for you: First, take a Ken Follett novel. Go through it with an orange Hi-liter and high-light each plot turn. Put a yellow Post-It note flag on each of those pages so that it protrudes from the top of the book.

Close the book. Look at the flags. Then read over the high-lighted text.

Also:

Do the 2006 Christmas Challenge.


I hope you like it.

Meanwhile:

Y'all know the three-point-plot outline:

1.) Get the hero up a tree.
2.) Throw rocks at him.
3.) Get him out of the tree.

And the seven-point plot outline:

1). Introduce the main/viewpoint character
2). Present him with a problem.
3). In a particular setting.
4). The character tries to solve the problem...
5). And fails.
6). The character tries to solve the problem again...
7). And receives validation.

Well, here's a very detailed working-out of those general plot outlines:

http://www.miskatonic.org/dent.html

Y'all can try writing a story based on that plot outline as your Christmas Challenge. As always, the challenge is to actually submit the story you wrote to an appropriate paying market.

The Post Office is closed on Christmas, and the mail is nuts in the days before ... shall we say the deadline for mailing your completed story (in accordance with the market's guidelines) is 26 December?

(If you finish your story early, lay it aside and give it a final read-through-and-polish on Christmas Day.)

I think those two exercises will answer your questions.


(I took the Christmas Challenge myself. The resulting story was published, and will be reprinted here.)

Next assignment for everyone, under the classification of The Unspeakable Horror of the Literary Life: find the story of Ken Follett and Heist of the Century. Think: If this sort of thing can happen to Ken Follett, just imagine what sort of nastiness can happen to me.

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

1. I will find a Ken Follett thriller and do as you suggest, when the library opens tomorrow.

The library won't take kindly to your highlighting the text. I suggest you find a used paperback somewhere.

2. I've printed out and read Lester Dent's Pulp Paper Master Fiction Plot.

- Can this scheme be applied to a 100,000 word book?

If you're doing a plot turn every 4-6 pages, yes.


- What exactly is Pulp?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pulp_magazine
3. I don't have the time resources to complete the second exercise (not right now, anyhow). Besides, I doubt that I could do it.
You don't have the time or resources to write a short story? I wrote mine over the course of four days. Longhand. In a notebook. In a moving vehicle. (Which I wasn't driving.)

4. I read Ken Follett's web page on The Heist of the Century. I noticed that the book was not a novel. I assume it was non-fiction.
Yes.

That wasn't the lesson I was attempting to draw.

The last Ken Follett novel I read was Lie Down With Lions Rise Up With Fleas, a book that featured pretty much every fluid a human body can produce. I kept wondering where the light was coming from to allow our hero to see what he's seeing.

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

I assume he means 4-6 pages of the book as published.


That isn't an assumption that I'd make.

Follett is a writer. He thinks in terms of writing, not of publishing or reading. He's of an age to have learned to write on a typewriter.

I'd assume that he means every 4-6 typescript pages. And since he learned on a typewriter, that's Courier 10 or 12, with one-inch margins all around.

Euclid, all this reading-of-how-to-books and trying to figure out how-many-manuscript-pages-to-the-typeset-page has a name: It's called "Writing Avoidance Behavior." Stop it. Any time you aren't writing you aren't writing.

Go. Write something.

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

Double-spaced??

Yes, double-spaced.

Now I'm looking for guidance from the experts on how to do this even better.

You want to do it better?

Put this book in a desk drawer and write an entire new novel (not a sequel). Something entirely different.

When you've done that, and only then, are you allowed to re-read this book that you've now edited 16 times.

Or, instead of sticking it in a desk-drawer, start submitting it. Either way, you aren't allowed to change a single comma in it unless/until the new book is finished.

Commencing right now.

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

Euclid, if you're enjoying what you're doing, more power to you.

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

Our novels are commercial art. There's equal emphasis on both words: Art, true. But also an item of commerce.

Here we see an author riding both art and commerce:

zorro.jpg


(Gracias al Sr. Zorro.)

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

The thought of re writing one of my favorite authors first chapters is like sacrilege.

No, Kerry. Not re-writing it. Retyping it. Word-for-word. Just the way it appears in the printed book.

The point of the exercise is to get the feeling of the words into your hands and your arms and your shoulders. Just like a painter copies the great masters. Just like a musician learns the music of the greatest composers. Writing is as physical as music or painting.

Later, you'll write your own works. Later, the painter will create her own canvases. Later the musician will play his own riffs. But for right now, just get the feeling of the sentence rhythms of a master writer, of the paragraph lengths, of the words and the letters and the punctuation.

That's what we're doing here.

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

Sure, if someone said "I wrote that piece because my kid needed to go to the dentist" you'd be clued in, but otherwise, it'd be impossible to tell.

Even then it's difficult to tell. A writer I know is one of the most fanatic craftsmen imaginable. He agonizes over every word, writes and re-writes, outlines, plots, researches minute and arcane details, argues with editors and copyeditors ... you'd think he was a jeweler working on the Koh-i-noor.

But the affect he shows to the public is "Hey, I'm a hack. I'm out to get your beer money!"

Why? Nickle-a-throw psychoanalysis is always tricky, but I think it's to lessen the sting if people don't like his offerings.

Writers tell stories. It's what we do. We even tell stories about ourselves.

Yet more rules for writing:

First Florence King, on porno guidelines.

Next, Robert Heinlein's Rules for Writing. (Astoundingly enough, from an address he gave at the US Naval Academy.)

The Florence King bit is recycled from her earlier essay, "Confessions of a Lady Pornographer, " (Penthouse, September 1973), which doesn't seem to be reprinted, collected, or otherwise available anywhere. The original was longer, more useful, and well-worth searching out.

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

Doyle and I will be heading up to WorldCon on Friday. Our schedules are here.

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

Hey, I enjoy it all. Every minute. And tomorrow will be even better!

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

"Said" words ... the word "said" itself is invisible. The other said word are spices. You want spices or the food is bland, but too much and the food is inedible.

That's where the art comes in. Your style, your choice.

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

An amusing toy:

http://www.literature-map.com/audrey+niffenberger.html

http://www.literature-map.com/stephen+king.html

http://www.literature-map.com/dan+brown.html

http://www.literature-map.com/michael+crichton.html

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

Girl Genius, a web-comic mentioned above, won a Hugo last night.

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

Page 391
08-10-09
 

James D. Macdonald

Your Genial Uncle
Absolute Sage
VPX
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Feb 11, 2005
Messages
25,582
Reaction score
3,785
Location
New Hampshire
Website
madhousemanor.wordpress.com
Learn Writing with Uncle Jim, Volume 1
Page 392
08-14-09

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

There may be many ways to express it, but none of them are "wrong" so long as you're consistent and the reader isn't confused.

As to older writing being better, that's one of the reasons I suggest you age your current effort in a desk drawer for a few months before editing it. You'd be surprised how much leaving it aside for a bit improves the writing.

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


If you read in a story that a healer's assistant pulled out a black vial, what thoughts would come up?


The thoughts that you, as the author, wanted to come up.

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

Or, it was black because whatever was inside is light-sensitive. Or, it was black because they were all out of red vials at the store that morning. Or, it was black because black vials are a trademark of Frank Black's Soothing Syrup (one for man, two for beast, good for what ails you!) Or, it was black because that's the color-code for 5 dram vials. (10 dram vials are light blue; 15 dram vials are green.) Or, it was black because it was a sample (not for resale).

Better to ask why it's a vial rather than a phial.

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

"The Black Vial?" Master Filbin asked.

"Yes. It seems needful."

"Waste of perfectly good Fly-spite." The master picked up a pillow and waggled it at his assistant. "If all you want to do is kill the daft bugger, this works just as well. Cheaper and faster, and no awkward explanations if someone sees you carrying it."

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

If you're planning to get into writing to make money ... don't. The money is small and slow. There are faster and easier ways.

If you love writing and discover (to your shock and amazement) that they pay you (enough to live on, hurrah!), then you never have to work a day in your life.

(Though you will constantly wonder if your editors, your publishers, the critics, and your readers will suddenly see through you and realize that you're just faking it.)

My first advice to anyone who wants to become a full-time writer would be to pay all their credit cards down to zero, then cut them up.

Here's what it's like: Imagine you had a job where you're told that the annual salary would be somewhere between zero and a million dollars. And that salary would be divided into not-necessarily-equal parts, and each part put into an envelope to be delivered at the rate of one a day. Each envelope would contain either all, some, or none of your salary, and you wouldn't know what each day would bring until the mail came.

Plus there's no vacation time, no sick days, no insurance, and you have to pay double the social security that anyone else pays. Oh, and you have to work nights, weekends, and holidays. And your boss will know if you're slacking.

Who the heck would want a job like that?

There's a TV show called Castle, starring Nathan Fillion. Mr. Fillion portrays a writer.

Do not believe for a moment that that's what a writer's life is like. Not. Not, not, not, not, not.

I saw a wonderful cartoon strip once, showing the life of a writer. In the first several panels the writer is sitting in front of his computer going tap*tap*tap*tap. The only changes from panel to panel are the hands on the wall clock, the location of the cat, and the level in the coffee pot. In the last panel it's later that night and the writer is in a bar. A beautiful young lady is saying, "You're a writer?! That must be so exciting!"

This too is unrealistic: There aren't any beautiful buxom young ladies, either.

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

There's one nice touch in Castle: Our writer-protagonist's screen-saver flashes YOU SHOULD BE WRITING.

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

Ah, yes, the Young Creamies, who want to show you their ... manuscripts. (Repeatedly, in a variety of positions.)

They only turn up if you're married and not interested. If you're young, good looking, single, and a writer ... not a one in sight.

Important safety tip (NOT from personal experience, but I know a guy it happened to....): If you give your wife an STD, she won't have a sense of humor about it.

I recall an editor who had a Beautiful Young Lady come up to him and say, "I'd do anything to sell a book."

"Anything?"

"Anything."

"Write a good manuscript."

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

But there are never any dashing Cary Grant types cooing over our amazing prose.

Yeah. Doyle keeps complaining about the scarcity of sun-bronzed oiled surfers among the groupie contingent.


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

Name some!


Pizza delivery man. Valet Parking Attendant. Bank clerk. Bartender. Grave digger. Auto mechanic. Major league baseball star. (Yes, there are more people making a full time living playing professional sports than there are people making a full time living writing fiction. Think about that.)

Anything in the world which, if you start today, has a paycheck on Friday.

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

A useful agent has sold books that you've heard of.

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

Can I release all of these under my own name?

You can. Whether you want to is something you should discuss with your agent, your editor, and the publisher's marketing people.

Will the folks who read one of your books, on picking up the next one with the same author's name on, it be disappointed? That's the question.

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

"I love deadlines. I love the whooshing sound they make as they go by."

Deadlines can concentrate the mind wonderfully, but they're also draining.

I keep saying to myself that from now on I'm going to write the book first then sell it, but the need for ready cash keeps making me sell the books on spec. If I ever get far enough ahead....

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

So you're just constantly writing to pay the bills?


Well, yeah. That's what being a full-time professional author means.


It's my job.

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

Living paycheck-to-paycheck is remarkably settled and predictable compared with freelancing.

But, my house is completely paid off, I've put two kids through college (with a third in college right now), and I can do pretty much anything I please.

If you're looking for predictable income (either in amount or timing), this isn't the job for you.

Your writers who are living on writing are mostly middle class, with all the same problems of any other middle-class wage slave. Sure, there are some superstars. Very few.

Same with all the creative arts. You have a few movie stars who could, if they wanted, take what they earned on their last film and live comfortably for the rest of their lives on that. But most actors have to keep working if they want to keep eating.

Royalties are nice, but unpredictable. It's good to be able to write three-and-an-outline and get multiple-thousands for it, but then you have to go and write the book. Including days when you aren't inspired. Including days when you loathe the book. Including days when you want to do something else instead.

Always assume that your on-signing money is the only money you'll ever see for any given project. (And yes, it's possible to write a novel faster than a publisher can write a check.) I've mentioned, from time to time, the slings and arrows that face the writer? That's one of 'em.

When I talk about having to do your BIC every day, I'm trying to prepare you for that day when you, too, become a full-time author. Get the habits now. You'll need 'em. And always improve, because if you aren't going up, you're going down.

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

A first-timer can sell 5K in hardcover and another 20K in paperback. Really, that's not outside the realm of belief at all.

Depending on your genre, and depending on your market, and depending on the way the dice fall.

The advance is figured on how much the publisher thinks the total royalties of the book is going to be. Usually they're right. Let's see: $25 hardcover, 15%, 5K copies.... $18,750. $7.00 paperback, 8% royalties, 20,000 copies, another $11,200. $29,950 advance (call it $30K). Divided into three payments of $10K each, 15% to your agent, 20% to Uncle Sam...

What's a writer to do?

Answer: Two books per year.

If anyone knew how to make a book a best-seller, then every book would be a best-seller. And you're relying on the public. They're fickle, and unpredictable. So, have fun with the writing. That's the thing that is under your control.

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

I totally love my main characters (and my minor characters too). They're real to me, they come and visit ... it's fun.

And I think up new adventures for them.

One thing that I do at the end of every book is write a final chapter that doesn't appear in the draft the editor gets: a cast party for the characters. Where they get to wear loud Hawaiian shirts, drink too much, do inappropriate things, and fall into the pool. And the party always ends with the characters having a toast: "Here's to the author! Without him we'd all be out of a job!"

(Oh, and when a book gets started, I have my characters come and audition for their roles. It's fun. Okay, it's insane. But it's still fun.)

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

That's having your priorities in order.

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

Do you pause for breath when you verbalize in your mind? Does unconscious alliteration leap out at you? Does the repetition of certain words and phrases become obvious to you?

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

I long-ago decided that when I stopped having fun doing anything that I'd stop doing it that same day.

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

If something is keeping you from writing -- put it aside.

Why are you using the thesaurus? Is it a way to turn avoid composition?

Try this: When you're convinced the word isn't quite right, just type a near-enough word, then type XXX then continue with the composition.

For the last twenty minutes of the day, search on XXX with your Thesaurus in hand.

(Oh, and when you bring out your thesaurus, bring out your dictionary too: make sure you know what the words mean. Really sure. Once I was reading some unpublished fantasy, and came to a bit where our hero had just met a young lady, and ... put a medallion on her cervix. I knew instantly what had happened. The author had wanted a fancy-sounding word for 'neck.' And 'cervix' does, indeed, mean 'neck.' As in 'cervical vertebrae.' But, generally speaking, one doesn't get near a beautiful young lady's cervix until you and she are very good friends.)

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

Speaking of writing-avoidance behavior...

I have 1,500 words to go on a short story. So what am I doing right now? Defragging the hard drive on my working computer!

(I'm posting this from the laptop. Yeah, I could write it over here, but ... oh, okay....)

-------------------
"Tears" is perfectly acceptable, I think. Why would you need a synonym?

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

Welcome, ziedinc.

I've recommended a number of books over the course of this thread. Here's a collection of some of them. (I haven't updated it lately but this does cover the first half of the thread.)

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

Jim, do you have a working link to your comments on "that silly Salon article" (the tragedy of the midlist author one)?

Page 32 and following in this thread. http://www.absolutewrite.com/forums/showthread.php?t=6710&page=32

You can use Google better than the (poor, broken) search function that comes with this site. Use site:absolutewrite.com "Uncle Jim" then whatever term you're looking for.

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

Yes, that's alliteration. Yes, you should consider changing it.

Why doesn't your thunderstorm serve a function? Every word needs to either support the theme, reveal character, or advance the plot.

If your subconscious is trying to support the theme with this storm, look to see where else that theme might trying to break through.

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

The theme of the book revolves around the excesses of the Nazi regime, so I suppose there's a gloomy, stormy feel to the whole thing. Not sure what you mean about the theme trying to break through... Or what I should do about it if I did locate these occurrences.

Sharpen, focus, and unify them.

Why should I change the unintentional alliteration? What harm is it doing?

Why should you make your prose the best and most polished that you can? Why should you remove or change clumsy bits? I dunno. You tell me.

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

When is it a good idea to use (intentional) alliteration?

Here is an example:

During the whole of a dull, dark, and soundless day in the autumn of the year, when the clouds hung oppressively low in the heavens, I had been passing alone, on horseback, through a singularly dreary tract of country; and at length found myself, as the shades of evening drew on, within view of the melancholy House of Usher.
You are writing a 100,000 word poem. Every word must be there for the right reason, including its sound. You might want to read "The Philosophy of Composition" by Edgar Allan Poe for more thoughts on this. It's short.

I first read that essay when I was in high school, and it influenced me deeply. Poe, himself, was a great literary innovator. You could have worse models.

Just in case you've not read The Raven, here it is.

Read it silently, then read it aloud. See how different the experience is.

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

The copyright laws then were not as they are now, which is a big part of why Poe died in poverty. (He made $9, total, from "The Raven.")

but Poe was also the fellow who loved to plagiarize,

What do you base that on?

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

E. A. Poe, Flamewarrior. Newpaper letter columns were the messageboards of the day.

The subject is plagiarism.

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

Prose that's too polished tends to be a bit stale and boring.

Stale and boring prose is not, of its nature, polished.

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

Anyways... what suggestions would you have?


Memorize a whole bunch of Shakespeare. Recite it aloud to inanimate objects (although cattle will do if no inanimate objects present themselves), preferably out of doors, in a loud voice.

People may start avoiding you, but your prose will become much more vivid.

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

The Dreadful Secret Revealed

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

Because it draws attention to the words. If you want to draw attention to the words, that's okay. If you don't, it's not so okay.

Alliteration can also produce effects. If you want to produce the effect of silken curtains swishing, that's okay. If there isn't a silken curtain in a hundred miles, that's not so okay.

"Take care of the sounds and the sense will take care of itself."

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

The thread continues in Learn Writing with Uncle Jim, Volume 2.


Please see also:

Index to the Learn Writing with Uncle Jim Thread

Uncle Jim, undiluted

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

Page 398
09-07-09

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

Here Endeth Learn Writing with Uncle Jim, Volume 1
 

James D. Macdonald

Your Genial Uncle
Absolute Sage
VPX
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Feb 11, 2005
Messages
25,582
Reaction score
3,785
Location
New Hampshire
Website
madhousemanor.wordpress.com
Learn Writing with Uncle Jim, Volume 2
Page 1
09-03-09

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

It strikes me that there's a need for a thread on the art and craft of writing commercial novels.

To that end, I'd like to start that discussion. I plan to put down my thoughts on the elements of professional-quality fiction. I'll answer questions, and go where ever the discussion leads. I'll do some notes on the business of writing too.

Here are my qualifications for starting this topic:

My bibliography

A workshop I help teach every year.

My mutant talent is to make my opinions sound like facts.

=============

I have two basic rules: everything that's said should be true, and everything should be helpful.

=============

There's one other thing that needs to be said, McIntyre's First Law: Under the right circumstances anything I tell you can be wrong.

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

Why are you asking me about sentence fragments?

The smallest unit of meaning in the English language is the paragraph.

The question is more properly asked in Share Your Work, as part of an entire chapter.

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

I'm certain that someone, somewhere, wrote that a person sat under a mangrove tree. People write a lot of things. I haven't read all of those things, nor have I memorized everything that I've read.

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

Euclid, I've already recommended Mark Twain's Rules of Writing. I'm going to recommend them again.

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

In my present WIP there are so many details what I'd like to write into it... or I already did, but unfortunately that made the story to very long (Really long).

Have you gotten all the way to THE END?

Have you aged it for a month or three in your desk drawer?

There isn't a mechanical solution to your question. What you have is your art. And I certainly can't answer your question without reading your work. Beta readers (after you're at second or third draft at least) might be able to comment with details.

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

If you did, what would the first line of your query sound/look like?

I'm particularly unqualified to answer that question, since I've never in my life written a query letter.

I've written cover letters (for short stories), but never query letters.

There are many career paths in this profession.

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

I will say that a back-cover-blurb type paragraph is particularly hard to write. My reason for saying this is: I make a small part of my living from writing cover blurbs for other people's novels (publishers hire me to do this; I make about a buck a word to do it). Most back-cover-blurbs written by authors are awful. Inept market-speak is dreadful. And the purpose of a back-cover blurb (to induce a reader to carry the book to the cash register) is different from the purpose of a query.

I've had to do tons of synopses for various novels. These have ranged from one page, to ten pages, to (on one occasion) thirty pages. (And that one was written in one day, and had the folks from the art department at the publisher singing one of the songs* from the synopsis. But that's a story to tell over a beer somewhere.)

One cover letter I once wrote read, in full: "Roses are red/ Violets are blue/ Here is a story / I'm sending to you."

Don't try this at home, kids. I already knew the editor on a personal basis, but (up until then) not on a professional one. (He did buy the story.)


-----------

* ("Did you really put a song in a synopsis?" "Yes, I did.")

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

Care to enlighten?

Okay, the way it worked:

There I was in the Republic of Panama, with my rich uncle, Sam. And one time (after having entirely too much fun with a disease called leptospirosis) I wound up in Gorgas hospital, and after that I had two weeks of convalescent leave. (This was the period that Doyle calls "Our worst Christmas ever.")

So, anyway, while I was home on leave....

Well, back up for a moment. There I was in the Republic of Panama, and all the science fiction books were imported by just one importer, Servicio Lewis, and they only got a new shipment once a month, and it wasn't a great selection. So after reading them all there'd be three weeks or so until the next selection. So, in order to have stories of the kind we liked to read, Doyle and I started writing our own, for each other. (The other choices on base were alcoholism, adultery, and amateur theatricals. Writing science fiction seemed sort of a better choice all the way around.)

.... home on leave, I typed up a story about werewolves. This wasn't really a random choice, we knew about an open anthology with the theme "werewolves." So I wrote a story, then Doyle worked it over, then I played with it some, and eventually we sent it off.

And one afternoon while I was down on the boats, Doyle got an international long-distance phone call from the editor saying that a) she wanted to buy the story, and b) it was 8,000 words too long, could we cut it?

So, we did. The story was eventually published and was the lead story in the anthology. (The two places you want to be in any anthology are either the first story, or the last story. Those are the positions of power. That's where the editors put their strongest works.)

Anywho...from there, one fine day while attending a conference, Doyle was approached by an editor from a packager. You have to understand that packagers are folks who are very much like those annoying folks who come up to you and say, "I have a great idea for a book! You write it and we'll share the money!" Except, packagers really do have the money. And they've already sold the idea to a publisher. All they have to do is find the authors. And they trawl through anthologies and such places looking for young authors who've made one or two sales (so they know they can write on a professional level) and pitching them on writing a fast novel. So, we agreed to do this. I figure it was like an intensive course on How To Write A Novel, working with a real editor, and, as an added bonus, they paid us. In advance. Those books came out from Ballantine, under a pseudonym.

I was still in the Fleet at this time. Doyle was living back in the USA by then.
Then the editor asked if maybe we had something else? So we pulled out a bunch of letters that Doyle and I had written to each other (being at sea makes you a real letter-writer) where we'd been just telling stories to each other in a sorta medieval world. These were titled, in our letters, "Yet Another Scene."

We whipped those into shape as the Circle of Magic series, and the packager loved 'em, and they're still in print. At that point we got an agent. Which wasn't too hard to do with two novels in print and a contract for six more in our pocket.

By then I was out of the Navy and living with Doyle in Manchester, New Hampshire. And we figured that if we were going to be writers now was the time to do it, because otherwise I'd have to find a job. So we took a bunch of stories we'd written in Panama, and which had just been lying there (on Atari 5.25" disks) and cobbled them together into a novel. They'd aged around four years by then, and we'd written eight novels (mostly short YA novels, but still), so we'd had a bit of practice, and we put it together and polished it up.

And I mentioned on the Science Fiction RoundTable on GEnie (anyone remember GEnie?) that we'd just finished a novel. And Patrick Nielsen Hayden (who I'd never met, or even heard of at that point), an editor at Tor, wrote and said, "Don't let your agent send your book to anyone before she sends it to me."

So, he read it, and offered to buy it, but only if we wrote two more books in the series. So, I quickly came up with two more plot summaries, about 250 words each, and Tor bought it. It wasn't published as frontlist, or backlist, or midlist, it was published as an "off-list special." And the first printing sold out in the first month, they went back to press, and that book eventually had seven or eight printings.

So we sold what was the first Mageworlds book, and the two sequels turned into four, then six ... and meanwhile, it was up to our agent to sell books, not us. Which all worked out pretty well. The werewolf short story was never reprinted, but it did turn into the first chapter of a YA horror novel, which eventually turned into a trilogy.

The short story didn't need anything more than a cover letter, and from that point on it was editors asking us, not the other way around. (Something about being Locus Bestsellers with every book we wrote probably had something to do with that.)

So that's why we've never written a query letter.

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

We totally love what we do, and it's by lucky chance that we get paid (and not too badly, if I say so myself) to do it.

Something that I think helped was that we weren't writing to please ourselves, we were writing to please another person. I was writing to amuse Doyle, and she was writing to amuse me. We had a specific audience in mind.

And the first Mageworlds stories were written to please not only us, but a friend who lived in California and was having a bit of a rough time. We'd send ten pages every week, ending each one with a cliffhanger.

And ... you know about Mary Sue, right? Suppose you write a Mary Sue but the Mary Sue isn't you? Those stories featured the adventures of a young lady who was sort of an idealized and way-competent and adventuresome version of our friend. We were writing a Mary Sue for her. And eventually we gave our heroine a boyfriend who wasn't unlike our friend's husband. And they had adventures together. And it was all good.

I think that may have had something to do with the books selling pretty well. They were written for someone. A story isn't anything without the reader.

Oh, and Doyle and I would sit around the kitchen gossiping about our characters. So that one day our elder daughter (then in Jr. High) asked, when coming home from school and walking into such a discussion, "Are you talking about someone I know, or is this just someone you made up?"

We know lots of things about our characters that don't show up in the books.

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

Minor brag: Nora here was one of my students at Viable Paradise some years back: http://clarkesworldmagazine.com/jemisin_09_09/


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

This is the continuation of Learn Writing with Uncle Jim.

As the original thread approached 10,000 posts (and six years!) it had grown a bit long and cumbersome; slow to load and a drag on system resources every time it loaded. (With over a million views, that's significant.)

So, here we are.

I earnestly entreat everyone to read the entire thread, in order, starting from the very beginning. There's lots there; exercises and advice and my philosophy of commercial writing.

Please see also:

Index to the Learn Writing with Uncle Jim Thread

Uncle Jim, undiluted

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

"Purple prose" is excessively ornate, complex, and overburdened with modifiers. This can refer to anything from a short bit up to the entire work.

At the point where the readers notice the prose rather than what the prose is attempting to convey, you may be in purple territory.

Snow was falling when Mr Earbrass woke, which suggested he open TUH with the first flakes of what could be developed into a prolonged and powerfully purple blizzard. On paper, if not outdoors, they have kept coming down all afternoon, over and over again, in all possible ways; and only now, at nightfall, have done so satisfactorily. For writing Mr Earbrass affects an athletic sweater of forgotten origin and unknown significance; it is always worn hind-side-to.
-- The Unstrung Harp; or, Mr Earbrass Writes a Novel

You can also think of purple prose as, "Hey, look, ma! I'm writing!"

As you can imagine, what is actually "purple" is entirely a matter of taste: "I write vivid descriptions. You write flowery passages. He writes purple prose."

You'll get a fair amount of dissenting opinion (not from me) in the current "write for self or write to publish" thread.

Writing for oneself is an entirely legitimate thing to do.

This thread, however, is all about writing to be published. Commercial fiction.

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

It's all art, but unless it's entertaining there aren't going to be any readers.

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

Doyle chimes in: "Purple prose is what you get when you mix red prose and blue prose."

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

See Tarzan, the Jungle Lord, leap panther-like from a nearby tree to save Jane from Dick. See Jane remonstrate, the well-bred tones of upper-class Baltimore society rounding her vowels, as she attempts to save Dick from Tarzan. See Dick scream in terror as Tarzan pulls back his head to present his throat to N'buma, the keen knife of the hunter! See Tarzan hesitate, the natural nobility of the English Lord causing him to pause before needlessly taking the life of a fellow human! See Jane, eyes welling with tears, turn away, lest she see Dick, her long-lost brother, suffer the fate of Sabor the huge lioness. See Tarzan relent, and, offering his hand in friendship to Dick, help him to his feet! See Dick, with that open candor that so characterizes the American working man, take Tarzan's hand in his own, his strong grip and manly visage proclaiming that he, too, possesses the nobility of purpose that so fills the sons of Anglo-Saxon heritage! See the great bull ape, Usota, looking from beneath the dark jungle foliage, evil plans of vengeance upon the Jungle Lord and his friends filling his cunning animal mind!

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

What are some ways to bring a quiet, reserved character to life?

Without reading your book? Dunno.

What do the other beta readers say?

In general: Tragic flaws, wants and needs, bits of business.


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

In other news:

Tell your story to the whole world

Your story must be about something your experienced yourself on 09.09.09

500 words on 09/09/09

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

Hi Uncle Jim
I would very much like your opinion on a thread I followed last night. "How do you know if you have talent?" Since you are a successful writer and teach workshops I would be interested in what your thoughts are on this question. Would you advise only your talented students to pursue a writing career? Would you also encourage the ones who have passion to write but not a lot of talent. Have you had students in your workshops that made it and went on to have successful writing careers through perseverance but not a great deal of talent. I fall into the second group I fear, but if there is hope for us who lack talent but have passion and love for the craft of writing, I will carry on.
Thanks
Jane


As it happens, I'd already commented in that thread:

How do you know you have talent as a writer?
You don't.

Even after you have a dozen books in print you're still convinced that at any moment your readers, your editors, the reviewers, the publishers, your family and friends will suddenly realize that you don't have any talent and you've been faking it all along.

If talent, some kind of innate quality that some people have and others don't, is all that it takes, then I'm wasting my time trying to teach people to write.

Talent, whatever you mean by the word, is over-rated. Work, thought, practice, and perseverance are far more important. Fortunately, they're under your control. Talent isn't.

Do you want to look like you have talent? Practice until your fingers bleed. People will say, "Woo! You're talented!"

Only you will know the truth.

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

If every weather report in a piece of fiction specifically functions thematically/characteristically/plottastically, do we not fall afoul of the Pathetic Fallacy?

No.

The Pathetic Fallacy is assigning human emotions to inanimate objects (e.g. the angry clouds).

I'm suggesting making all the details point in one direction (e.g. the green light on the pier in East Egg in The Great Gatsby, as opposed to a white light, a red light, or not mentioning a light at all.)

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

The only reason I read and study writing is because I believe I am talented.

The person with preternaturally good eyesight may find it easier to become a marksman. This is good. But it is not sufficient.

Did someone start half-way up the ladder? Excellent! But that doesn't mean that climbing is unnecessary.

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

Once one has a grasp of the mechanics of writing, and feels they are writing mostly clean prose, what aspects of the inner workings of the industry should one learn first (other than how to write a query)?

I'm not sure there are any that you need to know. Pay attention to the publisher's colophon on the books you read. Not all publishing houses are the same. Developing an appreciation for the strengths (and distribution!) of the various publishers may help you decide where to query and submit.

Are there specific sources of information that will aid one in understanding the various major and some of the minor publishers? The act of "learning the publishing world" seems overwhelmingly businesslike. I flounder here.

What are the most influential business-savvy things to learn about the publishing world?

Printing is not publishing. If publicity worked any less well or less often no one would bother with it at all. And don't be an idiot with money. Treat every nickel as if it were the last you're ever going to get.

And how much do you actually HAVE to know versus what an agent handles for you?

You don't have to know anything more than who the good agents are. And you have to read widely (but you're doing that anyway, right?) You ought to know enough to know if the agent is screwing you over.

Only curious as I still haven't got a clue about the folks who buy and sell my work. (I suspect I should fix this.)

The readers buy your work. The rest is interesting, but not entirely necessary.

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

I just finished my story for this project.

Go, you! To be a writer, write.

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

If talent starts you part-way up the ladder, remember that the ladder is infinitely high.

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

Which leads me to wonder why your womenfolk have to cry or weep so often...

It's because their husbands are old and can no longer dance.

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

8,000 words? That's 32 pages. That's six hours' typing if all you can manage is 20 words per minute.

Sit down. Rewrite it from memory. It'll be better. Promise.

Robert Louis Stevenson re-wrote Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde from memory. You can do the same sort of thing.

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

Oh, goodness. There are horror stories. Editors hiding in the men's room to escape authors with manuscripts. Authors following the editors into the men's rooms to give them their manuscripts.

No, you don't have to to the Used Car Salesman thing.

Editors don't want to go home with six hundred pounds of manuscripts in their luggage. If they're interested in something you've written, they'll ask you to send it to them at their work address when you get home.

So, how do you get them interested? By being yourself. Talk about what you're interested in. Be interesting. If someone remembers you as the smart, funny guy who could hold up his end of a conversation and paid attention to what others thought and said ... that's good.

You might carry business cards. What does a business card have on it? As little as possible. Your name and contact information, and the whole back clean, white, and blank to write down the subject you were just talking about. Get their business cards, and a couple of days later, drop them a note saying, "I met you at _____ where we talked about ____. Is _____ still open?" or whatever. Business cards are not laser-cutout, embossed-and-foiled, full-color representations of what you'd like the cover of your first book to look like, with your name in 36-point Post-Crypt font printed in scarlet enamel under the step-back, with instructions for making a working origami helicopter printed on the back.

"Hey, how's it goin'?" will get you a lot farther than "Let me tell you about my booooook!"

Be yourself, be natural, be interested in others, be interesting on your own, and listen to the shop-talk. You will learn much.

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

I just got the image of some poor guy standing on the toilet, sweating, and mumbling "Go away, go away, go away," while an author is waving her manuscript over the door, "Read it, it's great, it's the new Harry Potter, I SWEAR!"

That is lots closer to the reality than you think.

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

Do different genres follow different trends?

All genres (including "literary," which is just another damn genre) have their own conventions, their own reading protocols, their own assumptions.

That's why you're constantly reading new works in your favorite genre.

Would it be wrong to stick to what you're comfortable with?

Why would this ever be wrong? (Other than that you aren't growing new writerly muscle.)

Or learn the new trend?

Why not? Play with everything you know. How can it be wrong? Professional magicians may have a favorite card force, but they know a dozen different card forces in order to be able to select the best one for the circumstances. And, in case the force fails, they know another direction to take the trick so that the audience is still entertained.

Only you can decide the best way to tell your story. Your decision will be based on your experience. What you can do will be influenced by the tools you've packed into your tool box.

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

For our sins, Doyle and I have been mentioned on TVTropes:

Hyperspeed Escape
Apocalyse How
Virgin Power

I'm not sure whether to be pleased because it's so few, or sad because it's so few.

Pleased, because I do try to avoid cliches.
Sad, because hey, fame is nice and who doesn't want to be read and loved and quoted?

Speaking of quoted, Doyle is quoted here. (The thing about purple prose being when you mix red and blue prose is so typically her. She's saying things like that all the time. Doyle is smart, clever, witty, fast, sharp, wicked, and has a dynamite prose style. I don't know how I got so lucky.)

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

From Apocalypse How:

In the backstory of the Mageworlds books by Debra Doyle, this happens to Entibor.

(We also had a world-destroying plague mentioned (what happened to Sapne) in The Long Hunt, and I had the traditional Seven Seals Apocalypse threatened in The Apocalypse Door.)

Waterworld has its own page, as does The Road.

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

You want to write a book, Euclid? Do so. Set it anywhere, any time. Research the fudge out of it, then leave 90% of the research lying in your notes when you write (rather than on the pages of the novel where it'll make the readers suspect there'll be a quiz at the end of the chapter).

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

Novels are about people.

Novels are not about places. Novels are not about objects. Novels are not about events.

Novels are about people.

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

What are those sheets that some authors are doing now? Sort of like a one-page synopsis & business card... "One Sheets"? Something like that?

A one-sheet is a one-page summary. It's part of a press kit. Something short enough that a busy person can read it quickly, yet detailed enough that an interviewer can sound like he/she has read your book and won't sound like a doofus on the air.

It isn't important.

The only thing that's important is writing a good book.

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

The thing to include in that good book is an opening that people won't forget.

And an ending that surprises and satisfies, and a middle that keeps them turning the pages....

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

Speculative fiction is science fiction wearing a three-piece suit.

Science fiction and horror are both sub-groups of fantasy.

No, fantasy need not have elves, dragons, or magic.

What is fantasy? It's what fantasy readers point at when they say, "This is Fantasy."

(At one time science fiction was what Damon Knight said was science fiction. Since Damon died no one knows what's science fiction.)


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

In Case of Emergency Break Glass:


42 Essential Third-Act Twists

Yo, and Wayne? Don't let a manuscript sleep over. Send it out again, right now (assuming you haven't already) to the next place on your list.

It's perfectly okay to mutter the ritual phrase in the direction of the place that sent the rejection: "Your loss, guys."

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

See also:

Evil Overlord Plot Generator

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

Can I type the first chapter of a good book from a book on tape?

I wouldn't know why not.

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

Okay Uncle Jim, one more question: Am I supposed to be picking up the keyboard and slamming it down an hour in? (I'm emotional)

No.

And (okay two questions) Am I supposed to feel stupid?

No. You're supposed to become enlightened. This may take time.

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

*Tweak!*

Did you pick up Magic and Showmanship yet?

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

Painkillers. Definitely.

Meanwhile, just heard today that Eos has accepted our latest Civil War fantasy. So, hurrah!

They want to give it a different title from the ones we suggested. Hey, if the marketing guys think some other title will sell more copies, I'm not too proud to let 'em sell those copies.

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

Here's a bit from that work. (It's near the beginning. It was originally the start of chapter one, but it isn't any more.)

Kevin Mulcahey was carrying a torch in his hand when he found the dead Rebel, even though it was broad daylight.

He was alone on a road in Belmont, Missouri, the rest of his squad being likewise engaged in burning the Rebel camp; a waste of perfectly good food, thought Kevin.
But in the manner of the Army the General had told the Colonel to burn everything, the Colonel had told the Major, the Major had told the Captain, and so on until the Sergeant told Private Mulcahey, and, there being no one further to tell, the deed must be done by himself and his mates.

The Rebel wore an officer's uniform: a Major in the 11th Louisiana. He had a bullet hole in his left breast and another in his left temple. He was dead and no mistake.

This wasn't the first dead man that Kevin had ever seen and he knew exactly what to do. He approached the dead Major and made a cross on what was left of his forehead, saying "Into Thy hands I commend thy spirit."

Kevin had studied for the priesthood in Ireland before he decided that if he was going to sleep with a woman he wanted to marry her and that he was of a mind to someday sleep with a woman, and so had shipped on a packet, jumped ship in New York, and made his way to Chicago, where he made a living carving tombstones.
At the commencement of hostilities he joined the 27th Illinois Infantry for lack of better to do, which brought him eventually to this dusty road on the seventh of November of 1861.

Having given a benediction, Kevin looked more closely at the Rebel. The dead man had a sword in his right hand, the blade smeared with blood.

"Gave as good as ye got, did ye?" Kevin said, and pulled the sword from the man's grip. Then he unbuckled the swordbelt to take the scabbard and patted down the Major's pockets for tobacco or gold; either would serve.

Neither were present -- only a fistful of letters, some Confederate scrip, and naught else. Mulcahey was standing there still when Sergeant Dusselman, a Pennsylvania Dutchman who had worked in a butcher shop in Cicero until the war came along, shouted, "Mulcahey, you damned Mick! Quitcher gawkin', man, and look lively. We're pulling out. Back to the assembly, damn your eyes," then passed on along the line, shouting curses and imprecations to the others in the squad as he went. "We're on the boat out of here in jig time, damn you all, or you'll be left behind and no sorrow to me."

With that Private Mulcahey trotted off the road, put his torch to a hayrick, then headed north toward the rest of his regiment. To the south the rattle of musketry told him that the Rebels were coming again. Across the river the booming of the water battery at Columbus increased in tempo.​

This is first draft. At the time I wrote that I only knew in general terms what would happen in the book. Who eventually turned out to be the main character was a complete surprise to me.

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

My favorite piece of advice is "Be teachable"

My favorite is "If it's stupid and it works, it isn't stupid."

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

This will be my second.

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

Are there any zombie Civil War books out there yet?

You might check out The Elopement by Joe Lansdale or History is Dead edited by Kim Paffenroth.

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

What was the first Civil War Fantasy called?

I see The Confessions of Peter Crossman have a "teen" tag. Does this mean the book is YA?

No, it means that it isn't for children. Not because of sex or bad language, but because some of the concepts are complex, and there is some strong violence.

Someday you should look to see what genuine teens are reading: Regular novels. YA is more your ten/eleven/twelve year olds.

The way I think of it:

Children's is anything up to about eight years old.
Middle grades is eight/nine/ten.
Young Adult is ten/eleven/twelve.
Adult is thirteen and up.

Mostly guided by what the reader is interested in.

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

Ah, thank you for that. It's been a while since I wrote actual labeled-YA/Middle Grades. And it's also been a while since my substitute-teaching days, when the eighth-graders all had King and Koontz books (the ones who didn't have sports books, that is) in their hands.

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

Battle of Belmont? Who wins this time?

The Yankees win tactically, the Confederates win strategically, but more important (from my point of view) Edward George Washington Butler dies there, and a passing Union soldier picks up his sword.

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

1) 100,000 No problem
2) 125,000 Publishable
3) 150,000 Starting to be a problem
4) 175,000 Problem
5) 200,000 Probably won't happen

But, as always, there's the Genius Exception. And, regardless, you must make every word the right word.

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

For someone who has spent most of his writing career (heh) with short fiction, what are some good steps to transition to longer works?

Add more plot.

A short story has a single effect. A novel has multiple effects. That's the main difference.



I've found that regarding each chapter as a short story with its own pitfalls and arcs and such helps me visualize each step--but are there flaws in thinking of it this way?

You can wind up with an episodic and disjointed narrative, or an anthology. Rather than layering stories on top of each other like a cake, with each chapter being a short story, try slicing those short stories lengthwise and packing a part of all of them into each chapter.

Curious, as I'm notoriously bad at extending my thoughts past 3k words.

Or, it could be that you just aren't a novelist.

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

Single-author collections are hard to sell. This is because it's hard to get readers to buy them.

(Being a "contrarian" is all very well, but are there enough "contrarians" in the book-buying public to make it worthwhile to roll the presses and for bookstores to order in profitable numbers?)

The number one reason anyone buys a book is because they've read and enjoyed something else that same author has written.

That's the same reason it's hard to sell long works as first novels.

The publishers have a pretty fair idea how many copies any first novel will sell.

As the number of pages goes up, the price per unit goes up. As print runs go up, the price-per-unit goes down.

You graph those out. Do the lines cross above or below the expected sales of a first novel? If they cross below that number, there's a chance the book will get bought. If they cross above that number, it's probably not going to get bought.

Now you understand that there is a maximum price that most readers will pay (even for a long-awaited book by a favorite author). And there is a minimum price that the publisher can charge if they're going to break even, given bookstore discounts and returns.

By the time you get to a second or third novel, the publisher has a fair idea of how well you sell. Which will be different from, and (I hope) higher than, the number that a generic first-novel sells. If it's enough higher, then you can sell that longer tome.

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

Uncle Jim, Does it bother you that I'm asking questions about posts you made six years ago?

ETA: I loved The Haunted Author. I'm about to start MTM, and the predator agent I found was in WD. I wish I had found this thread a year ago.

No, I don't mind (though it would be useful to put in a link to the post, so folks playing at home can follow along).

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

Ah, I see, Wayne. You're up to post 87 in this massive thread?

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

Yet another plot generator: http://wondermark.com/554/

===========

The coding for links is [ URL = "http://...." ] anchor text [ /URL ]

(Only without any spaces.)

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

What the Mail Fairy brought:

http://www.sff.net/people/doylemacdonald/apocaplyseDoorcover_paperbackA.jpg

This is a reduced-size scan of a color photocopy, so the quality isn't all that good, but it should give you an idea. The front cover of the paperback reprint of The Apocalypse Door.

This'll be out around Christmas time.

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

Talking about book covers, it amazes me how poor many book covers are nowadays.

Book covers are not meant to be representational. They are meant to be point-of-sale advertising for the book. More precisely, they are meant to signal to the reader, "This is the sort of book you like."

If vague blobs of blue and yellow send those signals, that's what's going to be on the cover.
More covers:

This is the wrap-around cover art for the (still untitled) Civil War Fantasy. [FONT=Bookman Old Style,Times New Roman,serif]

[/FONT]

Two different covers for The Scarecrow.

Hardcover:

31at6%2BIhfiL._SL500_AA240_.jpg


Paperback:

51ASkZOJNRL._BO2,204,203,TopRight,35,-76_AA240_SH20_OU01_.jpg


When you're a best-selling author your publisher's art and marketing departments spend a lot of time and money on your covers.

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

Michael Connelly is what's known as a Big Name Author. That is, his name is in bigger type than the book's title.

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

How the names appear on the covers is a marketing decision, and is partly to avoid the Death Spiral.

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

Writers, who needs 'em?

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

Uncle Jim,

I don't think I'm quite sure what deep 3rd person perspective is.

Deep third person point of view is just like third person limited, except the viewpoint character's thoughts are set in Roman rather than Italic. If you write in deep third POV, the copyeditor will come along and put the character's thoughts into whatever the house style is anyway.

Rather than worry about these tiny and theoretical varieties of POV, write your story.


If you're really fascinated (and want to put off writing), try this article: http://www.sff.net/people/alicia/arthist.htm

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

Anyway, I am wondering if my understanding of third person, and the ends of the spectrum (far to close) are correct? Thanks.

Close enough. There isn't really a hard dividing line between any of 'em. Add in third omniscient and you may well have the set.

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

If something is written like the last example above (the narrative is deeply influenced by the PoV's world view, language), should it be omniscient?

I don't see how it could be.

When you're that far over into third person you're starting to shade into a first-person narrator with a dissociative disorder.

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

The Art of Dramatic Writing-Lajos Egri.

Never read it. Like anything else, take what works for you; leave the rest.

Don't get trapped. Reading about writing is not the same thing as actually writing.

Writing a novel will teach you more about writing novels than all the how-to guides in the world.

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

Uncle Jim, I'm stuck on memoir writing.

You can use the novelists' techniques: 1) Keep it entertaining. 2) Start with a person in a place with a problem. 3) Keep it entertaining. 4) Don't tell the readers anything before they care. 5) Keep it entertaining. 6) End with a climax, to reward the reader for following you all this time and to let the reader know that the book is over. 6) Keep it entertaining.

I suppose you might say: "Write the thing and let it happen", but that approach scares me. I could easily finish up with three quarters of a book that makes no sense.

Write an outline. But don't fixate on making the perfect outline on your first go. Get a general outline. Then refine it. And for Crom's sake, what are you doing "writing it over and over in first person from each main character's POV"?

Write the whole book as a ten page, single space, third person, present tense narrative. By tomorrow. Don't look back until you hit "The End."

Before you ask, I don't give a hoot if you use Times New Roman or Dark Courier or Goudy Old Style, or red ink or green paper, nor do I give a flip if you have one inch margins or 5/8" margins or what. 5,000 words. Don't even stop to correct typos. If you don't know what happens next just make something up. Get going.

Now.

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

But what should I do if my revisions turn out not much better?

Revise again.

Then re-write some.

And read a lot. And start your next book.

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

How do you judge the proper balance of high tension and resting points?
I do it by ear. Sometimes when you're playing jazz you just have to jam.

Don't forget the comic relief.

The reason you want highs and lows is for the contrast. If everything is high, nothing is. If you put in a very deep low, everything else will seem much higher than it really is.

If you think THIS is long you should see the first one! :ROFL:


I hope everyone here has read/is reading Learn Writing Volume One.

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

Take some time off!

Everyone, do a crossword puzzle, a word-search puzzle, a cryptogram, or some other puzzle that has to do with words.

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

How about this, Euclid:

Take a favorite book by an author you'd like to be. Re-read it. Write down all the characters, and their functions in the story.

