Posted: 15 Nov 2011 11:24 AM PST
I’ve been listening to a lot of podcasts lately as I’ve been trying to figure out what’s broken in my wip. Yes, it’s broken and that’s another post (and believe me, it will be written). As I’ve been listening to them, I come across many I want to share.
Today, while sweating it out at the gym, I listened to this (scroll down to #41). Now, I don’t want to write a blow by blow of what Gregory Frost said, but I want to point out something that I think gets overlooked often that he touched on very well. If you’ve ever gotten a crit wherein you’ve been told your POV isn’t working then this is definitely the podcast for you. As I’ve been working with writers with severe POV problems, I’ve been searching for a better way to explain why. Boy-howdy did I find it. Go. Listen. Come back. Now that you’ve listened, the thing he said that struck me as absolutely the most useful for new writers is to label each sentence with the leve of psychic distance it has from the reader. It must be in order. When it deviates, it must be done with a purpose. Learn how to control your POV, control your psychic distance and then you can formulate a clear purpose for your how you use your POV. I think what happens is that many times, it’s not that the writer is having a problem structuring a sentence. There is, for the most part, a clear ability to write. There is also a clear story to tell. So what’s the problem? The problem is structuring the narrative. If your POV is all over the place, it doesn’t matter how well you can write a sentence or that you have a good story to tell. You have to be able to keep your reader captivated and invested. Follow Gregory Frost’s advice. If you have people telling you there’s a problem, number those sentences. You’ll see a clear pattern or lack thereof.         |
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Tuesday, November 15, 2011
What's wrong with my POV
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Thursday, August 18, 2011
Thursday, July 21, 2011
Lessons I've learned being in a crit group
My IRL crit group just voted on a name. We are now called The Mightier Thing. In honor of such a glorious, epic and celebratory occasion of Naming, I have some gems I've learned for you. Maybe you'll think they are gems, too.
Not in any particular order.
1. Just because you don't like a writing genre, style, POV, etc. doesn't mean you can't recognize good or bad writing. If you can't give someone a decent crit because you don't like the POV, then maybe you need to do some more work on your own writing. I'm so not a fan of erotica; I can't even tell you what makes good erotica or bad erotica. But one of the best crit partners I had for about a year wrote nothing but erotica. I can tell you if the story works, if it's passive or if (blush) it did it's job. I can easily crit based on the writing alone. The only thing that would be missing is whether or not I would pick it up in the first place or if I got into the story. If it's a genre (or whatever) I only feel meh about, it's not likely going to change but I'm not going to let that get in my way. If it does change, then you can bet I'll mention that bit.
2. Not everyone makes a good crit partner. When people first start out, they feel like they need someone, anyone. Not true. Pick your partners wisely.
3. They are great for motivation. We all have lives with jobs, kids, etc. and sometimes we don't feel like writing. Crit groups are great for making that happen anyway.
4. Revenge crits: completely immature.
5. Sandwich method sucks. You don't need it in regular crit group where everyone knows each other and doesn't need anyone trying desperately to find something good about something that sucks. Personally, I don't think the sandwich method is all that helpful - people focus on the problems anyway. You can't take things personally in any artform. Might as well learn that now.
6. Know whose crits to ignore (hopefully this person is not in your IRL crit group. If so, you have bigger problems).
7. Know whose crits to really take to heart and think about even when you disagree. You might find that they aren't so far off the mark.
8. Don't crit a 7000 word piece/chapter when you started repeating your comments 1500 words in. Just stop. All continuing will do is frustrate you and really make the writer feel bad. Tell them you're repeating yourself. Give the writer a chance to fix those issues throughout and crit again when you can focus on other things and maybe even get to the actual story.
9. I know I said I don't like the sandwich method. That doesn't mean you shouldn't mention what's good, especially when you really like something.
10. Writing is not just a clever turn of phrase. I've met a few writers that can really come up with some great lines. But the rest...
11. Don't waste my time. Don't have your entire MS ready for crit and then just start subbing one chapter after another without fixing problems from previous crits that need to be applied to all chapters. See #8. Fix it before sending something else.
