Learn Writing with Uncle Jim, Volume 2

zanzjan · Jun 7, 2013

Wait, what? People pronounce coupon "cyoo-pon"? For some reason that one just boggles* my mind.

(*byoggles?)

Scribhneoir · Jun 7, 2013

Interesting! Especially seeing how my vocabulary has been shaped as someone who grew up in California, but with a midwestern mother and a southern father.

James D. Macdonald · Jun 7, 2013

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).

MumblingSage · Jun 7, 2013

James D. Macdonald said:
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).

So, m*lk, where * is any vowel but i?

(Or are we into Ts as Ds territory here? Mine pops up at the oddest moments...)

Chris P · Jun 7, 2013

My parents were newly relocated Yoopers when I was born in Iowa, where I lived for 30 years before living in Mississippi for another 11, during which I picked up a twang. I'm curious to see what two years in Uganda is going to do. "Yah, you betcha y'all're being most welcome."

FOTSGreg · Jun 7, 2013

I once sat down with Dr Robert Dudley out at UC-Berkeley during a science consult for my book Hatchings. Within a minute of starting our conversation Dr Dudley (an expert on insect flight dynamics) interjected "Are you from the Midwest because you've got a Midwestern accent?"

As it turns out I was born in California, but grew up in Ohio before returning to California when I was 20 (and then moving to Oklahoma in 2008). I guess the accent just never wore off.

James D. Macdonald · Jun 11, 2013

The lesson for writers: We can do characterization with word-choice alone.

Nekko · Jun 11, 2013

James D. Macdonald said:
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.

ETC
----------------

Uncle Jim I think I'm going to bronze this whole post and hang it above my desk. Thank you, thank you!

James D. Macdonald · Jun 12, 2013

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.

Liosse de Velishaf · Jun 12, 2013

zanzjan said:
Wait, what? People pronounce coupon "cyoo-pon"? For some reason that one just boggles* my mind.

(*byoggles?)

There are dialects of American English that place a /j/<y> after consonants that precede a /u/. So we would never say "byoggles", but we say "fyoory", "cyoopon", etc.

James D. Macdonald · Jun 12, 2013

Liosse de Velishaf said:
...we would never say "byoggles"....

Maybe you wouldn't. That's my new favoritest word!

Liosse de Velishaf · Jun 12, 2013

James D. Macdonald said:
Maybe you wouldn't. That's my new favoritest word!

Haha, fair enough. But that's part of your idiolect based on a conscious choice, not a natural progression of any English dialect.

OrangeZebra · Jun 12, 2013

I'm in shock.
I can't believe I actually caught up reading this thread. It was surreal to see the years pass over a few mere months.

Thank you so much for all the advice! It's really helped me keep busy writing like I mean it.

I loved those maps. I've lived in the same place my whole life, but I don't pronounce all of those words consistently with my region (just most of the words). No wonder I can never figure out if I want the word "freeway" or "highway". I usually stumble over it since I'm wondering which one is right every time I say it.

It's so nice to finally meet you all! *waves*

Liosse de Velishaf · Jun 12, 2013

OrangeZebra said:
I'm in shock.
I can't believe I actually caught up reading this thread. It was surreal to see the years pass over a few mere months.

Thank you so much for all the advice! It's really helped me keep busy writing like I mean it.

I loved those maps. I've lived in the same place my whole life, but I don't pronounce all of those words consistently with my region (just most of the words). No wonder I can never figure out if I want the word "freeway" or "highway". I usually stumble over it since I'm wondering which one is right every time I say it.

It's so nice to finally meet you all! *waves*

I don't match my region either. It was so weird to see them claim words that I've never seen.

James D. Macdonald · Jun 13, 2013

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.

AphraB · Jun 13, 2013

James D. Macdonald said:
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.

Wow. OK. I ran into this last year with a local small publisher. Good to know. Owner was meaner than shit about the huge changes his editors (four of them in a horrible round-robin debacle) made to my story. Then when I insisted it be pulled from the anthology (which it was), told me that I couldn't publish it until a certain number of months in any way, shape, or form.

The whole thing hurt so bad that I simply put the story away. Might get it out and dust it off now that I've seen this.

Thanks, Uncle Jim!

James D. Macdonald · Jun 13, 2013

AphraB said:
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.

AphraB · Jun 13, 2013

James D. Macdonald said:
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.

I kept asking, "If you didn't like my story, then why did you accept it?" Dude never answered. And heck, I was looking forward to copy-editor changes and corrections!

Anyway.

Thanks again.

James D. Macdonald · Jun 14, 2013

Uncomfortable Plot Summaries

James D. Macdonald · Jun 14, 2013

The Secret Shortcut to Publishing Success, Revealed!

allenparker · Jun 17, 2013

James D. Macdonald said:
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.

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.

James D. Macdonald said:
The Secret Shortcut to Publishing Success, Revealed!

Too bad there is not a launch platform for this. I would pay dearly for instant success. Maybe half of my kingdom. (That's almost a whole dollar.)

Scribhneoir · Jun 17, 2013

Hey, Uncle Jim, just thought I'd share ... today at lunch, while plugging away at my WIP, I paused and glanced at the guy at the table across from me. 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.

Silver-Midnight · Jun 18, 2013

ETA: I found something for my question.

James D. Macdonald · Jun 19, 2013

Scribhneoir said:
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!

Silver-Midnight said:
ETA: I found something for my question.

Hurrah! (Usually the rash clears up in a week to ten days.)

James D. Macdonald · Jun 19, 2013

allenparker said:
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.

Learn Writing with Uncle Jim, Volume 2

killin' all teh werds

Reinventing Myself

Your Genial Uncle

Inarticulate Herb

Likes metaphors mixed, not stirred

Today is your last day.

Your Genial Uncle

Back to purring

Your Genial Uncle

Your Genial Uncle

Your Genial Uncle

A faithful friend & a good library

Your Genial Uncle

A faithful friend & a good library

Your Genial Uncle

Your Genial Uncle

Naked Futon Guy

Reinventing Myself

Your Genial Uncle

Your Genial Uncle