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

Page 11
10-04-09
 
Last edited:

James D. Macdonald

Your Genial Uncle
Absolute Sage
VPX
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Feb 11, 2005
Messages
25,582
Reaction score
3,785
Location
New Hampshire
Website
madhousemanor.wordpress.com
Learn Writing with Uncle Jim, Volume 2
Page 12
10-04-09

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

Would you say that the utilisation of hyphenation is gramatically-correct in the following sentences?

I'd think it was incorrect in all of them.

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

Are the four examples different enough?

I would think that a full chapter including dialog in Share Your Work would be more helpful.

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

Do you have any advice for someone looking to take on such a task?

The first question is: Why?

Assuming you've answered that question with something that satisfies you:

Research the heck out of it. Start in the Children's Room of your local library. When you've become an expert, leave 90% (some say 99%) of your research in your notes, not on the pages of your novel.

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

I get the word said being the word said. The one time I deviate is with "replied".

Is that bad?

No, it isn't bad.

Neither are other "said" words bad, in and of themselves. But they are like spices: Too many will make the dish inedible.

Any guidance would be appreciated, from anyone.

You ask me a question I can't answer. The only way to know is to write the book. If it works, you'll know. Contrariwise if it doesn't work, you'll know.

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

Anything I should focus on while reading the Logical Chess, anyone?

The concept of positional play, and the concept of understanding the why of doing what you do.

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

Also, I hate it when people use verbs that don't actually describe approaches to utterance as speech tags. "'No, thanks,' he disdained."

"Blue socks don't go with a yellow suit," Fred welded.

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

I'm unsure because of the colon--I'll leave that for someone less grammatically challenged

Personally, I'd capitalized the T. Just be consistent. The copyeditor will come along and change it to house style anyway.

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

In the 400+ pages of this thread, I didn't see anything about footnotes in a novel. Do any of your novels use footnotes?

Generally, novels don't use footnotes.

They can be done well (e.g. the Flashman novels by George MacDonald Frasier), or badly (e.g. HMS Ulysses by Aleister MacLean).

Generally speaking, if the footnotes take the reader out of the narrative flow, or if their existence makes it clear that the rest of the text is all-made-up, they are a bad thing.

Doyle used footnotes in her short story, "A Death in the Working."

How to format them? However you wish. The publisher will set them according to house style.

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

Comedy is notoriously hard. (Although, strictly speaking, anything with a happy ending is comedy. Thus, Dante's Divine Comedy, so-called because it ends up in paradise.)

Like anything else in this art, they can be done well or done badly. The question you should ask is why am I doing this? What do I gain that I can get in no other way?

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

You want the next big thing? Here you go.

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

One thing to remember about humor: The characters in the humorous piece don't know that they're in a funny novel. To them it's all real and serious.

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

Comedy relief is an important technique. It makes the highs seem higher by making the lows seem lower, through contrast.

Besides, there's nothing like a joke to help your readers like a character.

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

In your novel, those 200-300 pages contain the biggest event in your main character's life.

Remember that and you'll do fine.

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

I'm thinking of doing a big, long, meaty post about how art is all about limits.

Life doesn't have limits. Art does. That's how you can tell the difference.

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

Life has its limits too. For one, it tends to end rather abruptly.

Sure, it can. For an individual. The universe continues.

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

In my case, my MC IS the straight man, so I'm not sure how to give him anything funny to say or do.

Get ahold of the original British version of The Lord of the Rings. Aragorn has a sense of humor in it.

This was removed for the reprinted American version (long story short: Under the copyright laws of the time, since there hadn't been an American edition of The Lord of the Rings when it first came out, LOTR was in the public domain in the USA. Ace published it, as public domain, with no royalties going to J.R.R. Tolkien. In order to get it back under copyright, a new edition had to be created, and it had to be substantially revised. (You were wondering about the author's statement on the back cover of the Ballantine edition, "Those who approve of courtesy to living authors will purchase this edition and no other"? That's what that was all about.)

What was substantially revised was revising Aragorn's sense of humor right out. Made him more kingly, I suppose.

Example: Aragorn has just looked into the Palantir. Gimli asks, "Did you say aught, to him?"

In the revised edition, Aragorn replies, "Nay, Gimli...."

In the first edition: "What did you fear I should say? That I have a rascal of a rebel dwarf whom I should gladly exchange for a serviceable orc? Nay, Gimli...."

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

I have no problem focusing on my writing....problem is, I can't focus on one story. While I am writing one story another one is pushing itself in to my mind and distracting me. Soon enough I find myself daydreaming about that story. So I switch to writing it....obviously its the story that "demands" to be told right? No...when I'm writing story 2, story 1 will begin pestering me! So when you have two novel ideas how do you decide on one and more particularly how do you make yourself focus on just it?

I frequently work on two projects at once. I write one until I run out of gas, then switch to the second and go 'til I run out of gas, then switch back to the first.

The other thing that may be going on is the Saboteur Self getting in there, trying to keep you from finishing any project. That's where we get folks who have been writing for fifteen years and have thirty half-novels to show for it. The answer there is to just bull through, even though you hate hate hate the current story and know that the next idea is brilliant and demands to be told.

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

Uncle Jim,

New guy over here, I was wondering if there is any cure for "overwriting". I seem to overdescribe the setting and the actions, and although it doesn't slow the pace, it gets annoying after 5 or 10 pages.

Any thoughts?

Just write the book. Edit it afterwards.

Things that are annoying can be cut. Things that readers are going to skim can be cut.

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

So I started doing experiments and focusing on writing as MUCH as I can as FAST as I can. Is it crap? Who knows.

No writing is wasted. And if it gives you better story value at the end ... all the better.

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

Of course you can write out of order!

Write the part that needs to be written, the part that's strongest in your mind right now. You're sitting in your chair, you're making your fingers move on the keyboard. How can this possibly be wrong?

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

Story, as Teresa Nielsen Hayden is fond of saying, is a force of nature.

How do you know if you're writing well? Your readers will tell you.

Recall that you as the writer are only doing half of the work of creation. Your reader is doing the other half, compiling your words into story.

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

...I want to be as good as James D. Macdonald.

No, you don't. You want to be better. My publishers already have a guy who's exactly as good as me.

Heck, I spend my days trying to be better than James D. Macdonald. Why not you, too?

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

The new cover for the paperback version of The Apocalypse Door:

http://www.sff.net/people/yog/covers/The_Apocalypse_Door_PB_big.jpg

Release date is 8 December. (Everyone in your whole extended family wants one for Christmas. No, really. They told me in e-mail.)

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

The ISFDB entries both contain serious errors and omissions.

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

I love all my children equally.

Let's not get derailed from talking about writing in general.

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

Yep, putting the work in the desk drawer would be the best thing to do. A month or six weeks while you work on something else would be great.

Then rewrite and edit the fudge out of it. Only when you've gone as far as you can go on your own should you take to your beta readers or your workshop.

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

Thanks all. The most common advice from those in the know seems to be putting it aside for a while. If I had just forged ahead on my own, I would've probably gone right back into editing it and made one full edit through the book while it was fairly fresh in my mind (fixing blatant inconsistencies, for example), and then put it aside for a while so that when I came back to it it wouldn't seem quite so bad. What do you think of that Uncle Jim? Do you think can be good as well, or would you advise against it?


Does it work for you? If so, then by all means carry on.

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

At some point you will have to deal with what's on the page, not what's in your head.

Will this necessarily be fun and easy? No....

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

Back in the old days of the pulps, some of the pulp writers (Mighty Men and Women of Yore, TM) were able to write publishable first drafts. Out of the typewriter, into the envelope, then on to the next.

Where will we find their like again?

For myself, I hate my first drafts. They're horrible. Cringeworthy. I feel this way even if others who read them are praising them. I recognize that the reaction is mine, and subjective. What helps me is some time to get away from remembering how wonderful I thought it would be before I started, and how much I've fallen short of how I'd imagined it.

Thanks. I don't know yet if it works for me or not. I could try it.

You should try it. You should try lots of things. How else will you find what works for you?

"The lyf so short, the craft so long to lerne,
Thassay so hard, so sharp the conquering,
The dredful Ioy, that alwey slit so yerne...."

-- Geoffrey Chaucer (The Parliament of Fowls)


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

Page 22

11-15-09
 
Last edited:

James D. Macdonald

Your Genial Uncle
Absolute Sage
VPX
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Feb 11, 2005
Messages
25,582
Reaction score
3,785
Location
New Hampshire
Website
madhousemanor.wordpress.com
Learn Writing with Uncle Jim, Volume 2
Page 23
11-15-09

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

Something else about the pulps: In those days copyeditors had latitude. They could do anything with the stories that they wanted. H. P. Lovecraft worked as a copyeditor, and he would throw Cthulhu material into the unlikeliest places.

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

I just posted this in another thread, but I think I'll repost it here:

Check out any best-seller list. Look at the top five or ten names.

Where did they publish their first books? Same place, right?

Now look at those publishing houses. They have lots of best-sellers, right?

So: If you want to be a best-seller, make sure your first book comes out from a house that regularly publishes best-sellers.
----------

Why five or ten names? Because doing the research on a hundred won't change the results but will take quite a bit of time.

---------

Meanwhile, over at CNN: Sarah Palin's publishing and political worlds in collision

We read, from Mary Matalin:

Full disclosure: Threshold Editions, an imprint of Simon and Schuster, (for which I serve as editor-in-chief, a misnomer of a title, since my editing is confined to reading; for you political types, think, "operative/organizer") would have loved to acquire Sarah Palin's book.

And ...

We are now all watching very closely how it plays out (and more precisely, "earns-out") in a book market that's unpredictable and fickle always, but in major transition today. The pre-orders immediately kicked it onto the best-seller lists, but a dirty little secret of publishing (where spin is as prevalent as in politics) is not all best-sellers earn out (i.e., the publisher sells enough books to cover an author's advance, which is the threshold for making a profit).

At which point I pinch the bridge of my nose and shake my head. I think "for which I serve as figurehead" would have been more accurate than "for which I serve as editor-in-chief." It's clear that she hasn't a clue about the business side of the house, and didn't check with any of the day-to-day editors, or the publisher.

In sober fact, the publisher makes a profit long before the book earns out. (Exception: when the advance is some ludicrous amount that is offered for something other than book-selling business reasons. When they start playing that game, all I can say is, "Don't gamble with money you can't afford to lose.")

Still, any number of people are going to see that codswallop, and think that an Editor Said So, So It Must Be True.

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

If I say that the character is a caring and intelligent human being wouldn't that be telling leading the reader in my direction rather than letting them interpret the story on their own?

Well, leading the readers in the direction we want them to go is pretty much what this whole art is about. The trick is doing it so they don't know they're being led (or if they do know, so they enjoy it).


In other news: Yesterday brought the first two author's pre-release copies of the paperback The Apocalypse Door. It's getting real.

Today brought a new computer (that I must set up). If I vanish, that's why.

Also today, news of the release date for Lincoln's Sword. Be the first Cool Kid on your block to preorder!

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

1) No writing is wasted.

2) Picking the exactly-right word is a skill that can be improved with practice.

3) Writing poetry will teach you how to write poetry; writing a novel will teach you how to write novels. Letting one substitute for the other can become cat-waxing.

4) There's no reason why you can't do both.

5) Whatever you do, don't forget that the process only ends when you send the product to a market that can buy it.

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

A new version of the Lincoln's Sword cover. Just got it from the publisher today.

Spotted a couple of minor typos of course

If you tell me what the typos are, I can fix them.

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

Any time my friend Esther Friesner gets a story back (and it happens to all of us, all the darned time), she says, "Your loss, Toots," and mails it back out.

And my friend Jen Pelland (less well known, no less brilliant) treats herself to dinner out, every hundred rejections.

That's what makes the pro a pro.

And a story that writes itself means you're on the right track. (The converse, a story that fights you every inch of the way, does not mean that you're on the wrong track.)

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

A dramatic reading of Atlanta Nights, chapter by chapter....

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

I was indeed involved in writing Atlanta Nights.

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


Yanno, you could do worse than to buy Jen's book yourself....

Meanwhile, I've posted something pretty extensive elsewhere, that I think I'll import into this thread:

================================

Why you can't sell a very-long work to a print publisher as a first novel:


The price per unit goes down as the print run goes up. The cost per unit goes up as the page count goes up.

Publishers know, from long experience, how many copies of a first novel from an unknown will sell in their genre, with their distribution, with their capacity for marketing and promotion. Some novels will sell more, some less, but there is an average number, and the individual publishers know what it is for them.

Let us say that Publisher X knows that the average first novel from an unknown sells 10,000 copies. That means that they must print 15,000 copies. That'll be the print run.

Publishers also know what the maximum amount the reading public will pay for any novel. Above a certain price point, not even a new and well-reviewed novel from a favorite author will sell. Let us say that that cover price is $30.00.

One other thing that the publishers know is what discount the bookstores demand. Let us say that the bookstores demand a 50% discount.

I have chosen all these numbers purely to make the math easier. But there are real numbers, and the publishers know them all.

Print run: Fixed number.
Price point: Fixed number.
Discount: Fixed number.
Page count: Variable.

What is the only variable? Page count.

Publishers also know how much money each book must earn to pay their fixed expenses. The rent. The lights. The editors' salaries. The book catalogs. The marketing staff.

They know how much money the particular book must earn to pay for itself: the author's advance, the cover art, the printing, the warehousing, the shipping.

All of these numbers, too, are fixed numbers.

There is a certain amount of profit per title that the publisher wants to make. This may be more of a pious hope, but it, too, is a real number. And the publisher knows what that number is for them.

As page count rises, cost rises. At some point, cost will rise above the profitability number. At that point, you will not sell your first novel to that publisher.

What is that magic page count? This will vary publisher-to-publisher. But it is generally held that the number is well below 300,000 words.

What to do about this, if you have a work that absolutely must be 300,000 words?

1) Write and publish a number of shorter works, to build a fan base, so that your expected sales go up, bringing cost per unit down, and bringing total cost into line with the expected profit target. This includes writing and selling other novels of a more typical length for the market.

2) Seek alternative publication, e.g. e-pubs, where the cost-per-unit is not based on the bill from the printer's plant, the number of physical volumes that can fit in a crate, and the number of crates that can fit on truck.

To agents for a moment. The best agent in the world can't sell an unpublishable manuscript. More to the point, the best agent in the world won't even try to sell an unpublishable manuscript. The best agent in the world became the best agent by only showing up at the publisher's office when he or she had a publishable manuscript in hand. For the reasons set forth above, 300,000 words from an unknown author is unpublishable. End of story.

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

Notes: The Lord of the Rings has been mentioned. Note that Tolkien was not a first-time unknown author presenting his first novel.

Susanna Clarke's Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell was a debut book. It followed nearly a decade of award-winning short works that built a fan base, and it sold to a large publisher that had the marketing resources to sell enough copies that a print run long enough to bring the cover price into line with buyer expectations was possible.

Both Tolkien and Clarke also fall under the Genius Exemption: The closer you are to the edge of the envelope, the closer to genius you must be.

I can hear you object: But MY BOOK will be DIFFERENT! And I am a genius!

No, your book is not different. And if you are, in fact, a genius, prove it: Prove it with award-winning and best selling works.

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

How many people catch the Peter and Simon name game?

More than that... how many people catch The Stations of the Cross? There is a ton of little jokes and games and Catholic fun.

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

Yes, a shorter book has a better chance of being profitable, and therefore publishable.

But be advised that there's also a lower limit. There's a certain income that any book must achieve (rent, utilities, salaries, etc) and therefore a certain cover price. Readers won't pay the necessary minimum price for books that are too short and therefore don't appear to provide value-for-money.

This is why publishers exist. To make those calculations and to deliver books to readers. Squirrelly as publishing can be, it does one thing very, very well. It puts fiction in readers' hands.

As to bookshops closing: High Street is a high-rent district. Bookstores are marginal at best. And ... while the means of delivery is always changing, the ability to tell lies that others want to hear is a rare one. People with rare abilities can always make their way.

Writing is a precarious occupation. What else is new?

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

Jen, do you think it's time to teach them "The Vomit Song"?

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

Finally, a book trailer that actually makes me want to read the book.

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

The Vomit Song (to the tune of, and in the manner of, Bingo Was his Name-o)

There was a girl who wrote a tale
And vomit was its theme-o.
V-O-M-I-T
V-O-M-I-T
V-O-M-I-T
And vomit was its theme-o.

There was a girl who wrote a tale
And vomit was its theme-o.
V-O-M-I-[clap]
V-O-M-I-[clap]
V-O-M-I-[clap]
And vomit was its theme-o.


There was a girl who wrote a tale
And vomit was its theme-o.
V-O-M-[clap]-[clap]
V-O-M-[clap]-[clap]
V-O-M-[clap]-[clap]
And vomit was its theme-o.

There was a girl who wrote a tale
And vomit was its theme-o.
V-O-[clap]-[clap]-[clap]
V-O-[clap]-[clap]-[clap]
V-O-[clap]-[clap]-[clap]
And vomit was its theme-o.

There was a girl who wrote a tale
And vomit was its theme-o.
V-[clap]-[clap]-[clap]-[clap]
V-[clap]-[clap]-[clap]-[clap]
V-[clap]-[clap]-[clap]-[clap]
And vomit was its theme-o.

There was a girl who wrote a tale
And vomit was its theme-o.
[clap]-[clap]-[clap]-[clap]-[clap]
[clap]-[clap]-[clap]-[clap]-[clap]
[clap]-[clap]-[clap]-[clap]-[clap]
And vomit was its theme-o.

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

So much wrong-ness there, Uncle Jim, I have even more respect for you now!

Shall I mention that The Vomit Song made its debut during a group dinner?


Many years ago, when we were writing YA horror, the publisher asked me for an outline. I sent it the next day, and the outline included this song (to the tune of The Battle Hymn of the Republic):

Jenny Brodie's bloody body's bundled in a body bag
Jenny Brodie's bloody body's bundled in a body bag
Jenny Brodie's bloody body's bundled in a body bag
But her legs go marching on.

Gory, gory Jenny Brody
Gory, gory Jenny Brody
Gory, gory Jenny Brody
Her legs go marching on.

We got the assignment, and I was informed that the entire Art Department was singing "Jenny Brody."

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

The lesson here being, writing should be fun.

If you aren't having fun writing, well, why are you doing it?

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

Also, is that second comma right up there? I never know if it's okay to put a comma outside of quotation marks.

Are you in Great Britain?

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

Our Year's Best Fantasy short story, "Philologos; or, A Murder in Bistrita" is available as a free download at Tor.com. You'll need to be a registered user, but registration is free.

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

Our Year's Best Fantasy short story, "Philologos; or, A Murder in Bistrita" is available as a free download at Tor.com. You'll need to be a registered user, but registration is free.

Now that the finished story is available on-line, here is the first draft, as it was written, in various parts:

http://mist-and-snow.livejournal.com/2006/12/06/

http://mist-and-snow.livejournal.com/2006/12/09/

http://mist-and-snow.livejournal.com/2006/12/11/

http://mist-and-snow.livejournal.com/2006/12/13/

http://mist-and-snow.livejournal.com/2006/12/29/

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

Uncle Jim, have you ever considered putting together a "how-to" book for writers....

I have considered that very thing.

In my copious free time....

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

A while back we talked about A Christmas Carol.

Here, for your amusement, is Dickens' original manuscript, complete with scratching out, doodles, word-twiddles, and all those other writerly things.

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

Whew, his handwriting is about as bad as mine.

Dickins' handwriting is pretty good. It's likely that his submission draft (fair copy) would have been clearer. Herman Melville had notoriously bad handwriting.

Mr Earbrass, in The Unstrung Harp, is handwriting his book.

IIRC, Mark Twain was the first writer to submit a typewritten manuscript.

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

It's St. Nicholas Day!

Therefore, it's time for another Christmas Challenge. (And I'll be playing right alongside you.)

This year's challenge:

First, take the plot from a folk or faerie tale.

Now, retell it in one of the following settings:

1) During the American Civil War, at the Siege of Vicksburg.
2) During the Summer of Love (1968), only in a small town about 1,000 miles from San Francisco.
3) In your town, today.
4) Aboard the International Space Station.
5) In a biker gang in New York City.

Make sure you sand off all the identifying marks (e.g. if you're doing Cinderella; no shoe, no ball, no midnight, no prince, no stepsisters...).

Write your story in accordance with Edgar Allan Poe's Philosophy of Composition.

Your deadline is Christmas Eve, because (in accordance with long tradition), you will read your story aloud to your family on Christmas Eve. (This does not mean that it must be a Christmas Story. Far from it. See, for example, M. R. James' Ghost Stories of an Antiquary for his Christmas read-aloud stories.)

Do any necessary rewrites based on your family's reactions, ready to submit your story on January 2nd to a semi-pro-or-better paying, appropriate market that you find at Duotrope.com.

Ready? Writers, hit your keyboards!

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

But...but...those are the same thing!

Then that setting should be particularly easy for you.

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

Now... which one to choose?

Choose "fun" and "interesting" and the rest doesn't matter.

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

Okay, everyone. All you folks who have been reading this thread for years. You want to thank me? Here's how:

Go down to your local bookstore. The one with the doors and windows. Walk in, and buy a copy of The Apocalypse Door by, well, me. Pick it up right off the shelf.

Thank you.

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

It took them exactly one month! to pick this book (and one other) from the shelves and put them in a packet.

Given that the release date is today, I'd say that's pretty decent time.

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

Scalzi's Old Man's War is excellent. It also has a highly unusual publishing history.

Scalzi posted Old Man's War on his web page, where a professional editor found it and offered on it. Scalzi himself recommends that others not try to follow this path. First, out of the thousands of novels published every year, his was the only one with that history. Second, Scalzi has been a professional writer for decades. It's just that he'd never written a novel before, and he hadn't intended to seek publication for it at all. This was lightning striking, not once but several times, in a peculiar pattern that's not likely to ever be repeated.

Also, he wrote an outstanding book.

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

Perhaps I should do some more 'background checks' on the books I read...

Do so only if it adds to your enjoyment.

I come out of the Medieval Literature side of the house, where often enough nothing whatever is known about the author.

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

Words of advice from Neil Gaiman on how to become a successful writer:

"Never publish anything bad."

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

I write bad things all the time. I just don't send them out until they're good.

If I can't make them good, I don't send them out.


Readers don't forgive bad writing. If the experience of reading your book is bad, they won't read anything else you've written. If it's sufficiently bad, they won't read anything else that looks like your book either.

Here's a report from the bookstore front: Readers won't touch trade paperbacks from legitimate houses that look like they might have been vanity published. What do we mean by "look like"? 6x9 trim size and a glossy cover. That's enough.

What that means is that enough readers have been burned by Aunt Sue's romance she got published through AuthorHouse, or by the PublishAmerica title that a bookstore manager shelved because the author came and begged, that they have antibodies.

That isn't the only place where readers have been burned, or where the readers remember. I could tell you tales of entire genres that have been poisoned by publishers getting greedy and printing books that should never have seen a bookstore rack, just because the public demand for that genre was high. Some of those genres still haven't recovered to their pre-pond-bloom levels, and it's been over ten years.

It's too bad if you are writing in one of those genres, or if your publisher puts a glossy cover on your trade paperback. Your book could cure cancer, feed the hungry, and bring world peace, and the reading public still won't pick it up.

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

Whatever happened to: "Never judge a book by its cover"?


Readers do it all the time. So do you.

(And, "You can't judge a book by its cover" dates to another time in publishing when the book block and the cover were purchased separately, and the exact same text from the same press could be inside of two very different covers.)


Of course, now that the secret is out, self-publishing will immediately start producing matt covered books in other sizes!

Not any time soon. Not with the current POD machines.

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

So my question is - have you never been published in Australia, and if not do you have intentions of pursuing that course of action?


The Apocalypse Door is published by Macmillan in Australia. When you search at the Macmillan.au site on "Macdonald" it's the very first hit.

http://www.panmacmillan.com.au/list_titles.asp?txtKeywords=macdonald&x=21&y=15

ISBN 978-0765306081

The Australian publication date will be 01/01/2010.

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

And about the letter...that must be intimidating for aspiring authors. (I say this because I'm one of them)

Don't worry about it. If you aren't vanity-published it won't affect you.

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

ISBN is a number used when warehousing, tracking, selling, identifying individual titles by format, edition, and publisher. It allows bookstores to order and sell particular books, and readers to find particular books, without having to write out the entire card-catalog listing each time.

DRM, on the other hand, is a tool of the devil.

The two items are completely unrelated. Which is a good thing.

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

Part of going back to well-loved books and finding them disappointing might also come from increased maturity in your reading, even without your becoming a writer in the meantime.

The more you read, the more you add to your storehouse of ideas, and what was once fresh will become Seen That A Hundred Times.

(This is another reason why having your plot take a Left Turn at Reality in the midbook is a good idea, and why I recommend braiding a number of threads into Celtic Knotwork.)

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

A couple of things.

First, on-line promotion.

You'll notice that my sig line right now is a link for my novel, The Apocalypse Door. That's a live link to Amazon.com, which (because of the Amazon Associates program) I can track as to numbers coming in. That sig line isn't the only place I've left that link, either. It's pretty much everywhere I'm active.

[Edited: I'm removing all links to Amazon that I've put up over the years, wherever they might be. Put the 800-pound gorilla on a diet. Don't link to them, don't buy from them.]

Heaven only knows how many impressions there have been (that is, number of people who've seen it). There've been 214 click-throughs. Which have resulted in three sales. Okay, that may well be three sales that I wouldn't have had otherwise, but it still isn't a big return on promotional time and effort.

=================

Second:

Scientist and writer Dr. Peter Watts was assaulted and arrested by US border guards. Details here, here, here, and here. Please donate to his legal defense fund. Also, if you're in the US or Canada, write letters to your elected representatives and to your local newspapers in his support.

See also: Scientist explains why climate scientists talk trash. Yes, it's that Dr. Peter Watts.

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

Piracy isn't the problem for authors. The biggest problem is obscurity.

Most people would rather get legitimate copies, if they're available, and if they're convenient.

DRM invites the crackers. Breaking DRM is trivially easy for them. They are not inconvenienced by it at all.

The people who are inconvenienced are your legitimate readers who, for example, download your work in a form that they can read on their laptop, but won't let them read it on their PDA. Or the people who can't make backups, so that when their hard-drives die (which they all do), or they upgrade their computers (which they all will) forces them to re-buy their entire libraries.

The experience of the Baen Free Library, as well as individuals like Cory Doctorow, is that DRM-free electronic versions increase sales.

So: DRM a) adds cost, b) inconveniences legitimate purchasers, c) tells your fans that you think they're dishonest, and d) doesn't slow down the pirates. I don't see an upside.

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

Little known but true: When used books and new books are on the same bookshelf, side by side, and the used book is cheaper, people in general still choose to buy the new book.

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

If the new books are trade paperbacks with glossy covers, I expect that they'll just sit there, and so will the used copy of the same book.

Even when gloss/or/matte doesn't come into the equation, and when the reader is there looking for that specific title (e.g. an Amazon page), with new and used listed on the same page, folks prefer to buy new even if it costs more.

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

I live near one of the world's best bookstores (Powell's) which puts new and used on the same shelves...

And you just know that Powell's isn't in business to lose money.

Other interesting things: If there is more than one copy of the same title side-by-side on the shelf, people are more likely to buy one than if just one copy of that exact same title is there.

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

Page 30

12-12-09
 
Last edited:

James D. Macdonald

Your Genial Uncle
Absolute Sage
VPX
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Feb 11, 2005
Messages
25,582
Reaction score
3,785
Location
New Hampshire
Website
madhousemanor.wordpress.com
Learn Writing with Uncle Jim, Volume 2

Page 29
12-12-2009, 01:31 PM

If the new books are trade paperbacks with glossy covers, I expect that they'll just sit there, and so will the used copy of the same book.

Even when gloss/or/matte doesn't come into the equation, and when the reader is there looking for that specific title (e.g. an Amazon page), with new and used listed on the same page, folks prefer to buy new even if it costs more.

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

I live near one of the world's best bookstores (Powell's) which puts new and used on the same shelves...
And you just know that Powell's isn't in business to lose money.

Other interesting things: If there is more than one copy of the same title side-by-side on the shelf, people are more likely to buy one than if just one copy of that exact same title is there.

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

I was wondering if The Apocalypse Door is religious?
Short answer: Yes.

Slightly longer answer: Everything I write is religious.

Longer answer than that: See for yourself. The first chapter, complete.

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

How can I tell if my writing is any good?

In the larger sense you never do. Have we mentioned "impostor syndrome"?

We have!

It's that wakes-you-up-at-three-in-the-morning fear that any minute now your readers, your editors, the critics, your friends, and your family are going to figure out that you've been faking it all along, you don't know what you're doing, and you'll have to get an honest job.

But follow the link. You'll learn how to tell whether your writing is any good (for some value of "good").

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

Hmmm, by the definition(s) at the end of Uncle Jim's link, I'm a no talent hack.

I didn't say "no-talent hack."

You just might have a harder time telling if you're a good writer. Not that any of us can ever know whether we're a good writer. And all of us, at one time or another, are convinced that we aren't.

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

In which I achieve YouTube fame.... (Minute 8:15 if you want to skip the fun and exciting parts of the video.)

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

Rules for Writing

Because the cats were already waxed and polished to a high gloss, I decided to finish up Uncle Jim Undiluted to date.

Now, because the criticism has been leveled that this thread contains Too Many Rules, let me see (using that new collection of Everything I've Said Here), exactly what I've claimed are "rules."

Here we go!

I have two basic rules: everything that's said should be true, and everything should be helpful.

The rule in the middle is "don't slow down."

You need to develop characters so that they serve a purpose other than Keeping The Front Cover and Back Cover Apart. Two rules for that: Every character thinks that he's the main character in the story, and Every character thinks that he's the good guy. While you are writing the character (from the main character, to the most minor of minor characters) you're in his head, and those two things are true while you're writing from his point of view (POV).


Okay, before I end today, one more rule of thumb: Unless you're writing War and Peace or the Bible, try to have all your characters on stage and moving by page one hundred.

Here's one: Say one of your characters is the world's greatest political orator. Do not, under penalty of having your book flung across the room by your readers, attempt to reproduce that orator's speeches. Unless you personally are the world's greatest orator, anything you write will fall short of the reader's expectation. (Same rule applies if your character is the world's greatest poet, greatest preacher, greatest writer, greatest anything. Don't try to provide samples.)

Here's another rule: Never practice in public.
(and yeah, Never let a manuscript sleep over).

Recall Mark Twain's rules for romantic fiction, particularly "They require that the characters in a tale shall be so clearly defined that the reader can tell beforehand what each will do in a given emergency."

T
he master rules are "Nine-and-sixty ways" and "Does it work?"

We've been talking about rules? There are no rules. There are only guidelines, some of them stronger than others.

Keeping the rule that only words that reveal character, support the theme, and advance the plot belong in your novel should keep you from the worst excesses.


Remember the master rule: You can do anything at all provided it works.

Okay, here's a rule for you: You are allowed one exclamation point per novel. Use it wisely.

Some rules of thumb:

A chapter is a comfortable length to read at one sitting. If your chapters are ten to fifteen pages, that works for a lot of people. Three-to-four page chapters give a feeling of breakneck pace, which might work for a thriller, or might not.

The question is -- where does the break feel natural to you?

A chapter ending contains a reason for the person who put the book down last night before he went to sleep to pick your book up, rather than watch TV, start another book, or play touch football.

Sub-plots -- as long as the reader isn't confused about where they are in the plot, anything you do is okay. Do not confuse the reader.

Your hooks don't need to be obvious at all. (Being too obvious can give your novel a rather Hardy Boys feeling.) They just have to be there.


Do you think that (generally speaking) the reader would feel somehow cheated if, by the end of the story, the 'bad' from the beginning becomes 'good' too (only that a different kind of good ), and the initial 'good' moves towards 'bad' (from a different perspective than that at the beginning).

Well, golly. You've just described the theme arc in the first three of our Mageworlds (http://www.sff.net/people/doylemacdonald/mageworl.htm) books . (Buy one! Bettter still, buy a dozen! They make excellent gifts!)

Or, as someone else (my beloved co-author, to be precise) once said: "The conflict of good vs. evil is all very well, but if you want to make your characters squirm, try the conflict of good vs. good."


Is all foreshadowing that subtle?

It certainly can be. The entire atmosphere of your book is an artistic space that you create, where everything points to its end. You are responsible for providing the information to the readers, though it can be in very small ways.

When I make a stew I don't dump in the entire box of salt.


Isn't it possible to be too subtle?

Sure. It's all possible. This is why we call this particular trade an art.

If this were a science we could look up a table that would tell us how much and what kind of foreshadowing to use.


Write ten to fifteen pages per day, and you'll have ten novels per year.

See how easy it is?


On the other hand, The Killer Angels (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/AS.../madhousemanor) uses tons of internal dialog and none of it is italicized.

So ....

Be consistent with yourself, and see how it reads.

This is not a science, measured with stopwatch and micrometer. This is an art, an art where the one rule is "It works."

The over-all rule is that every word in your novel should advance the plot, support the theme, or reveal character.

Remember the master rule: Does it work?

The general rule still holds: If it isn't working, take it out.

And the master rule: If it works, it's right.


We've said before that it's okay to break rules, as long as you do it for a purpose, you know what rule you're breaking, and above all, that it works.

The master rule is Does It Work.

If you really, really need to get a fact across, the rule is you slide it in three times.

Is there a general rule of thumb for how a magazine will feel about vulgarity in a story?
Read the magazine you're submitting to. Get copies of their guidelines, and follow them.


The rule isn't "show, don't tell, regardless," it's "use the best tools to tell the story."

You'll discover when writing novels that the master rule is "What works for you?"

Remember the two rules:

  • Publishers worth submitting to have books you've seen with your own eyes on the shelves of bookstores.
  • Useful agents have sold books you've heard of.
As far as spelling out numbers, the rule is "be consistent."

The only rule is: Don't bore your reader.

The real rule is: The prose must be workmanlike or better.

Orwell's rule

Break any of these rules sooner than say anything outright barbarous.
is similar in intent to Rule 2 of COLREGS 1972 (International Rules For Preventing Collision At Sea, aka the Rules of the Road):

Rule 2 Responsibility
(a) Nothing in these Rules shall exonerate any vessel, or the owner, master, or crew thereof, from the consequences of any neglect to comply with these Rules or of the neglect of any precaution which may be required by the ordinary practice of seamen, or by the special circumstances of the case.
(b) In construing and complying with these Rules due regard shall be had to all dangers of navigation and collision and to any special circumstances, including the limitations of the vessels involved, which may make a departure from these Rules necessary to avoid immediate danger.
That's the General Prudential Rule or the Rule of Good Seamanship: You should follow the rules at all times, unless following the rules would result in a collision; at that time you are required to break the rules.

The rules of writing are all very well and will keep you out of trouble most of the time, but you'll break those rules if you must to avoid the literary equivalent of a collision at sea.

While it isn't as fixed a rule as $28.00 among hardcover novels, the equivalent price among trade paperbacks is $16.00. Customers leave the more expensive books right on the shelf. Even from authors they know and like.

By "dialog is privileged" I mean that normal rules of spelling and grammar do not apply there.

"Preposition" means, literally, placed first: Pre-position. That "rule" about not ending sentences with prepositions comes from the 18th century grammar-masters who hadn't quite figured out that English isn't Latin. Ignore it. It isn't really a rule.

Unless specified otherwise, is the rule of thumb for chapter breaks still new page, center? I've been seeing some variations here and there. I recently saw double space, including chapter break.
New page, start the chapter half-way down the page. Center the chapter title or number, doublespace, indent, and type.

The page-one-hundred rule (not so much a rule as a guideline): If you're writing War And Peace, or the Bible, you can introduce major characters later on. There are other special circumstances. Examine your story. If it's better with a major character introduced nearer to the end, then it's better.


The thing about writing rules is this: They aren't rules. They're guidelines. You do have to know where the lines are, but if you need to color outside of them, please do so. The master rule is if it works, it's right. Yes, you can break that rule too, but don't expect anyone but mom to love your story if you do.


My personal rule is, the three most recent/most prestigious sales. All to the same market, to different markets ... that doesn't matter to me. The idea is to show "I'm writing at a professional level; a professional sent me money."

Do not forget the master rule: What works for you is right.

The rule is this: If you see a publisher or an agent advertising through Google, they're either scammers or worthless.

The only real rule is: If It Works, It's Right.

And the master rule is that if it works, it's right.

Edelstein has completely misunderstood this one, but that's okay: many people misunderstand it. This rule doesn't instruct you to send out only first drafts. Once you've written, rewritten, revised, and made your work the best you can ... send it out. After that it's a trap to rewrite it every time it comes back. A waste of time. You've already made the story the best you could or you wouldn't be sending it out, would you? So send it out, and send it out again, until you've hit every reasonable market. Then retire it, as above. The exceptions are: if someone says "I will buy this if you make the following changes," by all means do so. Or, if the story's sat around in your Retired file for a year and you see a way to make it better, you can rewrite it and send it back on its travels. (Or, suddenly an inspiration strikes and the Muse won't let go of your throat until you rewrite the sucker.)

The actual rules:

What works is right.

The reader is king.

A compelling story compellingly told trumps everything.

A story that's submitted may be accepted. A story that's never submitted won't be accepted.

The two rules are: (1) Know where you're standing when you describe a scene, and (2) don't confuse the reader. Of those, the second is the most important.

Remember the rule that when someone tells you that there's a problem at a certain point there's probably a problem, but when they tell you what the problem is, they're probably wrong.

Today I'm going to recco Editorial Anonymous' post on rejection letters. It has eight rules, but boils down to this: Unless the rejection letter contains specific, constructive, criticism it doesn't mean anything. I'm going to add a bit to that, to say that unless it also contains the word "resubmit" even that specific constructive criticism doesn't mean a heck of a lot.

There are no rules. Only guidelines.

The first, and only, rule is: If it works, it's right. (The next, only a little less-than-a-rule, is: Be interesting.)

The rule is: Don't confuse the reader.

First rule of fiction writing: Be interesting.


English has always split infinitives. But when the Latinate Prescriptive Grammarians came along in the 18th century, to impose the grammatical rules from Latin onto English in order to make English respectable (since Latin was the perfect language) they decided that it was therefore wrong to split infinitives in English.

If you're totally fascinated, double-space after a full stop is sometimes called "English spacing" and single-space after a full stop is sometimes called "French spacing." These long pre-date typewriters. There were also rules about spaces before and after other punctuation marks. As an aside, also dating to the days of hand typesetting, cliches were common phrases cast as single slugs to speed composition.


Rules? In a knife fight?

There is only one rule: If it works, it's right.


The overriding rule is (all together now!) If it works, it's right.


The rules are: 1) Don't confuse the readers, and 2) Be consistent.


See also Mark Twain on the rules of literary art:
10. [The rules] require that the author shall make the reader feel a deep interest in the personages of his tale and in their fate; and that he shall make the reader love the good people in the tale and hate the bad ones. But the reader of the Deerslayer tale dislikes the good people in it, is indifferent to the others, and wishes they would all get drowned together.
And the rules of narrative are the same. Fiction, non-fiction -- the difference is in where the lies are coming from.


The rule for any working writer is this: The advance is the only money you're ever going to see.

Rules? In a novel?

First, Florence King, on porno guidelines.




Mark Twain's Rules of Writing:

There are nineteen rules governing literary art in domain of romantic fiction -- some say twenty-two. In "Deerslayer," Cooper violated eighteen of them. These eighteen require:


1. That a tale shall accomplish something and arrive somewhere. But the "Deerslayer" tale accomplishes nothing and arrives in air.

2. They require that the episodes in a tale shall be necessary parts of the tale, and shall help to develop it. But as the "Deerslayer" tale is not a tale, and accomplishes nothing and arrives nowhere, the episodes have no rightful place in the work, since there was nothing for them to develop.

3. They require that the personages in a tale shall be alive, except in the case of corpses, and that always the reader shall be able to tell the corpses from the others. But this detail has often been overlooked in the "Deerslayer" tale.

4. They require that the personages in a tale, both dead and alive, shall exhibit a sufficient excuse for being there. But this detail also has been overlooked in the "Deerslayer" tale.

5. The require that when the personages of a tale deal in conversation, the talk shall sound like human talk, and be talk such as human beings would be likely to talk in the given circumstances, and have a discoverable meaning, also a discoverable purpose, and a show of relevancy, and remain in the neighborhood of the subject at hand, and be interesting to the reader, and help out the tale, and stop when the people cannot think of anything more to say. But this requirement has been ignored from the beginning of the "Deerslayer" tale to the end of it.

6. They require that when the author describes the character of a personage in the tale, the conduct and conversation of that personage shall justify said description. But this law gets little or no attention in the "Deerslayer" tale, as Natty Bumppo's case will amply prove.



7. They require that when a personage talks like an illustrated, gilt-edged, tree-calf, hand-tooled, seven- dollar Friendship's Offering in the beginning of a paragraph, he shall not talk like a negro minstrel in the end of it. But this rule is flung down and danced upon in the "Deerslayer" tale.

8. They require that crass stupidities shall not be played upon the reader as "the craft of the woodsman, the delicate art of the forest," by either the author or the people in the tale. But this rule is persistently violated in the "Deerslayer" tale.

9. They require that the personages of a tale shall confine themselves to possibilities and let miracles alone; or, if they venture a miracle, the author must so plausibly set it forth as to make it look possible and reasonable. But these rules are not respected in the "Deerslayer" tale.

10. They require that the author shall make the reader feel a deep interest in the personages of his tale and in their fate; and that he shall make the reader love the good people in the tale and hate the bad ones. But the reader of the "Deerslayer" tale dislikes the good people in it, is indifferent to the others, and wishes they would all get drowned together.

11. They require that the characters in a tale shall be so clearly defined that the reader can tell beforehand what each will do in a given emergency. But in the "Deerslayer" tale, this rule is vacated.

In addition to these large rules, there are some little ones. These require that the author shall:


12. Say what he is proposing to say, not merely come near it.

13. Use the right word, not its second cousin.

14. Eschew surplusage.

15. Not omit necessary details.

16. Avoid slovenliness of form.

17. Use good grammar.

18. Employ a simple and straightforward style.

Even these seven are coldly and persistently violated in the "Deerslayer" tale.
Elmore Leonard's 10 rule of writing

1. Leave out the passages that readers love to skip. (Those would be the ones you worked hardest on).


2. Never open a book by describing the weather.

3. Never open a book with a prologue. They are usually boring.


4. Never describe the physical appearance of a character with details that the reader will soon forget.

5. Use exclamation points sparingly.


6. Never use another verb instead of "said."


7. Never use an adverb to modify "said." The tone of the dialogue should be contained within the dialogue itself.


8. Never use a colon or semi-colon in dialogue.


9. Don't change your writing for the critics who know nothing about writing.


10. Tell the editor not to let the copy-editor mess with your punctuation.
Gene Wolfe's rules for writers

Examine your modifiers ruthlessly. What do they add to the story? Cut adjectives, adverbs, similes and metaphors which do not shed light or develop the narrative voice.



Don't repeat yourself.



Give the reader small surprises: moments of humor, delightful metaphors, something that jolts.



Understand your characters. No one is a villain to him/herself. No one is clinically sane if you know them well enough.
Jennifer Crusie's Rules for Romance Heroines
George Orwell's rules of writing:

(i) Never use a metaphor, simile, or other figure of speech which you are used to seeing in print.
(ii) Never us a long word where a short one will do.
(iii) If it is possible to cut a word out, always cut it out.
(iv) Never use the passive where you can use the active.
(v) Never use a foreign phrase, a scientific word, or a jargon word if you can think of an everyday English equivalent.
(vi) Break any of these rules sooner than say anything outright barbarous.

They come from "Politics and the English Language."
Rules for Writing

George Scithers' rules for writers:

1.You have to put it in a form someone can use.

2. You have to make it interesting enough to be worth the editor’s time and the reader’s money.

3. You have to put it where someone can read it and buy it.

That really does cover it. The best writing advice tends to be very simple. It’s using it that’s the trick.
Next, Robert Heinlein's Rules for Writing. (Astoundingly enough, from an address he gave at the US Naval Academy.)

Robert A. Heinlein's Rules of Writing:

1. You must write.
2. You must finish what you write.
3. You must refrain from rewriting, except to editorial order.
4. You must put the work on the market.
5. You must keep the work on the market until it is sold.

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

That isn't my rule, it's Elmore Leonard's.

But it's also true that many (most?) readers skip prologues.

Okay, now you're going to say, "But I never skip prologues!"

That's great. Just be aware that most readers do skip them. Write your book accordingly.

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

On prologues: I've done 'em myself, and I have no doubt I'll do 'em again.

On trade paperbacks: They cost the publisher about 60% of the price of a hardcover to produce, but they only sell for 50% of the price of a hardcover. That is to say, they have the lowest profit margin of any format. If readers have become inoculated against 6x9 trade paperbacks, we may see the end of that format from legitimate publishers.

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

The Christian book market is small. I sell my material as straight SF/Fantasy. And if it works on more than one level ... well, the first three Mageworlds books are a refutation of the Manichean heresy.

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

Is she really making money as the author of the website and if so what is the secret of her success?


Is she? It's possible. Why not?

You could ask her what the secret of her success is; she might tell you that she writes niche fiction for a defined audience. That would be my guess.

As to:
They may have a point, as professional published authors don’t make a living from their writing.

I do.
By that definition I'm not a professional published author either.

Another part of her strategy might be living in an area with a very low cost of living. That's the route I took myself.

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

Making the Author's Big Mistake (ABM).


Folks, do not ever, ever, ever respond in any way whatsoever to a bad review. Just don't do it.

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

O well.

Don't do likewise.

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

What do I think?

If it works for you, use it. There really, honestly, isn't a magic Plot that works for everyone, or for every book, or for every audience in every time.

Think about different approaches. If a metaphor for the process helps you, go you!

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

I love my fans.

They pay my grocery bills.

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

I believe the greatest stumbling block that keeps me from writing is that I don't know how to plot a story. Over the last year, I wrote 3/4 of a first draft by the seat of my pants with no outline and only a vague idea where I wanted the story to go. I delighted in letting my characters run amok and was amazed at the creative turns the story took. However, I ended up with rambling manuscript that had no cohesive glue and really no reason for existence.
Take what you have. Read it. Flowchart it. Find the story hidden inside of it.

Sharpen that. Cut the rest. Write more to fill in what's missing. And find what the climax is.

To find the climax: Re-read the opening. What answers the questions your opening asks in a satisfying, yet surprising, way?

No writing is wasted. You've learned one way that doesn't work for you. There are others.

What's your plot?

Here are the basic plots:

Man against man, man against nature, man against himself, and man against God.

The other plots are: "The Brave Little Tailor," "The Man Who Learned Better," and "If This Goes On (or, "What If"). Some say "Reader, I Married Him" is the eighth plot.

Does yours fit one of them?

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

Book Pr0n.

Oh, baby!

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

Any truth to this?

No.


And lastly, if this has been applied to two finished novels
(not using contractions) should changes be made?
Did an editor say, "I will buy your book if...."? If not, no.

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

Y'all are probably wondering about how much of the market e-books represent.

Here's a partial answer. It's generally considered that among e-books, romance is where it's happening. Now, per Publishers Weekly, we can start assigning some numbers. E-books represent 5.6% of romance novel sales.

That's great. I'll have e-book editions of my works, please: I'm not going to turn my back on 5.6% of my potential readers. But... I'd like the other 94.4% too.

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


So, how am I going to spend my Christmas holidays? By going over the copyedit of Lincoln's Sword.

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

What makes you think that I even read critics of my work, harsh or otherwise?

Critics aren't there for the writers anyway. They're there for the readers. They have their job, I have mine, and theirs has nothing to do with me.

(Just as you should ignore critics, in the same way and at the same time, ignore praise.)

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

But in this case, what about constructive criticism?

Do you mean something that came from a beta reader, that I requested? Or something that came from an editor (and is therefore not unexpected)?

Or do you mean random criticism on Amazon or in a magazine somewhere?

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

From beta readers and from editors. How do you personally handle the criticism coming from beta readers and editors?

From beta readers, I thank them profusely and sincerely. Then I review the book, remembering that if someone tells me there's a problem they're probably right, but if someone tells me how to fix it they're probably wrong.