12. Some people just don't learn. It's a sad realization to come to because the critter feels guilty. Don't feel bad for not critting this unteachable person. If this person is in your IRL group, uh oh, your group is in trouble and now the real issue is finding a nice way to relieve this person of his/her membership.
13. Your writing is not as good as you think it is. It can always be better. Someone is guaranteed to not like it. No matter how perfect and polished you've made it, there will be comments. Just always remember #6 and #7.
14. Even though your writing is not as good as you think it is, it doesn't mean it sucks. You might actually be a fantastic writer. I can still find flaws in the Great Works. That doesn't mean it isn't perfect the way it is and that you need to fall into the bottom of a bottle. You can still be great and be confident in your work. Just don't be an asshole.
15. Don't be an asshole.
16. Be okay with someone telling you you're being an asshole when you are.
17. Study your craft. Read a lot. Analyze bits of what you read and why you love it or hate it.
18. You can't get rid of every was, nor should you. That doesn't mean you shouldn't try.
19. Redlines are better than vague comments that don't actually mean anything. "This bothered me" is not a crit, it's an opinion. Support your opinion or keep it to yourself because I can't do anything with it.
20. We all know "show, don't tell." This applies to crits as well. For me, I found the easiest way to learn was to have someone show me how to fix a sentence. When I first started writing, I would get these comments like "passive" or "show" and I understood what it meant, I was just unclear on the how-to-do-that part. Until one kind crit partner redlined an entire chapter for me and showed me what to do. Bam. I got it. It was that simple for me once I could see it go from passive to active or telling to showing, etc.
21. Be aware of the difference between rewriting and showing you an example of what someone is talking about. I've literally had to use really dumb cliches and make shit up because someone felt that any example I gave on how to make something work better for me was "rewriting." It's an annoying argument to have.
22. Sometimes comments really are rewriting. Also annoying.
23. Read what you are critting as a reader first. Then go back and look at it as a writer. The first impression as a reader is the most important and will prevent you from asking really stupid questions in the first two paragraphs. Questions like: "Where are they?" "What color is it?" "Why is she so angry?" "Who is this person?" "Is this person important?" Really. It's just ridiculous. You can't answer those questions in two paragraphs anyway and if you do it's called an info dump. Critting hard and critting stupid are two different things. Don't crit desperate to point out every perceivable flaw. Use some common sense.
*UPDATE: I can't believe it but I actually have another one to add. Thanks to one of my IRL crit partners, I might add. Sometimes I really do think he's trying to kill me.
24. Remember the previous chapters. If you can't, either reread or at least just go back and check something before you make a comment that is clearly answered in a previous chapter. Don't make someone tell you to go back and reread then get back to you. Or don't comment on it at all if you don't want to do that because now the comment is useless. It might have worked, it might not have. But now the person you're critting will not know, at least not from you.*
I think I'll probably update this as I go. I'm sure there's more to learn and plenty I've already forgotten because it's just a part of how I am now.
Feel free to add your lessons in the comments.
Not in any particular order.
1. Just because you don't like a writing genre, style, POV, etc. doesn't mean you can't recognize good or bad writing. If you can't give someone a decent crit because you don't like the POV, then maybe you need to do some more work on your own writing. I'm so not a fan of erotica; I can't even tell you what makes good erotica or bad erotica. But one of the best crit partners I had for about a year wrote nothing but erotica. I can tell you if the story works, if it's passive or if (blush) it did it's job. I can easily crit based on the writing alone. The only thing that would be missing is whether or not I would pick it up in the first place or if I got into the story. If it's a genre (or whatever) I only feel meh about, it's not likely going to change but I'm not going to let that get in my way. If it does change, then you can bet I'll mention that bit.
2. Not everyone makes a good crit partner. When people first start out, they feel like they need someone, anyone. Not true. Pick your partners wisely.
3. They are great for motivation. We all have lives with jobs, kids, etc. and sometimes we don't feel like writing. Crit groups are great for making that happen anyway.