From editors, I recall that the comments come in three forms: the ones where I slap my forehead and thank the Power of Publishing that the editor caught it so people will think I'm smarter than I am; the ones that I don't really care about, so I make the changes because that's the guy with the checkbook talking, and the ones that I ignore.

I recall that all of us are on the same team. We're trying to give the readers the best experience that they can have with our book.

Help talk me out of going straight into the revisions, or even writing character bios etc. I really don't want to let this alone now that I have this block of marble...I just want to sculpt...

For the next two months, while this one ages, write a new, different book. One that has nothing to do with the current one. Set in a different time, a different place, with different characters doing different things in pursuit of a different plot with a different climax.

Two months from now you'll have a great start on your next novel, and you'll be ready to approach the editing of the current book with a refreshed eye.

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

1) When I write a lot while upset, I worry that I'm going to make my novel veer off in some random direction and mess everything up. Is this an irrational fear?

What happens outside of the novel may well affect what's going on inside the novel. E.G.: Doyle and I (and the kids) had horrible flu and chicken pox while we were writing one of the Circle of Magic books. The main character of that novel turned out to have a fever and be hallucinating for most of that book. The time I wrote a Spiderman book in a week, all of the characters wound up drinking a lot of coffee. Coincidence?


2) How do you deal with distracting stress and emotional factors? Do you ignore it? Do you work it into your writing?
Two hours of alone-time with just blank paper can be remarkably soothing.

3) Do you ever decide to set aside your scheduled writing for later if you're having a lot of emotional stuff going on, or do you find that it's best to go ahead and write even if you can't concentrate? Or does experience and having a routine allow you to suddenly ignore that stuff when you need to write?
If you let anything stop you from writing, the simple fact is that you've stopped writing. And ... it may come that the way you resolve the problem when you just don't want to write (and those days will come) in the future will be to seek out emotional upset. Do you want to get into that habit? I'm guessing not.

Concentration is greatly overrated. You're going to rewrite and revise anyway. Just get words on paper.

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

If nothing else, being a novelist turned me into a jackleg psychologist.

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

So ....

Everyone finish the Christmas Challenge?

How did the readings go?

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

but the characters were really miffed at being in such a short, minor event.
So let them play at longer length.

Meanwhile, picked up at Making Light, this: AUDIENCE FOCUS IN HAUNTED ATTRACTIONS

Another example of how everything needs to reveal character, advance plot, or support theme.

Anything that doesn't move the story forward holds it back.

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

But what if it's funny, interesting or something that seems irrelevant but may provide an inside joke?
Suppose a football team, between plays, did comedy sketches?

And suppose they were really funny sketches?

How would the fans feel?

================

Inside jokes are great. I love 'em. I have tons in my books. But if the surface meaning isn't moving the story forward, cut 'em.

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

Start with a master plan of what's really happening. A Ghod's-eye view. From that you can figure out who knows what and when and why.

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

Page 32

End of 2009
 

James D. Macdonald

Your Genial Uncle
Absolute Sage
VPX
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Feb 11, 2005
Messages
25,582
Reaction score
3,785
Location
New Hampshire
Website
madhousemanor.wordpress.com
Learn Writing with Uncle Jim, Volume 2

Beginning of 2010

01-04-2010, 09:38 PM
#809
Page 33

Is there some particular reason the readers need to know how the ships are maneuvered? If not, cut all that.

You've done the math, you've worked it out, so the readers will feel your confidence. The angles behind the scenes all meet nice and square. Don't show the back of the house.

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

Land of Mist and Snow is still in print. I hope it will be re-solicited this coming summer when Lincoln's Sword comes out. It's been out two years now, and isn't likely to be shelved at this moment. It's from a different publisher than The Apocalypse Door.

The Apocalypse Door isn't part of any series. Please note, too, that The Apocalypse Door is the one and only book written by James D. Macdonald. The others are by Debra Doyle & James D. Macdonald, or by other names.

Nothing is guaranteed. And spending too much time trying to make sense of this business isn't a great use of time. The only thing in your control is the quality of your own work.

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

Was only the first book originally written in serial form back and forth as you mentioned before, or were others as well?
You mean as a series of letters to our friend in California?

The first book was the only one written that way.

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

Any chance you'll write another?

Not only is there a chance, I've got a contract for it, and the publisher has been very patient.

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

How many books do you currently have contracts for?

Counting the one coming out next summer, three.

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


What's the rule on that?

I don't know as there's a rule.

I don't think it's a good idea to post anything other than your best work out where the public can read it, though.

This hasn't stopped me from posting first drafts of stories on-line, or at least first paragraphs or first pages. (I've done it right here in this very thread.) Or even writing a story on line, posting the first-draft pages as I did them. (http://mist-and-snow.livejournal.com/2006/12/06/ et seq.)

If a book is good enough, prior-publication won't be a bar (or The Adventures of Tom Sawyer would be permanently out of print). Individual agents will have their individual preferences.

(Speaking of "protecting your copyright," though, it's darn difficult to lose your copyright, through things your do or things you fail to do. What you're concerned with here is first publication rights, which mostly concerns the size of the advance. Some publishers only want first-time publication (Never before seen!) rights. It's a complex dance.)

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

Finishing up the copyedit on Lincoln's Sword today.

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

One thing you might do to figure out the prior-publication question is this:

Go to Duotrope.com.

Punch in the stats for your story, and see how many markets there are.

Then try the same search using the "reprints okay" click-box.

Subtract number b from number a to see what kind of difference posting on-line would make.

The stories I have posted on my web page were all previously published, and so would be reprints in any case.

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

I get my first set of novel copyedits next week.

Enjoy them as much as possible.

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

I plan to!

Remember that the copyeditor's job is to make us look smarter than we are.

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

A nice inspirational story:

A newbie writer who, as of mid-September last year hadn't even told her family that she was writing, has a three-book deal with the first coming out September of this year.

Also, those perennial questions on these boards:

When Are You A Writer?
When Are You An Author?

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

A copyeditor is the next-to-last person to see your book at the publishing house. (The last one is the proof reader.)

The copyeditor's job is to go through the manuscript and check spelling, grammar, facts, and consistency.

If your character was wearing a red necktie on page 34, and a blue necktie on page 58, the copyeditor will flag it and ask if this change was intentional. The copy editor will check to see if the White House was surrounded by a stone wall or an iron fence in 1865. The copy editor will mark the text to bring it to house style (e.g. serial commas). The copy editor may mark the text for the typesetter (e.g. display type for chapter heads).

Bad copyeditors think that what you really wanted was an uncredited co-author, and will correct the grammar in a language you made up yourself, while not noticing that people are using flashlights outside at nine in the morning.

After the copyedit, the author gets a chance to read the manuscript, make any final changes, and either accept or reject the copyeditor's changes (if you reject them, you write "stet" (Latin for "let it stand") in the margin in red pencil).

After the copyedit, the book goes to the typesetter, then to the proofreader. You will get a chance to read the galleys (copies of the finished typeset pages), but any changes you make at this point will be charged to you if they aren't printer's errors (that is, errors introduced in the typesetting that didn't occur in the original manuscript). Thankfully, you usually don't need to know the proofreader's marks for 'upside down letter' or 'broken letter' any more, since no one's using hot or cold lead now. (If, for some reason, the type is being set by hand, you will need to know these marks. Chances of that are slim.)

(Why do we need proofreaders now that everything's all-electronic? I can hear you ask. There was a publisher once who thought that very thing. And a major book came out where ever fortieth letter was shifted to the ASCII symbol exactly twelve places to the right in the table of ASCII values. The book was printed thus, and shipped ... and the entire run had to be recalled, and pulped, and reprinted. The typesetting house went out of business. The publisher lost a great amount of money. That is why you want a proofreader. And when you are reading the galleys (you're going to do that because it's your book), you're going to wish that you'd used underlines instead of italics in your original manuscript.)

How many editors does it take to change a light bulb?
Answer: Only one; but first they have to rewire the entire building.

How many sales directors does it take to change a light bulb?
Answer: (Pause.) "I get it! this is one of those light bulb jokes, right?"

How many managing editors does it take to change a light bulb?
Answer: "You were supposed to have changed that light bulb last week!"

How many art directors does it take to change a light bulb?
Answer: "Does it HAVE to be a light bulb?"

How many copyeditors does it take to change a light bulb?
Answer: "The last time this question was asked, it involved art directors. Is the difference intentional? Should one or the other instance be changed? It seems inconsistent."

How many proofreaders does it take to change a light bulb?
Answer: Proofreaders do not change light bulbs. They just query them.

How many marketing directors does it take to change a light bulb?
Answer: "It isn't too late to make this bulb neon, is it?"

How many authors does it take to change a light bulb?
Answer: "But why do we have to CHANGE it?"

How many cover artists does it take to change a light bulb?
Answer: "Why is there...an eggbeater, I think?...sticking out of this light fixture?"

How many publishers does it take to change a light bulb?
Answer: Three-- one to screw it in, two to hold down the author.


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

(I know the person who wrote those publishing light bulb jokes. Which led to one of the classic good news/bad news jokes: The editor of The New Yorker loved your latest piece! Unfortunately it didn't have your name on it when it arrived in the email....)

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

I had used underlines in the original manuscript...

And that made finding the places where they'd dropped out of the typeset manuscript really easy (for some values of the word 'easy') didn't it?

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

For me, writer and author are synonymous. You're a writer when you're writing.

Anything more complex is just an invitation to Impostor Syndrome.

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

How much plotting and outlining is too much?
When it gets in the way of actual writing, then it's too much.

Outlining can become a form of Writing Avoidance Behavior.

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

There was a girl who wrote a tale
And vomit was its theme-o.

For those of you who want to read the vomit story, here it is....

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

Each chapter begins on its own page. In the same way, start each part on a new page. Whether you call them parts, acts, or something else ... is your choice.


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

Uncle Jim,

If you're writing in the third person, and sometimes omniscient, does the rule "Try to avoid as much as possible past tense" apply? Or is it okay to use the past tense as much as you like? I'm talking about using present rather than past.

"Try to avoid past tense" is a rule?

Darn!

Seriously, very few novels are written in present tense.

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

Past tense:

"I need a carton of milk," Jill said.

"And I need some smokes," Fred replied.

They went to the store.

Present tense:

"I need a carton of milk," Jill says.

"And I need some smokes," Fred replies.

They go to the store.

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

Under the heading, You Get What You Pay For: Sometimes you don't. Take pay-to-play vanity publishing, for example.

And yes, the vanity pubs like to bring up the fact that Mark Twain self-published. What they don't mention is that a) before he self-published, Twain was already the best known, best selling, most successful writer in America, and b) he went bankrupt doing it.

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

At what point does a writer stop thinking that they should work to improve?
You know that thing about "jumping the shark"? When you stop worrying about improving (or admitting that your writing can be improved), you're in mid-air over Carcharodon carcharias.


How (if they still worry about it) does an experienced writer go about continuing to try to improve?
I can't speak for other writers. For me, it's asking if this is the best story that I can tell, am I telling it in the best way, and are the words the best words? And, I ask myself if the readers are getting full value for their $7.99.

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

I wish you'd do a workshop for non-fantasy writers. (I think I mentioned that ;) )


All that some workshop organizer has to do is ask.

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

And that brings me to my point, UJ: how do you write an ending that make readers ponder long after they put down the story?

I wouldn't know.

What I aim for is having the readers say, "Wow, I never saw that coming!" without having them say, "You just pulled that out of your ass, didn't you?"

Such simple things keep me busy. If the readers are left pondering, I want them to ponder "Where can I get more?"

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

Beginnings are easy to analyze. Endings are far harder, because you'd have to analyze the entire rest of the book to do it well. Did the ending fulfill the promise made by the beginning? Did it tie up the plot threads? Was it both satisfying and appetizing?

Shall we pick a book, all of us read it, and have a semester-long discussion of the ending? For that is what it would take.

"Openings teach you openings. Endgames teach you chess."

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

Amazon Pulls Macmillan Books Over E-book Price Disagreement

That includes my books, including the recent re-issue of The Apocalypse Door.

I will be removing all links to Amazon.com from all webpages under my control. Barnes&Noble, Powell's, Borders, and Books-a-Million can have what business I bring.

Nor will I ever again buy a book from Amazon.com.

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

Is it just my brain procrastinating or is it possible that there's something wrong with the plot?

Consider seriously that it's your subconscious saying that the plot doesn't work.

(After that, consider that it's your saboteur-self trying to keep you from writing at all.)

Maybe trying a different form of outline?

How about just doing a fast ten-page present tense description of the story? If you have one of those, I can give you tricks for blowing it up into a full novel.

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

It's as if my brain refuses to tell me what goes on in the middle of the story.
Oh, in that case it's an easy fix.

Just wade in. Think of yourself as trying to make it through a swamp with a machete.

You know where you went in. And you can see, on the horizon, the mountain you're trying to get to. In the middle, there's this swamp. So, you wade through it, swinging your machete, with the mud sucking at your boots.

Yeah, you can get lost. And you will definitely be eaten by mosquitoes. But eventually you'll make your way through that swamp. Don't worry if you only have a vague idea of what's there before you enter.

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

Update on the Macmillan v. Amazon affair. This was a release from Macmillan's CEO this afternoon:
To: All Macmillan authors/illustrators and the literary agent community
Editors' note: This message ran as a paid advertisement in a special Saturday edition of Publishers Lunch

To: All Macmillan authors/illustrators and the literary agent community
From: John Sargent

This past Thursday I met with Amazon in Seattle. I gave them our proposal for new terms of sale for e books under the agency model which will become effective in early March. In addition, I told them they could stay with their old terms of sale, but that this would involve extensive and deep windowing of titles. By the time I arrived back in New York late yesterday afternoon they informed me that they were taking all our books off the Kindle site, and off Amazon. The books will continue to be available on Amazon.com through third parties.

I regret that we have reached this impasse. Amazon has been a valuable customer for a long time, and it is my great hope that they will continue to be in the very near future. They have been a great innovator in our industry, and I suspect they will continue to be for decades to come.

It is those decades that concern me now, as I am sure they concern you. In the ink-on-paper world we sell books to retailers far and wide on a business model that provides a level playing field, and allows all retailers the possibility of selling books profitably. Looking to the future and to a growing digital business, we need to establish the same sort of business model, one that encourages new devices and new stores. One that encourages healthy competition. One that is stable and rational. It also needs to insure that intellectual property can be widely available digitally at a price that is both fair to the consumer and allows those who create it and publish it to be fairly compensated.

Under the agency model, we will sell the digital editions of our books to consumers through our retailers. Our retailers will act as our agents and will take a 30% commission (the standard split today for many digital media businesses). The price will be set the price for each book individually. Our plan is to price the digital edition of most adult trade books in a price range from $14.99 to $5.99. At first release, concurrent with a hardcover, most titles will be priced between $14.99 and $12.99. E books will almost always appear day on date with the physical edition. Pricing will be dynamic over time.

The agency model would allow Amazon to make more money selling our books, not less. We would make less money in our dealings with Amazon under the new model. Our disagreement is not about short-term profitability but rather about the long-term viability and stability of the digital book market.

Amazon and Macmillan both want a healthy and vibrant future for books. We clearly do not agree on how to get there. Meanwhile, the action they chose to take last night clearly defines the importance they attribute to their view. We hold our view equally strongly. I hope you agree with us.

You are a vast and wonderful crew. It is impossible to reach you all in the very limited timeframe we are working under, so I have sent this message in unorthodox form. I hope it reaches you all, and quickly. Monday morning I will fully brief all of our editors, and they will be able to answer your questions. I hope to speak to many of you over the coming days.

Thanks for all the support you have shown in the last few hours; it is much appreciated.

All best,
John
Posted on January 30, 2010 at 5:28 PM
--------------------------------

Uncle Jim wrote, ...I can give you tricks for blowing it up into a full novel.

Oh! Mememe! I'd love to hear about these tricks. Please.


Okay, this is a really stupid trick (but, if something is stupid and it works, it isn't stupid).

Take that ten-page, single-space outline.

You figure that you're going for a 80,000 word novel.

80,000 words is 320 pages in standard manuscript format. You're looking for ten page chapters, so that's 32 chapters.

(Remember, standard manuscript format is Courier New, 12 point, one inch margins all around on 8.5x11 paper. Running head. Single sided. Black on white.)

Now, take that ten page single-space, present tense outline. There are fifty lines per page single spaced. Ten pages is 500 lines. It does not matter to me if you're using 8 point TNR or what the outline is written in.

Thirty-two goes into 500 15.6 times. Starting at the top of your outline, count down fifteen lines. Draw a line across the page with a red pencil between line fifteen and line sixteen. Now count down another sixteen lines. Draw a line across the page. Count down another fifteen lines. Draw a red line across the page. It doesn't matter if the red line divides a sentence in two.

If all goes well, by the bottom of page ten of your ten-pager you will have divided the piece into thirty-two sections.

Each section is the outline for one chapter.

Write each chapter, using only what's between the two red lines.

Each chapter shall be ten pages in standard manuscript format.

If you can't make length, drop back to the middle of the chapter and add paragraphs until you've pushed the last line to the bottom of page ten.

In those cases where you've divided a sentence in two, that's your cliffhanger.

Write a chapter a day. Ten pages, without fail. It's okay to throw any crap on the page that you want. You're going for length. But what happens in that chapter shall only be what was between those two red lines that define the chapter.

In a month you will have an entire novel.

Stick it in your desk drawer. Wait six weeks (during which you write something else) then pull it out, read it, edit it, re-write it, smooth it, and generally do all those things that you'd do with any novel.

"Holy moly!" I can hear you saying. "Does that work?"

"Yes, it does," I assure you. "I've done it. So have others. The Secrets of the Pros revealed."


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

It is not enough that I am merely no longer linking to them. I am actively sending people to their competitors.

Changing all the links is a slow process. But it is a necessary one.

I ask all my friends to do their shopping elsewhere and, should the need to link to a book or movie arise, please link to the title at Barnes&Noble or some other non-Amazon retailer.


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

Uncle Jim,

This article by the New York Times seems to say that Amazon accepted Macmillan's terms.

http://mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/01/31/amazon-relents-in-fight-over-e-book-pricing/

I know that you aren't the CEO of Macmillan, but should I refrain from incendiary posts on other bulletin boards?

Dave



As of this hour, neither the Kindle version of Year's Best Fantasy 9 nor the paperback version of The Apocalypse Door (my two latest from within Macmillan) are available from Amazon.

Screw Amazon. I'm continuing to edit my links to books and movies to point at Barnes&Noble.

There's no "get well" clause in this. Amazon will never get another dime from me, nor will I ever again link to them.

I urge everyone else to help teach Amazon a lesson.

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

When you're writing a combat-oriented or military science fiction piece, how much combat is too much?
When it overwhelms the story, it's too much.

When the reader gets bored, it's too much.

If the combat supports the theme, advances the plot, and reveals character, it's fine.

(Elsewise, you're asking me "How long is a piece of rope?")

Incidentally, if you personally aren't a combat veteran, please consider getting a beta reader who is.

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

Asking experts for help with your book (and giving them a nice acknowledgment) is great. And they're all eager to help. They want to talk about the thing they know the best....

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

What does it achieve? It raises the word-count by one, each time it's used

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

UJ, apologies if this has been asked before, but what is the life expectancy of a book once it hits bookstores?

Which book in which genre in which bookstore?

Six to ten weeks to see if it sells. One to two years on the shelves if it does. Five years on backlist. Forever if it keeps selling.

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

SFWA removes Amazon.com links from website

Due to Amazon.com’s removal of many of our authors’ books from its ordering system, we are removing Amazon.com links from our website. Our authors depend on people buying their books and since a significant percentage of them publish through Macmillan or its subsidiaries, we would prefer to send traffic to stores where the books can actually be purchased.

To that end, our volunteers are in the process of redirecting book links to indiebound.org, Powell’s, Barnes and Noble, and Borders.

Many authors are being hit hard by this, so we encourage you to seek out new places to find their books.

Edited to add: It is worth noting, that if a book is only available on Amazon, we are leaving the link in place. Our goal is to make sure that it is possible to order our members’ fiction. Hurting authors to make a point about a publishing model is bad business, for anyone.
-----------------------------

Gathered from elsewhere at AW:
With the exception of some work-for-hire projects, every word in my published books is my own (and my co-author's, of course).

What happens is the editor reads the book, and makes suggestions about changes. These come back to you in the infamous "revision letter."

You go through that, and decide what do to about the requests. Some of them, you slap your forehead and say "Why didn't I think of that?" Some of them it's "Well, why not?" Some of them you say "I see a better way." And some of them you say, "No way." You rewrite the novel with those in mind.

It's still your book. But it's better.

Let me give you an example. In The Apocalypse Door, the character "Simon" was added as a result of editorial suggestion. But I came up with him, and I added him. And it was the right thing to do.​
------------------------------

Booksellers from around the country delivered a standing ovation for a publisher battling against a major online retailer. During a opening remarks at the Fifth Annual America Booksellers Association's Winter Institute Program, a comment about Macmillan's stand against Amazon (AMZN) book prices elicited a standing ovation.
Standing Ovation for Macmillan at ABA Conference for Amazon Standoff

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

Anyone ever start out with a vice to accompany your writing and find that it is now a habit, part of your ritual without which writing is difficult?

That's why I recommend that folks not associate any harmful activities with writing -- smoking tobacco, drinking alcohol, eating sweets -- lest they find that they can't give up the vice without giving up writing.

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

I don't want to undermine your motivation, but you can download OpenOffice's word processor for free and use it forever, and it does everything WordPerfct does.

But isn't Open Office a Word clone?

Who'd want that?

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

I know that I don't have the experience or right to say this, but I am only saying what I observed. So, since J.K. Rowling is a British author, is it OK to use adverbs, and tell and not show there?
What J. K. Rowling has is story.

Story trumps everything.

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

I ran into something fun at Boskone: Drowned Hamlet.

Suppose that, when Hamlet was sent to England with Rosenkrantz and Guildenstern, rather than all the muggery with the letters and the pirates and all ... he drowned. He's dead. Out of the play.

Write a poem, play, or story (or paint a picture) from that alternate version....

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

Mac?

Wouldn't take one as a gift.

We were talking about WordPerfect.

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

WordPerfect uses function keys for some keyboard shortcuts, yes, but the important ones (new, open, cut, paste, save, and print) are all on shortcuts on the letter keys.

Any time I hear people describe what they have to do to start a document in Word, I'm horrified. Why not just start typing?

Then we come to the infinite incompatible versions of Word, and the Word macro viruses, and the weird formatting....

(This is, all, rather aside from the point. If you like X-Y-Write, or Peachtree, and it helps you get words on the page, then go with my blessing and use it the way you like.)

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

Our story, "Stealing God," which first appeared in this anthology, and was reprinted in this anthology and this anthology, also available in this chapbook, has now been translated into Korean in this anthology.

(Those who can't read Korean might try Babelfish. Machine translation. Gotta love it.)

Eventually this may turn into money.

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

I'm curious about that last sentence. I'm guessing the foreign sale may not translate to money right away?

The money will eventually come from the editor of the anthology that was translated (this is the entire New Magics anthology). When he gets the payment, which may be quite small, we'll get a pro-rata share of fifty percent of the sale. Thus, much delayed and quite small indeed.

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

Reprints are the gift that keeps on giving. More money for no additional work. What's not to like?

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

Way...way back... you put up a list of what steps to take to get published.

Was it by any chance this? http://www.absolutewrite.com/forums/showpost.php?p=82300&postcount=13

Found in another thread here at AW: Ten rules for writing fiction

Some really excellent stuff.

Oh, and I just posted details of a years' sales of the Crossman chapbook here:

http://absolutewrite.com/forums/showpost.php?p=4659745&postcount=728

Make of it what you will.

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

Uncle Jim,

Is there a way to write telephone conversation?
Do we write both sides of the conversation? Or stick with one and put in pauses?


Whose POV are you in?

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

I have the MC's POV who is the one making the phone call.


If you're in the POV of the person making the call, you'll hear both sides.

Next question: Does it work?

Is this the best way to get the information across?

Does it move the story along?

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

When in doubt, have a man with a gun come through the door.

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

Where do you get your ideas?

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

How about one of Robert B. Parker's Spencer PI novels? Not my genre, but I picked two and read them after Mac posted the notice of Parker's passing.

An excellent suggestion.

I'll be passing a B&N this coming Saturday; I think I'll pick up something by Parker. Then we can get started.

(And I still plan to write that massive post on why art is about limits.)

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

Acquiring editors, their origin and necessity:

"The weeder is supremely needed if the Garden of the Muses is to persist as a garden." --Ezra Pound

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

I've picked up an Elmore Leonard novel, $wag (formerly titled Ryan's Rules). Random selection off the shelf at B&N in Manchester, NH.

Two weeks from today, I'll discuss the last chapter.

THERE WILL BE SPOILERS.

Everyone, get a copy and get reading.

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

Yes, Amazon is selling Macmillan books.

(I neither know nor care if they're selling Macmillan ebooks for the Kindle.)

No, I am never again going to link to them or buy from them. Because what they did once (or, actually, three times--once with POD presses in general, and once with Hachette Livre before they tried the same stunt with Macmillan--not to mention the time they "accidentally" removed all GLBT books from their search results) they could do again.

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

Hi Uncle Jim,



I got this from another forum, and I was wondering if you know anything about this. Curious really.


First, it's totally off-topic for this thread.

Second, it sounds like one more example of the typical Internet-bullshit rumors that come around every six months.

So that's enough about that.

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

Jim:
Couldn't find that Elmore Leonard book in the library in the whole county.

According to http://www.borrowbooks.ie/ the Clare County Library has one copy under the title Swag.

The Cork County library catalog is down.

The Donegal library doesn't have a copy.

The Dublin City Council library has one copy under its original title of Ryan's Rules.

The Fingal Library has one copy under its current title, Swag.

The Galway library doesn't have a copy.

The Kildare County library has one copy under the title Swag.

And that's as far as I checked.

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

I wrote a 50,000 word "outline" that is now a fantastic 84,000 word detective thriller. It took close to 6 months, mind.

That's about the same ratio of outline-to-novel that I have.

It's time to send that book on its travels and start your next.

(And, while this is going on, read the best detective thrillers that are available to you, the classics and the most recent. And work on your craft. And yet still take long walks observing the world.)

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

I think this sort of switching tenses is frowned on by editors nowadays. Am I right?

Only if you do it badly.

(It's incredibly easy to do badly.)

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

Does the author have any say in the prices of their books?

None whatever.

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

I should say, generally none whatever. Big Steve King gets input into the cover prices of his books. Famously, on one occasion he insisted that the price of the hardcover be lowered by one dollar. The publisher wept, seeing a million dollars fly out the window, but did it anyway because they saw twenty-three million (minus booksellers' discounts) walking in the door at the same time.

If you routinely sell a million copies of your books, you get a bit more control. I'll tell you what it's like when I get there.

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

Today brought the galleys for Lincoln's Sword.

The cover letter reads:

Dear Debra and James,

Enclosed is your set of first pass pages for Lincoln's Sword.

Please make any necessary changes in the margins. Be sure that you use a bright-colored
pencil and that all changes are legible. Be assured that a professional proofreader
has been assigned to this project, so do not be alarmed if you find typographical
or design errors. Please note that we use the conventions of the Chicago Manual
of Style, 15th ed., and the Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, 11th ed.,
in matters of grammar, style, and spelling.

Your changes should be restricted to errors of fact, misspellings, and/or typographical
errors. Editing in proof is expensive and can result in charges billed to your
royalty account and cause scheduling delays.

Please return only those pages containing corrections to your editor by Thursday,
March 25, so that we can maintain our schedule and bound-book date.

Thank you.

AVON BOOKS

Managing Editorial Department​
This was mostly a form letter, as you can probably tell.

But it emphasizes what I told you way back when this thread started: You need a copy of Chicago Manual of Style, and Merriam-Webster's. Go get them, if you don't already have them.

A proposito: yesterday brought the cover flats with sales information on the back. I think I'll put them on my web page. I'll tell you when it's up.

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

Typographical errors include such things as letters upside down, lines not properly aligned, a different font substituted in for some portion of the book, a duplicated page, a page left blank, and similar things.

Meanwhile:

I've put the information that's on the back of the cover flats at the bottom of the Lincoln's Sword page.

The cover flats are what the sales people will be taking to bookstores and libraries. It's the cover on one side, and sales information on the other.

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

I have a separate page for each novel, and for each anthology that has one of our stories.

Please note that for a book with an August release, the sales force is going out now.

I expect that uncorrected proofs are going out to reviewers about now.

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

There's a point where you won't sell any more copies by lowering the price, so every nickel lower the price goes is just a nickel you'll never see with nothing to show for it. And there's a point where raising the price won't bring in any more money because the customers you lose will offset the extra that those who do purchase bring in.

Publishers have perfect knowledge of a) how many copies my last book sold, b) how many copies books like my book sold, and c) how many copies of books in general they're able to sell. They're in a position to tweak the prices up and down looking for that sweet spot where they're bringing in the most cash. Me, all I know is how many copies my book sold, and I know that months to years down the road.

This is ignoring the fixed costs of acquisition and production, printing and distribution, overhead like office rent and telephones, and the variable costs of promotion and marketing. (Though over in promotion and marketing, there's a point where spending more money won't bring in enough extra sales to justify the expense, too.)

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

We presume that the publisher is trying to maximize its income through book sales.

You can figure out what the sweet spot is, just by looking at a bunch of cover prices. Paperback originals, between $6.99 and $7.99. Trade paperbacks, $14.99-$16.99. Case-bound, $24.95-$29.95.

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

Jim,
Could you explain what these terms mean?
I assume Case-bound is what I would call "hard-back".
Yes, case-bound is the real name for "hard back." They are meant for bookstore (that is, "trade," as in "book trade") distribution and are whole-copy returnable.

What's a "paperback original"?
A paperback original is a book printed and distributed in soft cover that had not previously had a hard cover release. Often a paperback original is a mass market release (intended for non-bookstore outlets, and stripped rather than returned).

And what's a "trade paperback"?
A trade paperback is a soft cover book intended for bookstore distribution. It is whole-copy returnable. They are often, but not always, a larger trim size than mass market paperbacks, in order to fit on shelves designed for case-bound books, and because (at least in the early days) they were a way to dispose of extra book blocks that had originally been intended to be bound in hard covers, but instead were being released at a lower price with a cheaper cover.

What's the difference (apart from the price)?
Hard v. soft cover, publication history, and whole-copy returns v. stripping.

Of the lot, trade paperback has the smallest profit margin, since it has about 60% of the production costs of a hard cover, but can only be sold for about 50% of the price of a hard cover.

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

By non-bookstore outlets, you mean what? supermarkets?
Presumably these original paperbacks are also sold in bookstores?

Yes. I mean supermarkets, drug stores, the wire-rack spinner at the bus station, those kinds of places.

Yes, you can find many mass market paperbacks in bookstores (where they are stripped, not returned), but also in bookstores you can find rack-sized trade paperbacks (visually identical to mass market, same trim size and everything) which are whole-copy returnable.

You won't find the rack-sized trade pbs in bus stations, though, since the IDs (Independent Distributors) aren't set up to handle returns at all.

Remember that mass market paperbacks are piggybacking on the newspaper-and-magazine distribution system. No one wants last week's TV Guide or yesterday's newspaper. So, to prove that the issue didn't sell, the distributor takes the issue off the stand, rips off the flag or the cover, and returns that for credit, and drops off the current day's or week's offering.

Think of a mass-market paperback as a single-issue oddly-formatted magazine.

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

There exists at least one line of books (e.g. Five Star Publishing) that only exists to serve the library market with genre works. These books aren't generally distributed through bookstores.

They're hardcovers, and libraries sign up for a subscription: Five romances, two mysteries, and one SF novel per month, for example. A year later they're sold at library book sales to make room for more. Libraries, too, know about luring in repeat customers with constantly changing stock.

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

Elsewhere I've mentioned that you shouldn't associate bad habits with writing, else when you try to break that habit (like give up smoking, or stop drinking alcohol, or whatever you used to do any time you sat down at the keyboard), you'll give up writing too.

There are other destructive things that writers do to themselves. Like watch anyone's career but their own.

You can burn yourself up inside by tracking other authors' sales and advances. Particularly if that other author isn't as good as you are, but sells far better and gets tons more money. So? What can you do about that other than wear up your stomach lining? Nothing. It isn't under your control. Let it go.

Same thing for making plans to win certain awards. Because what'll happen if you don't? Disappointment? Despair? So some other clown got the Pulitzer. Or the Nation Book Award. Or the Howie. Or the Rita. Or got picked by Writers of the Future. Awards are nice when they happen, but they aren't under your control. Let it go.

Or, are you planning to be #1 on the NYT best-seller list? Do you pick up every issue of USA Today to see if your book is on their list? Not under your control. Let it go.

There are two, and only two, things under your control: How well you write, and where you submit your works. Both have the same answer: The Best. Write your best, always, and submit your best to the best markets.

The rest? Not under your control.

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

And remember Stephen King's First Rule of Writers and Agents, learned by bitter personal experience: You don't need one until you're making enough for someone to steal ... and if you're making that much, you'll be able to take your pick of good agents.
This is true.

It's also true that times have changed so that you have fewer markets for novels that don't require agents. (Or, at least, request agents. Even places that have agented-only policies still have back doors and side paths.)

Mostly, he's talking there about building a reputation with short stories. That's where he started, and it's still a good way to go. No one is going to say, "Hey, look at that short-story writer's Porsche!" but reputation is one of the payments of short stories.

(Oh, and that article is from 1986.)

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

Astoundingly, someone thought it would be a good idea to plagiarize Atlanta Nights over at Authonomy.

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

#1050
03-16-2010, 08:13 PM
Page 42
 

James D. Macdonald

Your Genial Uncle
Absolute Sage
VPX
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Feb 11, 2005
Messages
25,582
Reaction score
3,785
Location
New Hampshire
Website
madhousemanor.wordpress.com
Page 43
Post 1054
03-17-2010, 09:36 AM

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

That was a direct link. Apparently my "report abuse" report worked.

It was a book called "Savana knights" which was word-for-word identical with Atlanta Nights, in the three chapters that were given.

Meanwhile, the first part of Jim Hines' first-novel survey is out: http://www.jimchines.com/2010/03/novel-survey-results-part-i/

The questions he's addressing are: Do you need to publish short stories in order to sell your novel, and is self-publishing the road to a professional sale?

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

All that previously-published short stories tell us is the answer to this question: Can write at a professional level? (Yes/No)


It doesn't answer the question: Is this book any good?

Write short stories if you like, but don't think they're required.

The Future of Publishing, from Penguin UK. (Video)

The Publisher-Dating Dictionary.

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

Beginning tomorrow, we'll be discussing the last chapter of Swag by Elmore Leonard.

Other than that, I may be a bit scarce. I'm under a hard deadline. The Gates of Time to be laid on Claire Eddy's desk by noon, 16 April 2010.

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

SPOILERS FOR SWAG BY ELMORE LEONARD, COMING IN THE VERY NEXT POST!

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

What shall we say about the last chapter of Swag by Elmore Leonard?


First, let us say *SPOILER ALERT*

Next, let us say that I'm not going to retype the entire last chapter.




Now: *SPOILER ALERT*

















The novel has gone from chapters that are all one long scene in a single viewpoint, to chapters with two scenes, to switching viewpoints, until we arrive at the last chapter which is a collection of short scenes -- some as short as two paragraphs, a dozen lines.

The effect is of increasing pace and frenetic activity. So let's look at those scenes one at a time. Chapter 28.....

First scene is in the courtroom. Characters are Stick, the "fat black prosecutor," Cal Brown (a cop), and a judge.

This is the same cast of characters that we saw in Chapter One. The cop there didn't have a name, but there was a cop who liked to show his firearm, just like Cal does. Missing is Frank Ryan.

The outcome of this scene is the same as the outcome of Chapter One. Once again, Stick walks because the prosecution doesn't have a case. This time it's in less than two pages, though, as compared to the seven pages that the exact same plot arc, with the same characters, took in Chapter One. We've been on this merry-go-round before; no need to over-explain. The readers have the picture. Rather than a chapter break, we get a line break. The pace isn't slowing. And the Courtroom arc is now complete. We end Chapter One in a courtroom, we begin Chapter 28 in for-all-practical-purposes the same courtroom. We know, because we've been watching for well over 200 pages, what came after the first appearance. The author is implicitly promising us Something Different.

Second scene is a tad over one page (that is, shorter than the first scene). We're close in on Stick, who has been our main character throughout the book. Stick is talking to Arlene on the phone (Arlene who has mostly been physically separated from Stick throughout the book, by her travels, and later by her hiding). Stick is laying out the plan for her, for the getaway. We're reworking Chapter 2 here. Chapter 2 had Stick and Frank, with Frank explaining his plan to Stick. Now Frank is the one who doesn't know the plan, while Stick is the one who knows what's going to happen. We've learned that Stick is very good at making plans; we trust him. We've seen him come out of some bad situations through his ability to plan. Looks like he's going to make it, and Crime Will Pay.

(BTW, just so folks get the idea of the stakes, $87,000 in 1975 (when this book was written) would be worth well over $300,000 today. Which explains why Stick doesn't just say, "Well, that didn't work" and walk away.)

The second scene ends with Stick saying "I don't see how we can miss," which tells me he never read the Rules for Evil Overlords. This is the author telling the reader, "The plan won't work." That's foreshadowing. Now the reader will see how the plan doesn't work. We're anticipating it. (Ten pages to go!)

The third scene is with Arlene. She's ending her old life, and she's taking care of her end of the plan. She wishes she had some Ajax to clean the stain from the bathtub, which might symbolize her desire to become clean herself; the stain came from her participation in the robbery. How can she remove that stain? She's leaving her old life behind--her life symbolized by the life-size cardboard cutout of herself. She's leaving herself (and her old life) behind.

Fourth scene is very brief. Third person limited, Stick's POV, and closing off the Frank and Stick Apartment plot-arc. It's a little bit of housekeeping, and answering the readers' question, What About the Apartment? before it's asked.

Fifth scene: We're with Cal Brown, the cop, now. He first appeared about half-way through the book, and has been getting more and more scenes, action, and dialog as the novel's progressed. He's still reactive to Stick's action, but he's beginning to take action himself. Just over a page to this scene. A transition scene, taking Stick and Frank to the airport, where they're planning to go to Florida (tying off the I'm Going to Florida plot arc that's been overriding the entire rest of the novel. What does Stick want? To go to Florida to see his daughter.

Sixth scene: Frank and Stick argue about where to park the car, a car that they both know they're never going to come back to recover. This echoes the Frank-and-Stick- and-the-Car bit from Chapter One, and keeps us tight in on our protagonists.

Seventh scene: Tying up the Arlene plot arc. Arlene decides at the last minute that she's not going to Florida, she's going to California (and "going to California" has been thoroughly planted throughout the book, only it's always been Frank who had been in, and might return to, California). We're allowed to think that she's absconded with the cash. And hey, if she has, the cops really have nothing on Frank and Stick. Easy come, easy go, even if there were six dead men in between. That would return the board to the condition it had been in before the book started: And that's an unsatisfactory ending. This scene has a great closing line: Arlene walked over to the American counter.

And that's the half-way point in the chapter as far as page count. It's the little hinge.

Eighth scene: It takes Frank and Stick from the parking garage, through the ticket line, and up to the point where they're arrested. But the arrest won't stick, not with what the cops have, not with what they can prove, and, if Arlene had done what Stick told her. His plan is still running, but ... we the readers know that Arlene's gone off the plan. Now we don't know what'll happen. Five pages to wrap this up.... this scene is one of the longest in the chapter, at two full pages. And it ends with an even stronger last line: The state policeman said, "Pick up your bag, buddy, now."

Ninth scene is slightly longer, making it the longest in the chapter. We have Frank, Stick, and Cal, alone in a room with the suitcases that Cal is certain contains the swag, but we, Frank, and Stick know don't. Here's real climax of the book: two words. A note from Arlene: I'm sorry.

Scene ten, less that a page, as the author hustles everyone off stage and ties up the couple of loose ends: Cal arrests Frank and Stick; Frank and Stick walk out of the airport in handcuffs.

There are a couple of very strong lines in this scene, though. Frank saying, "Whose fault is it, mine?" And we the readers know that the answer is yes. Frank came up with the idea of becoming armed robbers. And Frank brought about their downfall by breaking every one of the rules he came up with in Chapter 2, and which we saw written as an explicit list on the very first page of Chapter 3 (thus tying off the entire Ryan's Rules plot in a neat bow).

And the last line of the book is dynamite: Stick said, "Frank, why don't you just shut the fuck up?"

(In 1975 this line would have been even stronger: Not too long before, the word "fuck" had been quite literally unprintable.)

Had Stick said that to Frank at their first meeting, Stick (petty thief by trade) wouldn't be staring at six counts of murder with special circumstances. Instead ... we have the moral, Crime Does Not Pay, and we're out of the book and done.


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

Discussion to follow. What did y'all think about the ending of Swag?

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

Okay, who else read Swag? Any thoughts on the ending?

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

Stick. We find out that he got seven-to-twenty for armed robbery, so the Detroit cops and that prosecutor screwed that up too.

The first chapter is here.

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

Frank and Stick have run opposite character development, one rising, one falling. They start at the same place (in the used car lot) with one a businessman and the other a thief, yet they end at the same place, literally handcuffed together.

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

Sent back the galleys for Lincoln's Sword today.

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

I'd say that any synopsis should reveal the ending. One of the things the agent/editor wants to know is "Does this clown know how to end a book or does everyone get run over by a truck?"

There's nothing wrong with doing a one page, a three page, and a ten page synopsis. (All single spaced, all present tense.) Then pull out whichever one is most appropriate when the agent/editor/whoever requests it.

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

A specific agent's guidelines trump any amount of general advice... for that agent.

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

David Mamet on creating scenes.

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

The take-away lesson is that all scenes need to be there for a reason, and the reason has to be in support of the reader's experience, not for the convenience of the author.

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

In a novel, would you rule out any scene where two characters discuss a third?


No. I wouldn't rule out any scene.

This is an art. There are no rules, nothing is cast in concrete. You'll find a confusing and contradictory web of suggestions, guidelines, and hints.

But you, the artist, have to make the final decisions.

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

Are they characters, or just referenced?

If you are just mentioning them in passing...no problem.

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

I really don't see an issue.

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

Uncle Jim, I have a question completely unrelated to writing. How do you think that the recent health care reform is going to affect you, if at all?

In addition, how do you think it will affect other midlist authors?

If they ever get around to a public option it will be tremendously freeing. Entirely too many authors (and not just mid-listers) have "Don't get sick" as their health plan.

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

Why we put running heads on our manuscripts....

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

Tor turns 30

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

"Unless one is a genius, it is best to aim at being intelligible."
--Anthony Hope

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

How complex is too complex?
Does it confuse the reader?

Be aware that the line between archetype and cliche can sometimes be vanishingly thin....

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

What do I think? Without reading the work in question, there's nothing I could possibly think. Is it done well? Does it work?

Do it. When it's done, then you'll know the answer.


I'm going to quote Watt-Evans' Law of Literary Creation: There is no idea so stupid or hackneyed that a sufficiently-talented writer can't get a good story out of it.

And with that, Feist's Corollary: There is no idea so brilliant or original that a sufficiently-untalented writer can't screw it up.

===========

For reasons that I won't go into here, I recently found myself re-reading Raymond Chandler's The Simple Art of Murder. One thing struck me about the essay: He complains that hacks are taking over popular fiction and getting more shelf space and attention than serious writers. The essay was written in 1950.

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

We've seen the same complaints right here in the Novels board, from folks ranging from aspiring writers on up. It doesn't seem to matter where in the publishing food chain someone's located.

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

Where can I find out more about these myths and, maybe, a complete list?

Two places. I think we've mentioned both over the years:

The Hero with a Thousand Faces by Joseph Campbell, and the Stith Thompson folklore motif index.

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

Look deep within yourself, Euclid. What satisfies you emotionally?

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

Turned in The Gates of Time. Woo hoo! Go me!

Next book, starting Monday, is City of Dreadful Night, an Orville Nesbit adventure.

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

I'm promoting Orville from a couple of short stories ("Ecdysis" and "A Tremble in the Air"). He's a psychic investigator.

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

There's also Curious Myths of the Middle Ages by Sabine Baring-Gould, which has a lot of good stuff. Let's not forget The Golden Legend. And Grimm's Teutonic Mythology.

Meanwhile, an actual photo of me turning in the book: http://mist-and-snow.livejournal.com/35367.html#cutid1

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

Speaking of archetypes and cliches, as we just were, here is the Fantasy Novelist's Final Exam.

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

I like to start with The Moment Everything Changes (though that could come anywhere in the first chapter, not necessarily in the first line of the first paragraph).

Just to show what a maverick I am, the latest book I turned in a) is in first person, b) started with the protagonist waking up in bed, and c) moved from there to a weather report.

Why?

Just because I could.

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

Hconn: That is a good thing. Do it! Break every rule! Make it work, and make me love it.

There's nothing that stokes creativity more than constraints.

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

You can have startling results by putting your story on a technological watershed. For example, a Western in which one character has a horseless carriage, or another character has a broomstick Mauser.

Right now, living in this world, there are people living at every level of tech, from 21st century to stone-age.

Before you start building worlds, first know your own.

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

There's guns, and then there's guns. There's 15th century tech guns, and there's 20th century tech guns.

I'd kinda have a problem with an 18th c. wind-powered ship mounting a 25mm chain gun, if the rest of the society was 18th c. On the other hand, there are wind-powered pirate ships today, with pirates who carry shoulder-launched missiles.

Incidentally, we don't mostly use baling wire any more. These days it's baling twine. But somewhere in the world some folks are using baling wire, and somewhere else in the world some folks are using scythes and pitchforks to build haystacks.

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

Go, you!

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

I was too much in denial it was the next fad after harry potter, not to mention my hate fro the classic over used orc and elves.

The Lord of the Rings had its day as a fad before J. K. Rowling was born.

And who do you think invented the orcs (and popularized the elves) that everyone else ran into the ground?

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

Is it ok to briefly describe characters in passive if it feels better than just showing it in shallow chit chat type dialogue?

It's okay when it works.

And don't have a reflexive horror of passive voice. It's useful.

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

http://www.tor.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=blog&id=59268
Tor.com welcomes original short SF and fantasy, broadly defined. We’re particularly interested in stories under 12,000 words, although we’ve made exceptions in the past and will do so again. We pay 25 cents a word for the first 5,000 words, 15 cents a word for the next 5,000, and 10 cents a word after that. Although we try to employ common sense in dealing with edge cases, “original” means original—not previously published. Contrary to some previous reports, we do not want you to query first; to submit to Tor.com, just send us your story. Stories should use standard manuscript format and be emailed as Word, RTF, or plain-text attachments. Stories sent inline in the body of an email will be ignored. Questions? Send them to [email protected]
-------------------------------

The man ran for cover. As he approached the fence the author put out a hand to stop his flight.

"Where do you think you're going?" the author asked.

"Up and over that fence, if it's all the same to you," the man replied, panting.

"You're planning to confuse your motion, horizontal and vertical, in a single sentence?"

"I'm planning to avoid getting shot," the man replied. He waved his hand vaguely in the direction whence he had come. "The whole bloody Tenth Guards Army is back there and they aren't in a laughing mood."

"You're safe as long as you're with me," the author said. "This is first draft--I can do anything."

"Anything?"

"Yes."

"Then get me over the fence, pronto."

Without seeming to move, with no consciousness of the passage of time, the man found himself on the other side of the fence.

"Wait a bloody minute!" he said. "How did you punctuate that?"

"Either with a comma, or without one, depending on the sentence rhythm," the author said. "You were running--no comma I think. Just sprinting in a headlong pell-mell dash."

"Do you mean to say that the rules of grammar--"

"Are just guidelines. Yes."

"But which is correct?"

"The one that sounds right. Here, have comfit."

"What's a comfit?"

"Dried fruit, nuts, or spices enclosed in sugar candy. Like Jordan almonds. Why? Don't you know the word?"