4. Revenge crits: completely immature.
5. Sandwich method sucks. You don't need it in regular crit group where everyone knows each other and doesn't need anyone trying desperately to find something good about something that sucks. Personally, I don't think the sandwich method is all that helpful - people focus on the problems anyway. You can't take things personally in any artform. Might as well learn that now.
6. Know whose crits to ignore (hopefully this person is not in your IRL crit group. If so, you have bigger problems).
7. Know whose crits to really take to heart and think about even when you disagree. You might find that they aren't so far off the mark.
8. Don't crit a 7000 word piece/chapter when you started repeating your comments 1500 words in. Just stop. All continuing will do is frustrate you and really make the writer feel bad. Tell them you're repeating yourself. Give the writer a chance to fix those issues throughout and crit again when you can focus on other things and maybe even get to the actual story.
9. I know I said I don't like the sandwich method. That doesn't mean you shouldn't mention what's good, especially when you really like something.
10. Writing is not just a clever turn of phrase. I've met a few writers that can really come up with some great lines. But the rest...
11. Don't waste my time. Don't have your entire MS ready for crit and then just start subbing one chapter after another without fixing problems from previous crits that need to be applied to all chapters. See #8. Fix it before sending something else.
12. Some people just don't learn. It's a sad realization to come to because the critter feels guilty. Don't feel bad for not critting this unteachable person. If this person is in your IRL group, uh oh, your group is in trouble and now the real issue is finding a nice way to relieve this person of his/her membership.
13. Your writing is not as good as you think it is. It can always be better. Someone is guaranteed to not like it. No matter how perfect and polished you've made it, there will be comments. Just always remember #6 and #7.
14. Even though your writing is not as good as you think it is, it doesn't mean it sucks. You might actually be a fantastic writer. I can still find flaws in the Great Works. That doesn't mean it isn't perfect the way it is and that you need to fall into the bottom of a bottle. You can still be great and be confident in your work. Just don't be an asshole.
15. Don't be an asshole.
16. Be okay with someone telling you you're being an asshole when you are.
17. Study your craft. Read a lot. Analyze bits of what you read and why you love it or hate it.
18. You can't get rid of every was, nor should you. That doesn't mean you shouldn't try.
19. Redlines are better than vague comments that don't actually mean anything. "This bothered me" is not a crit, it's an opinion. Support your opinion or keep it to yourself because I can't do anything with it.
20. We all know "show, don't tell." This applies to crits as well. For me, I found the easiest way to learn was to have someone show me how to fix a sentence. When I first started writing, I would get these comments like "passive" or "show" and I understood what it meant, I was just unclear on the how-to-do-that part. Until one kind crit partner redlined an entire chapter for me and showed me what to do. Bam. I got it. It was that simple for me once I could see it go from passive to active or telling to showing, etc.
21. Be aware of the difference between rewriting and showing you an example of what someone is talking about. I've literally had to use really dumb cliches and make shit up because someone felt that any example I gave on how to make something work better for me was "rewriting." It's an annoying argument to have.
22. Sometimes comments really are rewriting. Also annoying.
23. Read what you are critting as a reader first. Then go back and look at it as a writer. The first impression as a reader is the most important and will prevent you from asking really stupid questions in the first two paragraphs. Questions like: "Where are they?" "What color is it?" "Why is she so angry?" "Who is this person?" "Is this person important?" Really. It's just ridiculous. You can't answer those questions in two paragraphs anyway and if you do it's called an info dump. Critting hard and critting stupid are two different things. Don't crit desperate to point out every perceivable flaw. Use some common sense.
*UPDATE: I can't believe it but I actually have another one to add. Thanks to one of my IRL crit partners, I might add. Sometimes I really do think he's trying to kill me.
24. Remember the previous chapters. If you can't, either reread or at least just go back and check something before you make a comment that is clearly answered in a previous chapter. Don't make someone tell you to go back and reread then get back to you. Or don't comment on it at all if you don't want to do that because now the comment is useless. It might have worked, it might not have. But now the person you're critting will not know, at least not from you.*
I think I'll probably update this as I go. I'm sure there's more to learn and plenty I've already forgotten because it's just a part of how I am now.
Feel free to add your lessons in the comments.
Sunday, July 17, 2011
Thrillerfest notes from Janet Reid
Janet Reid posted notes taken from Thrillerfest on different ways thrillers can be driven. Good stuff.
Saturday, July 16, 2011
Sunday, June 19, 2011
Guess How Much I Love You cake
Happy Father's Day! Of course, the cake I made for my husband is based on a book.
Saturday, June 11, 2011
Kodak - you suck! Playsport ZX5
So this is waaay OT but I thought I'd post it because, well, I'm bitter and that's just how I roll. I have to tell the world what shit Kodak support actually is in case someone decides to buy something of theirs.
Here's one of my videos and how it recorded. Mind you, it doesn't do this on all of them and when it's working properly, the video is actually quite nice. I think I had 2 videos out of a lot that had this problem. The big pisser is that it was my favorite one and it's shit. Maybe I'll get lucky and someone can tell me how to fix it.
Anyway, I was pissed. So I went to their support pages and found this.
Oh my God. At first, I was simply amazed. And then I saw the updated date. 5/26/2011! Mac hasn't had a control panel since OS9. Pfffft. So I thought I'd try the chat. Available daily. Cool.
I get this. I'm sensing a pattern. They get new products out and provide zero support, I guess. Fine. At this point I'm kind of checking out where all of this goes. I actually download Firefox 3.6, replacing my 4.0 (I didn't mind since I use Chrome, anyway) and try to chat. That was really insane. I waited for a while and then I wondered if anyone was even there. And then I started having a one-sided conversation. I took a screen shot.
Here's one of my videos and how it recorded. Mind you, it doesn't do this on all of them and when it's working properly, the video is actually quite nice. I think I had 2 videos out of a lot that had this problem. The big pisser is that it was my favorite one and it's shit. Maybe I'll get lucky and someone can tell me how to fix it.
Anyway, I was pissed. So I went to their support pages and found this.
Oh my God. At first, I was simply amazed. And then I saw the updated date. 5/26/2011! Mac hasn't had a control panel since OS9. Pfffft. So I thought I'd try the chat. Available daily. Cool.
I get this. I'm sensing a pattern. They get new products out and provide zero support, I guess. Fine. At this point I'm kind of checking out where all of this goes. I actually download Firefox 3.6, replacing my 4.0 (I didn't mind since I use Chrome, anyway) and try to chat. That was really insane. I waited for a while and then I wondered if anyone was even there. And then I started having a one-sided conversation. I took a screen shot.
I'm pretty sure that if you click it, it'll be readable. (Update: not so much. I included a link if you really want to read it.) I didn't even get anyone to say, "please continue to wait." If you look on there, you'll see I entered the chat at 1:07 and took the pic at 1:54. I'm pretty sure there wasn't anyone there manning the chat room. Daily must mean something else in Kodak speak.
Anyway, that was my adventure today. Now that I'm all super annoyed, I must get on my treadmill so that I can burn the excess annoyance from my body and then sit for a writing session in which I write 5k words.
Or not.
Sunday, June 5, 2011
WSJ and Darkness Too Visible #YASaves
OMG. I just logged into Twitter to find a flurry of #YASaves tweets. Not knowing what all the hubub was about, I clicked. Dear lord. It seems every time I make a post, something very similar is going on in the world around me of which I'm completely unaware.
I hate that. Especially since my last post could easily be construed as being supportive of the WSJ attitude. Let me clarify that it absolutely is not. I think it's awesome that hard topics are explored. The dark doesn't bother me, nor should it be avoided. And the WSJ's idea that this is something totally new is crazy. It's not. Incest, death, violence, suicide, etc., are themes in many books older than I am.
WSJ really made me wish I hadn't even posted that blog yesterday because now I feel like I have to take it all back.
I don't think it's necessary to have gratuitous sex and language but that doesn't mean that I don't think there is a place for sex and language in YA. I very much do. I think that how it is handled is what separates it as a genre. Sometimes it does require a bit more grit than normal. But for the most part, it can be done superbly without those things. I just like the idea of knowing what I'm getting. Otherwise I really don't see a need to separate them. Most adults are reading YA and most kids are reading fiction.