"No, I didn't."

"I'll fix it in the second draft," the author said. "Maybe I'll offer you a nice slice of fruitcake."

"But what about the punctuation question?" the man insisted.

"I don't like the version with the semicolon," the author said. "Of the others either could be correct depending on the sentences around them."

"I just used a 'said' word that isn't 'said' and you didn't notice."

"So you did," the author replied. "I noticed but didn't care. You want rules? Aren't any."

A bullet zinged by the man's head; the author had vanished.

"At least I got over the bloody fence."

The man ran for the safety of the trees.

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

Author putting off writing. (And you thought we made this up.)

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

It was, in fact, one jump away from an article about book covers. (The article had a link to a Youtube video; the cat vacuuming was a 'related' video which ... well.)

I have a good memory. When I find things, I know where to file them.

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

I still owe y'all a big post on how art requires limits.

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

Your beta readers will tell you if you're doing it wrong.

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

Stuart was out running around collecting supply wagons, rather than doing scouting and security.

Way back in LWWUJ Part 1, I recommended this book, and quoted a bit from it to illustrate a couple of techniques.

I allude to Gettysburg in Land of Mist and Snow. I'd originally planned to have a Gettysburg scene in Lincoln's Sword (going so far as to research the phase of the moon--the moon was full that night), but it didn't fit in the final work.

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

The only good reason not to use the last scene from the previous book as a prologue is that many (most?) of your readers will skip it.

Why not write the sequel as if it were the only novel you'll ever write? Put in the backstory exactly as you put in the backstory in the first book. It's a sequel, not a two-part novel, right?

Readers need remarkably little backstory. Just tell this story, make it good, and they'll love you for it.

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

Hey James, is it ok that my 1st Novel ends in a MAJOR cliffhanger, I remember way back in volume one how the book must end in a satisfying way?


Yes, your book must end in a satisfying way.

Major cliffhangers ... I wouldn't. Intriguing directions for further developments, yes. Fine. But the end of the novel should (in my opinion) be like getting to camp after a long hike. Sure, there are other trails into the bush, but, for now, it's done.

Jim,

I hope this hasn't been answered before, if so, I apologize. My question is how do you stay organized when you are writing? Do you personally outline? Keep note cards?


I write very extensive outlines (about 3/4 the length of the finished novel). I also use file cards (character notes; eye color, etc., as they develop during the writing of the book). File cards keep scenes in order (and can be shuffled to re-arrange the scenes if necessary).

And generally I flow-chart too.

And, I realize that first drafts are still fluid documents. If something changes wildly, go with the new direction to see where it goes.

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

This is something that I have trouble with: once a draft is on paper/on the screen, I have a much harder time making big changes.

You make the big changes when it's still an outline.

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

And in real outline format, not a synopsis?

Depends on what you mean by "real outline format" doesn't it? Mine is like telling a friend about a really neat movie I saw last night, with bits of dialog and scenes sketched in. And occasional silly things (like, for no apparent reason, Harry Houdini escaping from a milk jar filled with maple syrup, and the entire saga of Lady Fitzearl, a character from the Circle of Magic series who appeared in a lot of scenes, but never even made it into the finished draft).

Damn, guy! That's like writing two books!
Why not? What did I have to do today that was more important?

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

Publishing Information Sites for Beginning Authors

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

Not a real outline...

Oh, the "Outline" as we were taught in high school?

I'm sure that someone, somewhere, uses that roman numeral, capital and small letters, Arabic numbers, yet more roman numerals monstrosity, but I sure don't and I don't think I know anyone who does.

(Actually, I once ran into a writer who used Powerpoint to create an outline, but what they hey, right? Anything to get you through the night.)

For the "real outline," if you used that, I expect that you'd chuck it out before you got to the end of actually writing Chapter One. Things move in writing that only the telling of them will make clear.

But if it works for you, by golly, do it.

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

Until now I decided to actually write (I despise my lacking motivation)

I am having trouble making an opening scene (When you show the scenery and then proceed to the dialogue), whatever I write looks weird, could it possibly my newbie writing phase where I think everything I write is garbage? or could I be in error?

O, my very dear friend. You are worrying too much. Write your scene any way you care to, and move on. As to whether or not what you've put on the page today will be the first scene ... is a question best left 'til the second draft. The opening scene may be something that occurs in chapter three, and this scene you're worrying about so much deleted and relegated to your desk drawer. Or you may find that you need to write other chapters that come before, and this scene that you think is the opening is instead an incident in chapter three.

Right now, write. Carry forward. Three hundred odd pages from now, you'll be a better writer and the questions that vex you so much right now will have obvious solutions.


In the hills at the outskirts of the village, a girl arrives at a poorly built shack.
Also, quick question about that, is the comma not supposed to be there? (I have to get this doubt out of my head where I think there should be a comma, but there is actually no reason for there to be one.
The comma may or may not be there. Later, when you read your entire book aloud, the answer will come to you.

Do not worry about commas now. Yes, try to be as correct as you can. But the stage for putting in a comma in the morning and taking it out in the afternoon comes much, much later.

What you have there is a classic opening, much like pawn to king four: A person in a place with a problem. Carry on.

The only thing that might trouble your sleep is that you're telling your story in present tense. That's okay (even common) for outlines, but not so much for novels. It can be done, and done well. But it is difficult.

Uncle Jim,

Did you ever have thoughts of throwing in the towel and just resigning yourself to a simple day to day job?

Long ago I decided that I would never again work for someone.

Still, health insurance would be nice....



I think I finally got up enough nerve to seek publication for a short I wrote. It still needs work no doubt about that, but I'm going to do it.


Do the work, then send it out 'til Hell won't have it.

Meanwhile, write another story.

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

But still, living off doing what you like most has to compensate for the health insurance...


Yeah, right up to the moment you get sick or injured.

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

Have you ever read your own work--before publication--and said, "That's good."


"Damn, that's good!" is where I end up.

But it usually takes some aging in the desk drawer to get there.

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

Okay. So I think the book is about ready. Betas have all loved it, and I'm really happy with it. I want to read through it once more for a final check on everything. Should I age it, or just go for it now?

Okay, read it through once more, then out the door.

After that, the only time you'll rewrite is if an editor says, "I'll buy this if...."

Good that you're working on another book. Less good that it's a sequel. If the first book never sells there won't be a sequel. So write it so it can be a stand-alone.

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

Page 50
Post 1226
06-23-2010, 08:52 PM

Is my concern unfounded?


The typical book -- isn't typical. So there aren't really any right choices here. My best advice is to write the book you're passionate about.

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

Lincoln's Sword should be hitting bookstore shelves one month from today.

It's more useful to me if y'all go and buy it off the shelf. It'll encourage bookstores to ... shelve more of 'em.

Let's say, hypothetically, one agent signs me and then wants the second book. I made sure the first one will leave an open door, so to speak. The problem is, I only have the first chapters of the second book but I really want to continue the book from another series. Should I focus on the sequel or on the other book? Which would be best for long term?


That is a question that you should be bringing up with your agent, not with me. Hypothetically, when he/she signs you.

That's because the agent will have your actual manuscript on the table, and will have an idea of where this manuscript can be sold, and whether that house would want another (continuing a potential series.)

While waiting for the potential agent to call, however, I would write an entirely different book. Because what will you do if no agent agrees to represent this book?

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

Look forward to it, and it better be good

Oh, it is good. Trust me. You'll need to buy ten or twenty copies because it's just that good.

Meanwhile, found elsewhere: [FONT=courier new,courier,fixedsys]http://copperbadge.dreamwidth.org/268487.html

[/FONT]
In 1889, a literary agent named J.M. Stoddart, representing the American publication Lippincott's Magazine, sat down to dinner with two young writers in London and asked each of them to submit a novel for publication in Lippincott's.

The results were:

The Sign of the Four, by Arthur Conan Doyle
The Picture of Dorian Gray, by Oscar Wilde
--------------------------

Uncle Jim, Let's say you placed a 50-page partial, waited the requisite amount of time, asked about the status after that, and was told that the editor was reading it that week. It's now been 2-3 weeks later and still no word Yea or Nay or asking for a full.

What is one to do?

Should I resolve to pass the ms on to the next publisher on the list and simply accept that this one rejected it without comment?

It's summer in New York. Nothing will happen until after Labor Day.

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

Incidentally, we're at Readercon (Burlington MA) this weekend.

We have a signing today at 15:00 (3:00 pm) today, and a reading tomorrow at 1430 (2:30 pm).

We'll be reading a chapter from Lincoln's Sword and a chapter from Arkham Ambulance (our work in progress).

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

That makes me think of a novel involving Sherlock Holmes and Dorian Gray.

Sherlock Holmes in The Case of the Pernicious Portrait.

While John Watson, MD, marries, Sherlock searches for a new roommate. He finds one in Dorian Gray, a handsome young man. They fight crime with style.

When the Martians invade it's up to Sherlock and Dorian to save the Queen.

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

We've put a new cover on The Confessions of Peter Crossman over at Lulu.com.

Alas, the on-line version of the cover doesn't look as good as the thing does in its physical-objectitude.

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

Watson: Holmes, let me ask you a question. I hope I'm not being presumptuous, but... there 'have' been women in your life, haven't there?
Holmes: The answer is yes...
Watson: [Watson breathes a sigh of relief]
Holmes: ... You're being presumptuous. Good night.

-- The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes

Meanwhile, for your enjoyment, and for those times when you can't think of the perfect compliment....

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

Here's a nice typing game. Improve your touch-typing accuracy!

http://dan-ball.jp/en/javagame/typing/

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

When is the ideal time to give a WIP such a rest?

Never before you finish it.

Your "rough draft" may in fact be a "strong outline."

Give it a rest after you've finished making the tweaks you noticed in progress.

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

A day in the life of a bookseller....

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

It's a big percentage, I have no doubt.

If a book sells a million copies, it's time to break out the champagne. If a TV show has a million viewers it's canceled by the end of the week because of low ratings.

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

I've put another of our short stories on line:

Uncle Joshua and the Grooglemen

This story (originally in Bruce Coville's Book of Monsters, 1993, reprinted in New Skies, 2003) eventually turned into the novel Groogleman. An audio version also exists.

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

Why didn't they go back home? Seems a bit thoughtless; wouldn't the other Henchards have been worried?

They didn't go back home because the Grooglepersons knew where they came from and would look for them there.

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

Those "stats" are from Dan Poynter, a self-publishing enthusiast. You should take them with ... well, those that aren't deliberately misleading are accidentally misleading.

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

Seriously:
[FONT=Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif]70 percent of books published do not earn back their advance.
[/FONT]​
[FONT=Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif]70 percent of the books published do not make a profit.[/FONT]
Yeah, it's probably true that 70 percent don't earn out. That's actually a failure rate of 30%: If the publishers had their way 0% would earn out. They set the advance to equal the book's predicted lifetime royalties. They don't want to have to cut checks.

The next 70%, "do not make a profit" is just a misunderstanding of that last 70%. Books make a profit long before they earn out.

Also:
[FONT=Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif]A successful fiction book sells 5,000 copies. [/FONT]
Yeah? Well, I'm just a shaggy-ass midlist writer, but every darned one of my 30+ novels, by that standard, has been wildly unbelievably successful. So have the books of my writer friends. I don't know anyone whose sales are that low. Do I, just by chance, only know people who are out on the far edge of the bell curve, or is this statistic not really what it seems to be?

(The source of that is given as the Author's Guild, and I recall their report on the midlist, but it's no longer on their web page, so I don't know exactly what this referred to. Since this was filtered through Dan Poynter, I have my doubts. His deal is trying to prove that you can't succeed with commercial publishing so you might as well self-publish.)

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

Herman Melville had notoriously bad handwriting.

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

So this guy goes to the doctor, and the doctor says, "You're going to have to stop masturbating."

And the guy says, "Why?"

And the doctor says, "I'm trying to examine you."

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

Of the two I'd go with the first.

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

Most of those answers are kept deep in corporate vaults.

I can tell you that while the industry is driven by best-sellers it's supported day-to-day by okay-sellers.

My guess is that there's a fairly smooth curve. Until the bottom. Then the sales numbers drop off a cliff.

And I can tell you what the mid-list is. It's the part of the catalog between the front list and the back list.

Front list is the front of the catalog. The back list is the back of the catalog. The mid-list is everything in between.

(One reason the mid-list is vanishing is that the publishers have broken their lists into more and more imprints, so there are more front lists. Same number of books, just more lists.)

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

Quick brown fox jumps over lazy yellow dog. Film at Eleven.

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

Uncle Jim, friends,

I'm getting my ducks in a row now. Last night I finished my last read through my manuscript and it's time to try and get an agent for it. I'll be searching back through this and the previous thread for what I need to do, but any current advice is always welcome.

You might consider sending your query letter through Query Letter Hell here. Other than that, remember, it's a business letter. Spelling counts. Particularly when you're spelling the name of the agent.

Best of luck.

And start your next book right now, if you haven't already done so.

______________

Meanwhile, I am vastly pleased to report that Atlanta Nights has its own page at TV Tropes.

At one time I was sad because so few of our books are mentioned at TV Tropes. "Sigh!" I sighed. "No one's read them! No one's loved them!"

But then it occurred to me that the reason so few are mentioned is because we've stayed away from cliches. So, go me!

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

Lincoln's Sword made the front page of today's Union Leader TV, Arts & Entertainment section, with a full-color cover. Continued on page 19, with an author photo. Annoyingly, they say that we've written 13 novels (real number is 24 under our own names, 36 if you count pseudonyms).

Alas, that isn't in the on-line edition. But! The interview and author photo is opposite the TV listings so it's likely to be seen.

Where did this come from? From my publisher, of course. It was all arranged through HarperCollins' publicity department.

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

The industry is changing! Hah!

Presented for your entertainment is advice for writers from 1907. See how much looks like it could have been ripped from the top ten threads in this very board....

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

Well, except for the part about paying advanced royalties being "unsound" and mostly being driven by publishers who produced "ephemeral literature". The author suggests that the serious author should stay away from such publishers.:)

And perhaps serious authors still should.

He's worried that the publishers will bankrupt themselves by making a series of bad bets, and then (as now) having your publisher go bankrupt is bad for your career. Myself, as a proud producer of ephemeral literature, I'm all for advances.

I note that Herman Melville accepted an advance for Moby-Dick. Of course, his publishers expected another blood-and-thunder nautical adventure, full of cannibals and bare-breasted native beauties (such as had already made Melville a best-seller), not ... Moby-Dick.

Sometimes, when what you want is ephemeral literature, what you get is a classic.


Do you think that would have the power to pull the reader out of the story in that instance?

Any thoughts?


Maybe?

Does running the three sentences in French advance the plot, reveal character, and support the theme? If so, do it.

If not, ask yourself why you're doing it.

I've read that electronically submitted manuscripts (such as an email attached RTF) should not include headers. If the recipient does not specify, is it safe to assume this is acceptable?

If they don't specify, don't include the headers. Do make sure your name and contact information is the very first thing in the file.

They'll be reformatting the text for whatever kind of reader they use.

The reason for using RTF is because it's most easily transferable to the greatest number of word-processing programs and text-reading devices.

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

Remember the mantra: Never Confuse the Reader. It goes hand in hand with Never Bore the Reader.

If you can follow those two guidelines, a future in commercial fiction can be yours.

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

Do you want to know the Next Hot Thing?

Steampunk novels.

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

The movies Mad Max and Waterworld -- are they steampunk?


How about the YA book(s) Mortal Engines by Philip Reeve?

No. Post-apocalyptic.

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

The really good books will always find publishers. (If you wrote a dynamite Nurse Novel today, it would get bought.)

The really bad books will never find publishers. (Unless the author pays and gets a garage full of unsold and unsaleable tomes.)

The bloody hand-to-hand fighting is in the trenches of the nearly-good books. While a genre is the Next Hot Thing, the cutoff line between salable/not-salable is lower in the ranks of the mediocre.

While horror was the Next Hot Thing, a fair number of novelists made a living selling horror books. When the horror boom ended they found that they could no longer sell, even though their new manuscripts were every bit as good as their previous works.

That's what it means for a genre to be the Next Hot Thing.

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

Imagine the spectrum.

Imagine that blue is Really Good And Will Be Snapped Up. Imagine Red is Really Bad and Won't Ever Sell.

There's going to be a line somewhere on that spectrum. Books to the blue side will sell. Those to the red side won't. The exact location of that line keeps moving. You want to be on the blue side of that line.

Right now the line is shifting redward on Steampunk.

(By the way, there isn't a smooth curve on book sales. At a certain point, and that point is closer to the blue side than you'd believe, sales don't dwindle -- they drop off a cliff. You totally don't want to step across that line.)

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

There are actually more publishing slots in a given year than there are good books written in that same year.

The existence of mediocre books on the shelves of your local bookstore is proof of this.

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

Being better than Hemingway and Fitzgerald put together sure wouldn't hurt.

Remember Watt-Evans' Law of Literary Creation: There is no idea so stupid or hackneyed that a sufficiently-talented writer can't get a good story out of it.

And time spent writing is never wasted (unless you don't learn anything from it).

As to Steampunk: If you started today, you could probably write a steampunk novel before the genre hits the algae-bloom stage. It's early days.

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

Previously posted in another thread:

Let's talk briefly about how the Independent Distributors work. The IDs are the system that puts magazines and newspapers -- and paperback books -- into supermarkets and other non-bookstore outlets.

Paperback mass-market books are piggy-backed on the ID system. The IDs are the ones who make sure that today's newspaper, this week's TV Guide, and this month's Reader's Digest are on the shelves at the supermarket. The store chooses the selection they want; after that, they're out of the loop aside from running the items past the cash register. The ID handles everything else: Bringing the new items, taking away the old ones, stocking them, putting them on the shelves. It's all the guy who drives the truck.

The truck driver knows how many newspapers he delivered, he knows how many he picked up the next day when delivering that day's consignment. The store pays him for the difference (minus their percentage). The old newspapers, the ID tears off the flag (that's the name for the top front area of a newspaper with its name and the date), and sends it back to the publisher for credit on the next shipment. The rest of the newspaper goes in the Dumpster: there's no market for yesterday's newspaper.

The same thing happens with magazines. The ID comes by, picks up last week's TV Guide, and charges the store for the difference between the number delivered and the number picked up. The old ones -- the covers are torn off and returned to the publisher for credit on the next order, the rest goes in the Dumpster.

And the same thing with paperbacks. The store's manager doesn't choose what titles are put out; and may not even own the wire rack the paperbacks are displayed on. He or she is just renting space to the ID. Think of mass market paperbacks as single-issue magazines with about a one-month shelf life. The ID comes around in his truck, restocks the paperbacks, removes the ones that haven't sold, tears off the covers and sends them back to the publisher for credit on the next order, and throws the rest in the Dumpster.

That explains why so many mass market paperbacks have lurid covers of chicks in chainmail bikinis and wenches with their shirts half-off, locked in romantic embraces with Fabio: The covers aren't just meant to appeal to the readers, they're meant to appeal to the truck drivers who pick up the books from the warehouse, then put them on the racks.

Notice too that there is absolutely no mechanism for books to be returned to the publisher to be sent elsewhere: Yesterday's newspapers have no re-sale value, last week's magazines have no re-sale value. Paperbacks are just piggy backing. And they have no re-sale value. (It is literally cheaper for the publisher to print a new copy than to have a copy returned, inspected, and restocked in the warehouse.)

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

My pleasure.

I still need to write my Grand Theory of Art.

And there's a Christmas Challenge still to come....

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

Publishers make bets on which books the public will buy. They're like professional poker players. They know that sometimes you can win a hand on a pair of deuces, sometimes you can't win with a full house. But their job isn't to win every hand. Their job is to make the right bets. And they're good at it.

And they know that Story trumps everything.

The latest volume in a long-running series will have a predictable number of readers, even if the book isn't very good.

A first novel by an unknown will also have a predictable -- and smaller -- number of readers, even if it's very good.

Figure which way they're going to bet on that, if they don't have the resources to publish both.

But ... the very good novel will eventually be picked up by a house that does have the resources, and that author will go on to write many books. The last few of which may not be as good ....

Give them a strong hand. They're more likely to go all-in on a straight than on a busted flush.

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

If you want to make a few notes in the margins of your outline, that's great. But I'd suggest you keep going. The outline is just that: An outline. It isn't an etched in stainless steel blueprint that you must follow or die. You still know where you're going. You're just taking the scenic route.

Baddies who aren't all bad, and goodies who aren't all good, are wonderful things. And if one of them gets away ... I had one of those once. Ignac' LeSoit in The Price of the Stars. Scheduled to die in Book 1. But -- he refused. He did the equivalent standing there saying, "I'm not crazy, I'm not stupid, and I'm not going."

He hung out, and got to be Very Important Indeed later on. The third volume, By Honor Betray'd, wouldn't be what it is without him. He turned into a major character. I finally made him die at the end of that book, by dint of authorial will (because he was supposed to die--the outline said so!)

Don't worry; he'll be back in the (contracted for) sequel.

The plot twist sound great. And learning how long an idea will be when set in type is one of those things that comes with practice. Minor characters who clear their throats and say, "Ah, author? There's a bit more to me," are the gold that rinse from the gravel of your subconscious. When they appear, use them! Tell their stories. No one but you sees your first draft so you can have some fun.

When it comes time for beta readers (a couple of drafts from now), you'll get an idea of whether your red herrings work. Plausible and logical should be your watchwords.

Keep things moving! You're the dancing bear. When the bear stops dancing, the audience moves along.

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

He says that for commercial fiction (as opposed to literary) all loose threads should be resolved and nothing left unknown or ambiguous.

If he truly said that, then he is wrong.

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

As long-time AW members will recall, in my opinion the only difference between a literary novel and a genre novel is the publisher's name on the spine. I'm also fond of endings that, while they are a satisfying climax to the main problem, allow room for expansion and suggest that the world is still out there. Paths that lead off in interesting directions beyond the small area that we've looked at.

If the protagonist rolls into town in a dirty car, that implies she's coming from somewhere else. And I see no reason to ensure that I wash that car in the last chapter.

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

I'm pretty sure it wasn't me.

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

Agents and editors are not obstacles to be overcome. They are allies to help you on your way.

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

First, something fun: The Bronte Sisters Action Figures

Second, a contract that you'd have to be nuts in the head (i.e. a New Writer) to sign:
http://nymag.com/daily/intel/2010/11/read_the_brutal_contract_from.html

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

A first draft is considerably more than nothing.

Some folks write publishable first drafts.

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

Best of luck to you, Ink-Pen-Paper.

"Interesting" is what the readers want.

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

A writer was referring to his writing style as "A beginning, three disasters, and a save".


That's the same as "Get the Hero up a tree, throw rocks at him, get him out of the tree." It's a workable skeleton.

Do you have any suggestions that I should read to understand more about the tempo of the plot?
Read lots and lots of novels. Award winners, best sellers, and everything else. Let it seep in that way. No how-to-write book will teach you more.

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

Just over seven years have passed since you started this thread, which is very good for anything online. Have there been any major changes in the publishing side of the business that you think are worthwhile knowing?

Heck, one way of looking at it there haven't been any major changes since 1920. At least not in the ways that affect writers.

There haven't been any changes since Lascaux. We're still telling stories.

People are still trading their beer money to hear them.

Folks with the ability to tell stories that are worth the same or more than a glass of beer are still rare and still in demand.

++++++++++++++++++++

The major publishers are jumping into e-publishing now. There've been major changes in their standard contracts in the last year, as they try to sew up more rights. What I expect is going to happen in the future is that most ebooks will be sold by the same dozen publishers, just like right now most paper books are sold by the same dozen publishers. They're still going to be trying to put the writers into golden handcuffs, but at least we get gold. Lower-rent places, they're just handcuffs.

On the use of language: We're still using the most appropriate language to tell our stories to our audiences. Urban fiction is a genre now. So is urban fantasy. Horror hasn't made a comeback (though it will). Steampunk is on the way up. Chicklit is on the way down and may be out already.

As to our role: Flash to the movie Gladiator. Recall the scene where the title character is standing amid the carnage in a provincial arena, shouting to the stands, "Are you not being entertained?!"

That's us, alone, on the bloody sand. And the mob is still the mob.

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

It's time for the annual Christmas Challenge!

Each year the denizens of this thread write a story for Christmas.

Here's what we'll do this year:

Go down to a video-rental shop and get a movie in your favorite genre that you've never seen. Watch it.

Now, write a short story based on that movie. But:

It has to be mirror universe. If the protagonist in the movie is a heroic cop and the antagonist is a clever bank robber, the protagonist in your story must be a stupid bank robber and the antagonist a cowardly cop.

Your story must reach a different, opposite, climax.

Your setting must be a different, opposite, place or time.

Twenty to thirty pages in standard manuscript format. Due on Christmas Eve.

Ready, set, go!

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

If Hollywood wants to ruin one of my books, they can. Any time.

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

Then there's the guy who fired a shotgun out the window, coincidentally as a would-be suicide who jumped off the roof was going past, who was charged with murder because the guy who jumped was killed by the blast....

Yes, you *can* make this stuff up. Which doesn't stop it from happening.

The story is still yours. And by the time you're done, it will be wholly yours.

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

Having stunned everyone into silence... I've posted a one-piece summary of much of my standard advice here: How to Get Published.

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

Like I said, stupid question. But, being a Southern girl steeped in the "death before bad manners" lifestyle, it's one I'd like to know. If an editor gives you a nice rejection like that, or takes the trouble to ask for the entire manuscript -- whether or not they eventually accept -- is it wrong/stupid/a waste of money and time to say thank you for their efforts?

The best way to thank her would be to send her your next, even better, story. If you wanted to put in a P.S. (I took your advice on sending [Title] to [Market] and they bought it! Thanks a heap!) that would be okay.

Or, later, when you sell your novel, in the acknowledgments or dedication, you could put "[Jane Editor], who provided inspiration when I needed it most."

Or, really, you could send a nice note card: "You probably don't remember me, but you suggested I send [Title] to [Market], and you were right: They bought it."

Of the three, though, I'd try the first: in a cover letter for an even-more-compelling short story. Hey, it mentions a publishing credit! That's part of a standard cover letter.

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

Editors are people too. Usually you don't have a personal relationship with 'em. In this case, through, you do. Slight, but there.

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

I'm sort of struggling with Reservoir Dogs, myself. But I think I see a way through my difficulties.

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

Go, you, Ink-Pen-Paper!

May it all come together. Not just once, but repeatedly.

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

Okay! How many people took the Christmas Challenge?

Here's part two:

Use the first sentence and the last sentence of your story as the first two sentences of a new story. 5,000 words. By Thursday.

And I want a happy ending, because it's a holiday week!

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

You can revise anything you want!

That's what revision is all about. Looking at it again. (And that's what this exercise is all about: Re-envisioning.)

Meanwhile: Even though it's from a parody site, surprisingly serious and useful advice on How To Be Funny And Not Stupid.

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

Page 57
Post 1404
12-30-2010, 11:29 AM
 
Last edited:

James D. Macdonald

Your Genial Uncle
Absolute Sage
VPX
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Feb 11, 2005
Messages
25,582
Reaction score
3,785
Location
New Hampshire
Website
madhousemanor.wordpress.com
Post 1405
Page 57
01-01-2011, 05:49 AM

Happy New Year and New Decade!

Now ... write your book!

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

The Penmonkey's Paean.

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

It's a new year....

Put a big full-year-at-a-glance calendar on your wall where you can see it from your writing desk.

Every day when you've written one page (just one!) of original prose fiction, before you go to bed take a red marker pen and put a big red X through that day.

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

It isn't required to think much of the movie. All that's required is to answer it.

All art is in dialog with other art.

And it's all a starting point. You find within yourself a story to tell.

Adding constraints makes composition easier. If you have a blank white page, it's easy to get paralyzed. If you have a page with a large red spot on it, and your instruction is to avoid the red spot, it's easier to get moving. You have a direction.

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

I normally do revisions before I send the MS out to proof readers, but I can't seem to go through the feedbacks nor get back to rewriting the story.

But you do revisions before you send them out to your readers?

What will you do if an editor asks you to revise a work?

Make some coffee. Sit down. Do it. One sentence at a time, one page at a time.

Did someone tell you that this job was easy and everything about it pleasant?

Or, you could be the sort of writer who just doesn't do beta-reader revisions.

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

Visiting locations?

1) I have sailed the north and south Atlantic oceans. A lot.

2) I have visited Portsmouth, and London, England.

3) I spent a great deal of time at Mystic Seaport, Mystic, CT, and know my way around a 19th century ship.

4) A close personal friend was assigned to Thule Air Force base.

5) I was assigned to, and traveled extensively in, Central America.

6) I spent a year at the Brooklyn Navy Yards.

7) My induction physical was at the old War Department building on Whitehall Street in NYC. (Yeah, I know it wasn't there during the Civil War. But there weren't magically-powered warships during the Civil War either.) I needed something that overlooked New York Harbor, and that was handy.

8) I have a pretty good memory, I use the library a lot, and (the secret weapon of the novelist) I make stuff up.

The origin of Land of Mist and Snow: A dream involving a race between a 19th c. ship and a locomotive. Plus the question, What if the Union had had a Pegasus-class patrol hydrofoil during the Civil War?

The rest is basic science-fiction/fantasy what-if extrapolation in the Secret History sub-genre. (Other clues: There was no USS Tisdale until WWII.)

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

N
Uncle Jim, so do you usually revise chapter by chapter, or do you tackle the whole story ideas first? I know you covered revision before, but could you teach us your revision methods again?

I generally read the entire book, cover to cover, making changes as I go (in pencil), or at the very least putting a check mark in the margin meaning "Fix something here."

Then I read it cover to cover again.

I will add scenes, then read the whole thing again.

The book is a whole; it is organic. And I hold the entire thing in my head all at once.

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

I talked a bit about foreshadowing starting here: http://www.absolutewrite.com/forums/showthread.php?t=6710&page=272

But while Googling in an attempt to find that, look what else I came upon:

http://holmes.spontaneousderivation.com/2008/01/14/writing-holmes-retyping-speckled-band/


I am flattered, and it's good commentary.

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

More on Foreshadowing from the Big Thread: http://www.absolutewrite.com/forums/showthread.php?p=82871#post82871

--------------------
Here's my good friend Ian Randall Strock and Stupid Author Tricks (or, How To Keep Yourself From Getting Published).

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

But being reminded of it so emphatically was really crushing.

No, no! You're taking away the wrong lesson.

The editors are looking for good stories. They want your story to be good. All you have to do is write a good story and send it to them in the form they requested and the rest follows.

This is a game of skill, not a game of chance. And the ones who send in stories printed in green ink on red paper with nude photos of themselves attached have just removed themselves entirely from the competition. Even if their story is brilliant.

Yes, they're getting 400 stories a week. But you're only competing against the top 10%. The rest have sabotaged themselves.

Be of good cheer. You followed the guidelines? You're good to go. Now send out your story, and, while you're waiting to hear back, write another one.

============

Elsewhere: Decadent Publishing is demonstrating why the Author's Big Mistake is such a Big Mistake.

http://theendisnotthefinalword.blogspot.com/2011/01/we-will-not-be-intimidated-we-will-not.html

http://dearauthor.com/wordpress/2011/01/13/thursday-midday-links-authors-publishers-behaving-badly/

http://search.twitter.com/search?q=decadent+publishing

http://karenknowsbest.com/2011/01/1...eat-reviews-or-well-publicise-your-real-name/

http://www.absolutewrite.com/forums/showthread.php?t=198626&page=5


The Author's Big Mistake (ABM) is responding in any way whatever to a negative review.

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

I believe MS Word is preset with 1" margins, but if it isn't (which should be easy to check) you can probably make that the default.

I write for myself, first, and next for a reader. A reader. I imagine someone who I'm telling the story to (and make up little stories about her, her background, what she's doing that day).

Editors and agents and publishers ... no. The person I'm telling the story to is a reader. (And yes, I usually imagine a female reader.) But not always the same reader.

Whatever works for you....

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

(And yes, I usually imagine a female reader.)

Incidentally--

My most common fan letters are from (in this order):

Teen-aged young ladies,
Priests and nuns, and
Retired intelligence professionals.


I believe this is because

A) The reader I imagine is usually a mid-twenties female in an entry-level professional job (my imagined audience sees herself in that same place),
B) I more often than not write on religious themes, and
C) as a retired intelligence professional myself, I make sure the details of Intel work are right. (What you generally see in thrillers ranges from bad to laughably bad.)

Oh, and when Ian talks about "some publisher might send you a check for three or four or five dollars," or he says, "Why should they bother to steal your story when they can have it by paying you five cents a word," he is being ... sarcastic.

If a publisher isn't offering thousands of dollars for your novel (or hundreds for your short story), you're talking to the wrong publishers.

Don't sell yourself short.

Start at the high end of the market. If you start at the low end you're never going to get to the high end.

Let me tell you a little about myself. (No more than you'd learn by reading my books, but ...)

I am a sincere and devout Roman Catholic.
I write for the greater glory of God.
I believe that the Lord desires that we have Fun.

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

Jim,

Amazon send me regular "recommendations" based on my previous purchases.
The last one included The Confessions of you-know-who.

Is Amazon back in your good books again?

No.

But they sell books. They can sell any books they like. I can't stop 'em.

If you want to buy the Confessions, any number of other booksellers have it. Please buy from one of them.

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

We're at The Battle of Flamborough Head in 1779. HMS Serapis (Richard Pearson, commanding) is locked in combat with Bonhomme Richard (John Paul Jones, commanding).

The two vessels are lashed together. The cannon are muzzle-to-muzzle, the gunners' mates slashing at one another with swords or trying to grab each others' swab rods. Both ships are taking a terrible pounding; Bonhomme Richard is in a sinking condition. A British shot carries away the American halyard and the US flag tumbles to the deck. Captain Pearson shouts across to the other vessel, "Sir! Have you struck your colors?"

Jones, on the deck of Bonhomme Richard replies, "I have not yet begun to fight!"

And down on the gun deck, one gunner turns to another and says, "Some people never get the word."

Therefore, for the people who haven't gotten the word, Absolute Write is going to be moving to a new server. This may take some time and have a few unexpected bobbles. Details here.

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

gg, totally. Didn't start getting the fan letters until after the books were written.

And the first weren't written for a generic audience, but for a specific person.

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

Hi Jim,

I downloaded Kindle for PC and The Confessions (from Amazon).

I read the first tale and found 3 places where (I suppose) reformatting has caused typos (leaving words hyphenated)

Spec-ial
any-one
imp-ressions

Not much I can do about those, and people who read e-books run into more and worse than that.
Also, at the end of one paragraph you said "...costing her a pretty."
Is this a typo? Maybe not.
That was intentional.

What's a Stoner?

A variety of assault rifle.


I loved the last sentence!
Me too!

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

The first line is fine as written.

For more, please go to Share Your Work, where the squirrels are waiting to read and comment on your story.

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

Today is Server Move day.

The boards will be turned off today at approximately 3:30 pm, Pacific (USian) time/6:30 pm, East Coast time.

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

I have committed prologue.

Same main character as the main novel. Near in time to the main novel. Connected to the main novel. But not essential to the main novel. (If it were essential, it would have been chapter one.)

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

Why's it there? Beats hell out of me. I was young. I've learned better since. Prologues are unusual for me, and have grown rarer as I've gone along.

If I were doing it again today, I'd have started the book with Chapter One and sold the prologue to a magazine as a stand-alone short story.

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

GASP! DISMAY!


A lot of what you'll find me putting in this thread is stuff that I've learned the hard way.

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

A good prologue is:

A) Brief
B) Entertaining
C) Does not confuse the reader
D) Still leaves a complete experience if it's skipped

Check the prologues in Romeo and Juliet, and in Doctor Faustus.

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

A different complete experience, yes. But still complete.

In contrast, if someone skipped chapter one, or the last chapter, or any chapter, the experience would be incomplete.

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

Uh, well I presume it would be, I've never read the novelisation if there is one.


Of course there was a novelization. Ballantine Books, 1981, by Campbell Black.

And movie novelizations are pretty good gigs for writers who can produce prose to order by deadline. Around a thousand bucks a day.

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

Better Book Titles

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

Sticking with movies: The voice-over prologue in Dark City utterly ruins the movie. You'd be well-advised to turn off the sound until the camera pans upward and you get to the actual opening titles.

Many prologues, I feel, are bleed-over from movies and TV, where the show starts with an action teaser (e.g. the perfectly unnecessary chase scene that starts Speed II: Cruise Control (an execrable movie for lots of other reasons)). In movies they're there to give folks time to get in from the candy counter and still not miss anything essential. On TV they're there to get folks to sit down and watch the first set of commercials. Books don't have either of those needs.

Brief, interesting on its own, non-distracting from the main story (note that in Raiders of the Lost Ark that the opening focuses on Dr. Jones, not on Some Random Guy), and dispensable. That's how I think of prologues.

But ... if you want to, and you're doing it well, and your editor goes along with it, there's no reason you shouldn't commit prologue. I've done it, I'll do it again, and you can too.

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

Found on AW's front page:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c9fc-crEFDw

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

Yes, our books are shelved under Doyle (my beloved bride and long-time writing partner).

We decided long ago to go that way, because it would get our books closer to the eye-level shelves.

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

A question, Uncle Jim, reaching far back into the archives:

At some point you said to be careful about reading and writing fan fiction, because it would subconsciously start affecting your style when writing original fiction.

Could you link to the original post? I don't recall saying that.

The two biggest problems with fan fiction are that it's legally impossible to publish, no matter how good it is, and it comes with pre-fab characters so you may not get the practice you need in characterization.

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

some very extensive use of this board's 'search' function shows no sign of it whatsoever.

This board's search function blows dead seagulls. Better would be to use Google with site=absolutewrite.com as one of the parameters, or to go the Uncle Jim Undiluted thread (only three pages) and use your browser's search function.

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

Are you perhaps thinking of this post:
I'm not in favor of going over as a group, or of organizing at one website to go visit a community at another website, to argue with them. Now if someone wanted to issue a polite invitation to come over here?

What's the exact URL?

Now I haven't seen the discussion there -- but in general, you write the way you practice writing, and it's possible for someone to get bad habits, for some definition of "bad," writing in a particular genre or style.

I emphasize care in your writing, in choosing your words and images carefully so that they all lead in one direction and support one theme. But that's just me.

<hr>

Speaking of jealousy, here are some more <a href="http://books.guardian.co.uk/posysimmonds/page/0,12694,1201995,00.html" target="_new">Writers' Deadly Sins</A>.
Which was in response to this one:

Thank you for the url to Stephen King's speech. I found his book on writing a good read even though I can't read much of his fiction as horror gives me nightmares!
Whilst this site was down I spent my allowance of website time on the UK www.bbc.co.uk writers site. One writer questioned if she would damage her ability to write literary stories if she also wrote fiction for women's mags to earn money. Go look at the pretentious answers about writing potboilers and how it would seriously damage your ability to write literary stories. It would be wonderful if you all could come up with a polite (this is the British broadcasting corporation and they have very strict rules about anything vaguely impolite) rebuff and post it there if you could spare a moment. It's about time some of those hoary old chestnuts were popped!
Happy Writing!
--------------------------

Christopher Vogler's The Writer's Journey
Robert McKee's Story and, most recently,
Jack Bickham's Scene and Structure

I've never read any of them.

In general: If they help you get words onto the page then they are good.

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

A bit of a personal announcement:

The German translation of The Price of the Stars is coming out (from Random House, Germany) on 21 June 2011.

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

A smart thing said elsewhere:

Nancy Pearl, in one of her presentations to librarians about reader's advisory (aka, how to answer "what should I read next") talks about there being four doorways into fiction - plot, character, setting, and language. She argues (and pretty persuasively) that all works have a door of some size for each of these four, but also that *people* have strong preferences for which ones they enter (and you'll therefore be most successful in figuring out someone's preferred doorways, and suggesting books that match.)
----------------------------

What are some ideas of restarting the creative boiler again?
Write something. Anything.

How about this? A formal poem. A sestina.

Write one.

Then submit is somewhere. http://www.duotrope.com

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

And today's news: A textbook is buying our short story, Uncle Joshua and the Grooglemen.

Didn't go looking for this; it just fell in our laps. Not a lot of money, but hey, it's like picking up money on the sidewalk.

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

It's a textbook on Science Fiction.

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

Department of Just Because I Have Massive Talent Doesn't Mean I Can't Be Petty And Vindictive:

Posterity will ne'er survey
A nobler grave than this:
Here lie the bones of Castlereagh:
Stop, traveller, and piss.

-- Lord Byron


(See also: The New Adventures of Ada Lovelace (Byron's only legitimate child) as she and Charles Babbage Fight Crime. Yes, I've recommended this before. I still do.)

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

The history of science fiction in pictorial form. (via Making Light)

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

We spent the rest of the evening in lock down. It was worth it.

You realize the only reason he said that was to provoke a reaction that would give him a reason for him to put y'all on lockdown on your last night, don't you?

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

Hey, come to Viable Paradise. The day starts at 0500 with a three-mile fun run. Then locker inspection, PT, disassembling and cleaning semiotic weapons, classroom instruction on field-expedient metaphors, more PT, ambushing the reader (table-top exercise), detecting and disarming rhetorical devices, camouflaging the theme, and yet more PT.

Writers' Boot Camp. You'd love it.

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

That's okay, Beth. You can do the fun run right now. It's okay.

And, for everyone:

For reasons I won't go into here, I've been re-reading the Grimm fairy tales. Here's an idea, free! Take it, you're welcome:

At novel length, write The Stepsister's Tale, being the story of Cinderella from the POV of one of the wicked stepsisters. Only with the stepsister as the heroine of the story, and that smarmy, simpering, psychotic Cinderella as the villain. Think of what Wicked did for the Wicked Witch of the West. Go thou and do likewise.

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

Can you give us more details about your procedure? How do you go about doing it? What's the end result like?

I sit down and write.

The end result is very much like a story, only the parts may be out of order, and it'll have notes like [Look this up later] and [they do something exciting here]. The characters will have names like Bestfriend and Deadmeat and Perky. Some of my favorite parts are [Doyle does this bit].

Things are sketched rather than written out full.

And silly stuff my happen, like suddenly, in the middle of a scene, Houdini escaping from a milk-can full of maple syrup.

Think of storyboard art compared with the finished film. That's what I mean by the outline.

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

Graz:

No.

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

Thanks Uncle Jim. You want to go bowling?

No thanks. I have a book to write.

And so do you.

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

The good news:

We've been listed beside Heinlein and Asimov.

The bad news:

What could be bad about that?

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

You can read the short story Uncle Joshua and the Grooglemen complete, free, on my webpage.

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

The E-publishing Bingo Card, from John Scalzi (hat tip to Making Light).


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

Thanks, AlwaysJuly. You've just made this author very happy.

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

The Hero With a Thousand Faces is a good and useful work on folklore, and it contains signposts for what's worked in the past for storytelling, but use of it as a Procrustean Bed, or as a stamping-mill for STORY, is to use it badly.

It's perfectly okay to have a hero with normal, every-day parents and a run-of-the-mill birth.

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

I've seen entirely too many books where the heroes run around collecting plot coupons as if they were on a scavenger hunt until, having collected enough, they can turn them in for a climax.

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



Reckon so.

Okay, Red Riding Hood from the POV of the Wolf. Jack and the Beanstalk from the POV of the giant.

On the importance of giving and getting feedback from your beta readers: Agent Scully and the Dirty Story.

Re-imaginings go back a long way: The Death of the Seven Dwarfs (1856)

A rather more modern re-imagining: Rammstein's Sonne (music video)

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

Fairy tales are great. Distilled crystallized story. As I keep saying, the oldest engines pull the heaviest freight.

Speaking of fairy stories and children's fantasy, here's a look inside bookselling. This is a place that most authors never see:
A Lament for Diana Wynne Jones by Joe Monti: Now a star agent, once an outstanding editor, but before that a buyer for a book chain. Here he explains how he sold 7,000 copies each of three books that, combined, were selling only 1,300 copies a year. Purely because he loved those books.

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

Picked this up in one of the other threads here at AW, and thought it needed wider dissemination: The Kindle Swindle



Hat tip to TheBigEasy

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

This sort of thing might end up opening them up to some expensive litigation,

They're pretty safe. Authors in general don't have a lot of money, and lawsuits are expensive.

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

Posted elsewhere:

Some of your academic theorists have minor subdivisions of third person to describe the difference between thoughts in italics, thoughts in roman set off by "he thought," and thoughts in roman that aren't set off at all.

Ignore all of those distinctions.

The rules are these:

Don't confuse the readers.
Choose the one that sounds right to you.
Be consistent.

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

What is your writing process for the first draft, and I mean from handwritten notes, onwards?
If you write longhand, how and when do you transfer to the PC. Does it still remain Draft 1?

I write long-hand when I can't get to a computer, for example in the back of a moving vehicle.

When I transcribe stuff, I don't re-type it exactly.

My first-first draft? Often enough it's a flowchart on the back of a cheap paper placemat, made while discussing the book with Doyle. After that, I just write scenes, which may or may not be in order. Doyle arranges them into order (in a process she calls "stringing beads"), while I keep writing scenes that seem to me belong in the book. Meanwhile, Doyle writes other scenes that might be missing. Then I take the thing, and re-write it. Then Doyle takes the thing and re-writes it. Then I take the thing and re-writes it.

And so on.

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

How d'you know when it's finished?

The deadline arrives, and the editor gets cranky if you don't send something.

---------------------------
I'm not certain that I write longhand often enough to make buying a piece of electronics worthwhile.

And the chance to re-write while re-typing isn't a bad thing.

I know of some writers who, despite working on a computer, re-type their entire novels from draft to draft, just to force each word to justify its existence. If a paragraph isn't worth retyping, it probably isn't worth keeping in the book. (And you can add stuff too.)

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

I see the headline,
E-book sales top paperbacks for first time

That's interesting, but what does it mean to us, as writers?

Not a blessed thing.

Our talent lies in telling stories that people want to read. We've been doing it since papyrus and river reeds; we'll be doing it in the age of direct neural implants.

Means of distribution? That's someone else's problem; what we have is rare enough that the distributors will pay us to get it.

I've started to put up my backlist of short stories on Smashwords, mostly because it's easier than finding reprint markets, but doesn't compete with reprint markets. The most recent reprint sale I made was of a story that's been available for free on my web page for years.

Our big problem still remains: Obscurity.

The solution is still the same: Gatekeepers. Sources that will place their imprimatur on our works so the reading public will be assured, "This story is worth my time." Even a free story still costs the reader time and imagination.

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

That's a real problem. How is "browsing the bookstore" going to work?

The "people who bought this also bought that" displays that some on-line stores use are an attempt at a solution, but not a really good one.

The "here's thirty feet of mystery novels," the new releases beside the classics, that you find over at a physical bookstore (or even an entire story-full of mystery novels, the specialty bookstore) is a climax technology grown over the past 150 years.

At one time, back when you bought the book block, then took it over to a bindery to put a cover on it (when the phrase "you can't tell a book by its cover" came from), the printers would hang the broadsheets in their windows, so people could look and read the first few pages. (That's also where the elaborate engraved frontispieces came from--attracting the eyes of strollers.)

Something will develop, I know this. What it will be? That I can't tell you.

Back in the early days of movies, before directors' names were put on movies, you'd find rampant piracy. (The movie industry developed in California because California was a long way from New Jersey, and they were abusing Thomas Edison's patents.) Folks would take movies, strip out the title cards, add their own title cards, and distribute it as their own.

One studio, to combat this, put the "Biograph B" in every shot of the film, somewhere in the background. Folks started to notice that movies with those B's in them were lots of fun to watch, and started to look for them. What biograph had, was a secret weapon: They had D. W. Griffith and Billy Bitzer.

E-publishers will develop. Some already have.

The mainstream publishers will dominate the market. They have the money, they have the backlist, they have the authors, they have the marketing experience.

But how will readers find new authors? That's the puzzle. I expect that the Book of the Month Club will re-emerge. If I were going to play this game, I'd set up a subscription-based distributorship, that every month/week/day/whatever sent a New Book to folks.