I think back to Neil Gaiman's The Graveyard Book in which there were many complaints about the f-bomb in a book that was being marketed by some as MG. His response to that was that it was never meant to be MG. Just because it is about a kid doesn't mean it is for a kid. And that's kind of were I stand on the matter. It's not that I object to the actual content or that kids are reading it.
And let's just clear this up right now: appropriateness is going to vary by age, family views and the like. Sex is not appropriate for a a 7 year old to be reading. No one is arguing that.
Kids are going to read what they are going to read unless parents are involved and controlling their decisions (good luck with that, by the way - that rarely works out well). My parents never monitored what I read and I thank them for it because it allowed me to discover what I like and what I enjoy reading, not what they wanted me to read. I read because I loved to read. And I read everything I could get my hands on and went on way more adventures than should be legal.
It didn't change who I was or what I did. I was still me and decisions I made, I made on my own, not because a movie, a video game or a book made me think it was cool. If a kid is really like their parents, it'll show. Their preferences will be toward the books the parents want them reading anyway. I knew when I was fourteen that my parents and I had very different views on life. It hasn't changed. Give kids more credit. Kids aren't stupid, stop treating them like they are and using them as an excuse to remove all things adults find unpleasant or unfit for human consumption.
Let's face it, that's really what it boils down to, getting rid of things a group of people find distasteful. They don't just want to get rid of it with kids, that's just the excuse for right now. If that were to ever be successful it would eventually move on to adults.
I do tend to believe that we do have more violence today than we did, say a hundred years ago. But I don't think it has to do with games, books, music or movies. I won't get into what I think is the real problem here but suffice it to say, it isn't the fucking books people read.
It's a lame excuse to say a book might trigger a relapse. Basically what that says is that no one, ever, should discuss these pathologies, as Mrs. Gurdon likes to call them. No movies, no talk shows, no nothing. Because hey, they might trigger relapse.
We should be sensitive to others. But we also can't skirt issues.
I hate that. Especially since my last post could easily be construed as being supportive of the WSJ attitude. Let me clarify that it absolutely is not. I think it's awesome that hard topics are explored. The dark doesn't bother me, nor should it be avoided. And the WSJ's idea that this is something totally new is crazy. It's not. Incest, death, violence, suicide, etc., are themes in many books older than I am.
WSJ really made me wish I hadn't even posted that blog yesterday because now I feel like I have to take it all back.
I don't think it's necessary to have gratuitous sex and language but that doesn't mean that I don't think there is a place for sex and language in YA. I very much do. I think that how it is handled is what separates it as a genre. Sometimes it does require a bit more grit than normal. But for the most part, it can be done superbly without those things. I just like the idea of knowing what I'm getting. Otherwise I really don't see a need to separate them. Most adults are reading YA and most kids are reading fiction.
I think back to Neil Gaiman's The Graveyard Book in which there were many complaints about the f-bomb in a book that was being marketed by some as MG. His response to that was that it was never meant to be MG. Just because it is about a kid doesn't mean it is for a kid. And that's kind of were I stand on the matter. It's not that I object to the actual content or that kids are reading it.
And let's just clear this up right now: appropriateness is going to vary by age, family views and the like. Sex is not appropriate for a a 7 year old to be reading. No one is arguing that.
Kids are going to read what they are going to read unless parents are involved and controlling their decisions (good luck with that, by the way - that rarely works out well). My parents never monitored what I read and I thank them for it because it allowed me to discover what I like and what I enjoy reading, not what they wanted me to read. I read because I loved to read. And I read everything I could get my hands on and went on way more adventures than should be legal.
It didn't change who I was or what I did. I was still me and decisions I made, I made on my own, not because a movie, a video game or a book made me think it was cool. If a kid is really like their parents, it'll show. Their preferences will be toward the books the parents want them reading anyway. I knew when I was fourteen that my parents and I had very different views on life. It hasn't changed. Give kids more credit. Kids aren't stupid, stop treating them like they are and using them as an excuse to remove all things adults find unpleasant or unfit for human consumption.