Maybe I'd call my thing "Jim Likes It," and people who shared my taste would get books that I liked. That would be a mix of mystery, science fiction, horror, true crime, and history.

Maybe it would work. Who knows?

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

Charles Scribner started out printing collected volumes of sermons, a genre of the early 19th century. The firm became Charles Scribner and Sons, then Charles Scribner's Sons ... and so on.

The subscription model of publishing is old, and is still going on. People were put up money for the printing; when enough came in, the author would write the book and print it, and everyone who was subscribed got a copy. Upton Sinclair used this model too (leading to rumors that he self-published--he didn't) in the early years of the 20th century. In the later years of the 20th century, some fanzines were based on the subscription model. The best-known recent author to use this particular method, I believe, is Lawrence Watt-Evans.

In the Peabody-Essex Museum in Salem, Mass, there's a display of 19th century whaling artifacts. One of them is a paperback book, a whaling romance. If you walk around the back of the display, you can see that the back cover is missing, and, if you squat down and squint, you can read that last page. It ends with a plea from the author saying, in effect, "If you liked this book, please write to the publisher and ask them to hire me to write another one."

At least one 19th century American publishing house based its origin in the fact that under American copyright law at the time, any European book was in the public domain in America, so he printed and sold European books without needing to pay the authors.

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

If you want my opinion, which is probably worth what you paid for it, this year about 35% of the income for the Big Six will be from e-book sales. I base this on publicly available data; I have no way of knowing what any publisher's internal financials look like.

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

Good, energetic promotion (by e-networking) and then word of mouth. I'll be trying this soon, maybe by the end of the year.


Faustus: Come, I think hell's a fable.

Mephistopheles: Aye, think so still, 'til experience change thy mind.

Euclid, you didn't invent that idea. It's worked...remarkably poorly...for the ones who have gone before.

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

A Self-Published Authors Guide to Self-Publishing

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

Obscurity is a far greater enemy for writers than piracy will ever be.

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

No. There isn't a rule.

The master rules still apply: If it works, it's right, and Don't confuse the readers.

Anything else is a matter of style. Sentence rhythm, the pace of the scene, the amount of dialog, how distinctive your characters are; all these will influence your use of dialog tags.

Find a favorite author. Take one of his or her books and go through with a hi-liter, marking all the dialog tags. Make up your own mind.

This is an art. You are the artist. Be bold, be bold, but not too bold....

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

Yog's Law and Self-Publishing.

Yog's Law is very simple: Money flows toward the author.

For commercial publishing, this is absolutely true. Once you've moved away from it, you're out of the realm of commercial publishing.

The next stop is vanity publishing. Here you find the so-called "self-publishing services" along with the true vanities. In this area, the publishers run the gamut from A Very Bad Idea right the way down to An Out-And-Out Scam, with a vast morass of well-intentioned-but-undercapitalized and well-intentioned-but-incompetent in between. From an author's point of view, there's no practical difference between a scammer and an incompetent: both are time-and-money sinks; neither will get your book into the hands of readers.

Yog's Law will keep you safe from this part of the publishing landscape. Use it as your compass and your guide.

Last is true self-publishing. Yog's Law is true here, too. Self-publishing is the part of the map where the author hires the editor, hires the cover artist, the typesetter, the proofreader, contracts the printer, buys the ISBN, arranges distribution, promotion, marketing, and carries out every other aspect of publishing. What you need to recall is that while the author is the publisher, "publisher" and "author" are separate roles. One of the classic mistakes I see with self-published authors is that they don't put "paying the author" in their business plan as an expense. The money still needs to move from one pocket to another. Those pockets may be in the same pair of pants, but that movement must be in the business plan, and it has to happen. Here too, Yog's Law is completely true, and will help the self-publisher run his/her business as a business.

Avoid unhappy surprises. Live by Yog's Law.

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

Where does Mephistopheles live in all this?

Faust. Where are you damn’d?

Meph.
In hell.

Faust. How comes it then that thou art out of hell?

Meph. Why this is hell, nor am I out of it.


==================

If self-publishers can't see their way clear to putting 10-15% of the cover price of every volume sold into a savings account, they're not ready to self-publish.

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

Just a reminder: Only two more weeks to contribute to the Atlanta Nights movie. It would be fun if this actually happened.

Also, speaking of piracy, here's a pirate tower defense game. It has a really cheerful theme song.

But that isn't what I'm going to mention this morning. My latest cat-waxing has been putting our short-story back list into e-book format. Covers are by my son, Brendan. Ten stories up so far. (One of the e-books is a collection of three stories.)

We'll see how this goes. But for the moment, like I said, it's cat-waxing. Only writing is writing. Putting old stories on line isn't writing.

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

Today, in our latest installment of The Unspeakable Horrors of the Literary Life, I bring you [FONT=times, times new roman]The Seething Resentment Reading Series.

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

[/FONT]
I have a question. How important is 'deep meaning' in a fantasy/action adventure (or horror) novel?

It's important enough that I stress it when I'm teaching writing. It's the difference between the top 1% that will sell and the next 2% that might sell.

It's the difference between a good book and a mediocre book.

For example: My own Mageworlds series. The first three books were not only slam-bang space opera adventure, they were a refutation of the Manichean heresy.

You always want Something More. You need the surface plot for the deaf old lady in the back row, but you want the multiple levels of meaning for the clever buggers in the front row.

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

Yet more horrors of the literary life: The Printer's Error.

On layers of meaning: As a medievalist, I use the quadriga. For those interested in what that is (other than the chariot on top of the Brandenberg Gate):

The Quadriga. The Quadriga was a method of interpretation that developed in the early church and survived up to medieval times. It stated that a text had four layers of meaning: the literal, the moral, the allegorical and the anagogical. The literal is the plain obvious meaning. The moral was what it meant for human behavior. The allegorical meaning is what it means for our faith, beliefs or doctrines. The anagogical meaning is what it tells us about the future (heaven). For example take a reference to the city of Jerusalem. In the literal sense this meant the physical city of Jerusalem. Morally it could represent the human soul. Allegorically it could be used to represent the Church of Christ. Finally, anagogically, it could be referring the new heavenly Jerusalem. Unfortunately, this method led to many wild speculations about the meaning of certain passages. Martin Luther and the Protestant Reformation changed that. Now we focus on the literal interpretation.
By focusing on the literal interpretation the protestants fell into error. But leave that aside. It's a useful way to see the depth of your own story, and a useful way to make those deeper layers coherent.

See also, the Gesta Romanorum, with the deeper layers in the stories explained.

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

Even if readers don't consciously recognize the deeper levels in your work, they'll know that there are deeper levels. And unification at a deeper level will ensure that your surface plot is unified... that the chimney isn't directly behind the window.

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

I think that in most cases, hiring a professional editor is a waste of time and money.

If your book isn't publishable, no amount of editing will make it publishable. If it is publishable, the publisher will assign an editor at no cost to you.

Suppose you do hire an editor. And suppose your book sells. When the revision letter comes what are you going to do? Re-hire the editor?

The words "this manuscript has been professionally edited" in a cover letter will make any agent's heart sink. And editors have a name for edited slush. They call it "slush."

If you hire an editor as a sort of intensive one-on-one workshop, in order to improve your next work, I could see it. But as a routine step before submitting your work? No, bad idea.

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

On artists, and the making of art.

(And we are artists, my friends.)

((Hat tip to Mark.)

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

R. A. Lafferty being dead, it's kind of hard to ask him.

Have the stories with Dr. Vonk gone into the public domain? If not, I'd be very careful. Some might consider that to be creating a derivative work.

I suspect that Lafferty was himself referring to Immanuel Velikovsky. You might try a variant on the name.

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

Unless you're planning to self-publish, in which case, an editor is indispensible.

Indeed. Unless you are planning to self-publish.

As a self-publisher, you take on all the roles of the commercial publisher.

And if you self-publish, please don't forget to put the line-item
"Pay the author" into your business plan.

Imagine, for a moment, that some guy in Norton Mills, Vermont, wanted to be a publisher who would publish only the works of James D. Macdonald. "Great!" I'd say. "What are you paying?"

Same way if I were to publish the works of James D. Macdonald. "Great!" I'd say to myself. "What are you paying?"

If 15% of the cover price of each one sold isn't going into your savings account, you're doing it wrong.

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

Recall also that "zonk" or "zonked" is American slang for "intoxicated with (perhaps illegal) drugs."

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

Bonk (sometimes spelled "boink") is US slang for "to have sexual intercourse with."

As in "I wanted to bonk Mary Sue, but I was too zonked to do it."

How about Manuel "Super Skier" Velikov.

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

I've just learned that there's a theoretical reason that vanity-published authors tend to max out at 150 sales: By a weird coincidence, 150 is Dunbar's number, the theoretical number of close social relationships that a person will have.

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

Smashwords feeds into B&N, iBookstore, and several others. It's more a distributor. But still, getting your story noticed when they're posting 'em over there at the rate of 3,000/day is going to be a challenge.

I'm experimenting myself, but so far all I'm doing is short stories. We'll see, eventually, what becomes of it.

(Anyone who wants to read 'em, review 'em, and so on, is invited to do so: The list so far. If you want to read 'em for free, let me know and I'll give you a coupon code.)

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

Allen, when you're talking about fiction, "platform" is meaningless.


================


Department of All Art Is Related:

Quotes from Julia Child
. Substitute "writing" for "cooking" and learn.


================

Guerrilla Marketing 101: Why look pathetic when you can actually be pathetic?

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

Keep writing to the fill line, and perhaps a bit over. If you have too much plot, your editor will tell you.

Removing plot in revision is much easier than adding plot afterward.

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

Plot: This happened, then that happened because.

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

That won't get me into (legal) trouble will it?

1) Anyone can sue anyone for anything.

2) I'm not a lawyer, I can't give legal advice.

3) Probably not.

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

If anyone's looking for a publishing-related job in the Boston area, here you go: Publishing Technologies Specialist

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

Euclid: What?!

Don't worry about that. I'm not the only James Macdonald publishing. I'm not even the only James D. Macdonald publishing. It's okay to use your real name.

If your name was J. K. Rowling, that might be a problem. But it isn't. Don't worry about it.

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

Life may imitate art, and art may imitate life, but life != art.

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

That other guy with my name had his book published by AuthorHouse. Is this one of the big publishing houses? I never heard of it.

AuthorHouse is a vanity press.

That means that no one will have even heard of his book, far less read it.

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

"Up the Airy Mountain," yet another backlist title.

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

I have a friend who submitted his book for publishing in November 2010. They still haven't published his book! It's a non-fiction account of his spiritual journey toward salvation and it's actually a very moving piece. Does it normally take this long to publish via vanity press?

Did his check clear?

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

Then they're probably backlogged. Even PublishAmerica only undertakes to publish a given book within a year.

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

On a certain kind of bad (mostly mainstream) writing: Fond Memories of Vagina

What I'm reading right now: Ted Dekker's The Bride Collector. An FBI agent seeks the help of an inmate in psychiatric institution to find a particularly bizarre serial killer.

There are no new plots.....

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

No, I don't have any set length for quiet bits between the explosions. But I do try to keep them interesting, every page, because I don't want the reader to skim.

The piano parts make the fortissimo seem more-so. Still, they do all thing things that every other passage does: Support the theme, reveal character, and advance the plot.

If the dialog in the chapter goes like this:
"Why are we doing this, Charlie?" Ralph asked. He wrapped his hands around the thick manila rope and pulled down with all his strength. The sofa barely moved.

"Because we have to set up the surprise in Chapter Twelve," Charlie replied, hauling on his end of the rope....​
Then perhaps the scene needs to be re-thought.

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

I do indeed read music. If this analogy is useful -- use it.

All the arts are related.

Moonlight Sonata Movement 1
Moonlight Sonata Movement 2
Moonlight Sonata Movement 3

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

Yet is it not entertaining, and didn't you watch it all the way to the end, and remember it long after?

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

I am very close to throwing The Bride Collector across the room.

As Twain put in Fenimore Cooper's Literary Offenses:

10. [The rules of fiction] require that the author shall make the reader feel a deep interest in the personages of his tale and in their fate; and that he shall make the reader love the good people in the tale and hate the bad ones. But the reader of the "Deerslayer" tale dislikes the good people in it, is indifferent to the others, and wishes they would all get drowned together.
Would that Dekker had followed Twain's advice.

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

Speaking of Jane Austen, as if the zombies weren't bad enough....

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

One of our Viable Paradise students has just sold her first story. It's the lead story (“Your Cities” by Anaea Lay) in the current issue of Apex magazine, here.

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

Surely it's bad form for one writer to rubbish another in public, isn't it?

It's done all the time, Euclid. One of the hazards of the course.

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

Get a free e-book from the University of Chicago Press.

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

DRM is a tool of the devil.

Pity that they don't know that.

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

How To Have A Writing Career Like Mine from John Scalzi. He points out that you can't. Nor can you have a writing career like any other author's. You have a career like yours, because time, place, personality, and preceding events shape every step of the path.

He points out:

If you feel you must look at other writers’ careers, a suggestion: Look at more than one, and see what they have in common. What did Neil do that Ursula also did that Robert did too that Cherie is now doing? Look at the things that consistently appear in the careers of multiple authors, and you’ll find the things that might be worth incorporating into your own. As a warning, they are likely to be boring things like “write regularly,” or “minimize distractions” or some such, which are the “eat less, exercise more” of the writing career world. But that’s life for you.

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

I've finished putting my backlist short fiction up at Smashwords:




These will eventually filter over to B&N, iBooks, and wherever else.

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

Cool. I've bought a couple already, I'll have to take a look at the new ones.

If you don't like 'em, you can tell me.

If you do like 'em, tell all your friends.

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

My shortest-ever cover letter read:

Roses are red
Violets are blue
Here is a story
I'm sending to you.

The story was picked up (by the first market I sent it to). You can read it yourself, for free, here.

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

Here's some advice on author-readings at conventions and conferences.

Although it's written for the self-published, it's good advice for everyone.

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

Cliches, my dear friends, are fertile sources of inspiration. The line between cliche and archetype is very thin. Nothing is new, and the way cliches became cliches is by being tried-and-true. The oldest engines pull the heaviest freight.

How do you make something original out of a cliche?

Two ways: Stand the cliche on its head, or put two or three cliches in a blender, switch it to 'puree', and pour out a tasty new trope.

So, having said that, here is a handy list of Horror cliches: http://www.wmsimmons.com/horror.htm

Layer 'em thinly over your favorite plot, and there you are.

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

Yet another take on How To Get Published.

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

Thanks, Laura.

If you hate my stories, tell me. If you love them, tell all your friends....

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

For all the loyal readers of Learn Writing with Uncle Jim, here's a coupon for Witch Garden and Other Stories, a collection of some of our works in electronic form. The code is: UE28S

The code will be good for a month. Get the book for free.

It's okay to tell your friends and pass along the code.



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

Prologues? Hell yes!

I've committed prologue.

Here is the prologue from Starpilot's Grave:

Prologue
Pleyver: Flatlands

Darkness had fallen over the city. Light from the streetlamps lay in stark white circles against the warehouse walls, with pools of blackness falling in between. Overhead, the fixed star of High Station--Pleyver's giant orbiting spaceport--burned down through the skyglow. No one saw Owen Rosselin-Metadi pass by like an unheeded thought, skirting the edges of the lamplight and pausing to catch his breath in the safety of the dark.

He wasn't sure how long he'd been running. Hours, it felt like--ever since leaving his sister back at Florrie's Place, in an upper room where the acrid stink of blaster fire mingled with the heavier smell of blood. He didn't think anybody had followed him out of there; he'd put most of his remaining energy into staying unseen, and Beka had taken care of the rest.

Owen didn't like the favor he'd asked from her, that she take on the risk of drawing away the armed pursuit, and he didn't particularly like himself for asking it. But Bee was a survivor, the kind who could fight her way from Florrie's to the port quarter and blast off leaving a legend behind her. He'd seen that much clearly; far more clearly, in fact, than the outcome of his own business on Pleyver.

Nevertheless, he had lied to her.

Well, not exactly lied. But he had let her think that the datachip he'd given her, packed with information from the locked comp-files of Flatlands Investment, Ltd., was unique. He'd never mentioned the other datachip, the one that he'd come to Pleyver to obtain. The information on the second chip belonged to Errec Ransome, Master of the Adepts' Guild--or it would if Owen lived long enough to deliver it.

Maybe I should have given it to Bee.

Owen shook his head. He'd briefly considered asking her, but the presence of her copilot had killed that idea. The slight, grey-haired man she called the Professor gave Beka an unquestioning loyalty--that much Owen had perceived without any difficulty--but it was a loyalty that would put Beka first and the Adepts' Guild a far-distant second.

No, it was better to let the two of them go their own way. From the look of things, Beka had kept her promise to distract the ordinary hired help, the ones who did their fighting with blasters and energy lances. Dodging the others should have been easy, if only he hadn't been so stupid as to get caught once already tonight....

#

Owen had shown up outside the portside branch office of Flatlands Investment, Ltd., just before dusk. He'd hoped to get there earlier, but intercepting Beka at the spaceport and convincing her to abandon her own designs on the company's data banks had taken longer than he'd anticipated.

Beka wanted revenge, plain and simple: revenge on whoever had planned their mother's assassination and revenge on whoever had paid for it. She'd get it, too; Bee in pursuit of a goal had a straightforward single-mindedness that made a starship's jump-run to hyperspace look like a sightseeing trip. But that same trait could make her dangerous to be around if your purposes and hers happened to diverge. Owen didn't think that the Guild's interest in FIL was going to put him in Beka's way, but he didn't want to chance it.

Besides, he reflected as he approached the grey, slab-sided FIL Building, it was easier for one person to work unnoticed than for two. He could slip in, get enough from the files to satisfy Master Ransome and his sister both, and slip out again before Bee was through eating dinner.

The front door of the building was secured by an electronic ID-scan. Owen palmed the lockplate like any authorized visitor. Inside the mechanism, the electric current flowed through its appointed paths and channels as the door made ready to reject the identification. Then, without changing his expression or his physical posture, Owen reached out, using the skills that for more than ten years had made him Errec Ransome's most valued--and most valuable--apprentice.

The flow of electrons altered its course. The lock clicked quietly and the door slid open.

A stranger waited in the unlit lobby, a thin, hunched man in the plain garb of a low-level office worker. Owen tensed, but the man didn't make any threatening moves.

"I've got the password," the worker said.

Owen paused. He hadn't expected anyone to be here at all. But he hadn't sensed any wrongness as he approached the office building, and the man himself didn't project any great amount of menace either.

He must be one of Bee's contacts, Owen decided. He's certainly the type--his coverall might as well have a tag on it saying "Disaffected Employee."

"Well?" he said aloud.

The man licked his lips. "We need to talk about the money first."

Money . . . Owen knew he shouldn't feel surprised. His sister was a merchant-captain, and dealt in the purchase and sale of whatever goods might find a market. But when Owen worked, as now, in the persona of a down-at-the-heels drifter, he carried as little cash as possible. A spaceport bum with money was a contradiction in terms.

"I'm just the messenger boy," Owen said. "You can pick up your fee at the General Delivery office." In addition to handling electronic and hardcopy messages, local branches of the giant communications firm made convenient, no-questions-asked cash drops for all sorts of legal and semilegal business exchanges. "I'm not authorized to carry cash."

He braced himself for an objection, and made ready to counter it in much the same way as he had dealt with the door. He was mildly surprised when the man only nodded, said, "Right," and began fishing in the pockets of his coat.

After a few seconds, the man came up with a thin slice of plastic. "The password's on here."

He held out the keycard. Owen reached out a hand to take the card, and felt the first undefined stirrings of premonition as their fingers touched.

Something's wrong. He ought to have made a fuss about the money.

Owen looked at the man again, this time using the physical contact to enhance his perceptions.

Under that deeper scrutiny, the patterns of the office worker's consciousness showed up like a dark and knotted skein, with fear and duplicity and greed tangled into an unlovely network.

Now I see it. He doesn't mind that he might not get Bee's money. Somebody else has already paid him more.

Owen smiled inwardly, though the face he presented to the office worker never changed. Sister mine, it's a good thing I came to this party instead of you. You were about to walk into a trap.

He tucked the keycard into the breast pocket of his coverall. Then, in a continuation of the same movement, his right arm snapped forward, and he smashed the edge of his hand against the bridge of the other man's nose. Cartilage and bone crushed inward, and a fine spray of blood misted out.

Owen caught the man as he fell and eased him silently to the floor. On his knees beside the unconscious man, he searched quickly and methodically through the other's pockets, but found nothing of interest except a second keycard, a twin to the first, equally unmarked. He pocketed it and stood up again.

He looked down for a moment at the sprawled form of the office worker. Perhaps the man would drown in the blood draining from his crushed sinuses, or perhaps not. Owen left the worker there for those who had hired him, and went about his own business.

He took the emergency stairs, not the lift, to the top floor, and paused briefly before the lockplate of the office at the end of the hall. The security system here presented no more challenge than the lock on the outside door. In a moment he was in, with the door closed and secured behind him. He'd probably taken care of any problems by silencing the man below; if he hadn't, whoever had set this trap for his sister would find more in it than they'd expected.

The desk comp had a slot for the keycard. Owen paused for a moment, considering.

Without a physical card in place to complete the circuits, not even an Adept's tricks could shunt the electron flow to perform the task he needed. But which card to use? Owen weighed them in his hand, assessing them as he had the office worker below. One of the cards, the one that he'd been given, felt limited, probably crippled on purpose. He discarded it without any more thought and switched to the card he'd taken from the office worker's pocket.

The password worked. He had Bee's datachip full within minutes; her need for information was narrow and specific, and easily supplied. Errec Ransome's chip took longer. The Master of the Guild cast his nets wide, and in strange waters, for the welfare of the galaxy's Adepts.

Errec Ransome had been a junior Adept in the Guildhouse on Ilarna when the Magewar broke out. Those days had seen slaughter done all across the galaxy, but few places had suffered worse than Ransome's home planet. Only Sapne and Entibor had experienced more destruction than Ilarna. Sapne, depopulated by plagues and reduced to barbarism, had no inhabitants left alive who could remember its ruined cities in their prime; and Entibor was an orbiting slag heap with nothing living on its surface at all.

Seeing all his friends dead and the Ilarna Guildhouse smashed into rubble, Errec Ransome had left the Adepts for a time. He had joined the privateers of Innish-Kyl in their hit-and-run war against the Magelords, fighting other men's battles for his own purposes. The Mageworlders had been crushed now for twenty years and more, and Master Ransome had long since returned to the Guild; but his vigilance never ceased.

Owen completed his second download and withdrew the keycard. And then--

Danger!

The premonition slammed into him full force. His senses clamored with the awareness of enemies nearby, and he clutched the edge of the desk with both hands.

Danger! Too close--

He lifted his head to looked around the office, and cursed under his breath at his own arrogance and stupidity.

What had seemed to be alternate exits--windows and an inner door--he saw now were only illusions, holographic projections with their reality enhanced by his own willingness to believe. The trap had closed on him in a room with no escape except by the door through which he had entered. He would have to fight his way out.

He crossed over to the door and put his hand against it, still expecting little more than blaster bravos and hired thugs, the sort of vermin who were his sister's enemies. Instead...

Worse and worse. His enemies waited for him on the other side. His enemies, and not Beka's at all.

#

Owen paused again in the deeper shadows beside a trash bin and looked around. Still no visible pursuit. Closing his eyes and drawing a deep breath, he centered himself and cleared his senses as best he could.

Nobody near. I've lost them. I hope.

He couldn't be certain; he didn't have enough energy left to make certain and still keep himself hidden. The fight at the Flatlands Investment Building had taken too much out of him--single-handed and unarmed against too many opponents, while most of his inner resources were diverted into hiding the datachips in his coverall pocket.

He'd lost the hand-to-hand fight, but he'd won the other struggle: he still had both datachips concealed when his enemies dragged him off to Florrie's Place. There was somebody at Florrie's, they gave him to understand, who was slated for the honor of finishing him off.

He'd never expected to find his sister Beka waiting for him at the other end of a blaster. Once he saw her face, he thought for a few seconds that she was going to kill him after all. But she shot the guard instead, and cut another man's throat, and then surprised Owen even further by agreeing to draw away the inevitable pursuit.

If Master Ransome's datachip ever made it back home to Galcen, Owen reflected, it would be mostly Beka's work. For his own part, he'd been half-blind from the moment he came here.

The blindness wasn't entirely his fault, he supposed. The enemy must have been clouding his vision ever since he showed up on Pleyver--the old enemy, the ones who had laid siege to the planet of Entibor for three years, and not abandoned it until Entibor was dead; who had broken every fleet the civilized worlds had sent against them except the last; who had massacred the Adepts of Ilarna and half a hundred other planets besides.

There were Mages on Pleyver, and not mere apprentices or self-taught dabblers in the ways of power. The great Magelords had returned.
What is this prologue?

It is brief. It is, I hope, interesting on its own. It serves as "Our Story So Far" for those who missed volume one. It introduces the main characters (not the distant ancestors of the main characters, or a minor character who is never heard from again).

And it is completely dispensable. You don't need to have read it to follow the book.

(Also, note the italics to indicate thoughts.)

Knowing all the theoretical reasons for not using prologues (and in general, if you can possible drop them, do so), why did I choose to use a prologue here?

Because it seemed like a good idea at the time. And, I think I was right.

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

Astoundingly, The Apocalypse Door has its own page at TV Tropes and Idioms.

------------------------------

Alas, everything posted from the fifth through today seems to be ... gone.

Let's see what I remember.

Plot Device.

I'm sure there was more. Did I remember to tell you that one way to increase the apparent speed of your endings was to write shorter chapters/shorter scenes there?

-------------------------

Recovering more stuff from Google Cache (alas, I'm way too good at doing this):

OMG!

Now, thanks to the power of the Internet and the miracle of Print On Demand publishing, you too can read the book that up 'til now only a select few slush readers at the largest publishers in America have been able to sample and enjoy!

http://www.booksonboard.com/index.ph...k&BOOK=1065970

------------------------

Neat Trick #159: As you get into your action/adventure climax, make the chapters progressively shorter and shorter. This has the effect of making the pace seem faster.

Do I do this?

You betcha.

-----------------------------

The Plot Device

-------------------------------

Y'all need a writing challenge? Here's one: Take one of these tired, unworkable plots, and make it fresh, new, and interesting:

http://www.strangehorizons.com/guidelines/fiction-common.shtml

(Remember Feist's Corollary to Watt-Evans' Law: There is no idea so stupid that a sufficiently talented writer can't make a readable story out of it. These ideas are stupid, you're talented, start writing!)

-----------------------------

Heck, Jake, they pulled the same stunt in Sucker Punch, which only works if the protag is insane; and even if you assume she's insane (in a surprising twist!) it still doesn't work.

Meanwhile, I've just seen a copy of the book that reprints our "Uncle Joshua and the Grooglemen," Sense of Wonder. The book also includes an essay by me on Military Science Fiction, and an essay by my long-time collaborator Doyle on Writers' Workshops.

Buy one! Better still, buy a dozen! They make excellent gifts!

(Oh, and in our never-ending quest to make our backlist available, Bad Blood.)

---------------------------

Someday let me tell you how parasitologists take live samples across international boundaries without being stopped by Customs.

A principal for y'all: "But it really happened that way!" isn't an excuse in fiction.

Also: That isn't necessarily a list of Bad Story ideas, it's a list of Stories They've Seen Too Often. Your challenge is to make 'em fresh and new.

(Writers have been making old, overworked stories Fresh and New for centuries if not millennia: Here's how. Take two stories. Turn one of 'em on its head. Smash 'em together. There you go! New story.)

----------------------------

Thanks also because I attribute my first commercial sale at least partly to what I learned here (even though the thread is about novels, and the sale was a short story - though the forms are different, writing is writing, after all).

That is the best news and the greatest thanks that any teacher could ask for.

But you're being much too shy: Elf Love. Buy one. Better still, buy a dozen. They make excellent gifts.


Uncle Jim, when you're writing a short story (say targeted at around 5k words) do you use as detailed an outline as when you're working on a novel? If not, do you just wing it with an idea in your head or what?

In my case, the outline is essentially the first draft. I have an idea of where I'm going with it, but it's all in my head and I write from start to finish.

----------------------

And now for something completely different: Web-based storytelling (that wouldn't work anywhere except the web): The Planetarium

-----------------

Rapunzel's Daughters: And Other Tales

"Readers who enjoy discovering new writers or fans of imaginative approaches to familiar themes should relish this small press offering." -- Library Journal

"...any fairy tale fan will find something to enjoy in this collection." -- Publishers Weekly

Not bad at all.

And a favorable mention of "Snowvhit" at Goodreads, too.

-----------------------------

Oh, and the Unworkable Story story challenge?

When you're done, and when you've passed your story by your beta readers, and it's all polished and nice ... send it out 'til Hell won't have it.

That is the secret to being a professional writer.

-----------------------------



Where are the folks who read Learn Writing with Uncle Jim coming from?

--------------------------------

Yo, Bartholomew.

I have several different methods of outlining. Let me see... I suppose I should give you some.

From Uncle Jim Undiluted, we find this bit:

My outlines aren't submission-quality prose (though some bits do make it all the way through without change).

They most closely resemble a guy telling his buddy about a neat movie he saw the night before -- bits of memorable dialog, descriptions, but most important the order of the scenes.

Often at this stage I have nonce-names for characters (sometimes they're named for their function in the story: "Bestpal" or "Cannonfodder"). Sometimes the author is a character: The author looked up from couch where he sat taking notes. "Just keep talking, guys," he said. "I'll fix it in the rewrite."

I see novels as having shape. There has to be a pleasing, balanced shape, with all the parts connected, the corners neat, and overall easy to look at.

Try drawing a picture of your book, showing the flow of scenes and chapters. In a bit I might go into my theory of the novel as architecture.


Typing a hundred fifty page outline runs me about two or three weeks.

After that, bashing it around to make it into something worth playing with, then writing from the outline into a finished novel -- that can take some time.
If you're really hard against it, here's a trick:

Write a ten-page single-spaced, present tense outline. That's roughly 500 lines. You want a 300 page manuscript. You want to do it in 30 chapters, each chapter having ten pages.

Great. Take those 500 lines. Divide by 30. Every 16 lines, draw a red line across the page with your red pencil. Those are the chapters.

The first 16 lines become ten pages. You can't go on until you have 'em. The second 16 lines become ten pages labeled "Chapter Two." And so on. You can do one chapter a day, and have a novel in a month.

It'll be rougher'n forty-grit sandpaper, but you'll have the raw material to work with. Revise from that.

Other methods of outlining exist. Find one that works for you.

---------------------------------

If anyone's interested in a job in publishing, Angry Robot is recruiting.

(UK only.)

---------------------------

Finally have all of the Bad Blood books up, with the e-and-POD publication of Hunters' Moon.


---------------------------

Page 69

07-30-2011 10:02 PM
Post #1709
 

James D. Macdonald

Your Genial Uncle
Absolute Sage
VPX
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Feb 11, 2005
Messages
25,582
Reaction score
3,785
Location
New Hampshire
Website
madhousemanor.wordpress.com
Post 1710
Page 69
08-02-11

-------------------

You got problems with your writing
She said to me
The answer's easy if you
Put your B in C
I'll show you how to move along
When you find you're up a tree
There must be fifty ways
To plot your novel.

She said it's not my habit
To keep you from your booze
But somehow I can't help myself
When a writer has the blues
So sit awhile at your keyboard
And listen to the Muse
There must be fifty ways
To plot your novel
Fifty ways to plot your novel.


Run 'em down with a truck, Chuck,
Deny their free will, Phil,
Don't need to explain, Jane,
Just twist up the plot.
Add some sex to the stew, Sue,
Don't let 'em say when, Jen,
Let the mome raths outgrabe, Abe,
And see what you've got.

She said it's really rugged
When a novel is half done
There are some games that you can play
To make the writing fun
I said please keep on talking
'Cause you just a hit a home run
About the fifty ways

She said why don't you type a page
Before calling it a night
She said don't pause to fact-check
'Cause you'll fix it in re-write
She said this is an artform
Where things are not black or white,
There must be fifty ways to plot your novel
Fifty ways to plot your novel.


Run 'em down with a truck, Chuck,
Deny their free will, Phil,
Don't need to explain, Jane,
Just twist up the plot.
Add some sex to the stew, Sue,
Don't let 'em say when, Jen,
Let the mome raths outgrabe, Abe,
And see what you've got.

--------------------

How many chapters are you thinking of, and what word-count are you aiming for?

---------------------

You could try writing a ten-page outline, just to see if you can get the shape fixed.

Or, you might write a one-page-per-chapter outline.

Or, if you have an idea of where you're trying to wind up, you might leap into the water and start swimming.

-------------------

How to write a novel in three days. From Michael Moorcock.

------------------

Urban fantasy? Go for 80,000 words. For that length, think of between thirty and forty chapters.

First sex scene 1/3 of the way in (Chapter 10). Second sex scene, 1/2 of the way in (Chapter 15). Third sex scene next-to-last chapter (Chapter 29).

No, I'm not advising cookie-cutter formulaic writing. What I am suggesting is a way to structure an outline (which will change radically in the writing, and which will change even more in the re-writing, and change far more than that in the editing). Your final work may not have any sex scenes at all, or may have one on every-other page.

Rather than a sex scene, put in a demon fight, or fancy-dress ball, or any other major high-point climax with the last being the greatest. The main climax goes in the next-to-last chapter, with the final chapter tying the bowknot and getting the heck out of there.

---------------------

Which leads me to wonder why your womenfolk have to cry or weep so often...

Oh would you know why Henry sleeps,
And why his mourning Mother weeps,
And why his weeping Mother mourns?
He was unkind to unicorns.

-------------------------

Hey again, Unca Jim. <3

So, I was linked to this today: http://www.advancedfictionwriting.com/art/scene.php - and I am mostly enchanted by the thought that there's an ideal scene structure. I can't quite parse this structure in a couple of books I've skimmed, though, and I was wondering if that was a fault of my eyes, or if the article is missing something crucial.

Two things, one of which ol' Randy addresses, one of which he doesn't.

One is that this is only one of many possible structures. Dylan Thomas' "Do not go gentle into that good night" is a lousy sonnet, but it's a great villanelle.

Randy addresses this by saying that while there are other possible structures, they are not perfect.

Others may beg to differ.

The big thing that he fails to notice or address is that the POV character and the main character are not necessarily the same individual. The POV is the character best sited to see the action of the scene. The POV is where Jack Ford set up his camera. At the big scene where the knight comes in and throws his belt and spurs into his lord's face before stalking out to become a freelance, the POV may well (and perhaps should) be a footman who witnesses it, not the lord, or the the knight.

The only time the POV and the main character are usually one are in first-person, and not even always then: Who is the main character of any random Sherlock Holmes story? Who is the POV?


In any case, I'm very curious if you have some method or structure you adhere to on the scene level. Apologies if this has been stomped flat into the earth already, as a topic. I had to miss a few months of posts, and haven't found the time to catch up.
What I use, at the scene level, comes from my early training as a magician. I try to control the reader's interest and attention in order to present the information that will produce a desired effect. Those effects are plot, character, and theme.

A novel is not just a series of scenes, however perfect those scenes may be. A novel is a whole.

What any author tells you about how they write is true for them. What you need to find is what is true for you.

Structuring your scenes according to Randy's retelling of Dwight's method ... might prove a useful exercise.

Tell you what. Write a short story following the Lester Dent Master Outline, using Randy's Scenes and Sequels and his MRUs.

No writing is wasted. Perhaps it'll open new insights for you, even if that insight is "Well, that didn't work."

--------------------------

Neither confuse nor bore the reader are the two great rules of fiction.

--------------------------

My fiction's main character tends to also be the PoV character. o.o When I have two people romping around together, I usually find some reason to merge their characters.

Hm.

I wouldn't, necessarily. When you have two people romping around together they can talk together and you get dialog and such.

---------------------------

A bit of library time should definitely be in your future.

--------------------------

Does it work for you? If so, carry on!

If it doesn't work for you, find something that works for you.

----------------------------

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....

------------------------------------

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.

----------------------------------

A summary of Amazon's war on publishers

Author's copies of Sense of Wonder arrived today.

---------------------------------

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.

---------------------------

Ask that question after "The End."

Then ask if your book can be divided into a trilogy or a series.

----------------------------

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.

------------------------

If anyone has some children's books lying around that they don't need:

A small library in the Adirondacks needs help.

------------------------

On the prevalence of US tropes in storytelling

Why is it that violence is the answer to any problem?

---------------------------

Sir Alfred Hitchcock's last film was in 1976.

Things change.

---------------------------

Fame at last! I'm mentioned (with my name misspelled) at the Great Orange Satan.

Also mentioned: Ted Sturgeon (who came up with Sturgeon's Law: "90% of everything is crud").

Also, other amusing history of Novels in America.

------------------------------

No, PA's cracks about SF writers came first. The whole Writer Beware crew consists of SF writers (and is an official part of SFWA), I'm an SF writer, and Dave Kuzminski is an SF writer.

SF writers are close to their fans, there's a lot of crossover between fan writers and pro writers, so SF writers seem to be on the forefront of rooting out scammers.

---------------------------------

Taken from this thread: Becoming a "midlist" author...

Oh, Ghod. "Confessions of a midlist writer" again.

Here's a word of advice for that author: Frontlist money + backlist sales does not average out to midlist.

And poor Jane Austen Doe! Five books in ten years? What's she been doing with her time?

$150,000 advance, with all the promotion that goes with it, yielding only 10,000 sales, means that the book wasn't just a "disappointment," it was a smoking hole in the runway. It's hard to see how she managed this unless readers hated it, and told their friends that they hated it. Or perhaps the publisher bound the copies in decaying codfish. But ...
Current status: Out of print. Small but loyal cult following; 10 years later adoring fans still show up at readings, clutching well-worn copies, eager to tell me how book changed their lives.
So here's some practical advice for her: The book's undoubtedly reverted by now. Find a high-prestige small press that's willing to take it. Get it back into print. Don't insist on an advance.

Second book: Ghost writer for celebrity. Hint for Jane A. Doe: The sales weren't for your golden words, they were for the "author's" name on the cover. Practical advice: This is a good gig. See if your agent can get you one of these per year. Treat it as your day job.

Attempted book: A short-story anthology? Srsly? Hint: Don't do that.

Third book: That money you spent on a publicist was wasted. Also: rather than fiddle around with screenwriters and such, write another book.

Speaking of money, don't be an idiot with money. The kid doesn't need Nikes when Keds will do.

Book Four: $80,000 advance. Why are you wasting time and money on publicists? Write another book. And, if you're doing this to be recognized by total strangers on airplanes, then ... maybe you should reevaluate your priorities.

Book Five, $50,000 offer. Why are you complaining again?

Never, ever forget: The Reader is King. Readers aren't liking your books. Choices: Write different books, or write the same books under a different name.

And what is the moan? An average of $40K per year. That's right around the median US single-person income.

I see that she's complaining that publishing is now a business. The article was originally published in 2004.

News flash: Publishing has always been a business. You can find Raymond Chandler making the same complaint in the 1950s. You can find H. P. Lovecraft making exactly the same complaint in the 1920s. Get with the program -- and write books that the public actually wants to read.

Other reactions from actual mid-list authors:

http://nihilistic-kid.livejournal.com/405207.html

http://www.scalzi.com/whatever/002699.html

===============

Jane Austen Doe did do one good thing: She inspired Scalzi to write this:
Even More Long-Winded (But Practical) Writing Advice

===============

Okay, definitions:

The frontlist consists of the books that are in the front of the publisher's catalog (where the bookstore buyer starts looking at the offerings). The closer to the front, the bigger the push. These are books that each have a full page in the catalog. The backlist is the books that are listed at the back of the catalog. Previous years' books that are still in print, perennial sellers, that sort of stuff. Generally just a listing of titles and authors, because the bookstore buyer presumably knows what those books are, and how they're selling in each store.

The midlist is everything in the catalog that's in the middle, between the frontlist and the backlist.

That's all it is.

One reason the midlist has been "vanishing" is that the publishers have been splitting their offerings into more and more lines and imprints, each with their own catalog and their own frontlist. The same or greater numbers of books are on offer, but fewer of them are in the middles of catalogs. It isn't the vanishing midlist, it's the expanding frontlist.

There are other possibilities. Our first adult novel wasn't frontlist, backlist, or midlist. It was offered as an "off-list special."

------------------------------

Bad decisions make good stories.

------------------------------

No, don't change it.

There are hundreds and hundreds of real people named "Ben Jordan."

Any name you choose is likely to be shared with someone.

-----------------------------

Sure, Google is your friend, but don't let it paralyze you. You can use it to make sure that the fantasy name you give to one of your characters isn't a thundering obscenity in Quechua (which will get a you letter from someone in Cuzco), but other than that ... so you named your heroine in your spy thriller Fanny Price. So what?

------------------------

Oh my goodness.

And y'all thought we were kidding about vacuuming your cat....

--------------------

No need to pay the big bucks to learn how to toilet train your cat. Instructions here.

The problem comes when your kitty discovers how much fun it is to flush the toilet, whether she's used it or not, at all hours of the day and night.

Also: Don't you have a chapter to write?

----------------------------

I'm pleased to report that Tor is bringing out our Mageworlds books in electronic editions. http://nielsenhayden.com/makinglight/archives/013232.html

------------------------------

Thank you, thomas86. The best way to thank us is to write amazing fiction and publish it. We want to read more good stuff.


-------------------------

A simple four-item formula for turning story into fiction

------------------------

It's the same thing I've been saying for years: Everything needs to advance the plot, reveal character, or support the theme.

But if a single event in the story doesn't connect to other events of the story, why is it there?

--------------------------

Good question. I'lll ask Haruki Murakami next time I see him.

I think you'll find that all of the events in Haruki Murakami's novels interlace in intricate ways.

---------------------

The character can face a situation where there are no good choices.

The character can be misinformed. The character can be mistaken. The character can be overconfident, or underconfident. The character might be lacking a crucial piece of information.

"Looking back on it now, the decision to go to Cleveland that night might not have been a good one...."

------------------------------

The protagonist may not be the person who made the bad decision. The mayor of the town may have made a really bone-headed decision that the protagonist now has to deal with.

------------------------

You're allowed an astounding coincidence or random event to start a story. You just aren't allowed one to give your story its conclusion.

-------------------------

E-publishing considered as the California Gold Rush.

--------------------------

Genre's letter to literary fiction.

-------------------------

Hello, Casey. I'm glad you're finding the thread useful.

You don't need to remove/change all the dialog tags to "she/he said," but you do need to think about all of them. They're spices. Without them, the stew is bland. With too many, its inedible.

I can certainly do another ending analysis after the holidays.

And, yes, it's time for another Christmas Challenge.

This year's Christmas Challenge is A Story in Four Days.

First, decide on what your protagonist's problem is. Then decide on a period of four in which the protagonist can reasonably expect to solve it. Thus, if his/her problem is a broken shoelace, a reasonable time to solve it is four minutes. If the problem is a broken marriage, though, the time scale will be more likely four years.

Now, over a four day stretch, write a short story. On the first day, write about the protagonist's attempt to solve that problem in the first time increment. End with discovering that the problem isn't what it seemed at first; there's a new, bigger, hairier problem. Fifteen-hundred words is a good aiming point.

The next writing day, write about the second time increment, as your protagonist attempts to solve this second bigger, hairier problem. This ends, not with the solution to the problem, but with the discovery that the real problem is something entirely different, and far worse, than the protagonist thought. Again, fifteen-hundred words would be nice.

The third writing day, you'll again do fifteen-hundred words, about the third time increment, as your protagonist tries to solve this new, nearly-overwhelming problem. At the end of this section, the protagonist discovers that the problem is really another thing, and its really, really bad. Horrible. Worse than anything that had come before.

The last day, your writing will: Fill the fourth time increment. Resolve this new, horrible problem (through the protagonist's own efforts). And solve the original problem. Thus (with the shoelace example), at the end of the 6,000 words, the protagonist has the murderer who was hiding in the closet neatly tied up and awaiting the police, and is wearing a pair of slip-on shoes so the shoelace problem is solved (she/he can buy a new pair of shoelaces on the way home from work).

Again, write and polish. Present it to your family and friends on Christmas Eve (while waiting for Santa Claus to bring you a new plot point (you've been good!)), revise it according to their comments/what you thought of while reading it aloud, and send it out (to a paying market!) on the second of January, 2012.

----------------------------

People only see your final draft.

The books you read in the library are a final draft that's been edited.

Do not expect your first draft to be as polished as someone else's edited final draft. False expectations can freeze you.
-------------------

If you use "--" there's no doubt that you intended an em-dash.

-------------------

4500 words in two hours is less than 40 words per minute. That's easily doable by any touch-typist.

---------------------

Hey Jim,

I wanted to know do you know any writing work shops in New York city?

Sorry, can't help you. I'm not part of the NYC workshop scene. I'm sure there are some, and I'm pretty sure your local librarian can help you find them.

-------------------------

The past, the present, and the future walk into a bar.

It got tense.

-------------------------

An ion walks into a bar, crying, and orders a beer.

"None of my business," says the bartender, "but what's the problem?"

"It's my little electron," says the ion. "She left me!"

"Are you sure?" asks the bartender.

"I'm positive!"


------------------

Merry Christmas (or other seasonal greeting as appropriate). Has everyone finished the Christmas Challenge?

------------------

Judging by UJ's posts, and his tendency to type in ms format, I'm guessing the "--" is another typewriter relic.


From the Baen Books electronic submission guidelines:

Do not use "smart quotes"/curly quotes or single character elipses, mdashes, etc. Use straight quotes and apostrophes, . . ., --, etc.

----------------

This concludes 2011.

Post #1820
Page 73
12-25-2011, 04:16 PM
 

James D. Macdonald

Your Genial Uncle
Absolute Sage
VPX
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Feb 11, 2005
Messages
25,582
Reaction score
3,785
Location
New Hampshire
Website
madhousemanor.wordpress.com
Learn Writing with Uncle Jim, Volume 2

Page 73
Post #1823
01-08-2012, 12:16 PM

================

Jim, I was wondering if perhaps, after the holiday assignment, you might consider another ending analysis? To me that was more challenging than beginnings, but fun and useful.

You want it, you got it!

The novel will be Lean Mean Thirteen by Janet Evanovich (selected at random). I haven't read it myself; I'll be reading it along with you. It's available in hardcover (should be in many libraries), paperback, and e-text.

We'll discuss the last chapter one month from today: 08 February 2012.

----------------------

I trust everyone's found a copy of Lean Mean Thirteen?

----------------------------

Meanwhile, I've been reading slush lately for a publisher that takes electronic submissions.

Here are some things I've learned:

1) For heaven's sake put the title of your story in the cover letter!

2) Don't name the attached file "MyStory.doc" or "Submission.rtf" -- because there are already about 3,000 files called "MyStory.doc" and "Submission.rtf" in the Incoming box. Give it a meaningful name, sort of like the running head on a paper manuscript: Moby_Dick_Melville.doc, for example.

3) Unless the publisher's guidelines say otherwise, use .rtf. Every recent word-processor can both produce and read .rtf. If you're Really Really Fond of XYWrite from 1991 -- get someone to convert the file before you send it it.

4) It is Totally Unnecessary to put Every Single Friggin' Page in a separate file (e.g. Page001.doc, Page002.doc, Page003.doc, ... Page497.doc). You want to make it easy for the slush reader to keep going, not make him wonder if opening the next file is Too Darned Much Trouble.

================

4) It is Totally Unnecessary to put Every Single Friggin' Page in a separate file (e.g. Page001.doc, Page002.doc, Page003.doc, ... Page497.doc). You want to make it easy for the slush reader to keep going, not make him wonder if opening the next file is Too Darned Much Trouble.

Yes, people do this. If it was only once I'd say it was a fluke, but I've seen it twice, so....

I expect it's folks who took the advice to use their word processor like a typewriter a little too literally.

Speaking of which, you don't need to hit the carriage return at the end of every line, either.

----------------------

As always, follow the guidelines of the market you're submitting to. Even if the guidelines don't make sense to you, they (for whatever reason) make the publisher's workflow easier, and you want the publisher to have an easy workflow, right?