Let's face it, that's really what it boils down to, getting rid of things a group of people find distasteful. They don't just want to get rid of it with kids, that's just the excuse for right now. If that were to ever be successful it would eventually move on to adults.
I do tend to believe that we do have more violence today than we did, say a hundred years ago. But I don't think it has to do with games, books, music or movies. I won't get into what I think is the real problem here but suffice it to say, it isn't the fucking books people read.
It's a lame excuse to say a book might trigger a relapse. Basically what that says is that no one, ever, should discuss these pathologies, as Mrs. Gurdon likes to call them. No movies, no talk shows, no nothing. Because hey, they might trigger relapse.
We should be sensitive to others. But we also can't skirt issues.
Saturday, June 4, 2011
What happened to genres?
There was a time when I could count on genres to mean something. What happened to that? It used to be I could be I could pick up a YA book and find little to no obscenities and definitely no sex. Plenty of emotion but sex, if it happened at all, happened behind closed doors.
Today, not so much. It seems like language and sex are no longer avoided and this makes me sad. I've always felt comforted knowing that if I wanted a tamer book, I could just pick up some YA and be a happy reader. If I wanted something more adult, I knew where to go for that.
What happened to the separation? What happened to knowing that hey, the book might be about a kid but it's not YA so it's geared for adults?
Or maybe it's just me. Maybe I'm having a hard time with the whole concept of changing times.
Today, not so much. It seems like language and sex are no longer avoided and this makes me sad. I've always felt comforted knowing that if I wanted a tamer book, I could just pick up some YA and be a happy reader. If I wanted something more adult, I knew where to go for that.
What happened to the separation? What happened to knowing that hey, the book might be about a kid but it's not YA so it's geared for adults?
Or maybe it's just me. Maybe I'm having a hard time with the whole concept of changing times.
Tuesday, May 17, 2011
Procrastination station
I'm actually glad for that because well, I'd really like to write again but it seems like now, when I do have the time, I'd rather do something like relax and watch a TV show since my DVR is getting backed up because I'm too busy to watch TV. I think I've developed bad habits since undertaking my semi-legit excuses (husband out of the country for 6 months, kids and their activities, house, labor intensive graphic design class-yanno, that kind of stuff) where I just give in and do whatever else it is I'm thinking about because my time is so limited right now.
I've never understood how people can just write for 2 hours a day. I get it now. Sometimes life just demands that you write for those 2 hours and those 2 hours only whether you want to or not because it's not getting done any other way. And they become much more productive.
I think I get it.
Now I must get to disciplining myself to be strict about how I write. That'll be interesting. Every time I do sit down to write, I look around and see the dishes aren't done or the house is a wreck and all this work has to get done sometime and I'll get more done if I just do it now so I can write after and so on and so on and it all just amounts to a bunch of not writing.
So scheduling my time to write seems like a good idea to me. I just need to figure out what time I have - and that isn't easy either.
Suggestions?
Saturday, May 14, 2011
Crits, comparisons and Twilight
You know what really annoys me? Having a critter say they are reminded of Twilight just because there are certain commonalities. Like dark hair. Or family. Or a bit of a romance. It's incredibly annoying, as if no one ever had characters like Bella or Edward before. It's like saying Romeo and Juliet is just like Twilight.
When the story is clearly not the same story, is it necessary to try to plug it into Twilight? Can no one ever have dark haired, tortured characters ever again? Can no one ever touch the same themes again?
Grrr.
Seriously.
Sorry. I just saw a crit (not one for me - although I've gotten it and I've seen it said to several other people when their wips weren't anything like Twilight, either) and it's really annoying. The critter generally loses a lot of credibility with me when that happens because there are millions and millions of books out there. Not everything is Twilight because there are teens falling in love. There were books similar to Twilight before Twilight and there likely will be after.
Read the fucking story. Crit the story. Before you say it, please think really hard about it - is it really like Twilight?