-----------------------

Everyone gets bad reviews from time to time....

The various tabs in WordPerfect:

From the Format menu, choose Line, then Tab Set. You'll get a menu of Right, Left, Center, or Decimal. Choose the one you like.

============

Is nothing sacred?

Makes me think of a bunch of people bowing down before a large statue of the number Zero. A couple of onlookers: One saying to the other, "Is nothing sacred?"

==============

In today's episode of Stranger Than Fiction....

-------------------------

You want it, you got it!

The novel will be Lean Mean Thirteen by Janet Evanovich (selected at random). I haven't read it myself; I'll be reading it along with you. It's available in hardcover (should be in many libraries), paperback, and e-text.

We'll discuss the last chapter one month from today: 08 February 2012.

Still time to go get this book and read it. It's short....

--------------------------

SPOILERS

Okay, let's talk about the last chapter of Lean Mean Thirteen. This is an entry in a long-running series involving a female bounty hunter in Trenton, New Jersey.

Chapter Eighteen is the last. It begins:
Grandma Mazur had Blackie under her arm when she opened the door.

"What are you doing with Blackie?" I asked her.

"I've been trying to find just the right place to set him out. I want him to look natural."

At the risk of being unkind, Blackie would need to be in Frankenstein's lab to look natural.


What's going on here is winding up two of the plot arcs. The genre here is comedy/drama with a romance element. First person, past tense narrator.

The plot arcs are the comedy taxidermist (one of the persons that our narrator wanted to catch for skipping bail), and the nymphomaniac grandmother. These are minor arcs. The grandmother is a continuing character, but the taxidermist, I believe, first appeared in this book and will vanish from subsequent books.

"I have Morelli's laundry. I thought i'd throw it in the washer, and then I have to get back to Morelli," I told Grandma.

"Blackie and me will take care of it for you. We haven't got anything better to do."

I left the laundry with Grandma and ran back to Morelli's SUV. I thought maybe Lula was right and I didn't do much for Morelli. It wouldn't kill me to pitch in and clean his house today. It was only a matter of time before my life would be back to normal, although I was beginning to think weird might be normal for me. The police would get the car and the clock and the money. They'd find Petiak and lock him up. And I wasn't sure what would happen to Dickie.

Morelli's house was less than a quarter of a mile from my parents' house. I drove two blocks and was T-boned by a Hummer coming out of an alley that ran behind a row of houses. The impact rammed me into a parked car and left me breathless. Before I had a chance to collect myself, my door was wrenched open, and I was yanked from behind the wheel. It was Dave with a broken nose, bandaged fingers, and a brace on his knee.

"Haw," Dave said, jamming the barrel of a gun into my ribs "We figured you'd come to see your mom. We've been waiting for you."
That takes us to the first scene break.

We're winding down the romantic sub-plot (narrator/Morelli). We're winding down the mystery plot: car/clock/money. We're winding down the major villain plot: Petiak. We're winding down the minor continuing comedy-villain: Dickie.

The scene ends with sudden violence, and the unexpected appearance of the bumbling comedy-henchman: Dave. (Unexpected because, with all the injuries he's sustained, he should be in a hospital somewhere.) The subplots, which appeared to be winding down, are now all back in play.

This also takes us through the second page of the last chapter. The chapter has fifteen pages in the edition I'm using; 14%. We've just been told that none of the subplots are actually winding down. Instead, they're going to be brought back into play with some kind of twist: "weird."

---------------------

The next scene is likewise about two pages long.

Our first-person narrator is taken by bumbling-and-beaten Dave to see the until-now unseen Chief Villain, Petiak.

Petiak had been discussed quite a bit, but now we're finally meeting him. The location of this meeting as also been described, but now we're seeing it for the first time. Petiak displays his favorite murder weapon: a flamethrower. Again, we've heard quite a bit about it, but this is the first time it appears for our narrator to see and describe it.

The villain threatens to kill the heroine, if she doesn't give him the key which will allow him to get $40 million. She doesn't have it, but knows where it is.

After the mild comedy of the first scene, this scene is quite a bit darker. The tension is racked up a lot.

----------------------

Anyone want to chime in, before I get to the third section?

----------------------

A good summary of the third, and longest, section of the final chapter. The mysterious, and darkly threatening, villain is revealed to be an incompetent schlub. His death (brought about by his own actions rather than anything Stephanie does or doesn't do) takes place off-stage.

That ties off the major arc of the story. Although it takes place over a longer period of time than any other action in this chapter, and although it involves a great deal of geographic diversity, it's presented all as one scene -- one long tracking shot, in film terms, like the long tracking shot at the end of the Emma Thompson/Kenneth Branagh Much Ado About Nothing -- with little bumps of tension and release along the way.

Which brings us to the fourth and last scene. Around two pages. We get a brief tie-up of the remaining loose ends. The key to the money is gone. Dickie remains as a continuing comedy bad guy. Ranger and Morelli remain as possible romantic-attachments for Stephanie. While Morelli is on top (so to speak) at the moment, a plot hook/cliffhanger is left lying there (on the floor): A pair of Stephanie's panties with Ranger's name embroidered on them.

And that's the end of the book.

The plot-lines introduced in this volume are solved in this volume. The plot-lines left over from the previous volume remain unresolved (although they have come to a natural equilibrium).

It's light comedy/romance/drama. The plot is the classic One-Darned-Thing-After-Another plot. The baseline effect is speed. Humor replaces realism: Stephanie and Dave take injuries that would put Wile E. Coyote in the hospital for a month without giving either of them anything worse than a limp. The entire adventure takes place over a period of days, rather than weeks.

So, based on this last chapter, would you pick up the next book?

------------------------

This particular book seemed to follow the roller-coaster plan. The big hill at the start, then a bunch of smaller hills and twists, then the ending being a set of smaller hills -- just bumps, really -- before gliding into the station, ready to take you around again.

It's as valid a model as the one where you're climbing a mountain and plant your flag on the summit in the last chapter.

You couldn't ask for a better example, though, of the adage that your first page sells this book, your last page sells the next book, and what you need in between is a reason for the readers to keep turning each page in turn.

--------------------------

Experience the author brings to the table...

Many years ago there was a men's action adventure series about mercenaries in Africa. It was gritty. It was tough. It had sex. Things were going well enough ...

Then the publisher started getting letters. One from Africa, and it went roughly, "Mikey: Thought you were dead. Now we know you aren't we're going to find you, mate." Another was from a solicitor in London: "We believe that [author] is the father of our client's minor child...." And so on.

The editors were ... bemused.

The author was thrilled, because the author was really a pseudonym for a pair of little-old-lady librarians in upper New York State who had never been within a thousand miles of Africa (or London), didn't know any mercenaries, had never served in the military. All they knew how to do was research, and write cracking yarns.

----------------------

Off to Boskone. See you there!

----------------------

No, I've never kept a diary.

But ... everything you do contributes to storytelling. Particularly if it involves telling stories.

-----------------------

Tiny little brag: Four of this year's Nebula nominees are Viable Paradise graduates.

----------------------

First posted elsewhere, but I thought I'd bring it here:
Yeah, I'm aware that paid-for reviews exist, like I'm aware that paid-for sex exists. You want, I can show you a place where you can get a five-star review, from a "Real Name" account with an "Amazon-Verified Purchase," for five bucks.

But you know something? I can also show you where to get a blowjob for five bucks.

Don't mistake it for love, though, and don't think in a million years that anyone who sees you with the hooker will think that it's love.


-------------------

Best query letter evah.

-------------------

You guys are getting some good reviews from bloggers, too. This guy has a decent following among authors.

http://elflands2ndcousin.com/2012/03/06/reflections-on-the-workshop-experience-viable-paradise/


I hadn't seen that... thanks. Here's another:

http://www.jasontoomey.com/stonetower/2010/10/vp-14-final-update-wrapping-it-all-up.html


------------------------

Is it best to let the MS cool before I dive in and begin the revision process knowing that I'll need at a couple full rewrites, or is it best to revise, rewrite and when it's closer to its final state let it cool?

The answer to that will depend on the author -- on you, and what works for you.

For me, it's best to let the story age for a while, while writing something new, but I've come to that realization about myself over the years. I started out revising as soon as I hit The End--and for some writers that works really well. (And you're going to have to do that if you're pressing the deadline.)

So, best is highly subjective.

Same for the number of revisions you do.

My best advice, though, right now, is to let it sit. The parts of the story that are "head story" (they're in the author's head, not on the page) will slough away in the interim if you put it aside and work on something else for a bit.

-----------------------

I've written a novel in 1st person, present tense, where the narrator dies in the end. Then I wrote the epilogue in another supporting character's 1st person, present tense relating the events after the main character croaked, because I couldn't let the end happen when the end happened to the main narrator.

It's been done well.

For example, The Sorrows of Young Werther by Goethe. Or All Quiet on the Western Front, where the story continues a bit in past tense from an omniscient narrator after the first-person-present-tense protagonist dies.

If you do it well enough, you can do it too.

-------------------------

Speaking of epistolary novels, there's Dracula, and our own Land of Mist and Snow.

===================

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.

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).
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.

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.

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

--------------------

Elsewhere at AW, I posted:

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.)


"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.

================

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.

Just write through to "The End." You'll discover later what the first chapter is.

It gives me a new perspective for every time I think "I could write a better book than that."

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,
What's the difference between third-person omniscient and head-hopping?​
Confused Scribe in San Francisco


Dear Confused:
None. It's called head-hopping when you do it badly.​
Uncle Jim


=================

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?

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.

--------------------------

However, you should get in the habit of writing everyday, right?

That's about the size of it.

--------------------------

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?


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.

-------------------------

Let me know when you finish your story and when you send it out.

-------------------------

I will. I just I hope I make it.

You will. I have faith.

Now get off the friggin' Internet and write.

------------------------

Is it worth submitting for Viable Paradise for a beginning writer?

Depends on what you mean by "beginning." Look around for blog entries by alumnae to get a feeling of what it's all about and compare that to where you are.

And the discovery that even for a short story I need a bit of an outline for when I get stuck going from point C to D.
Try the Lester Dent master plot outline.

-----------------------

I expect it varies with the market. But why risk it? Mail the sub off so the story is in their mailbox no later than the 20th.

Why not take along a nice stamped, addressed envelope with you to college? Does your school have a computing center where you can get it printed out?

Or, do you have a trusted friend to whom you can e-mail the story, have them print it out and mail it?

(I presume your market doesn't take electronic submissions....)

----------------------------

Actually, I think that they only take online submissions. I'm submitting to a e-Publisher. If it matters, it's Evernight Publishing.


Then ... what's the problem? Deadline's Friday, send it to 'em on Thursday, and you're good to go.

--------------------------

Dear Uncle Jim,

(I've read aaaaall your threads, and just did a search and didn't see anything like this question, but feel free to redirect me if I missed something.)

Do you have any tips for someone, who may or may not be me, who a) only started learning about writing fiction 3 months ago when one started writing one's (now complete and querying with good results novel), b) is a very fast and *very* willing learner, and c) wants to learn more about the craft, specifically in regards to finding a good workshop or creative writing course?

Like, not Mechanics 101, but something... meatier? What sorts of things should one look for in a course, instructor, that would benefit a literary-leaning goofball?

Thank you for your time and consideration.

-En

Literary-leaning ... meaning, you write "literary" fiction, or what?

Anyway ... check with your local public library to see if there's a writers' group that meets near you. Some of 'em are toxic, some of 'em are wonderful, but they're worth checking out.

In workshops, writers' groups, and creative writing courses, look for people among the instructors who've been out and actually sold stuff to real paying markets.

Look for something that helps you feel good about writing, and helps you put your fingers on the keyboard.

And don't sweat it. You don't have to get your ticket punched. No one checks to see if you have a diploma. The only thing that matters at the end is the manuscript, and it sounds to me like you're doing fine.

Read a little every day, write a little every day, and you're a writer.

--------------------

I still don't know the names for things, but you just... you just develop an ear for it by reading, and when you learn the rules, it all makes sense, if you let it.

it doesn't matter if you can't tell litotes from hyperbole as long as you can do 'em. The labels ... are good if you want to talk like an English major.

Could you give me a few analysis-centric exercises?


Shoot. You mean I haven't done enough of 'em?

Here's something better: Go, write a sonnet.

--------------------------

Because I'm not sure how comfortable I feel sending a submission over my school's server even with a personal computer (laptop)

Is there a Starbucks in town? A Barnes&Noble? A McDonald's? You can probably find a wireless hotspot.

Or, you can send it out tomorrow.

------------------------

Hey, Octavio --

There's no barrier at all to breaking into the US market as a foreign national -- provided you have a manuscript that stacks up. That is, one that surprises and delights.

Now, as to the language itself, you might want to get a native speaker of American English as a beta reader. (Vladimir Nabokov hired a native English speaker to edit his books before he submitted them; if it's good enough for Nabokov....)

-----------------------

If it's accepted by the anthology presumably it will be edited and you'll have a chance to do some revisions.

But seriously, why would you consider sending out something that isn't your best work? If it isn't right take the time to make it right. Have pride in your craft.

A story that's publishable by one is publishable by many. This isn't the only market in the world.

In any case, definitely correct any grammar-and-spelling errors before you even dream of submitting the piece.

-------------------------

Don't ask yourself, "Is this good?" Instead ask, "Is this the best I can make it right now?"

--------------------

Conflicts don't need to be great, or world-shaking, or apocalyptic. All they have to be is there.

Character A: "I want to order a pizza."

Character B: "Well, what's stopping you?"

Character A: [...]


[...] is the conflict.

----------------------

The plot should start with word one of chapter one. If it doesn't ... cut everything up to that point.

But I think we're talking past each other. Try Chapter One: Character One is out of cat food and must get some despite it being a Sunday and the stripe on her debit card getting erased when she stuck it to the refrigerator door with a magnet.

You want something that'll keep a couple apart? Try one of them getting transferred to another state. Or having to move to another state in order to find work.

There's all kinds of things that you can do.

The main thing is to have something on every page that gives the reader a reason to turn to the next page. It could be breathtakingly beautiful prose. It could be edge-of-the-seat suspense. But there has to be something.

===================

Thanks. So, would having a conflict that bothers one character but they don't voice that it bothers them until a certain point be a good idea as well?

It could be, sure. You won't know if it is until you write it.

---------------------------------

I posted this elsewhere; I'll repost it here:

Okay, let's talk about pitches.

Assuming that you're somewhere in the vicinity of the right ballpark (that is, you aren't pitching Extreme Porn Splatterpunk to an editor from Fluffy Baby Bunny Stories), 100% of the time you're going to get a request to send the manuscript because ... the editor won't be able to tell how good your book is from any pitch, no matter how polished, or unpolished, it might be. So, you'll send your manuscript, and it will be placed on exactly the same slushpile as it would have gone on if you'd sent it in cold.

And that is what your pitch buys you.

Better to spend your time polishing your book than your pitch. The editor won't remember you, because you're just one of a hundred nervous, sweating writers she's seen for five or ten minutes each over the past two days. And if she does remember you? No matter. The manuscript trumps everything.

-------------------------

Right. That's for the conferences that advertise "pitch sessions" with editors as their draw with aspiring authors.

These are usually in New York so there isn't a lot of travel involved for the publishing professionals, and editors show up because they get free lunches and an honorarium. Editors are as low-paid as everyone else in publishing. Really, you have no idea how tight the money is at most publishers, even the biggest.

---------------------------

Those sorts of conferences frequently either directly advertise or strongly imply that the pitch sessions are a way of circumventing the slush pile, and frequently point to the number of requested manuscripts as proof that their training in how to pitch is effective.

------------------------------

And see? You already have an interesting scene going.

------------------------------

The pepperoni-vs.-anchovies-on-the-pizza conflict could get you all the way through the first chapter, and into the main conflict that develops later on. It could also neatly foreshadow the ultimate resolution.

Regardless, it can fuel the first draft, which is the starting point for the book you'll write.

--------------------------

It's execution that takes fortitude.

Which is why writers laugh that laugh when someone comes up and says, "I have a great idea for a story! You write it and we'll split the money!"

===================

I want you to know that you are all awesome writers, I love you all, and I'm looking forward to your books.

-----------------------------

I believe the Coen brothers (writers/director of Miller's Crossing) are very familiar with Red Harvest. The title of their first movie (Blood Simple) is a quote from Red Harvest. Miller's Crossing contains dialog taken directly from Red Harvest.

------------------------------

Might as well talk about where reviews on covers, and blurbs, come from in the real world. (Note: Neither the author nor the publisher pays for reviews or blurbs.)

First, let's talk about blurbs. Those are the little things like, "The best book I've read this year!" -- Some Other Author that you see on book covers.

Where they come from: While the book is in production, the publisher prints up a bunch of Advance Reading Copies (ARCs) or Uncorrected Proofs. They paper the world with these. The blurb quotes usually come from authors who are: a) The author's friends, b) Other clients of the author's agent, c) Other authors published by the same publisher. What the other author gets: An ARC. Also, the promo value of having their name on the cover of your book. No money changes hands.

If you see quotes from reviews printed on the cover of the hardback, notice that those are usually from reviews of the author's previous book.

Reviews themselves:

Remember those ARCs? This is all happening about six months before the book is due to be published. The ARCs get sent to every major reviewer. The publisher's publicity department handles this; it's at no cost to the author. So The New York Times, the Washington Post, Kirkus, Library Journal, Publishers Weekly, the Chicago Tribune, USA Today ... and anyone else who might be interested gets an advance copy. If your book deals with dog breeding, the specialized dog-breeding magazines will get ARCs. The idea is you want the reviews to hit the papers the week that the book is released. (It doesn't do any good for a review to be printed for a book that isn't available yet.) Any ARCs that are left over will get sent to book bloggers, and anyone else who wants one. Really, they send out a lot of 'em.

What happens to the reviews: If your book is a hardcover, and later gets a paperback release, the juiciest quotes go on the cover of the paperback.

If you get a really, really juicy quote, or win a major prize, the publisher might decide to reprint the dust jacket with the quote on it.

Suppose your book is a paperback original? In that case, the review quotes go on the cover of the second or subsequent printings.

Notice how much this costs the author: Zero.

Notice how much this costs the publisher: The cost of printing and mailing the ARCs (which is all budgeted when they decided to offer on the book).

---------------------------

Small personal brag here:

The Price of the Stars as an e-book at Amazon. (Also available in all other electronic formats.)

------------------------------

It's a special promotional price.

=================

I'm not quite getting what you mean about 'the reader you imagine'.


The reader I imagine is the one sitting on the other side of the fire-pit, the one I'm telling the story to.

When doing a scene breakdown, about how many scenes should one plan for in a novel. Is there a general guideline?
No. You use exactly as many scenes as are necessary to tell your story in the most effective way.

-------------------------------

It's too late in the story add suspense or fantasy elements, in my opinion I would think.

Which draft are you on? If it's not-yet-finished-first, then finish the draft, do your revisions, and see how long it is. You may be surprised.

Or, in the next draft you can add a sub-plot.

But, actually, my best advice would be to make your story the best it can be (and if that means chopping off the last 1,000 words, out they go), then finding a market to match the story you wrote, rather than writing a story to this one specific market.

Maybe your next story will hit 10K.

==================

Thanks, Future Shock. What I want are a whole lot of excellent new books for me to read.

==================

Floodgates opened and washed away my doubts. I laid 5 pages today and I'm itching to do the rest.

Go, you!

If it works, it's right.

================

That was a separate short story that we'd written in-universe. But we couldn't figure out where in the story to put it ... and there was too much of a gap in time-and-space from the end of the story to the start of the main story, so it wouldn't do as a chapter one (as I thought at the time... now, knowing what I know now, I might well have started what is now Chapter One with "Five years later...." and called it Chapter Two. Or maybe not.)

Pray note that, as it stands, the prologue is completely dispensable. Skip it and you lose nothing. Also, the main character in the prologue is the same as the main character in the rest of the book. People who do read the prologue, and get invested in that character's fortunes, don't have to shift gears, change direction, forget all about this character and suddenly start having to care about someone else entirely.

One of the big problems with prologues is that they squander reader interest. Reader interest is (if you're doing it right) growing from the first word onward. Your prologue is creating reader interest, but if, then, the reader suddenly is told, "but that is not our story," you have to get them interested all over again, and you've lost a slight bit of their trust whilst doing so.

Not a clever plan.

For those who want to play along at home, that prologue, complete, is here:

http://www.sff.net/people/doylemacdonald/POTSHEAD.htm

(I should probably put in a link to the e-book version on that page....)

-------------------

If the prologue tempts the reader to ask, "Will this be on the test?" you're probably doing it wrong.

As to whether I'm for them or against them, I'm against doing them badly.

Much as I'm against using first-person POV badly, present tense badly, and passive voice badly.

Some of those things are harder to do well than others. The readers (bless their dear hearts) recognize bad writing and tend to avoid repeating the experience of reading bad writing. Thus readers have been trained to avoid present tense, passive voice, and prologues.

----------------------

Perfect prologues? Here are two of my favorites:

Not marching in the fields of Thrasymene,
Where Mars did mate the warlike Carthagens;
Nor sporting in the dalliance of love,
In courts of kings where state is overturn'd;
Nor in the pomp of proud audacious deeds,
Intends our Muse to vaunt her heavenly verse:
Only this, gentles,—we must now perform
The form of Faustus' fortunes, good or bad:
And now to patient judgments we appeal,
And speak for Faustus in his infancy.
Now is he born of parents base of stock,
In Germany, within a town call'd Rhodes:
At riper years, to Wittenberg he went,
Whereas his kinsmen chiefly brought him up.
So much he profits in divinity,
That shortly he was grac'd with doctor's name,
Excelling all, and sweetly can dispute
In th' heavenly matters of theology;
Till swoln with cunning, of a self-conceit,
His waxen wings did mount above his reach,
And, melting, heavens conspir'd his overthrow;
For, falling to a devilish exercise,
And glutted now with learning's golden gifts,
He surfeits upon cursed necromancy;
Nothing so sweet as magic is to him,
Which he prefers before his chiefest bliss:
And this the man that in his study sits.
Two households, both alike in dignity,
In fair Verona, where we lay our scene,
From ancient grudge break to new mutiny,
Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean.
From forth the fatal loins of these two foes
A pair of star-cross'd lovers take their life;
Whose misadventured piteous overthrows
Do with their death bury their parents' strife.
The fearful passage of their death-mark'd love,
And the continuance of their parents' rage,
Which, but their children's end, nought could remove,
Is now the two hours' traffic of our stage;
The which if you with patient ears attend,
What here shall miss, our toil shall strive to mend.
Seriously, I'll look around and maybe comment on the next prologue I see in a published book.

What I found was that the word "Prologue" evoked an instant 'skip' reflex the equivalent of the Spanish language instruction pages of modern products. (I don't read Spanish)

And that is the main reason I advise against prologues: Your reaction is absolutely typical of the majority of readers.

------------------------

But seriously, I don't understand why someone would skip a section of a book because it is labeled as a prologue.

Because readers are like the cats who, having once sat upon a hot stove lid, will not sit upon a cold one.[SUP]1[/SUP]

==============

1. Mark Twain reference. Into each life a little Twain must fall.

And that is the reason I label my prologues - Chapter 1 ;) Or I use dates or locations.


Thou art wise, Faustus.

Most of what I'm doing this week is reading applications for Viable Paradise.

I have two short stories that I need to finish (three if you count that one) and I'm in the midst of a non-fiction piece that'll likely run about fifty pages.

Plus, I have to do revisions on a novel. (Two novels if you count that one.)

----------------------------

From Uncle Jim's Mailbag:

Dear Uncle Jim:
I was writing my novel, but when I was half-way through I realized that it was boring, dull, pointless, and bad. At the same time I had this brilliant idea for a new novel, so I'm writing that instead. But lately it's started seeming pointless too. But I've had a great idea for a new novel so I started it this morning. What can I do to keep my enthusiasm?​
-- Constant Writer in Grapevine
Dear Constant:
Go back and finish the first novel. Even if it's dull. Even if you hate it. Only after you've reached "The End" and you've placed it in your desk drawer to marinate will you be able to go back and ... finish that second novel. Even if it's horrible.

Else, thirty years from now you'll have sixty half-novels on your hard drive and no readers.​
-- Uncle Jim




Dear Uncle Jim,
I've been putting my BIC every day like you said, but just this morning a minor character (George the tavern-keeper's buddy) who was mostly there to be a point of view and hasn't even been mentioned since chapter twelve, showed up at dawn with a bag of gold, a letter in his pocket that he won't let anyone read, and a horse pistol. He whispered, "Remember your vow" into Lady Cecelia's ear, and next thing I knew the two of them were down in the stable saddling fast horses and were out the gate before Lord Reginald even woke up.

The trouble is that none of this was in the outline. I have no idea what George is going to do next, and I'm afraid that Lord Reginald's planned wedding with Lady Cecelia won't happen on schedule. The dressmaker was supposed to arrive at the manor to fit Lady Cecelia for her gown in this chapter! Should I crumble up those pages and get back to the outline?​
-- Worried in Westchester

Dear Worried:
Crumble up the outline.​
-- Uncle Jim




Dear Uncle Jim,
I've been working on my novel for fifteen years now and I have nearly ten pages. Can you recommend a publisher for me?​
-- Serious Scribe in Schenectady

Dear Serious:
No.​
-- Uncle Jim
-----------------------

This is a prologue from a published work. Comments?

PROLOGUE

Upon a paper attached to the Narrative which follows, Doctor Hesselius has written a rather elaborate note, which he accompanies with a reference to his Essay on the strange subject which the MS. illuminates.



This mysterious subject he treats, in that Essay, with his usual learning and acumen, and with remarkable directness and condensation. It will form but one volume of the series of that extraordinary man’s collected papers.



As I publish the case, in this volume, simply to interest the “laity,” I shall forestall the intelligent lady, who relates it, in nothing; and after due consideration, I have determined, therefore, to abstain from presenting any precis of the learned Doctor’s reasoning, or extract from his statement on a subject which he describes as “involving, not improbably, some of the profoundest arcana of our dual existence, and its intermediates.”



I was anxious on discovering this paper, to reopen the correspondence commenced by Doctor Hesselius, so many years before, with a person so clever and careful as his informant seems to have been. Much to my regret, however, I found that she had died in the interval.



She, probably, could have added little to the Narrative which she communicates in the following pages, with, so far as I can pronounce, such conscientious particularity.
---------------------------------

The prologue just above is from Carmilla by J. Sheridan LeFanu.

What's good about it?

It's:

1) Brief.
2) Disposable.
3) Brings in information that can be gained in no other way.
4) The story is still understandable and enjoyable even without the prologue, but the prologue does provide extra depth.
=================

From Uncle Jim's Mailbag:
Dear Uncle Jim:
What is the difference between a cliffhanger ending for my novel and a twist ending for my novel?​
Confused in Portchester​
Dear Confused:
If you end your novel with a cliffhanger your readers will throw your book against the wall, hate the book, hate you, and swear that they will never read another story by you ever again as long as they live. They will also tell all their friends that your books suck. With a twist ending, on the other hand, they will love the book, love you, seek out all of your other works, and tell all their friends that they have to read your book. I hope this clears up the confusion.​
Uncle Jim
================

The "Doctor Hesselius" of the prologue is mentioned nowhere else in the story. His sole function appears to be to lend the weight of authority (for can you imagine a more learned and authoritative-sounding name than "Doctor Hesselius"?) to what would otherwise seem an incredible tale. But if he believes it, then, it must be true!

This prologue is artful indeed. It provides the simulacrum of redeeming social value. But if the reader skips it on seeing the word "Prologue" and turns directly to chapter one, no major loss. There's still a slam-bang tale of overt vampirism and covert lesbianism waiting.


===========


From Uncle Jim's Mailbag:
Dear Uncle Jim,
I just heard that there is no magic button that will get me published. I'm devastated. What should I do?​
Sorrowful in Cincinnati

Dear Sorrowful,
Who told you that? Of course there's a magic button that will get you published. There's a whole lot of them! You have them on your desk right now. They're labeled Q... W... E... R... T... Y....​
Uncle Jim


-------------------

Silver-Midnight, is this your first complete novel manuscript?

------------------------------

It's okay, Silver-Midnight.

You're in the dread Mid-Book Slump.

Go over to Uncle Jim Undiluted and search on "mid-book." What you feel is perfectly normal. Most (I want to say "all" but there might be some eccentric out there who's the exact opposite) writers feel the same way.

The only way through is forward.

-------------------------------

Yep. If you don't know what to write next, make stuff up. Even the certain knowledge that you're writing crud -- don't allow it to stop you. That's your saboteur-self talking. After you've let the completed book marinate in your desk drawer for a month or so you'll be surprised by how much it's improved.

That's what aging the manuscript does. It allows all the suck to drain out.

------------------------

Two choices: Give up or muddle through. Your call.

===============

I should mention that you ought to have a goal in mind. Else how will you know if you've arrived?

--------------------------

I know the end of the last (unwritten, unstarted) Mageworlds book:

Jens Metadi-Jessan and Faral Hyfid-Metadi (introduced in The Long Hunt) are sitting under a tree on re-born and terraformed Entibor. "Have a beer, coz?" Faral says. "Thanks," Jens replies. "Don't mind if I do."

Do I need to mention here that Entibor is, symbolically, the Garden of Eden? Folks who have read the books carefully will already know this.

The entire Mageworlds series is a massive allegory.

BTW: Nice review of Mageworlds: http://tosche-station.net/?p=1189

==================

On the importance of backups....

==================

From Uncle Jim's Mailbag:

Dear Uncle Jim:

The main character in my young-adult novel is a teenage girl who lives a little of the Goth life-style. She has two boyfriends who don't know about each other, and her guilty secret is that she likes cinnamon cookies. What should I name her?

-- Rookie Writer in Paris, Maine

Dear Rookie:

Her parents didn't know when she was born that she was going to paint her fingernails black. So give her a nice, ordinary name. If your brain freezes up so you can't even think of a name here's a place you can go to look for 'em. The story makes the name; the name doesn't make the story. Just choose one at random; it'll all work out.

Uncle Jim

==============
From Uncle Jim's Mailbag:

Dear Uncle Jim:

But doesn't Frank Stockton's "The Lady, or the Tiger?" end with a cliffhanger? And it's a classic! (Written in 1882, still in print and much anthologized.)

-- Nitpicker in Nacogdoches

Dear Nitpicker:

It's much-anthologized because it's in the public domain and it's easy to write Study Questions for high school English books based on this story. The ending isn't so much a cliffhanger as ambiguous. But try this experiment: Imagine that the young man was actually one of Robin Hood's Merry Men. Write the ending in which Robin Hood, Will Scarlett, Little John, and Much the Miller's Son rescue the young man.

Better story, isn't it?

Or, the young lady is visited in the stands overlooking the arena by two angels, one of whom always lies, and one of whom always tells the truth, though she has no way of knowing which is which. They have a long, philosophical discussion in the style of Fyodor Dostoevsky. At the end, she makes a decision and we know what it is. Better story, isn't it?

P.S. I have always found "The Lady, or the Tiger?" annoying.

Uncle Jim

For everyone: It's been a while since I've handed out an assignment. So, here it is! Write one of those two new endings for "The Lady, or the Tiger?" The story's in the public domain so you can even do it legally!

=====================



Shameless advertising time!

Editorial and Critique Services: Debra Doyle, Ph.D.

=============

Schadenfreude is a dish best served hot: PublishAmerica sued.

=============

Yet more rules of writing, this time from my long-time co-author:

1. Never trash your out-takes. (See the adventure of the five chapter nines.) You never know when that scene you removed from the first draft because it didn’t work might turn out to be the precise scene that’s needed in the third draft to fix something else.

2. Don’t worry if you’re not a published-at-eighteen barely-postadolescent prodigy. Blooming young is for poets and mathematicians; novelists are in it for the long haul, and the more life experience you have, the better.

3. Know your own hesitation marks and makeweight-words, so that you can search for them in the second and third drafts and eliminate or fine-tune them ruthlessly. (My first-draft brain has an excessive fondness for “just” and “only”; my co-author, for some reason, has a thing for “swirling” in the early drafts of action sequences.)

4. Learn languages, if you can; there’s nothing like a second language to give you a handle on seeing the world in more than one way. If your brain isn’t wired up to learn languages easily, don’t sweat it; history and anthropology are other handles on the same thing.

5. Corollary to the above: there are worse things for a writer to do than to get a traditional liberal-arts education. The good thing about a traditional liberal-arts education is that you can do pretty much all of it on your own with the aid of a library and some reading lists. And, these days, of course, the internet.

6. Don’t fetishize your tools. If you get too attached to working in a notebook in longhand, you’ll have the devil’s own time switching to a keyboard; if you fall too much in love with keyboarding, you’ll be in bad shape if carpal tunnel syndrome forces you to switch to using speech-recognition software instead. In fact, the fewer fixed habits you associate with your writing, the better, because life changes things on us all the time.

7. Listen to real people talking, as much as you can. That way, when you go to write dialog, all your characters won’t speak in the same voice. What this means: Eavesdrop shamelessly whenever you’re out in public. (Remember not to look towards the conversation you’re eavesdropping on. It’s a dead giveaway, and “I’m a writer, honest, I’m just working on refining my craft!” isn’t going to get you very far if you’re spotted.)

8. Don’t expect to get rich doing this, or famous either. (The typical working writer has a lifestyle far closer to that of the Prophet Chuck on Supernatural than to that of Rick Castle.) If the work isn’t its own reward, you’re probably not meant to be doing it in the first place.

9. Be kind and polite to your readers, even if they sometimes drive you nuts. Remember, they’re reading your stuff when they don’t have to, in a world that puts never-ending demands on their time and attention. Even if they don’t like what you’re written, and say so at length, they’ve still given your words weight. Disagreement and dislike and passionate argument aren’t what matters in this trade; it’s indifference that kills.

10. No matter how great the temptation, never ever ever respond in public to a personal attack or a bad review or an accusation of wrongthinking. (Accusations of actual wrongdoing are iffier — but in my opinion, anyhow, if the accusation is serious enough to require a response then that’s what lawyers and agents are for.) Complain mightily to your friends all you want; scream and rant in private journal posts if you must; but stuff a sock in your mouth and sit on your typing fingers before saying anything out loud where the general public can see or hear it.
------------------------

As Ken MacLeod says, "History is the trade secret of science fiction."

I spent most of today researching the Holy Rood of Bromholm. Which may make an appearance in the next Crossman story. Or maybe not.

================

Silver-Midnight. there's nothing unusual in taking on elements of what you've read and seeing it come out in your own writing. Everything you've ever seen or done or read is part of the ingredient cupboard where you mix up your own stories. The solution is to a) read more, and b) write more.

I'd suggest reading well-regarded books, so the habits you pick up are good ones.

By the time your second drafts are done the influences of what you'd read most recently when you wrote it will have faded, replaced by your more recent reading.

Your subconscious isn't under your control, so don't try. I expect that one of the causes of writers' block is making the attempt. Instead, feed your subconscious healthful foods and exercise it frequently.

Your writing should get stronger.

===========

Greg, that sounds very much like my own library. Carry on!

===========

Holy Shiitake -- writers are all observers. We're the ones who not only hear, but perceive.

==============

You know our Bad Blood novels?

They were written in third person, then re-written into first person at the second-draft stage.

You can re-write your book from first to third, from close to omniscient, any number of times, to see which works better.

=================

It's your book. You choose the POV and the tense that allows you to tell the story best. It's okay to play with it.

==================

Who’s After the dotBOOK Top Level Domain



Not necessarily people who like or respect writers, that's who. Tell all your friends; spread the link.

A couple of blog posts about Viable Paradise. Applications are closed for this year. They will reopen in January 2013 for next year's class:

http://plunderpuss.net/wordpress/you-deserve-thi/

http://www.inkpunks.com/2012/01/20/guest-post-from-cory-skerry-viable-paradise/

-------------------

Stray, that particular series was translated into a ton of languages (Chinese, Korean, Japanese, Hungarian, Spanish, Norwegian, German, French, Italian, Hebrew, etc. etc.) Royalties depend on the contract; but usually the income from foreign rights is split with the original publisher 50:50, and markets outside of the US are only a fraction of the US market.

It adds up, but the royalties that come to the author from each language are generally smaller in total dollar amount than the English royalties.

Purely out of curiosity, how is the translation? Does it read well?

-----------------------

There's a Bimbo on the Cover of my Book

There's a bimbo on the cover of my book!
There's a bimbo on the cover of my book!
She is blonde and she is sexy;
She is nowhere in the text. She
Is a bimbo on the cover of the book!
Minor brag: http://www.wired.com/underwire/2012/06/sci-fi-fantasy-books-summer-2012/?pid=7342&viewall=true

Nora Jemisin and Myke Cole were Viable Paradise students and John Scalzi was a VP instructor.

Go, buy their books.

Great moments in English spelling (this from Dr. Seuss):

"The tough coughed as he ploughed the dough."

=====================

Three characters are introduced - we know the doctor wrote something, the woman spy died but was probably of little use anyway, and the narrator is cryptic.

You'll be happy to know that neither the doctor, nor the (dead) woman, nor the narrator show up in the novel that follows that prologue.

--------------------------------

You can start by listing the characters and their functions, where they first appear and where they last appear.

Or, you can start by identifying the parts of the story: Introduction, body, and climax.

Lots of ways to start.

You've seen me do enough analyses of stories in here: One thing I look at is number of sentences in a paragraph, number of words in a sentence, and which words hold positions of power.

Or, you could ask "What is the author's intention?"

(For those playing at home, "Ecdysis" is available both as a stand-alone, and as part of a collection.)

==========================

The nation's favorite bard, Shakespeare.

----------------------------------------------

Page 82

Post #2050

07-09-2012, 11:49 PM
 
Last edited:

James D. Macdonald

Your Genial Uncle
Absolute Sage
VPX
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Feb 11, 2005
Messages
25,582
Reaction score
3,785
Location
New Hampshire
Website
madhousemanor.wordpress.com
Learn Writing with Uncle Jim, Volume 2
Page 83
Post #2051
07-12-2012, 11:57 PM

-----------------------

I'll be at Readercon over the weekend. Hope to see some of you there.

----------------------

The File Folder Trick.

Get a file folder (and a filing cabinet).

For each story:

In the file folder place a hard-copy of the finished story. (No matter
what happens, hard copy will still be readable.) Place a copy of the story on disk (electronically readable format) in the folder. Place a sheet listing the names and addresses of all of the markets you figure are suitable for the story, in your order of priority.

Every time the story comes back, cross off the name of the last market
from the list. Send the story to the next market that same day (after re-checking the guidelines and the editor's
name).

If the story is bought, put the contract in the file folder and move it to
another section of the filing cabinet.

Any market that buys a story automatically gets moved to the head of the list for all other (similar) stories (assuming they haven't already rejected it).

Any market that says "Try us again with your next" gets moved to the head of the list of all other suitable stories (just below "we bought your last').

If you reach the bottom of the list, then, and only then, are you allowed
to re-write the story and come up with a new list of markets.

If you don't feel like rewriting you're allowed to retire the story from
circulation. Put it in its own separate portion of the filing cabinet.

-------------------

Be very, very careful if the folks acting in the opening aren't seen again for the rest of the book. Readers will expect them to return in some surprising way.

If one of your main characters has henchmen in general, why not reuse them? Call 1-800-DIALAHENCH for all your villainous needs!

==============

What's the POV of the scene with the doctors? if it's the POV of the guy who escapes, and he never learns their names, no problem.

Still, that's a plot thread that might need some raveling up. If the characters are that unimportant why are they there at all?

If they're there, is there something else you can do with them?

-------------------------

Massive rewrite = new story = resubmission to markets (plus any new markets that have opened up since compiling the original list). I might put the new markets at the head of the list.

But we're talking about a massive rewrite (equivalent to Starting Fresh).

The POV is from one of the doctors. He is tired and makes a mistake, which leads to the guy escaping.

Why not start with the guy meeting the main character?

Any necessary bits about the escape can come in dialog.

---------------------

Does it need to be more than that?

I haven't read your book, so I don't know. What do the beta-readers say?

Based on everything you're telling me, though, the doctor isn't important enough to even be in the story, far less in the opening.

Is there a way to kind of correct this? To know how to write internal conflict without repeating myself a lot, creating another issue or problem after the first one is "solved" or at least partially put aside, and to help all of the other problems I mentioned.

Sounds like you shouldn't be writing purely internal conflict. Pair the internal conflict with external action. Advance the plot. If you're ever unsure of what to do next, advance the plot. "When in doubt have a man come through a door with a gun in his hand...."

Note Hamlet. (Shakespeare's version, which was a remake of an earlier play that no one who isn't going for a PhD in Elizabethan Literature has even heard of, let alone read, and that hasn't been performed in half a millennium.) Hamlet, the character, has all kinds of internal conflict. But he's also mixed up in sword fights, leapings-into-graves, stabbings-through-the-arras (and liver), ghosts, suicides, and honest-to-goodness pirates. Keep stuff happening and the internal conflict will happen along with it.

Next:

Today's Literary Trivia: An editor was originally the person who put on a Roman gladiatorial game. He was the person who gave thumbs-up or thumbs-down on who in the arena would be allowed to live or die.

In the same way, today, an editor is the person who gives thumbs-up or thumbs-down on words, sentences, paragraphs, or plot-lines, and who determines which books will be published and which not.

-------------------------

Another thought on why The Author's Big Mistake is the author's big mistake:

It's because arguing with people isn't your job. Your job is to entertain people.

You will, from time to time, come across people who attack you for no good reason. (This seems to come along with celebrity, even such low-level celebrity as writers get.) The reason they do this is because you have something they want: Attention. Don't give them your attention. Doing so means they win. And doing so takes away from you doing your job. Lose-lose from your point of view.

So: Don't do it.

--------------------------------

Write What You Know

----------------------------------

As writers, we do not write stories. We write the blueprints for stories.

The stories are what the readers construct in their minds, using our blueprints.

----------------------------

The difference between a happy and unhappy ending is when we decide to end the story.

==================

We're glad you're back.

------------------------

Posted elsewhere at AW:

Are first drafts supposed to be horrible?
They can be, and they often are, but I wouldn't go so far as to say they're supposed to be horrible.

The most important part of a first draft, however, is finishing. Not producing prose-and-plot that's equal to other authors' revised-and-edited material.

In the days of pulps there were mighty authors who could write publishable first draft. In the days of pulps there were a ton of markets. How many of those mighty authors are remembered now? How many of the stories are still read? A handful, and we can name them all.

Unless you are a mighty author, do not be too uptight. Type, then revise when you have a finished piece. In this way lies serenity of spirit.

--------------

when should you give up on a WIP and start something new??
You should give up when you've reached "The End," revised it at least once, and it's been rejected by every appropriate publisher in Writer's Market.

You should start something new the day after you type "The End" on the first draft of the WIP under discussion.

-------------------------

How to write from the POV of a sex/gender/orientation not your own:

1) Look deep inside yourself. No one is 100% anything.

2) The differences within the sexes are greater than the differences between the sexes.

----------------------

Let us talk briefly about Chekov's Gun.

"If you say in the first chapter that there is a rifle hanging on the wall, in the second or third chapter it absolutely must go off. If it's not going to be fired, it shouldn't be hanging there." —Anton Chekhov

This is pretty good advice: If you mention something specific you ought to do something with it. Else the readers will be carrying it around in their mental backpacks wondering what it's for.

You put in specific details for one of three reasons: To give yourself the material you're going to use later (planting that rifle so the readers won't suspect that the writer pulled that rifle out of his ass later when the hero needs it); to provide characterization (the person who lives in this house is the sort of person who would have a rifle on his wall (perhaps a hunter, perhaps a survivalist); or to do world-building (this is the sort of society where firearms exist and where it is normal and natural for one to be owned and displayed). That is, advance the plot, provide characterization, or support the theme.

Canny readers, however, knowing about Chekov's Gun, won't be surprised when the rifle is fired. We want to surprise the readers while at the same time playing fair with them. But how?

When we mention that the rifle is on the wall, both the rifle and the wall are mentioned. Suppose that wall is actually a secret door? When a character comes in, pulls on the rifle, and the door opens, the reader will be surprised, yet won't feel cheated because we very clearly marked the spot earlier. The rifle's purpose is misdirection.

Or, we could use that rifle in a surprising way. As the villain approaches the hero takes the rifle from the wall and uses it to lever open a window and escape. Just because it's a rifle doesn't mean that we have to use it as designed. The reader will be surprised but won't feel cheated.

The rifle can also be used as a MacGuffin: an item that everyone wants/is looking for, but is unrelated to the actual plot (classic example from Sir Alfred Hitchcock, the man who popularized the word MacGuffin: the suitcase full of money in Psycho).

Then again, you can play your Chekov's Gun perfectly straight to great effect. In the Harry Potter series the walls are littered with figurative rifles, almost all of which go off (usually before the particular volume is done, but sometimes a volume or two (or six) later).

--------------------------

Ah yes, the ironic use of Chekov's Gun. The audience, seeing a rifle hanging on the wall in the first act, knows instantly that it must be fired in the third act, but the characters do not.

We should find joy in our writing and put in such little jokes as please us.

-----------------------

The plural of medium is media. That is all.

----------------------

A cliche is a meme that hasn't yet risen to the level of archetype.

Common cliche types include characters with a single (and stereotypical) defining quality: the hard-drinking writer, the tough cop, the hooker with a heart of gold, the Islamic terrorist, the lazy Mexican, the clever Chinese.

Or if you're talking about cliched sentences, those are, for example, metaphors and similes that you hear over and over again: the kid's green as grass; it's raining cats and dogs; smoking like a furnace, drinking like a fish.

Recall the origin of the word cliche: It was, back in the days of cold type, a word, phrase, or even sentence that was cast as a single piece to save time in typesetting. So a cliche is a commonly used, overused, phrase.

Recall Orwell's rules for writing:

1. Never use a metaphor, simile, or other figure of speech which you are used to seeing in print.
The commentary on this rule here says:
This sounds easy, but in practice is incredibly difficult. Phrases such as toe the line, ride roughshod over, stand shoulder to shoulder with, play into the hands of, an axe to grind, Achilles’ heel, swan song, and hotbed come to mind quickly and feel comforting and melodic.
For this exact reason they must be avoided. Common phrases have become so comfortable that they create no emotional response. Take the time to invent fresh, powerful images.
What to do?

Develop an eye for cliched phrases and mercilessly blue-pencil them. Make your characters multi-dimensional. Give them a mixture of traits both positive and negative. (Some people use Tarot cards to randomize character traits. Others pick Splendid Virtues and Deadly Sins, and assign a couple of each per character.) Closely observing real people helps a lot.

Straight-line plots can seem cliched: We've been on this ride before. So mix things up. Find unexpected but still logical twists for your story.

Relax. Write more. Don't reach for the easy solutions. The first idea that comes into your head may not be the best.

Beyond that, get a willing beta reader who can point out the cliches you can't see.

Best of luck.

-----------------------------

By archetype I mean something that has become a Platonic ideal. Not just Hercules but The Hero.

-----------------------------

Posted elsewhere at AW.

I'm going to natter about how anthologies are put together and how the author gets paid.

The first thing that happens is that the editor pitches an anthology to a publisher. The publisher accepts the proposal and advances money to the editor. The editor has a contract with the publisher; the eventual authors will have contracts with the editor.

The editor generally keeps half of the advance and uses the other half to buy stories. A standard professional rate is $0.05 cents/word.

So, the editor gets an $8,000 advance from the publisher. The editor keeps $4,000 and uses the other $4,000 to buy stories. Say the anthology is to be 80,000 words. The editor puts out a call for stories. They come flooding in. The editor selects the ones she wants, totaling 80,000 words, and sends rejection slips to the rest.

The authors who have been accepted sign contracts with the editor, for $0.05/word, plus a pro-rated share of the royalties (the details will be spelled out in the contract). Royalty periods, indemnity, reversion, and so on will be specified.

The finished, edited, anthology is turned in to the publisher, and in the fullness of time it's printed. Out it goes into the world. The publisher calculates royalties (standard is based on cover price) on every copy sold, but, until those royalties pay back the advance that was already paid, they don't cut any new checks. This isn't a big deal because the editor and the authors have already been paid.

Then the happy day arrives when the anthology earns out! The publisher cuts a check and sends it to the editor. The editor keeps half (and if the anthology was agented, the agent's 15% is paid out of the editor's half). The other half is divided among the authors according to one of two schemes (which will have been spelled out in frightening detail in the contract).

One way is this: For example, if there are ten stories in the anthology, each author gets 10% of the authors' share of the royalties. That is, for every dollar in royalties that comes in, the editor keeps $0.50 and each of those ten authors gets $0.05

The other way is this: each author is paid in proportion to the percentage of the final anthology that is that author's work. So if Author Ann had a 6,000 word story while Author Beth had a 3,000 word story, Ann would get 7.5% of the authors' share and Beth would get 3.75%. Of each dollar in royalties that comes from the publisher the editor would still keep $0.50; Ann would get $0.0375 and Beth would get $0.01875.

You'll notice that royalties are paid beginning with the first copy sold.

If the publisher doesn't pay an advance, then royalties are still paid beginning with the first copy, but there's no advance to pay back, so the publisher will cut a check at the end of each royalty period to send to the editor.

Some publishers pay royalties based on net. While most publishers are honest and above-board this is still an invitation to abuse and should be avoided.

Let's talk briefly about Net.

Net should be the amount that comes in the door. This will be what the publisher receives after the bookstores take their discount. Direct sales will be accounted separately.

Take a book that retails for $10.00. The bookstore gets it for $6.00 (40% discount). So for each book sold the publisher takes the $6.00 and pays the author's royalties out of that (at a 10% royalty rate, $0.60), and keeps the rest to pay for paper, printing, shipping, warehousing, marketing, publicity, the editors' salaries, art, the phone and electric bill, office rent, taxes, and everything else.

Those books which are sold directly by the publisher bring in the whole $10.00, so the publisher pays $1.00 to the author for each one sold. The publisher keeps the rest, as above.

Many publishers have found that the added cost of bookkeeping offsets any savings that come from payments on net, and so have gone to payment on cover price across the board. It's simpler.

Notice that "net" is "money coming in the door," not "what's left over after paying for paper, printing, shipping, warehousing, marketing, publicity, the editors' salaries, art, the phone and electric bill, office rent, taxes, and everything else." There are publishers that use the latter definition of "net." Their authors typically never earn a cent, because any percent of zero is still zero.

------------------------

... conflict that I was using is unrealistic. Add to those crimes that everything about it was entirely cliche, why should I push through another 60,000 words just to say I finished it, when I have (I hope) better, more exciting ideas?

Am I reading that correctly that you've only written 20,000 words on this piece? Have a man come through a door with a gun in his hand and see if that improves things.

I wonder if your outline is your enemy here.

The second novel is more just on the backburner. I was starting to hate my MC (comeon, she went to a coffee shop to do some work after work after her boyfriend made a point of texting her close to quitting time to remind her that she needed to be home) and I feel like I needed some distance before I could start to repair her, even though I still have 40,000 words before I can reasonably type "The end"
So you're only 40,000 words into this one? Your character is doing that pesky "coming alive" thing that authors are forever yammering about. She's looked at you and said, "I'm not stupid, I'm not crazy, and I'm not going." She's telling you that she doesn't like the outline.

She doesn't go right home. So ... what happens next? Is that why she's in the coffee shop when the robbery takes place? Is that why she isn't at home when the gas main explodes?

Tell me a story!

But on both of these, I feel like I need to be excited about my story before I can move on. If I'm not excited about it, it'll manifest itself in likely undesirable ways (oh look, my main character just died. How tragic and unexpected.) If I'm never excited about these unfinished works, is there any point in continuing vs. just learning from the failed attempts?
Your subconscious is trying to tell you that the person you think is the main character ... isn't. So, do something exciting. Shoot the main character in the head and continue in a new direction. When you get to The End, look back at the book and I bet you'll know who the main character really was.

--------------------------

In other news, the authors' copies of the German translation of By Honor Betray'd arrived today.

The translated title is Zwischen Ehre und Treue (that is, Between Honor and Faith).

Get it, in hard copy or e-text, wherever fine books are sold (or under the counter at bus stations everywhere).

==============

I posted this elsewhere at AW:


Put your characters in their strongest positions (that is, where they have the greatest freedom of action and support each other best) rather than in their most comfortable positions or safest positions or where they want to be, and see what develops. At the end of the book they'll have moved to where they want to be or where they should be, and be fairly comfortable. That's how you know you're at the end.

Or, if you like, us a piece of Celtic knotwork as your outline. (I do this.) That's the answer for the subplot question, too: Every time some particular thread comes to the top in the knotwork, talk about a plot that isn't your main plot (but still has a beginning, a middle, and an end).

Your subplots take up less space than your main plot, but they are still complete stories on their own. They either a) involve all or some of the main characters (Janet Evanovich does this really well), or b) use the same theme as the main plot, either to complement it or contrast with it (Shakespeare does this really well).

-------------------------

From the world of professional magic:

Any trick that relies for its effect on confusing your audience or boring your audience is a bad trick.

In the same way, any story that relies for its effect on confusing your readers or boring your readers....

------------------------

Since we were just talking about cliches, here's a list of cliches for Urban Fantasy, presented in an amusing manner.

---------------------

Another bit of news:

Our Earth: The Final Conflict tie-in novel, Requiem For Boone, is coming out in electronic format this December. Unlike some tie-ins we do earn royalties off this one (part of the price for having our real names on the cover).

Since this is from our friends at Tor there won't be any DRM on this book.

Y'all can pre-order now....

-------------------------

You can perplex them as long as you interest them at the same time.

You want their reaction to be "I don't know what'll happen next!" rather than "Hunh??"

------------------------

Off at CNN:
Publisher's view

St. Martin's Press has now published two accounts of the bin Laden operation that have resulted in statements that they are "fabrications," in one case from the White House and in the other from Special Operations Command.


Does St. Martin's Press plan to do anything about these books as a result? A St Martin's editor e-mailed CNN that "(b)oth authors stand by their sources and their reporting of the events, and we stand by our authors," and a spokesman for St. Martin's told CNN that the Pfarrer book "continues to sell" and will be reissued in paperback in two weeks at the time of the 9/11 anniversary.
Silly CNN! Don't they know that "non-fiction" is a marketing category, not a promise from the publisher that everything (or even most things) between the covers is true?

Mark Lane's books were published as non-fiction. Immanuel Velikovsky's books were published as non-fiction. What makes CNN think these books are any different?

--------------------------

Yes, it's art.

It's an item of commerce. It's unnecessary. Therefore, it's art.

------------------------

From elsewhere at AW:


Do be interesting.

Don't confuse the readers.

Do answer the readers' questions just before they ask them.

Don't tell the readers anything before they care.

Do give the readers a reason to turn this page, and the next page, and the page after that.

Readers need far less backstory than most writers think.

Write your story your way ... then find a publisher that accepts that kind of book because they know how to find the market for that kind of book.

-------------------------

1) Readers need far less backstory than most writers believe.

2) If your backstory is more interesting than your frontstory, you're telling the wrong story.

3) Just because you know a thing doesn't mean it belongs on the page.

--------------------------

When we were doing the research for Timecrime, Inc. we became experts on Prohibition-era gangs. Want to know what brand of cigarettes Bugs Moran smoked? Ask me. (He died of lung cancer ... thought I'd mention.)

For our two Civil War novels we became experts on mid-Victorian underwear. We also learned what became of the sword that Cornwallis surrendered at Yorktown.

How much of any of those things remained on the page....

The answers are: Nothing, one line, and an entire plot.


==================

Tales from the Slush Mines:


One kind of story We See Too Often is the one whose real title should be "My Best D&D Game EVAH!" When the reader can hear the dice rolling and see the hex-grid through the floor that's just plain bad storytelling, not a Reader Who Doesn't Get It. The reader "gets it" all too well....

---------------------------

There are no bad ideas, only clumsy writers.

--------------------------

I've been published by Harper Voyager (and edited by Diana Gill). The contract will be both competitive and negotiable.

There is also nothing saying that, should your work be selected, you can't call your top dream-agent on the phone and say, "How would you like to represent me?"

-------------------------

How do you stop being a clumsy writer?

Practice.

-------------------------

From elsewhere at AW:

"All eyes fell on him" is an idiomatic expression. It doesn't have to make sense.

"Eyes" can also be an example of the rhetorical device synecdoche: a part standing for the whole. We use this all the time, and there's nothing wrong with it (unless you want to ding Shakespeare for writing "Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears...").

Not to be confused with metonymy, where one thing stands for another: Thus, The White House announced several new measures the Administration is implementing to help those impacted by the drought. Actually, the White House didn't announce anything. It's a building; it can't talk. Jay Carney, President Obama's press secretary, made the announcement. But "the White House" is easily recognized and universally understood, brief, and avoids the passive "An official announcement was made...."

(Nevertheless, free-roaming eyes are a problem in a lot of fiction: Her eyes flew around the room before landing on the curtains produces an odd image.)

==================

99 Bottles of Pee on the Wall

It's about a literary scam. Among other things.

--------------------

It's not there Uncle Jim. I got a "Does not exist" message instead.

Fixed.

----------------------

Entertainingly good books and entertainingly bad books have one thing in common....

-------------------

By a weird coincidence the books I write don't turn out (usually) to be the book I wanted to write, but they're the closest I thing I can do to the book I wanted.

If I ever write a book that fully satisfies me I may stop writing. Maybe.

---------------------

Led there from another thread, this supposed 74 Reasons an Agent Won't Read Your MS Beyond Page One


What would probably be fun: See how many of those 74 "reasons" we can get into 250 words (one page in standard manuscript format).

Prediction: The act of trying to get them all will produce something pretty good and a strong reason for the reader to turn the page.


(The only rule: If it works it's right. Strong guideline: Be interesting. Cautions: Don't bore the reader. Don't confuse the reader.)

----------------------

"And how many deaths will it take 'til we know that too many people have died?"

The words whispered out. Then: She opened her eyes, returning to consciousness. Taking in the dirty brick of the wall in front of her. Muddy water in oil-streaked pools, the smell of garbage. "My name is..." she muttered. A question crept into her voice: "My name is?" No answer.

She dug into her purse. A mirror. She needed a mirror. She found a compact. Opened it. Saw red-blonde hair, pixie cut. Blue eyes. Electric blue eyes. Upturned nose. Pouty lips.

She didn't recognize the face.

Gentle reader, I should warn you, what will happen next is shocking. For she will walk around the end of the Dumpster that currently blocks the entrance of the alley in which she stands and see it. Lying in the dirty mud of that night-time alley.

But that night happened five years ago. Our story truly begins tonight, for tonight is the Mayor's Gala, and we are dressing for a night of mild political banter. Tonight the thing we saw behind the Dumpster five years ago will begin to make a peculiar kind of sense. But that is for later. Now, it is time for us to dress for the Mayor's Gala.

The limo is here. We get in. The driver stays on his side of the smoke-glass partition. The in-car bar has gin, vodka, whiskey... top-shelf labels. Ice. Crystal glasses. We pour a shot–a double–of bourbon.

"Ma'm?" the sound of the driver's voice through the intercom. "Would you like to enter through the parking garage? Fewer paparazzi that way."

=================

What she sees on the other side of the Dumpster is her body.

She's now a vengeful ghost inhabiting the body of a young lady who was, until then, a streetwalker.

Tonight, at the Mayor's Gala, she'll get the first clues as to why this all happened, and what her purpose in un-life is.

Unfortunately I wasn't able to fit all the Instant Rejection Reason into this. Very hard to do both first-person-plural and second-person at the same time.

I suppose I could have put the first bit in second-person then switched to first-person-plural for the part after "Gentle reader." Maybe if I'd done a second draft....


And how many deaths will it take 'til we know that too many people have died?

The words whispered out. Then: You opened your eyes, returning to consciousness. Taking in the dirty brick of the wall in front of you. Muddy water in oil-streaked pools, the smell of garbage. "My name is..." you muttered. A question crept into your voice: "My name is?" No answer.

You dug into your purse. A mirror. You needed a mirror. You found a compact. Opened it. Saw red-blonde hair, pixie cut. Blue eyes. Electric blue eyes. Upturned nose. Pouty lips.

You didn't recognize the face.

------------------------

All books are really three books: The book in the author's mind, the words on the page, and the book in the reader's mind.

---------------------------

The Muse (NSFW)

---------------------------

I didn't actually Google for this; it came up on Pandora.com radio:

Uncle Jim. Song by Black 47 on Elvis Murphy's Green Suede Shoes


Yes, I listen to Internet Radio while I'm writing.

---------------------

The Muse (Part II) (Still NSFW.)

---------------------

Actually, until that discussion on Making Light I'd never even heard the term "portal fantasy," so mentioning that term in the cover letter wouldn't be something I'd ever do.

Notice too what Miss Teresa says in her post:

This is borne out by the agents’ other remarks: there’s not enough at stake in portal fiction, there’s no reason for readers to care what happens, and if it weren’t for the falling-through-the-portal bit there’d be no story. I’ll take that as tentative confirmation that if they’re thinking of a book as a portal fantasy, there’s not enough going on in it; and if there’s enough story to make it a good book, they aren’t identifying the portal as a central feature.
So, would there still be a story in your story if you took away the portal? If so, proceed. If not, it wasn't a very good story, now, was it?

Other than that, allenparker is entirely right. Make this the best book you can, query it starting at the top, and, while it's making the rounds, write your next book.

----------------------------

He asked me for a proposal with a series overview, three comparative series or titles, three brief synopses, and a bio.
The series overview is going to be a few titles with, at most, one paragraph for each of the next two or three books, and a paragraph about the series arc.

The "comparable series or titles" would just be books (or series) that give the reader a feeling much like your book will feel to the reader. What is it, tender romance? Hardboiled detective? Epic fantasy? When you picture a reader buying your book, what other books are in that reader's basket as she stands in the checkout line at the bookstore? When that reader tells her friend about your book, what book does she compare it to? "It's like Harry Potter"? "It's like Shane"? "It's like The Lilies of the Field"?

One thing you can do as an exercise: Pick someone else's series. Find two or three comparable books or series. Pretty easy, right?

Now do the same thing with your series.

-------------------------

Publishing things, and degrees, are unimportant.

Have you done anything interesting in your life? Rounded the Horn on a schooner under full sail? Worked as a gravedigger? Have the best recipe for peanut brittle that anyone has ever tasted?

You'll notice that my official biography doesn't mention degrees or publications.

-------------------------

I wouldn't mention unsold books. But if you ever re-typed Varney the Vampyre (the longest vampire novel in English), that might be something.

Meanwhile: for those who are confused as to what Portal Fantasy is, a definition.

-------------------------

Some advice-givers say if you don't have anything relevant to writing, say nothing. Others agree with you.

Normally, I wouldn't include a bio at all. But since the guy specifically asked for one, go with it.

----------------------------

A really snarky review. In the New York Times. Of a restaurant.

Can we expect an anonymous butthurt restauranteur to create a Stop The New York Times Bullies website?

-------------------

Are there any good tips for getting past the quagmirey middle?

Search this thread for the phrase "dread midbook."

Bull through. Just write.

If you need a Permission to Write Badly certificate I can give you one.

===================

I know what you're thinking. "Can I sell a novel of 250,000 words, or only 100,000?" Well, to tell you the truth, in all this excitement I kind of lost track myself. But being as this is massive multi-volume fantasy epic, the best-selling genre in the world, and would make a dandy HBO special, you've got to ask yourself one question: "Do I feel lucky?"

Well, do ya, punk?

----------------------

Uncle Jim, pardon me but wtf? How do I get past this impasse? Don't say, Just write the damn thing. If I could do that, I wouldn't be asking your opinion, kind sir.

Okay, try this: Who were the characters who were present in the opening scene?

Think of a scene involving all of them that would look good in Imax 3D with Dolby sound as the action/adventure climax of a really exciting movie.

Got that scene? Good!

Now see where those characters are right now in your book.

Get them to that climax. The path can be as contrived as all heck, studded with breathtaking coincidences, but that doesn't matter right now. Get them to that final scene.

You're going to revise it all afterwards anyway.

---------------------------

No one says you have to arrive at that car-crashing, machine-gun-fire at the zombie apocalypse stripper bar, action-adventure climax. It's a place to aim while you're getting words on paper.

So, you have the beginning. You know the end.

Write the end.

What's the next-to-last thing that has to happen to get to that end? Write that bit.

What's the next-to-last thing that has to happen to get you to that scene?

The ending doesn't really need to have a John Williams sound track. But it should be big enough to reward the reader for sticking with you for the previous 300 pages.

If the big climax is a character saying to his wife, "Well, I'm home," then that's your ending.

If the big climax is the narrator saying "He loved Big Brother," that's your ending.

Maybe your characters have a moral crisis. If so, imagine an intimate drama directed by Steven Soderbergh where the look that one character gives another in the final scene before fade-to-black has crushing moral weight and cleanses the soul.

Maybe they're at a party and just the wrong person walks through the door, and the reader knows exactly how the next three minutes will go, so you can say The End and leave it at that.

Give me an ending. Then write toward it.

Or, get a copy of Magic and Showmanship by Henning Nelms, turn to the chapter on routining a magic show, and follow those steps.

If all else fails, type "All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy," over and over, single spaced, for ten pages. (Cut-and-paste not allowed.) By the time you're done you'll be ready to type something new.

Here are the two ultimate tricks:

Stop where you in the book. Skip a line. Type a single, centered, hashmark.

Skip a line.

Type: Four years later...

Continue from that point.


OR

Add a character named The Author. Have him enter the scene and start talking with the characters. Put in the dialog tags. The little bits of business (as he fiddles with the button on his left shirt cuff). The description of the room (if they're in a room). Have your characters tell The Author what they're planning to do, how they're planning to do it. The Author nods sympathetically.

Then The Author says, "Show me."

So they do.

Now, go write one page (250 words) of original prose. Come back and tell me when you've done it.

--------------------------

So what's the remedy, Uncle Jim? I'm not really stuck because the story will be complete but shorter than I was expecting.

The remedy is to add a subplot. Weave it in from start to end.

Add a new character if you have to, to make that subplot work.

Much Ado About Nothing would have been hella short without Dogberry.

-----------------------

I've done it. 700+ words.

Go, you!

Now... do it again!

--------------------

Fingers moving on keyboard ... counts.

The second draft is gonna be hell, though.

-----------------------

Silver-Midnight, NicoleJLeBoeuf and kkbe both have excellent suggestions. You could also create a file called "Outtakes" and cut the paragraphs you don't want to use into that.

Don't throw anything out. It may be exactly what you want.

Here is my beloved bride and long-time co-author on the subject: http://drdoyleeditorial.com/2012/06/12/five-ways-to-write-a-chapter-and-one-that-worked/

--------------------------

Rules? You need rules?

Okay, here are some rules.

Just remember, there's only one rule: If it works it's right. Beyond that two strong cautions: Don't bore the reader and Don't confuse the reader.

Everything else is commentary.

----------------------------

A bit of personal egoboo here: a textbook from Oxford University Press is using excerpts from one of our stories.

Available for preorder right now: Oxford English 2 by Paul Grover.

Oxford Insight English is a new series for the Australian Curriculum:English. The blended print and digital series has a strong emphasis on the language and literacy strands of the Australian Curriculum: English and provides students with a firm grounding in grammar and language use. It also has a significant obook-only literature component, with guidance on covering the cross-curriculum priorities and other classic and popular texts. The Oxford Insight English series offers:integrated coverage of the Australian Curriculum: English for years 7 - 925 focused units per book, covering grammar, punctuation, comprehension, reading, writing, spelling and vocabulary a wealth of engaging literary, non-literary and digital texts used as stimulus a flexible format with room for student answers in the write-in workbooks, or in the accompanying digital obooks extensive literature material including a range of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander and Asian texts, as well as those that link to the sustainability cross-curricular priority.
As long as I'm being shameless, the story in question is "Nobody Has To Know," and it's available in electronic form in our collection Vampires and Shapeshifters, or in paperback in its original anthology, Vampires edited by Jane Yolen.

--------------------------

It's the twelfth of December now, so it's time for the Annual Christmas Challenge!

Twelve days to go 'til the 24th, and on the 24th ... a short story of at least 2,400 words.

Here are the constraints:

1) Must be in a genre that you usually don't write.
2) Must be based on a song which is never quoted, or mentioned, in the story.
3) Must break at least one of the rules found in the "74 Reasons Agents Won't Read Past the First Page" article, in its very first paragraph (choose one at random). You have to make it work.
4) Have fun doing it.

Okay, 200 words per day (that's less than a page), every day.

Let's do it!

------------------------------

Received the payment today for a short story which will appear in Beneath Ceaseless Skies. This is "The Clockwork Trollop," a steampunk porno horror story.

I'll let y'all know when it comes out.

-----------------------------

Folks who want to take time out from the Christmas Challenge might try the One Sentence Story Anthology. Deadline is coming up soon.

http://www.mbennardo.com/blog/2012/12/open-submissions-one-sentence-stories/

------------------------

The first page from my Christmas Challenge story:
"L-3 Station, this is RS-24, inbound, request permission to dock."
Brother Dominic had the Vespers watch in control. He flipped on the TACAN transponder and the range lights before keying the mike.
"RS-24, this is L-3. Request number of souls on board." The Vespers bell rang, and the first words of the chant came over the 1-MC, station general announcing system, so that those working in the fields, and in the control spaces, could join in their hearts although they could not be in the chapel with their brothers. Vespers is the sunset service. At this moment L-3 was in full sunlight, even the side away from the sun bright with the reflected light from earth. But far below on the blue-and-white planet, Monte Casino, the abbey that was their house, was slipping below the horizon. L-3 worked on Rome Standard Time.
"One soul on board," RS-24 replied.
"Do you have an emergency?" Today was an unusual time for any vessel to approach the monastery; market day was two weeks away, when station would be in the dark shadow of the earth.
"Visiting and seeking counsel," RS-24 replied.
The abbot would be at Vespers; Brother Dominic didn't want to disturb him. So he replied, "Permission granted. One to dock."
If the abbot didn't like it, Brother Dominic might spend a month doing penance in the water reclamation plant. But so be it. RS-24 would be alongside in a few hours; plenty of time to inform everyone.

====================

For me, "realism" is that the human reactions and interactions of humans are those that humans really have.

------------------------------

Ah ok, like mastering the voice of the protagonist, realistically portraying the age group your going for.

Yes, kinda.

For me "realism" is keeping the readers from throwing the book against the wall while exclaiming, "No friggin' way!"

============

In other news, John Scalzi describes in detail how he sold Old Man's War.


-------------------------

All the arts are related.

Some notes for visual artists that could, largely, apply to writers.

-------------------------

Indeed. Understanding Comics is one of the books that Patrick Nielsen Hayden recommends to students at Viable Paradise.

Speaking of which, applications for Viable Paradise open tomorrow, and run through June 15th.

--------------------

A short story by one of year-before-last's Viable Paradise students, published this autumn.

--------------------

Worldbuilding.

--------------------

The Truth About Rejection Letters

-------------------

My take is this: If my publisher arranges an interview for me on NPR, hey, I'm right there for it (my good friends at Harper Collins did this, and I was). If a publisher wants me to spend my own money on flyers, they can take a hike.

If you feel like putting your book cover on a tee-shirt which you personally can wear, hey, listen: Back with our first novel we put the cover on a coffee mug (at one of those mall-kiosk Any Picture On A Coffee Mug places). That's okay, but be aware that it's going to have about 0.00000001% effect on your sales.

As far as printing tee-shirts for giveaways, it's a waste of your time and money. If your publisher asks you to do this, you're with the wrong publisher. Those tee-shirt giveaways will have about a 0.0000001% effect on your sales.


If you want to buy a URL, do it only if you would have done it anyway.

-----------------------

I think that authors do that sort of stuff because otherwise they'd be wringing their hands.

As far as boosting their books' sales, wringing their hands would be just as effective and cost a lot less.

What they should be doing is writing their next book.

Where this sort of promotional activity might make a difference is when your expected sales are on the order of 100-200 copies (i.e. most self-published books). There, boosting your sales by another 100 copies is a 100% gain. (Note that as a self-published author you are the publisher and publicity and marketing is the publisher's job.)

If you're expecting to sell 10,000-20,000 copies, boosting your sales by another 100 is a 1% gain, and ... probably not the best use of your time and money.

--------------------------

From Uncle Jim's Mailbag:

Dear Uncle Jim:

I recently got an email from FedEx ([email protected]), subject line "You Have A Package." The email had an attachment called Delivery.doc. All the letter said was "Open Attachment." But when I opened the attachment my computer froze up and I haven't been able to make it do anything. Even a cold restart didn't help. I can't get to my novel and both of my backup copies are on that computer! What can I do?

P.S. I'm writing this from a computer at the public library.

/signed/
Startled in Schenectady


Dear Startled:

How much of your novel can you retype by memory?

/signed/
Uncle Jim


Dear Uncle Jim:

A highly placed minister in the Nigerian Foreign Embassy heard that I had written a novel and wanted to help me get it published in Lagos. I had pay a small Foreign Rights tax and send him my bank account number, my PIN, my social security number, my mother's maiden name, and a copy of my passport along with the manuscript, which he said was standard for foreign sales. I sent him everything he asked for.

My author's copies should be here any day (I paid for expedited shipping). How soon can I expect my royalties to arrive?

/signed/
Eager in Idaho


Dear Eager,

I wouldn't hold my breath.

/signed/
Uncle Jim


Dear Uncle Jim,

I have a few copies of one of my out-of-print books in my basement which I've put up for sale on my webpage for $8.00 each (I pay shipping). I got a letter from a fellow who wanted to buy one, but he must have misread my page because he included a cashier's check for $800! I called him on the phone (he gave his number) and told him that the book was out of print, not rare, and he said no problem, just send the book and a money order for the difference.

That was two weeks ago, and today I got a call from my bank saying that I'd given them a bogus check and could I please come down to cover the amount, plus penalty, plus interest, plus a fee.

Can they really do that?

/signed/
Upset in Utica

Dear Upset,

Yes.

/signed/
Uncle Jim

----------------------------

Is this just a sign I need to take a break for a bit, and try not to worry about it, or do you have some ideas to at least get my mind thinking back again? Also, do you have any advice for planning stuff out more and making sure it's a bit more well thought out?

Taking a break might help, provided that break has an end-point. Take a month off to watch movies, maybe.

As for organizing, what I do is write flow charts. From the flowchart I write an outline.

BUT (important thing here) be aware that if the novel deviates from the outline, it's okay to change the outline.

You may be in a vicious circle here: Being stuck makes you worry. Being worried makes you stuck. Don't worry; the ideas will come.

------------------------

I use actual computer-programming flowchart symbols and such (dating back to my time programming in FORTRAN). Works for me.

The flowchart tells me if I have a complete story and shows how the parts interrelate.

From there I write a "strong outline" (roughly 3/4 the length of the finished work), with some dialog and some description sketched in. This is very rough and doesn't pause for research, so you'll find lots of stuff set off in brackets like [look this up] or[something happens here] and [does this make sense?].

-------------------------


I have a question about zooming out in omniscient narrative.

I'm not entirely sure I know what you mean by the question. The baseline in omniscient-third is quite detached. The "zooming in" is a brief exception. You simply return to the status quo.

You'd probably be best to start out at a distance in the first pages, to give the reader an idea of what kind of book it is.

After that, I wouldn't worry about it unless your beta readers flag something as confusing.

--------------------------

your rules are good for instruction books. when you write like that, everyone who follow it will accomplish what you said.


I'm sorry, but I really don't understand what you're getting at.

Instruction books?

Rules?

There's only one rule: If it works, it's right.

===================

Anyone can answer questions here. All views are welcome.

As far as switching tense during scary scenes...changing person during scary scenes...changing typeface during scary scenes....

Does it work in this story? That's the one and only valid test.

Moving, just for a minute, to an allied art: The background music in movies that tells us "this is the scary part" (or "this is the funny part" or "this is the romantic part" or "this is the exciting part") doesn't seem to kill tension much. Jaws was reckoned pretty scary even though the shark was announced every time by that rich melodic strain.

You can also do some special effects by having past and present collide in the climax. So ... dunno. I don't see any theoretical reason the author shouldn't bounce from tense to tense on a scene by scene basis, provided that it doesn't annoy or confuse the readers.

----------------------

Dorothy Parker's telegram to her editor.

---------------------------

I'd encourage the writer to keep going. Changing tense, or changing person, are some of the easiest things to do during re-write.

-----------------------

As it happens, by way of example, our Bad Blood novels were written in third person then re-written into first person.

Crossover was written in past tense then re-written into present tense.

And in The Apocalypse Door, I alternate chapters in first person (past tense but set in the Now) with chapters written in third person (past tense but set in some twenty years earlier), and have them collide in the climax.

-----------------------

We tried to write Lincoln's Sword as a mosaic novel, but it just didn't work, so re-wrote it as a regular novel.

-------------------------

Got an acceptance today for our Christmas Challenge story, "According to the Rule," from the anthology Impossible Futures (Pink Narcissus, edited by Thomas Easton and Judith K. Dial).

Did everyone who tried the Christmas Challenge send it out?

Did everyone here try the Christmas Challenge?

(If you didn't, not too late. Call it the Easter Challenge and get writing....)

-----------------------

This year's Christmas Challenge:

It's the twelfth of December now, so it's time for the Annual Christmas Challenge!

Twelve days to go 'til the 24th, and on the 24th ... a short story of at least 2,400 words.

Here are the constraints:

1) Must be in a genre that you usually don't write.
2) Must be based on a song which is never quoted, or mentioned, in the story.
3) Must break at least one of the rules found in the "74 Reasons Agents Won't Read Past the First Page" article, in its very first paragraph (choose one at random). You have to make it work.
4) Have fun doing it.

Okay, 200 words per day (that's less than a page), every day.

Let's do it!
We've had a lot of Christmas Challenges over the years. If you haven't tried 'em yet, try 'em now.

-----------------------

One question, for the "must be a genre that you don't typically write in rule", can it have influences from it maybe?

That's just an aiming point. (And I don't see how it wouldn't have influences.)

For that matter your finished story may turn out to be in one of your usual genres. As Stephen King once said when asked why he chose to write horror, "What makes you think I had a choice?"

----------------------------------

If anyone's in Boston this weekend, so will I be, at Boskone.

Here's my sked:

Saturday 11:00 - 11:50, Military Motifs in SF, Harbor I (Westin)

Saturday 12:00 - 13:00, Kaffeeklatsche, Galleria-Kaffeeklatsch 1 (Westin)

Saturday 14:00 - 15:00, Safety & Security - Now and in the Future, Harbor I (Westin)

Saturday 16:00 - 16:50, What If--What's Left?, Burroughs (Westin)
Younger fans take it for granted that TVs are big and flat (or tiny and totable), computing is ubiquitous, female astronauts travel in reusable spacecraft, and humans long ago swung down from the trees and walked on the moon. Which big "what ifs?" are left to explore? How can science fiction challenge readers who have grown up in an SF world?

Saturday 17:30 - 17:55, Reading, Lewis (Westin)

Sunday 11:00 - 12:00, Autographing, Galleria-Autographing (Westin)

Sunday 12:00 - 12:50, How Cons Have Changed, Carlton (Westin)

------------------------------

Practice does not make perfect. Practice makes permanent.

-------------------------------

Add redeeming features in the second draft.

--------------------------

When the characters refuse to do what you want them to do, often it's a sign that your subconscious has a better handle on the story than you do.

----------------------

Department of Shocks the Conscience:

http://podpeep.blogspot.com/2013/03/hell-to-no.html#.UTn3iVdl-Zf

http://aprillhamilton.blogspot.com/2013/03/simon-schuster-is-trying-to-bribe.html

http://whatever.scalzi.com/2013/03/...a-imprint-has-appallingly-bad-contract-terms/

http://whatever.scalzi.com/2013/03/06/a-contract-from-alibi/

==================

I've been told by several writers that the best way to learn plot and structure is to write 100k words that you don't intend to let see the light of day. What do you think James?

I think this is a terrible idea.

Yes, you'll probably write 100K (or more -- you see a lot of references to your "million words") that will never see the light of day. But you should write them to the absolute best of your ability and with the full intention of marketing them. Then carry through on the intention.

You may get an impressive number of rejection slips. This is unimportant.

You may also hit one out of the park on your first time at bat. This isn't unknown.

I am of the firm opinion that if you can't interest an editor or agent in your work that it isn't ready for publication. Don't be tempted to self-publish something that isn't ready.

----------------------------

Well, yeah. Don't expect your first (or twentieth) novel to be published. But don't write any less than your best. It's okay to write crud is not the same as attempt to write crud.

---------------------------

Learn Writing with Uncle Jim, Volume 2
Page 92
Post #2299
03-09-2013, 10:56 AM
 

James D. Macdonald

Your Genial Uncle
Absolute Sage
VPX
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Feb 11, 2005
Messages
25,582
Reaction score
3,785
Location
New Hampshire
Website
madhousemanor.wordpress.com
Learn Writing With Uncle Jim, Volume 2

Page 93
Post #2301
03-09-2013, 11:36 AM

-------------------------

Atlanta Nights was a special project for a particular purpose. At which it succeeded brilliantly.

-------------------------

My pleasure, dirtroadfilms.

My secret goal is to get more neat books to read.

-----------------------

Random House Announces New Terms at Digital Imprints Hydra, Alibi, Loveswept, and Flirt

--------------------
Okay, have you been leaving them to age in your desk drawer for a few weeks? Come back with fresh eyes?

If it isn't worth fixing, well, value judgment that only you can make.

Too hard? Perhaps, but this isn't an easy art. To get the results, we have to do the work.

Have you gotten a copy of, say, Self-Editing for Fiction Writers or The First Five Pages? Perhaps take the first draft, and write an outline based on that draft?

Dig in, edit a few pages a day (while continuing to write new original material), and see if you can get to a second draft.

(Something that other writers do -- having finished the first draft, write the second draft from memory.)

----------------------

Also, get a copy of The Unstrung Harp; or, Mr Earbrass Writes a Novel and read carefully the part on revision/editing. That is the truest book on writing you'll ever find.

----------------------

My editing woes stem mainly from the fact that the BIC, no-rereading no-revision method, while it's almost terrifyingly effective at producing a completed manuscript, is doing exactly what I've learned never to do in any other part of my life: dash out something sloppy and leave it for future me to clean up.

Okay, then, you've learned that something doesn't work for you.

Do something different.

But what to do with those manuscripts?

Try treating each manuscript, not as a manuscript to be revised, but as an outline from which to write the real novel.

-----------------------

C.bronco, why not share it with the world (with links here to where we can find it)?

-----------------------

The Thomas Hardy Plot Generator (in the right sidebar).

Combine this with They Fight Crime and Your Pirate Name Generator to add merriment.

Then roll in The Evil Overlord Devises a Plot.

Hey, you've got your outline!

Thirty days to write the novel (3K word/day).

Thirty days to age it in your desk drawer.

Sixty days to revise it.

Thirty days for beta-readers to read and comment on it.

Sixty days to revise it.

Seven months from today, you're ready to start querying agents!

-------------------------------

Atlanta Sunsets is here. (Password: vista)

-------------------------------

It's a lovely thing. Nearly unreadable. I'm sure PublishAmerica would offer a contract in a heartbeat.

--------------------------------

Silver-Midnight, I'm having a lot of trouble figuring out what your problem actually is; what you're really asking.

Let me see if this helps: It's seldom a good idea to not write something that's demanding to be written. You could just write this thing that's eating your brain and justify it on the grounds that no writing is wasted, even if it's not publishable.

It's also possible that your Saboteur Self has come up with a really good way of preventing you from writing at all with this fear that anything you turn your hand to will become fan fiction.

Is it wise to write a story that may or may not fall into a genre that you haven't really read? I don't know about wise, but I do know that people do it all the time (with varying degrees of success).

-----------------------------------

Billy Wilder's rules for screenwriters.

------------------------------

It's the varying degrees of success part that scares me.

That's life in the creative arts....

I'm still thinking about your problem, and I think I may have a possible solution for you: Do what others have done, write the fan fiction, then file the serial numbers off. We can all name a recent best-seller that did just that.

If something is demanding that it be written, I don't know how to tell you not to write it in a way that doesn't involve quitting writing. Deny your subconscious at your very great risk.

---------------------------

Do you think I should try to make it or write it as original fiction again?

I really can't answer that. You know your own heart, and your own abilities, best.

We've been dancing around naming the fandom. Is it so singular that you can't find dozens of examples of the same setup from widely scattered spots over the past couple of thousand years?

If you break things down to their tropes everything is fan fiction. At the symbolic level there isn't much difference between Horatio Hornblower and Star Trek.

-------------------------

500 words? That's just two pages. Look, write 500 words right now. Even if it's All Work and No Play Make Jack A Dull Boy fifty times.

-------------------------

No, bearilou, I wouldn't suggest it. It's (at least I find it so) fiendishly difficult. Harder than writing your own.

But, you can try it. Maybe it'll work for you?

------------------------

If you can't do everything, do what you can.
-----------------------

Originally posted elsewhere at AW (How do you decide how many scenes should be in a chapter?) :

------------------

Rule 482(c)(iii) of The Writers' Manual; or, A Compendium of The Rules of the Art of Literature, (I'm quoting from the third edition here, but you should be aware that some major publishers still use the second edition) states quite clearly that women's fiction must have 4.6 scenes per chapter.

On the other hand, the eminent Professor Nior Osocoix, PhD, MLA, CMOS, has stated that women's fiction belongs to the class of novels in which, "a profligacy of scenes, many short, is an infallible marker of the sub-genre denoted women's fiction, which some hold to be identical with the so-called 'chick-lit' marketing category[SUP]1[/SUP]; twenty scenes are not too many in those chapters where the first, third, and fifth plot complications are to be encountered."

1. Although I myself do not hold that opinion.

These two seemingly contradictory rules can be reconciled if the remaining chapters of the book have only one or two scenes, lowering the over-all average.

When asked for comment, noted women's fiction author Imogene Sweetbreath (who writes under a wide variety of pseudonyms), looked up blearily from her word-processor and muttered, "How long is a piece of string?"

---------------------------------

The centered hash mark, standing alone on a line, is the standard mark for a scene break.

But three centered asterisks, or anything else, as long as it doesn't confuse the readers, works just fine. This is like the double-spacing after periods question: No one really cares.

----------------------------------

Department of The Truth? You Can't Handle The Truth!

http://lifenpublishing.com

http://authorlife.tumblr.com/

---------------------------

Last night, thanks to iTunes and my younger daughter, I finally saw Les Misérables (Hugh Jackman, Russell Crowe, Anne Hathaway).

And I found myself singing along:

If I'd
A brain
Or any sense at all
I'd take
A ship
And sail to Montreal....


I don't think I got into the proper spirit of the thing.

That would have made for a very different (and probably a lot shorter) movie.

----------------------------

Happy Easter to everyone!


-------------------------------

The My Little Jhereg & Lunch of Locke Lamora Bartender’s Guide

--------------------------------

Down in the comments, I thought The Atwood showed a lot of insight....

------------------------

Terie: Probably. And you should put that in the comments over there.

-----------------------

From Uncle Jim's Mailbag:
I don't mean to bother you with my dumb questions, but why is copyrighting your writing bad? I'm constantly told to copyright my screenplays by industry pros, why are novels different?
-- Lost in LA​
Dear Lost

There are lots of reasons for this, starting with the fact that it isn't traditional in the land of Book. In films, as I understand it, ideas are more important because so many hands are involved in the finished piece; other writers, producers, directors, the composers, the special-effects team, the actors ... it's a big pot with a lot of ingredients and a lot of people stirring it. With stories and novels -- one-man band. The author does it all.

What does putting a copyright on your pages get you? It costs at least $35. So you write ten stories, and copyright them all. One of them sells (and one out of ten selling is not bad in the world of short stories), and that story earns you $350 (a not unreasonable amount for a short). Congratulations! You've earned nothing.

Or, the copyright on the work tells the editor how long a manuscript has been bouncing around the slushpiles of New York. I recall seeing one such, in the early 'ninties, with a copyright date in the mid-'sixties. This did not fill my heart with anticipation that this was an overlooked masterpiece.

Suppose the book is accepted, and goes out onto the bookshelves with a copyright date on it five years ago (rather than this year). Readers will assume this is an old book, perhaps a reprint.

Suppose you re-write your book, perhaps with editorial input. Change all the character names and move the setting to Cambodia. Huge hassle.

Copyrighting the book in your name is part of the publisher's routine workflow. Having a book already copyrighted puts a kink into that hose; rather than saving them a step it means the book requires special handling.

Okay, that's legitimate publishers.

The scammers and such -- what are they going to do with your book? Sell it? If they knew how to sell a book they wouldn't need to be scammers in the first place.

Sell it in India or China? Get real. The books that get pirated are already-published best sellers.

If, by some weird chance (perhaps a wannabe agent reads all the Internet rumors and decides that's how he's going to get rich) some agent does start stealing manuscripts and publishing them under a pseudonym, the odds that you won't find out are astronomically slim. The only way you wouldn't find out is if the book didn't sell a single copy. The word would get out, because writing about stuff is what writers do. Your records, made in the normal course of writing, would be sufficient to prove your case.

How about publishers?

The scum-sucking vanity presses don't make their money from selling books to the general public. They make their money from huge up-front fees or by selling copies of the book back to the author. Where is one of those publishers going to find someone who will love your book so much that that person will send the publisher a couple of thousand dollars? There's only one guy on the planet who loves your book that much, and that's you.

Here's the truth: Agents and editors don't make their money off one book. They make their money off of careers.

Suppose that some unscrupulous person had gotten Stephen King's first novel, Carrie, given the idea to some other writer, and said, "There you go, sport. Write me a book!"

First thing that would happen: Some other publisher would have bought the original Carrie and gotten it to market before the knockoff was written.

Next thing that would happen: The two books would be so different that no one would have known they came from the same idea. Telekinetic teenagers? It's been done.

Third and most important thing: That unscrupulous agent and/or editor would never have even seen 'Salem's Lot, The Shining, Night Shift, The Stand, etc. etc. etc. The gravy train would have pulled out of the station without them on board.

Also: Writers who are capable of writing publishable manuscripts already have so many ideas that they don't need yours.

Why should publishers steal stories? They can get all the stories they want, from world-famous authors, by offering five cents a word.

Here's where genuine plagiarism comes from: The works that are stolen aren't unedited slush, they're previously published books available in bookstores everywhere (and all of those have copyright notices paid for by the publishers). The only times I can think of where unpublished material was plagiarized was in cases of collaborations gone horribly wrong, when one partner was unsure of what the other had agreed to.

Yes, there have been high-profile cases of famous authors being accused of stealing material from ... let's call them minor writers. Stephen King was accused of plagiarizing a book published by PublishAmerica. Read all about it here. Others include J. K. Rowling. Twice. And Stephenie Meyer. You hear about these things. But what you (the collective-you of the new-author zeitgeist) may not recall is that all of those suits were found to be baseless.

So: Don't waste your time and money on copyrighting your unpublished manuscripts. Don't waste stomach lining on worrying about someone stealing your unpublished manuscript.

------------------------------

Dear Uncle Jim,

Is there any reason why I couldn't publish Atlanta Sunsets: The Musical on Lulu?

Best wishes,
C.bronco

I can't think of any reason why not, but why would you want to? Purely as a learning experience in how to set up and format a Lulu book?

If you have any intention of ever publishing anything ever again under the same name, having this out there won't help you.

But other than that -- it doesn't infringe on Atlanta Nights that I can see.

-------------------------------

Even some of the same lines?

O, dear.

Take a couple of months off and read a ton of novels. See a movie a day.

Don't just pick genres you already know and like. Be eclectic.

Then write something new in a genre you don't generally write in. Perhaps use the Evil Overlord plot generator, with the Murphy's Laws of Combat complication.

Best of luck.

-------------------------

(On the other hand, some famous writers have made careers out of essentially writing the same book over and over and over again....)

---------------------------

Mr. Melville Submits a Proposal

---------------------------

Scholars Behaving Badly

------------------------

If you don't finish this book, when and how will you learn to finish a book?

-------------------------

Silver, what changed between then and now? Is it the genre? The length of the work? What you hope to do with it?

You may be one of the people who writes short stories. It happens. Maybe the change in genre is what's doing you in, like making a lefty write right-handed.

I don't know. Perhaps if you wrote a quick fan-fic, and posted it under some other name to one of the fan fiction sites it would help.

I'm not a psychologist. I can help you find how to write, but never why.

---------------------------

May I use your quote on the back cover? (seriously)

Go right ahead.

Silver-Midnight, NEVER compare yourself to other writers. That way lies madness.

Let others do it, but never do it yourself.

Right on.

--------------------------------

"More exciting stuff" is never a bad thing. The excitement can take many forms. But adding excitement, for you and the reader, sounds good.

-------------------------------

Some people self-medicate with alcohol. But I do not think this is an ideal solution.

----------------------------------

Without knowing you, or your writing, I'm afraid I can't be too useful to you, Silver. You're going to have to wrestle those giants yourself.

Experiment. Find something that works for you. Then do that thing again.

Meanwhile, for everyone:

Writer's Talk with Magician Joshua Jay

-----------------------

Originally posted elsewhere at AW:

Okay, time for a brief history of copyright and how authors make money.

First off, fanfic is ancient. The Aeneid is Homer fanfic. The Gospel of Nicodemus is Bible fanfic. And so on. But we aren't going to talk mostly about fanfic here.

Up until the invention of moveable type, creating books was slow and difficult. Even then, there was a concept of what might be understood as copyright; the right to make copies: in the sixth century, Saint Columba secretly made a copy of Saint Finnian's psalter. Finnian was upset by this and asked for judgment from King Diarmait. The king gave the copy to Finnian, saying "As the calf is to the cow, so is the copy to the book."

(Columba, miffed, then convinced the Clan Neill to rise against Diarmait and prayed for them, while Finnian prayed for Diarmait. As it happened, the Neills won. Columba was so mortified by the great loss of life that he asked Saint Molaise for penance, and Molaise told him to leave Ireland forever. [NB this parenthetical story may be untrue.])

Fast forward to the invention of the printing press. All of a sudden, it was cheap and easy to make many copies of any given book. What happened then was that the various kings, princes, and monarchs licensed the presses, allowing only things that they approved to be printed. The various books were licensed by the government to individual presses, and could only be printed by that press. In essence, copyright was eternal.

So, how did authors make their livings then? Back then we had patrons of the arts. How it worked: Some noble or rich merchant would patronize a writer, supporting that writer, in return for the writer dedicating the work to the noble. The writer might also be expected to come to the rich person's parties and laugh at his jokes. The books didn't belong to the author.

Being a patron of the arts showed how rich and powerful you were. Owning a writer was a status symbol.

This has mostly gone away; today you might consider that grant money is the equivalent. Still, if Bill Gates wants to support me in the style to which I'd like to become accustomed in return for dedicating all my books to him... hey, Bill, I'm in the phone book.

This system pretty much held up to the early eighteenth century. That's when we get the first copyright laws, and the first concept of the public domain. All of a sudden there were multiple presses printing the works of Chaucer and Shakespeare, because the monopoly of whichever press had owned them was gone.

That was when printers would print sheets, and you'd go and read them hanging drying in the print shop, and order them up; then take those sheets to a book binder. This is where we get the expression "You can't tell a book by its cover," because a cheap binding or an expensive binding might hold exactly the same sheets.

Authors ... sold their works for a flat fee to the printers. They had no rights beyond that. The only way a writer could control his works was by becoming a printer himself or hiring a printer.

Move forward about a hundred years to the early nineteenth century. We're starting to see actual publishers now. Generally these were either bookshops who needed to fill their shelves and so hired writers to write books, or printers who needed to keep their presses busy and so hired writers to write books. Writers were still either selling their works for a flat fee, or self-publishing.

Now we get to Charles Dickens. He was one of the self-publishers. He wrote The Pickwick Papers, which were very popular; "Pickwick Societies" sprang up all over England where people would get together to write their own Pickwick stories. Other people wrote and sold Pickwick sequels. Pickwick was on the stage. And Dickens didn't make a farthing off any of them. This drove him frantic; he had an all-too-detailed knowledge of debtor's prisons. What Dickens had that other writers didn't have was a friend in Parliament. So it was that suddenly derivative works also fell under copyright.

Royalties were a thing unknown -- one of the reasons Edgar Allan Poe died in poverty was because the original lump-sum payment he got from each of his stories and poems was the only money he ever saw from any of them.

That changed thanks to the English music hall.

In those days, pre-recording, the only way you could re-hear a song you liked was to buy the sheet music and words at the back of the hall. Publishers would buy the rights from the songwriters (for a flat fee), then print how-ever many they liked. What changed that was a song called, strangely enough, "Money." The author negotiated with the publisher for a smaller up-front fee, to get an additional payment for every hundred printed.

That turned out to be a good deal for authors, and pretty soon if a printer wanted to get a popular author's works, they'd have to offer royalties too.

Copyright was, at the time, for a period of ten years, renewable for an additional fourteen. Mark Twain argued vehemently for lifetime copyright, on the grounds that his early work was benefiting him not at all.

The counterargument was that public domain works created a vibrant intellectual world, to the benefit of society, and that it was ridiculous for someone to do one job, once, and profit from it for life; if authors wanted to keep eating they should keep writing, just as ditch-diggers had to keep digging ditches.

This progressed for another century of so.

Henry Holt came up with the idea of separating publishing from both printing and bookstores: He acquired and edited books from various authors, hired independent print shops to print them, and sold them to bookstores that he himself didn't own. This gave him more capital: He didn't have to maintain printing machinery, or pay printers when they weren't working on his stuff; and he could get greater market penetration by getting his books into every bookstore, not just the ones he owned.

Eventually most publishers came to follow his system: Why buy a printshop when you can put printing out to bid? And why own a bookstore when bookstores will pay you to carry your books?

Authors were making their money on advances and royalties, though you could still find authors being paid flat fees for all rights. One famous example of that was The Little Engine That Could, which, despite being in print since the first day it came out, and selling millions and millions of copies, only made the author that one, one-time, fee.

(Other models include the subscription plan: Individual readers would send money to an author; when the author got enough he or she would write a book, print it, and send copies to the subscribers. Upton Sinclair's The Jungle was written and published on this model, predating Kickstarter by nearly a century.)

In 1924, two guys named Simon and Schuster had a bright idea. They had this new-fangled thing, the crossword-puzzle book. But they had a hard time convincing bookstores to stock them. Crossword puzzles were a fad and bookstores were afraid that they'd have paid to stock unmoveable turkeys. So Simon and Schuster made them a deal: Any unsold stock they'd buy back at cost.

This turned out to be as good a deal for bookstores as royalties had been for authors, so publishers soon found that if they expected their books to be stocked, they'd have to take returns.

Copyright continued much as it had; an original term and one or two extensions. (The extensions could be a paperwork hassle, particularly for the impoverished authors, or those who weren't too well organized. And you still had works falling into public domain while the authors were still alive and could see others profiting from their work.)

Copyright was fraught. Unless a book was published in a particular country, oftentimes the copyright wasn't acknowledged in that country. That's why you'd see publishers listing, on their colophon, "New York, London, Madrid" or similar. That's how Ace Books was able to produce an edition of The Lord of the Rings without paying J. R. R. Tolkien for it; the book wasn't published in the USA, so it wasn't under copyright in the USA. (What eventually happened was Tolkien created a new edition, substantially different enough to constitute a new work, which was copyrighted in the USA and published by Ballantine.)

Eventually the US joined the Berne Convention. And eventually we got the Disney Mickey Mouse Protection Act Sonny Bono Copyright Extension Act, which yielded the current copyright of life + seventy years.

There is a reason for a term of copyright that lasts beyond the author's life: Suppose I sell a book to a publisher. The day after its published (at #1 on the Time Best Seller List!) a bus hops the curb and nails me. If copyright ended with my death the book would instantly go into the public domain and my publisher wouldn't be able to profit from their monopoly on publishing it. So, it protects them.

Bad things that have come from the life+70: One is that it's nearly impossible to anthologize interesting but minor short stories from the 20th century. Either it's impossible to locate all the heirs, or the heirs have unrealistic ideas about what reprint rights for a short story should bring. So unless you have the original pulp magazine some of those may never be read again, and are not informing current or future art. Disney may not have been able to make Pinocchio; the story would have been under copyright 'til 1960.

So: Take-aways. Fan fiction isn't new. Perpetual copyright isn't new. Copyright vested in the author and royalty-based income are both in the authors' interest. Ownership of derivative work is also in the author's interest.

Inherent in "ownership" is the right to give a thing away. If you can't rent, sell, or give something away ... you don't truly own it.

--------------------------

One reason Victorian-era British authors made tours of America was that a six-month tour would grant them US residency for copyright purposes. (They could then go back to Merrie Olde to write bitchy books and essays about how backward that bumpkin Brother Jonathan was.)

We won't even get into how the royal monopoly on type-founders in England cost the English language four letters.

(Or maybe we should: English printers who couldn't get moveable type in England went to the Continent to buy type. But over in France and the Netherlands the fonts didn't have English letters like thorn, eth, yough, and aesch. So the English printers didn't print them. You know the Ye Olde Gift Shoppe? That "ye" isn't really a "ye." It's "the." The Y character was the closest-looking one to thorn, which is the real first letter of the word "the." "Enow," (as in "Wilderness is Paradise enow") is really "enough." The W character replaced the yough character; otherwise "ough" was used to replace the yough. Which is why we get the varying pronunciations of tough, cough, plough, and dough. )


Thorn = þ
Eth = ð
Yough = 3 (only dropped half-a-line and with a horizontal top)
Aesch = æ

------------------------

Okay: Experiment time.

I'd like everyone here to download, read, and review one (or more) of my SP anthologies. I promise that I won't respond in any way whatever to any review.

I'll share the numbers with y'all later on what difference (if any) reviews make to overall sales.

Looking For Futures

Ghosts and Legends

Vampires and Shapeshifters

------------------------------

Just out today: "The Clockwork Trollop," our latest story. Free on-line, plus podcast.

--------------------------

What Editors Want; A Must-Read for Writers Submitting to Literary Magazines

-------------------------

Loved this story.

Thanks, JoBird. Tell all your friends.

Some days I feel like I'm so close to "getting it". Like there's some last hurdle standing in my way, and I can't figure out what it is.
I'm going to recommend, again, Steve Brust's The Sun, The Moon, and the Stars. It's about, among other things, "getting it." About making breakthroughs.

When you do make the breakthrough you'll know it.

-----------------------------

Need a plot? Gender switch!

-----------------------------

‘Vigilante Copy Editor’

------------------------------

Maureen Johnson Calls For An End To Helping Readers Quickly Find The Books They Want To Buy With An Amazing Challenge


The purpose of a cover is to tell the readers "This is the kind of book you like if you like this kind of book. Please carry it to the cash register."

This article does nothing for my opinion of The Huffington Post's knowledge of books, writing, authors, novels, reviewing, or anything else.

-----------------------------------

Publishers are all about one thing: Selling as many copies of a given title as possible. If a different cover sold more copies they'd be on it like white on rice.

As Han Solo said, "Look, I ain't in this for your revolution, and I'm not in it for you, Princess. I expect to be well paid. I'm in it for the money."

-------------------------------------

Speaking of Viable Paradise (as I frequently do at this time of year; going to Viable Paradise means that I personally will make you a Gibson), Viable Paradise swept the RT Book Awards this year for the Sci-Fi/Fantasy category:

Science Fiction Novel
icon-award-star-medium.png
REDSHIRTS
John Scalzi, TOR, (June 2012)
(Former VP instructor)

Fantasy Novel
icon-award-star-medium.png
THE SHADOWED SUN
N.K. Jemisin, ORBIT, (June 2012)
(VP Student)

Epic Fantasy Novel
icon-award-star-medium.png
RANGE OF GHOSTS
Elizabeth Bear, TOR, (March 2012)
(Current VP instructor)

------------------------

Page 98

Post #2431
05-12-2013 09:36 AM
 

James D. Macdonald

Your Genial Uncle
Absolute Sage
VPX
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Feb 11, 2005
Messages
25,582
Reaction score
3,785
Location
New Hampshire
Website
madhousemanor.wordpress.com
05-23-2013, 12:06 PM #2433

Page 98
===============


Writing is not just an art, but a craft.

I don't know if I can teach art, but by golly I can teach the craft. And yes, I believe writing can be taught. Technique is a necessary part of writing.

-----------------------

We can think of writing as cabinet making: Can someone learn to be a cabinet maker? Yes. Can taking a class in cabinet-making improve some person's cabinet making? Yes. Are cabinet makers born, not made? Maybe? The great ones may have a talent for cabinet making that can't be taught. I don't know. Are there self-taught cabinet makers? Yes.

--------------------------

Tragedy #386

--------------------------

Library Cartoons, Comics and Drawings

------------------------

I'm bringing this here from elsewhere:

------------------

A correspondent writes:
… it occurred to me that I’ve seen many iterations of your Classic Uncle Jim Advice (Go into a bookstore and find out who publishes books like yours; figure out what agents have clients you’ve heard of; start writing another, better book while your current one makes the rounds), but when I go looking for one, it doesn’t fall into my lap. Do you have a single comment that, you feel, summarizes this, and if so, can I have the link? ….
Well, there is this post that I made many years (like, in 2003) ago (and it wasn’t new for me at the time). Here’s another example from 2005. But I’ve elaborated in other places since then, streamlined in spots, combined elements, and thought about it a bit. So I might as well go again. The question keeps getting asked. Usually it’s in the form, “How can I get my book published for free? Also, I’m 15 years old.”

Sometimes the questioner adds details about having always wanted to be a professional writer.

Well, let me say this about that. Once upon a time, I was that 15 year old. And, as it happened, I went to a presentation by a Big Name Pro about his Works (in our beloved genre, as it happens, a name you’d all recognize) for in those days there was no Internet. And, at the very end, in the question and answer section, using all of my courage, I raised my hand and asked, “How does one become a professional writer?”

He went on for quite some length about Inspiration and Art. I’m certain it was utterly true. It was also completely useless.

Here is the answer that I was looking for, that I wished I’d gotten, and that would have saved me a lot of time and confusion.

To be a writer, you must write.

Thinking about writing is not writing. Talking about writing is not writing. Researching is not writing. Pre-writing exercises are not writing. Only writing is writing.

Write every day. If you only write a page a day, at the end of a year you’ll have a novel. Read every day. If you want to be a writer, you must be a reader. If you are not a reader, perhaps being a writer is not in your future.

Write straight through to THE END.

The urge to give up, particularly in the dread Mid-Book, will be strong. The desire to go back and fix the beginning will be strong. Resist the urge. You won’t know what the beginning is until you reach the finish, and perhaps not even then.

Every synapse in your brain will be screaming “This Is Crud!” Perhaps it is. That’s okay. You can’t make a pot without clay. We’ll fix it all in the second draft. If you need permission to write badly, I grant it to you.

Besides, if you give up in the middle, when and how will you learn to write endings? One failure mode that I see all the freakin’ time is the writer who, at the end of ten years, has twenty half-novels.

Note that while you will think that your writing is crud, and it may objectively be crud, you should still write to the very best of your ability.

On the day you reach THE END, put the book aside for six weeks.

You’ll want to clear your palate before you begin to revise. You need to forget the exact words. You need to forget which parts were a struggle to write, which parts came out in a white-hot blaze. Which parts you thought were crud. If you start too soon you won’t be reading the words on the paper, you’ll be reading the words you remember being on the paper.

Start writing your next book.

The same day. Or the very next day at the latest. Here is why this is necessary: Regardless of what happens to the book you just completed, you’ll want to have another in your suitcase.

One of two things may happen. The first book may sell. When that happens your agent or editor will say, “Do you happen to have another?” Or the book may not sell. In that case, you’ll want to try again with a different book.

You want to know what’s heartbreaking? Writers who spend ten or fifteen years trying to sell their first, only, unpublishable novel. In ten or fifteen years they should be ten or fifteen books on, and ten or fifteen books’ worth of better. Maybe their second book would have sold. Maybe the third.

Rewrite and revise your book.

If the story doesn’t get good until chapter four, cut chapters one through three. (Readers need far less back story than you’d imagine.) Hold a pistol to the head of every adjective and adverb and make them justify their existence. Tie up the plot threads. Plant the clues that support the climax.

Rewrite and revise it again.

Fill in the plot holes. Add characterization to the minor characters. Improve the dialog. Check the facts. Tighten up the sloppy parts. Cut the dull ones.

Rewrite and revise it one more time.

It’s helpful to print it out in a format, and with a font, that you don’t usually use for your reading copy. It’s also helpful to read the book aloud, putting a check mark in the margin every time you stumble or find something you want to fix.

Give copies to your beta readers.

These are friends who are willing to tell you the brutal truth about your book. Ask them to tear it apart. To nitpick the heck out of it. A dirty-minded high school freshman is a wonderful thing. Pick someone who can’t count to seventy without laughing, to make sure that you haven’t inadvertently written a hilarious book. An expert in the location where the book is set would be good. So would an expert in the professions of the main characters. Don’t abuse your beta readers’ good nature by giving them anything less than your most polished final draft.

With the beta readers’ suggestions in hand, rewrite your book again.

Take the suggestions or don’t, but thank them for taking the time to read and comment on your work. And mean it.

I’ve found that when readers say there’s a problem in a book, they’re usually right. When they say how to fix it, they’re usually wrong. Recall too that if a problem gets pointed out in chapter twenty-four, the real cause of that problem may be in chapter nineteen.

Now find a publisher

Go down to a doors-and-windows bookstore and find books on the shelves there that are similar to your book. Get the publishers’ names and addresses. You’ll find them on the back of the title page.

If a publisher can’t get books into bookstores, you aren’t interested in talking to them.

Get those publishers’ guidelines, and submit your work to them, following their guidelines to the letter. Start at the top and work down. Don’t start with the bottom-feeders. Writers usually find their level early, and stay there.

If it is true that 90% of the books bought in America come from the same half-dozen publishing conglomerates, I see this as an argument for making jolly sure that your book comes out from one of those conglomerates.

It’s possible, indeed likely, that the very top publishers on your list will say, “No unagented submissions.” That’s okay.

Get an agent

If you’ve written a publishable book, this won’t be a big problem. If you haven’t written a publishable book, then you’re already working on a new, different, better book, right?

Take that list of books similar to yours, books that you found physically on the shelves in physical bookstores. (No, “Listed at Amazon” is not the same and is not good enough.) Find out the names of the agents who sold them. (Often, an author will thank his/her agent in the acknowledgments. Or, you could try Googling on [Author’s Name] + “represented by”.)

Get those agents’ guidelines and submit your work to them, following their guidelines to the letter.

Remember: A useful agent has sold books that you’ve heard of. Any agent who charges a fee is clueless, a scammer, or a clueless scammer.

See also: On the Getting of Agents

Rejection is nature’s way of telling you to write a better book.

If/when your manuscript comes home with a rejection slip, send it out again that same day to the next market on your list. Don’t let a manuscript sleep over. And resist as the pomp of Satan that it is the desire to rewrite and revise the work before sending it back out. Remember, you already made this book the best you could make it before you submitted it the first time. Nothing’s changed. And you’re already working on a new, different, better book.

Only if the editor and/or agent says “If you make the following changes….” should you consider rewriting before final acceptance. In that case, let your conscience be your guide.

Do not engage in Rejectomancy. Anything other than “Yes” is “No.” Send the work out again.

See also: Slushkiller

The only thing worse than remaining unpublished is to be published badly

You may not believe me, but this is true. Do not accept an offer from a publisher unless you have read several of their titles (that you personally bought off the shelf of your local bookstore) and liked them. Do not pay to be published. Readers pay the publisher. You don’t.

By now the next book you were working on should be written all the way to THE END. Go back to “Start writing your next book” and repeat the steps in order.

See also: Varieties of insanity known to affect authors

----------------

Short version, to the tune of the Oompa Loompa song:

Oompa Loompa doompety doo
I've got a perfect puzzle for you
Oompa Loompa doompety dee
If you are wise you'll listen to me


What do you get if you don't write your book?
It doesn't get writ and you feel like a schnook.
Do you intend to get to THE END
Or just mess around while you play pretend?

Write some new material


Oompa Loompa doompety dar
If you keep typing, you will go far
You will live in happiness true
Like the Oompa Loompa doompety do

--------------------

The only person who can stop you from writing is you.
--------------

It isn't the gender of the author that's important, its the gender of the reader.

Did you ever wonder why Dove soap features women in its ads?

Did you ever wonder why romance novels all have either feminine names (or initials) on the bylines, regardless of the sex of the author?

Wonder no more. It's the target audience.

-----------------

22 Maps That Show How Americans Speak English Totally Differently From Each Other

---------------

Even though I grew up in New York, married a Texan, and live in far northern New Hampshire, my accent and word choice are basically Wisconsin (my mom's origin).

---------------------

The lesson for writers: We can do characterization with word-choice alone.


------------------------

Write straight through to THE END.
One note about this: I don't mean you necessarily need to start with Line One of Paragraph One of Page One of Scene One of Chapter One, then write all the scenes in order 'til you get to the climax. If that works for you, fine. If not -- if you write scenes out of order, perhaps writing the climax first -- that's okay. What I intend is you shouldn't stop writing until you have the whole thing.

Maybe you'll need to put the scenes in order like stringing beads on a necklace before your story is coherent and you can go to Second Draft. That's okay too. Just don't quit.

---------------------------

...we would never say "byoggles"....

Maybe you wouldn't. That's my new favoritest word!

--------------------------

I've recently discovered that some publishers, mostly tiny start-up e-presses, claim that they own the editing on the books they publish; thus, the author cannot resell the work in the as-published form without their permission (and perhaps payment).

This is pernicious nonsense.

Any edits were made by the author, and belong 100% to the author.

If someone tries to slip a clause like that into a contract, strike it. If the publisher won't agree -- find a better publisher.

-------------------------

Owner was meaner than shit about the huge changes his editors (four of them in a horrible round-robin debacle) made to my story.

Editors shouldn't be making changes to start with. Editors can make suggestions. It's up to the author to agree and actually make any changes which, in the author's opinion, are needed.

Copyeditors may make some changes to bring a book into house style (e.g. serial commas, spelling out numbers, expanding "OK" to "okay") but even then, the text as-published belongs to the author and the author can STET anything; their name is on the cover, their name is on the copyright.

-------------------

Uncomfortable Plot Summaries

----------------------

The Secret Shortcut to Publishing Success, Revealed!

---------------------

He was reading Land of Mist and Snow and was so engrossed in it he didn't even look up when his wife joined him at the table. Luckily she had a book of her own.

I'm so pleased!

ETA: I found something for my question. :)

Hurrah! (Usually the rash clears up in a week to ten days.)

---------------

Making changes to the text is the sign of a new editor. Making comments about the wording or textural word is professional. I have noticed that e-book editors are quicker to jump to this than I saw with pulp work.

Regretfully, many e-book editors (particularly at the smaller start-up places) have never been edited in their lives, nor have they had a chance to be taught to edit by proficient editors.

This is a sorrow. The books suffer for it.

------------------

There's a market for everything....

--------------------

interesting.jpg


-------------------

From Uncle Jim's Mailbag:
Dear Uncle Jim:

Can I try to traditionally publish after self-publishing on kindle/e-pubbing?

-- Querying in Quebec​
Dear Querying:

You have several questions rolled into one there. The first thing is this: If you're talking about another book, not the one that you self-pubbed, sure. Why not? Commercial publishers, from the biggest to the smallest, are looking for new material.

If you are talking about the one you self-pubbed, your question is really, "Can I sell reprint rights?" The answer is the same whether you were the publisher yourself or you were published by Dell: Check the guidelines for the publisher you're interested in. Do they say "No reprints?" Yes/No.

If the publisher's guidelines say "no reprints," cross them off your list.

That leaves you with publishers that accept reprints. Query them as you ordinarily would, following their guidelines to the letter.

Now, will your book be accepted?

Here are some considerations: How were the sales of the previous edition?

You have three possibilities:

1) Sold a negligible number. Depending on the press you're talking to, a negligible number can be a few hundred to a few thousand. That's a proven failure; no sale. Unfortunately it's also the typical sales expectation of self-published books.

2) Sold every copy that it's ever going to sell. Again, depends on the press you're looking at. Numbers I've seen mentioned for this range in the five-to-eight thousand copy mark. Again, no sale.

3) A breakout book. Sky's the limit. Sold a metric ton. Looks like it'll sell tons more. This book has a very good chance of getting picked up by a commercial publisher.

If your story falls in the sales area of Case 1 and 2 above, you'll probably have to take it out of print before you start querying it.

Are there exceptions to cases 1) and 2)? Sure. If the editor loves the book, there's always a chance. Of course, if the editor loves the book that same editor would have bought it even without your self-publishing first.

Any exceptions to the no-reprints rule? Again, yes. That'll be in Case 3 above. If the book's sales are headed for the stratosphere the publishers will come looking for you. Does this happen? Yes, but not very often. We can probably name all the titles.

So, is self-publishing first a clever plan to sell this book to a commercial press?

No. You've greatly decreased the number of markets you can even approach. And typical sales figures suggest that your book, however dandy it might be, will look like an unbudgeable turkey to the nice folks who'll have to sign off on acquiring it.

So, if commercial publication is your goal, follow the path of submitting original works in accordance with the guidelines.

If self-publication is your goal, go forth and do so boldly.

If commercial publication is your goal, self-publication first may prove, at best, a time-consuming detour.

Consider your objectives. Consider your resources. Consider which choices are more likely to lead to your objectives with the resources you have on hand.

"The race is not always to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, but that's how the smart money bets."
-- Damon Runyon

"You've got to ask yourself one question: Do I feel lucky? Well, do ya, punk?"
-- Dirty Harry

------------------

Yeah, Allen. That falls under Being Badly Published is Worse Than Remaining Unpublished, and Printing is not Publishing.

Or the ever popular, "She wanted to be published in the worst way ... and she was."

--------------------

So:

Reprints happen. This should be intuitively obvious because otherwise you wouldn't be able to get a copy of Huckleberry Finn, Moby-Dick, or Macbeth today.

But reprint advances are typically lower than advances for originals.

---------------------

You're quite welcome!

--------------------

Heck, Allen, I think we were both messing around in Latin America at the same time. We might take one look at each other and say, "Hey, you're the guy...!"

In today's bit of egoboo, today the mail brought a contributor's copy of Oxford English 2, Knowledge and Skills (Australian Curriculum), by Paul Grover.

Yes, that Oxford.

They used portions of one of our short stories ("No One Has To Know") for the examples in Unit 8, "Actively Adverbs -- Positive, Comparative and Superlative Adverbs."

Other authors whose works are used as examples in this volume include J. R. R. Tolkien, J. K. Rowling, and Ray Bradbury, so we are well pleased.

978-0-19-552247-1 if your life isn't complete without it. Or the story itself is in Vampires, edited by Jane Yolen, (HarperCollins, 1991, multiple reprints over the years). Also available as part of our collection, Witch Garden and Other Stories, multiple electronic formats.

-----------------------

We'll be at Readercon this weekend. If anyone is there, or in the Boston area, here's my sked:

Friday July 12 8:00 PM CL Kaffeeklatsch. Debra Doyle, James D. Macdonald.
9:00 PM E Autographs. Debra Doyle, James D. Macdonald.
Saturday July 13

8:00 PM RI The Xanatos Gambit. Jim Freund (moderator), Yoon Ha Lee, Scott Lynch, James D. Macdonald. The tangled webs of schemers both good and bad have always had a presence in imaginative fiction. There are the wily king-killers, the intrigue-fomenting spinsters and widows, the bard who hides the knife beside the harp, the indispensable keeper of secrets, and more. What are the challenges in writing an especially clever character? How has the role of the schemer evolved, and what versions do we no longer see?

Suggested by Josh Jasper.
Sunday July 14

2:30 PM VT Reading: James D. Macdonald. James D. Macdonald. James D. Macdonald reads an excerpt from a forthcoming work.

----------------------

What is English?

----------------------

Ms. Gardner seems to represent romance and non-fiction. Maybe that's the way it is over in romancelandia.

I note that several of her clients have Youtube videos. I note that none of them (of the ones I checked) were uploaded before the author had a book for sale.

----------------------------

I don't believe that any publicity is good publicity.

But I don't believe this campaign will have any effect, either.

--------------------

I could handle that too.

-------------------

Why fact-checking is important; or, we all need copy editors:

Alas, Stephen King!

I'll never forget the botched opening lines of A. E. Van Vogt -- a German science fiction writer, long dead, who liked to effuse a little bit. His book Slan was actually the basis of the Alien films -- they basically stole them to do that, and ended up paying his estate some money -- but he was just a terrible, terrible writer.
Opinions on Van Vogt's writing may differ (though he was immensely popular at the time), but facts ... don't.

1) Van Vogt was Canadian.
2) Slan does not resemble the Alien films in any way whatever.
3) His estate didn't sue.

The Van Vogt story was "The Black Destroyer," which later became part of a fix-up novel, The Voyage of the Space Beagle. His estate didn't sue because Van Vogt himself was still alive--he did sue and settled out of court.

------------------

Originally published elsewhere at AW:

Okay, time to talk about what packagers are and how they work.

You know those annoying people at conventions who come up to you and say, "I have a great idea for a book! You write it and we'll split the money!"

That's what packagers do.

Except that packagers really do have an idea, and there really is money, and the book really will be published.

Packagers approach publishers with (wait for it) packages of cover art, fully edited text, and a guaranteed delivery schedule. All the publisher needs to do it put their logo on it, print, and distribute it. These are often, but not always, series. So the publisher knows that they can have a new book every month for six months or a year, usually under the same author name, and not have to worry about authors being late and throwing the entire schedule out of whack.

After the packager sells a package to a publisher, then they go out and find writers (who can write fast to specification) and cover artists (who can paint fast). The publisher gives the packager the same advance that they'd give some other book of the same kind -- call it $5K/title -- and pays the same royalties -- call it 10% of cover. The packager gives half of each to the actual author, and keeps the rest. So the author gets a $2.5K advance and 5% royalties.

What the author also gets is a "bible" for the series, which can be surprisingly slight. The author often gets to come up with their own outline for their book, though it will have to be approved by the packager. Deadlines can be quite tight. Six months is common, though I've seen twenty days (that was an odd case, where the editor at the packager who was supposed to assign the titles to authors went on maternity leave, and it fell through the cracks). Six authors working on six books for six months gives you six books for next year.

Suppose that concept that they sell is a series called Chess Camp by "Brixton Mays." The pitch: "Teens learn about life, love, and the Nimzo-Indian Defense at Chess Camp!"

HarperCollins thinks this is a swell idea, and buys a six-book series, to be published two years from now (which is the schedule they're working on this morning). The packager rounds up six authors--often writers who they've worked with before and know can reliably turn in a professional-level manuscript on time and on length, or sometimes newcomers who have published a few stories in magazines or anthologies (and thus are known to be able to write on a professional level), and look like they might be hungry. This is work-for-hire; the copyright is in the packager's name.

Each author gets assigned one particular chess gambit, and some one-page character sheets detailing the kids who are at Chess Camp. Say Roxie Romaine (writing as Brixton Mays) gets the first volume: The Four Knights Game. The characters she has to work with are Chrissy, a sassy black teen from inner-city Detroit, her goal is to go to New York and become a model; Franz, the stoic German, blond, who keeps his feelings under wraps; Genevieve, the redheaded hippy-dippy back-to-nature free spirit who finds the discipline of Chess Camp doesn't fit with her life-style; and brown-haired Claude, the studious, brilliant, but achingly lonely child whose father insisted that he come to Chess Camp even though his heart is really in woodwinds. Chess Camp, set high in the Berkshires, has a staff of world-champion chess players, led by Madame Zughoff, whose crusty exterior hides a heart of custard.

We need 80,000 words. Go, young writer!

This doesn't save the publisher any money -- they're paying the same advance they'd pay to a first-time author, and paying the same royalties. But it does save them the hassle of finding the books to keep their pipelines full while waiting for works of heartstopping beauty to come in from agents or over the transom. They only need to send one royalty report, and they only need to deal with one person. What they're buying is ease, reliability, and scheduling.

Suppose, then, that some other writer comes up with a brilliant idea about four teens who learn to play chess together. That book isn't going to get bought, because it's too similar to something they've already got in the pipeline.

The odds that the editor who bought the packaged series and the editor who saw the author's submission are the same person are small. The odds that the packager saw the author's submitted story before pitching the series are smaller still. That the actual author had seen the other author's work the odds are essentially nil. The authors working for the packager are lucky if they see the manuscripts of the other authors working on the same series they are.

In the current case, the one who came up with the concept for the series was undoubtedly the packager. How long they'd been shopping the series around I'm sure they could prove from correspondence.

----------------------

Dunno, Greg.

There's a good argument that Star Trek was based on inspired by The Voyage of the Space Beagle.

---------

Back to packaging for a moment: From Varieties of insanity known to affect authors we find this item:

Picking up a quickie work-for-hire gig writing a media tie-in novel isn’t going to affect my productivity on the ongoing series I have under contract at another house.

Also, this (archived by the Wayback Machine) dealing with the bizarre intrusion of packaging into the Kaavya Viswanathan scandal.

-------------------------

When you need to increase length, add plot.

------------------------

Hi, sussura.

Keep writing! Keep submitting! Those are the two secrets. Everything else is commentary.

--------------------------

A sonnet is a limerick ... with an army!

Anyway, if y'all want to thank me, read one of my books and recommend it to your friends.

---------------------

We have a story in this anthology (publication date 15 August). Buy one! Better still, buy a dozen! They make excellent gifts....

----------------------

Remember to add the reverberations of that new beginning all the way through to THE END.

----------------------

A post on pitches, including a Pitch Generator Template.

---------------------

Thanks, Panda.

--------------------

I'll keep it going 'til people stop being interested.

You know how you keep seeing articles (sometimes by famous best-selling authors) complaining that now publishing is a business, and it's all about money, unlike the happy days when it was folks who were interested in books and literature and good writing? Have you ever noticed that, whenever the author was writing, that golden age was about ten years before they sold their first book?

You can find examples of that complaint for every decade for the past century. What does that tell you about the publishing business?

---------------------

The novel considered as a roller-coaster.

--------------------

The smartest thing I ever heard about style is this: "Style is what you can't help doing."

You might find yourself writing in short, descriptive sentences. That doesn't mean that you'll sound like Hemingway. You might find yourself writing mile-long paragraphs. That doesn't mean you'll sound like Faulkner. In the process of writing-and-revising you will inevitably wind up sounding like yourself.

If the problem is that you're imitating the voice of various writers the solution is generally to read more, and read widely.

Mostly I'd say not to worry about it so much. Style -- your style -- will exist. If you can see the influences of other writers, don't concern yourself. Other readers won't. (Either that or they'll see the influence of writers you've never heard of. You can't win.)

Read a lot. Write a lot. All will become clear.

----------------------

This sounds very much like a personal tic. All I can tell you is that your writing will have your style, regardless of how much influence you see in it from other writers. Recall that all art is in conversation with all other art, and do not let it overly concern you.

I find that both my first-person work and my third-person work contain great heaping chunks of me. Embrace this fact. Having your writing be personal is a plus.

-----------------------

Write in first, re-write in third (or vice versa) and see which version reads better. Nothing's finished until you put it in the mail (and even then it isn't finished).

-------------------------

Speaking of style, as we just were, yesterday's Language Log had a post,
"What can you ever say to Polonius?"

Much of it is an extended quote from Richard Lanham's Style: An Anti-Textbook (1974).

Lanham, it seems, doesn't think much of composition instruction books. Fair enough. Alas, at this point he wanders off into an extended Strawman Fallacy by lumping them together as "The Books." If he has a problem with a book, then name the book and quote it accurately. Instead, he produces lists of what he claims The Books teach in an attempt to make The Books look silly. Tell you what, I can make anyone look silly if I get to write their arguments for them.

His major complaints seem to be with books dealing with high school and college essays. Recall that, as a whole, school essays are written by people who don't want to write them, and read by people who don't want to read them. Thus facilitating both composition and correction are virtues.

Here in the world of fiction, even the worst of the slush-puppies are writing because they want to. Readers are reading because they want to. The famous Strunk & White started life as a handout for a Freshman Composition class at Cornell. But when E.B. White wrote Stuart Little and Charlotte's Web he violated Strunk & White all to heck. And why should he not? His books weren't freshman essays.

Quoting Lanham here:
Students of style are bombarded with self-canceling clichés. Here’s a quintessence taken from The Books published in the last hundred years:
My comments interpolated.
Be plain; Avoid “fine writing”
Unless "fine writing" (whatever that is) better advances the plot, reveals character, and supports the theme.
Avoid bluntness; Articulate your sentences gracefully
Unless "bluntness" (whatever that is) better advances the plot, reveals character, and supports the theme.
Make your writing spontaneous
Always be sincere. Once you can fake sincerity you're golden.
A darned good plan.
Be yourself
You can scarcely avoid doing so.
Imitate the masters
Consider that the masters might know something you don't. There's a saying in the fire service: "A guy who only learns from his own mistakes is dead."
Write from your own experience
All fiction is, at base, about people. You're a person. You have lots of experience there, if you think about it.
Read widely (“A man will turn over half a library to make one book,” Samuel Johnson is repeatedly quoted as saying)
A darned good plan.
Make an outline
If it help you get words on the page.
Don’t over-outline
If it doesn't help you get words on the page.
Be serious without being stuffy
Unless being stuffy without being serious better advances the plot, reveals character, and supports the theme.
Study spoken speech
A darned good plan.
Writing and Speaking are different things
Very true!
What the prose writer needs is a temperament nicely balanced between the sprightly and the phlegmatic, a lively mind and a deliberate judgment. His ideas will flow easily, but not too impetuously.
Or, if your goal is to fill the blue book before the bell rings, a temperament nicely balanced between terror and despair will work equally well.​
Style books meant for high school students are tools; perhaps not the best for the fiction writer, but tools nonetheless. If what you need is a hammer but what you have is a wrench, the wrench will work lots better than your bare hands when you're driving that nail.


-------------------------------

For those who haven't read it, OH JOHN RINGO NO.

------------------------------

"Commonly, students' ability to see their errors and technical failings increases faster than their ability to correct them. Then the instructor faces the problem of discouraged students who believe they are actually getting worse through training rather than better.... An analogy that may help the intermediate student is that of 'carving a cube into a sphere'. Training is the process of chopping off corners. Initially, the corners are large and easy to see--as is progress. Later, each corner cut off reveals three new corners, albeit smaller ones. This process is endless, and while an advanced student may appear to others of lesser experience to be a perfect sphere, the individual is often painfully aware of the many corners that still need polishing."
--Elmar T. Schmeisser, "The University Dojo" in Martial Arts Teachers on Teaching, Carol A. Wiley, ed.

----------------------

For writing in first you have to get into someone's head and live there a while. It's method acting with a typewriter, that's all.

-----------------------

Are your books your babies?

#Bookparent

------------------

I have books, and I've raised children, and I have no difficulty at all in telling them apart.

-------------------

Writing considered as a text adventure game.

-------------------

There's a lot of talk these days about Fifty Shades of Grey, how it came out of fanfiction, went to a very small press, was bought by a very big press, it sold a ton of copies, and now a movie's being made. CNN has speculation about who's going to star as one of their top stories.

But the "nothing new under the sun" clause kicks in. Fifty years ago there was another book: The Harrad Experiment.

It was first published in the mid-sixties by a small house, and at the beginning was only available by mail. (Those were the days when some books were quite literally unprintable. In 1969 a British printer named Arthur Dobson was sentenced to two years in jail for publishing the century-old memoir, My Secret Life.)

Then, in the late sixties, a major house bought the rights to The Harrad Experiment and ... it sold. It sold very well. Millions of copies. Thirty-three editions. Over seventy printings in paperback. A movie. The movie had a sequel.

Up to that point the popular view was that white covers didn't sell. Harrad had a white cover, and suddenly you couldn't walk into a bookstore without being blinded by the light reflecting from the white covers on every shelf.

Why did it sell so well? Dunno. Same reason as Fifty Shades. It had a reputation for being woo-hoo-hot-smexy, and you didn't have to have it delivered to your house in a plain brown wrapper, or go to a part of town where the pavement is sticky and the shops smell like Cthulhu's gym shoes to buy it.

Why this one, and not one of the dozens--hundreds--of others that are equally woo-hoo-hot-smexy and that were written at the same time? For the same reason that hula-hoops were popular, or coonskin caps, or pet rocks. Fads. Who can figure 'em?

Have I read it? I started to. Didn't finish, because it ... wasn't that well written. Was it super hot? Maybe for 1966 it was, but right now, today, you can find hotter in the women's magazines beside the checkout line at the grocery store.

A work of its time. As are all our works.

Now, moving along slightly, here's an incredibly snarky review of the movie.

------------------

Outlines: Heck yeah I make 'em. Sometimes 3/4 of the length of the final work. Very detailed outlines.

If the story takes a new direction I write a new outline. The thing I do (which may or may not work for you) is that I start the new outline at the point of departure, not back from the beginning. I continue on as if the new opening had already been written, without actually writing it anew. That maintains my momentum.

-------------------------

BTW, everyone at Harrad College was lily-white and straight as a string. They might have been progressive but they weren't that progressive....

A book of its time.

-------------------

Try Heinlein.

--------------------

First posted elsewhere at AW:

Option clauses favor publishers, which is why I recommend that authors strike them, or write them as narrowly as possible.

You can see why publishers favor them, though. The publisher nurtures a young author, supports them through perhaps dismal early sales, builds the brand, and when the author becomes popular/profitable -- that author jumps to a bigger house? How is that fair to the first publisher?

-----------------------

From the ever-interesting HapiSofi (and posted elsewhere at AW):

A new scam aimed at writers.

About blog tours as a means of promotion I have no opinion (never having done one). Nevertheless, some folks do 'em. And a small industry of arranging blog tours has sprung up. And it must follow, as the night the day, that some scammers have latched on to that industry, separating authors from cash in return for ... nothing.

-------------------

This is National Banned Books Week. Read a banned book today!

-------------------

There have always been snake-oil salesmen.

These days, any time someone says to an author, ".... pay me," the author needs to look very closely at what they're actually getting in return, whether others have received positive results by similar means, and so on.

Remember, at a game of three-card monte, you may be the only person in the crowd who isn't a shill.

------------------

My thought is, why are the agents limiting themselves to one format? Suppose there's a non-digital-first publisher that would be a better fit for the book? That's like going with an agent who says they'll only submit to paperback-original houses. Why?

Those guys are advertising, "Our business model is to leave money on the table!"

I doubt you'll find many (if any) top-tier agents in their ranks.

----------------------

Peru makes book writing into a spectator sport and invites desperate writers into combat

-------------------
It's just like real publishing: ten go in, only one comes out.

-------------------

My approach is this: for the next six weeks, I am going to ignore everything anyone has ever said to me about this novel. Every last word. And I'm going to write it for ME. And I'm going to come back in six weeks and tell you it's done.

That is an excellent plan.

----------------------

Nuts and Bolts: Jump-Starting Stories

---------------------

The Andrew Wylie Rules

--------------------

Interesting:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-24519179
Meanwhile visitors to the WHSmith.co.uk website were greeted by a holding page statement.
The retailer said it had taken the site offline "to best protect our customers and the public".
Visitors to the WHSmith.co.uk website see this holding page statement instead:
"Our website will become live again once all self published e-books have been removed and we are totally sure that there are no offending titles available", it said.

A bigger problem than the porn, though less talked-about in the self-publishing world, is plagiarism. WH Smith may be the first, but I doubt they'll be the last.

------------------

Heck yeah, plagiarized books on Amazon. This has been a scandal for years.

------------------

Yep, WHSmith reacted to claims of Pr0n.

I'm just saying that the bigger problem waiting in the wings is the plagiarism scandal-in-the-making.

------------------------

I've got a signing this weekend: http://toadbooks.com/event/peterbor...i-anthology-editors-and-contributors-are-here

Peterborough, NH, 2:00 pm Saturday at the Toadstool Bookshop.

--------------------

Kaleidoscope submission guidelines. Short YA SF. One week from now.

---------------------

Break the chapters by ear.

Where you feel there's the need for a break that's bigger than a scene break but smaller than a volume break.

Some books have no chapter breaks at all. Others have chapter breaks every three pages. This is part of the art.

--------------------

You aren't going to find an agent for a collection of unpublished short fiction.

No one says that you have to write a novel if you don't want to.

So: Where do you find the short fiction that you yourself read?

Go down to Barnes & Noble and look on the magazine rack there. Which publish fiction?

Go to your public library and look in Writers' Market (WM) and Literary Marketplace (LMP) for short fiction markets. Get and read several issues of each magazine to get a feeling for what they take.

Ask your local librarian, "What are some magazines that publish _____________?"

-----------------------

Just send the agent the full as it now stands. You can put in the cover letter "I've made a few revisions since you saw the partial...."

Or not. Your choice.

------------------------

Novellas are the same deal as short stories.

Some publishers do books consisting of two or three novellas, but those generally a) come from the publisher, not the author, and b) are pretty much limited to the romance and horror markets.

Yes, there are e-publishers that accept novellas. Same question: Where do you find the novellas you yourself read?

-------------------------

Take very full notes, including as many sensory details as possible. Take photos. Eat something local.

-----------------------

From Uncle Jim's Mailbag:
Dear Uncle Jim,
Can men write convincing female characters?
/signed/
Wary in Webster

Dear Wary,
Yes.
/signed/
Uncle Jim


---

Dear Uncle Jim,
Can women write convincing male characters?
/signed/
Suspicious in Schenectady

Dear Suspicious,
Yes.
/signed/
Uncle Jim

Gentle readers, the question you should ask yourselves is, as an author, can you write convincing human characters? If so it follows, as the night the day, you can write convincing male and female characters.

--------------------

Not, however, a character we should emulate.

Meanwhile: Happy Thanksgiving!

Soon it will be time for the Christmas Challenge!

-------------------

The exclusive period from first publication being over, I've uploaded our story, "The Clockwork Trollop," to Smashwords. Our steampunk horror erotica ghost story. Available in a variety of formats.

This was our Christmas Challenge story from a couple of years back.

---------------------------

This week only: The Clockwork Trollop is free (with coupon) at Smashwords.

Coupon code: KU63G

Download it, read it, review it, tell your friends, don't tell your friends, don't review it, don't read it, but download it anyway.

----------------------

Minor brag: Another short story sale.

http://deborahjross.blogspot.com/2013/12/stars-of-darkover-table-of-contents.html

The secrets: 1) Write. 2) Submit what you write. 3) Go to step 1.

---------------------------

Readers skip blurbs all the time. Readers skip prologues all the time. Readers skip introductions all the time. If you have something that you want readers to know, put it somewhere after the words "Chapter One" appear on the top of the page.

----------------------

Hi, dirtroadfilms:

Beta readers. Yes.

When you have your entire work finished, and you've made it the best that you can, you approach your friends (and other writers who you know personally and are working on the same level you are, or maybe one step above) and say, "Hey, I've written a book. Would you like to read it and make comments on it?"

Those who say yes, send them copies of your book. (Those who actually do respond with comments, keep them on your list for your next book.)

You send your very best, because to do less is to abuse your readers. That means you've finished the final draft and this is your polished work.

You draw your beta readers from among your friends. With any kind of luck one of your friends is a dirty-minded and completely disrespectful teenager. (How else will you learn about your unsuspected double entendres?)

--------

Oh yes ... and if your beta reader has missed every point you were trying to make, and gave you nonsensical -- in fact, stupid -- suggestions, what you say is, "Thank you very much!" and mean it.

------------------

Ten days 'til Christmas! It's time for the Christmas Challenge.

This year we're going to try to write 500 words/day. (Not so bad; that's just two pages.) The goal is to have a 5,000 word short story to read to our friends and family at Christmas Dinner. So the theme is: food.

Since food is a big part of everyone's life, this is your change to write Food Porn. A story with a beginning, a middle, and an end, where the climax is at dinner.

Okay, folks, start your typewriters!

----------------------------

And to you, Liam.

----------------------

One of the games we play around here is "would you turn the page?"

Here's a retrospective with links:

Volume 1 page 103
The Street Lawyer by John Grisham

Volume 1 page 105 & 127
Oath of Swords by David Weber

Volume 1 page 141
My own "A Tremble in the Air"

Volume 1 page 188
The India Fan by Victoria Holt

Volume 1 page 191
Sam's Letters to Jennifer by James Patterson

Volume 1 page 192
A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens
and
The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett

Volume 1 page 204
The Postman Always Rings Twice by James M. Cain

Volume 1 page 213
My own Land of Mist and Snow

Volume 1 page 228
Paul Clifford by Edward Bulwer-Lytton

Volume 1 page 258
Bacchus and Me: Adventures in the Wine Cellar by Jay McInerney

Volume 1 page 259
Bright Lights, Big City by Jay McInerney

Volume 1 page 293
Nurse Kelsey Abroad by Marjorie Norrell

Volume 1 page 295
Doctors' Wives by Frank G. Slaughter

Volume 1 page 298
The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde

Volume 1 page 341
Twilight by Stephenie Meyer

Volume 1 page 352
Ghost Story by Peter Straub

Volume 1 page 358
My own The Price of the Stars

--------------------------

No matter what book, someone doesn't like it. The Cat in the Hat has 2,725 one-star ratings at Goodreads.

-------------------------

Ten typos in a book? No biggie.

Ten typos on a page? That... might slow me down some.

I find is off-putting if the feeling rises in my heart that I'm putting more work into the book than the author did.

Yes, stuff will sneak through. But do try to give your betas a finished version.

------------------

The person you bounce ideas off while in the process of writing is usually called a writing partner, crit partner, or, sometimes, alpha reader. A writers' group can serve the function.

For me, a beta reader gives me the reaction of the person-on-the-street to the final product.

From the film making perspective: think of the difference between the daily rushes and the test audience/focus group.

--------------------------

Yes, there is a rule: Ships' names do not take a definite article. They're names. When you're talking about your friend Bill Rogers you don't call him "the Bill Rogers," do you?

(Exception to this is when you want to emphasis that you're talking about a particular/famous one:
"I learned guitar from Charlie Manson."

"The Charlie Manson?"

"Yeah."​
In the same way:
"I served on USS Forrestal."

"The Forrestal?"

"Yeah."​
(For the benefit of the civilians in the audience, the USS Forrestal is the one that had the fire.))

----------------------

Short version: Authors! Have some pride!

--------------------

So, folks, how many of y'all did the Christmas Challenge?

--------------------

The Cool Bits Story Generator

--------------------

I mean, is it better to start and finish one storyline before the next one, or write it like I envision it in the book with alternating storylines?

I generally write it in the order I envision the novel, with occasional extra scenes as they occur to me, but that may not be the way that works for you.

What works for you is the major consideration. Try, see if one way works. Then try the other way. See if it works.

There is no right way. There's only what works for you.

-------------------------

Where I'll be this weekend: Arisia

Time Travel, Therapy, & the Quest for Redemption Faneuil Literature Sat 1:00 PM 01:15
Description Time travel allows writers to explore a fundamental human longing: to change what cannot be changed. Protagonists go back in order to fix the crucial moments that shaped their lives. Usually these attempts backfire - sometimes the past does not allow itself to be changed, sometimes changing the past creates a new range of problems, and sometimes changing the past does not cure the ache in the protagonist's soul. Is time travel a parable for the therapeutic mining of our personal histories?

Reading: Doyle, Macdonald, and Nelson Hale Writing Sun 10:00 AM 01:15
Description Authors Debra Doyle, James Macdonald, and Resa Nelson read selections from their works.


Autograph - Kimmel, Macdonald, & Nurenberg Galleria - Autograph Space Writing Sun 11:30 AM 01:15
Description Autograph session with Daniel M. Kimmel, James Macdonald, and David Nurenberg.

------------------------

01-17-2014, 11:25 AM #2665
Page 107
-------------------------
 
Status
Not open for further replies.