There will always be characters that remind you of other characters. There are only so many personality types. And there will always be books that remind you of other books. We wouldn't have genres if that weren't the case. It would all just be called fiction.
Get over the Twilight comparisons unless it actually means something. If everything reminds you of Twilight, you need to read more books.
No offense to Mrs. Meyer intended.
P.S.
Mine isn't even about teens, vampires or anything else close to the themes of Twilight. Why?
Friday, May 13, 2011
Now a card carrying member!
Just got my evil library card. Get your very own card at evilreads.com
Sent from my EVO - these are not the typos you're looking for...
Friday, May 6, 2011
Free Comic Book Day 10th anniversary!
This is just too awesome not to share. For those that are unaware, tomorrow is Free Comic Book Day!
To find out if there is a participating store in your area, click here and plug in your zip.
Can't wait to hit it up.
To find out if there is a participating store in your area, click here and plug in your zip.
Can't wait to hit it up.
Friday, April 8, 2011
Multiple projects rock.
I always thought people were crazy to have more than one wip going at a time. I'm discovering the error of my thinking.
I'm having trouble finishing my wip. It's not that I don't care about the story or that I can't write it or that I've lost it. I just got bored with it because I already know it. I don't know if that happens to other people and I honestly didn't know it would happen to me. But it did. Color me shocked.
One of my crit partners decided to run a prompt. I wanted to do something in first person (which I don't like so much) and I wanted to explore a morally ambiguous character. I never planned on it being anything more than an exercise so I picked something easy to work morally ambiguous into. Vampires. Lo and behold, it wouldn't stop. So it looks like I have a new wip.
It's working out well. I get bored with one, I move to the other. I'm liking this so far.
Does anyone else get bored? What do you do about that? And how do you feel about multiple wips?
I'm having trouble finishing my wip. It's not that I don't care about the story or that I can't write it or that I've lost it. I just got bored with it because I already know it. I don't know if that happens to other people and I honestly didn't know it would happen to me. But it did. Color me shocked.
One of my crit partners decided to run a prompt. I wanted to do something in first person (which I don't like so much) and I wanted to explore a morally ambiguous character. I never planned on it being anything more than an exercise so I picked something easy to work morally ambiguous into. Vampires. Lo and behold, it wouldn't stop. So it looks like I have a new wip.
It's working out well. I get bored with one, I move to the other. I'm liking this so far.
Does anyone else get bored? What do you do about that? And how do you feel about multiple wips?
Wednesday, March 30, 2011
Do you remember reading your first book?
I had this post scheduled to publish on 3/16. I have no idea why it never did. I'm sure it has something to do with my lack of HTML skills.
As I mentioned in my previous post, I've been thinking about reading my first real book ever. It's probably no surprise that I don't remember since books make into the "dream" file. That leaves me with only one option. The books that I remember in the most interesting way.
The Encyclopedia Something or Other. No, that's not the real title but my parents had a set of encyclopedias that also came with a book of nursery rhymes and another for fairy tales. I read these often. When I was older, I read all the mythology stuff repeatedly.
The first book I truly remember wearing down the spine and killing a book from near constant use was really a set of books. Comic books, actually. It was the entire Peanuts collection by Charles M. Schulz. At the time, the collection wasn't that large but it was a seven or eight hardback box set my parents had bought me. I read that set over and over and over and over. I remember once asking my dad a question about it. It went something like this:
Little Miss Brat: "Dad, how do you pronounce this name?"
Dad: "Bay-toven."
LMB: "Nuh uh!"
Dad: "I'm serious. That's how you say it."
LMB: "Okay. Thanks." But I really don't believe you and I will continue to pronounce it Beeth-oven until I'm truly old enough to know better.
Mr. Schulz is responsible for my very deep love of comics and graphic novels.
"Bunnicula" by Deborah and James Howe. I loved the vampire bunny so much that this book never made it to the dream file because I owned it for a very long time. Maybe you can see my tastes developing with the above three choices.
As I got older, a book that I remember made an impact on me was "A Gift of Magic" by Lois Duncan. I read it in probably the seventh grade. It was my first experience with a fantasy book made me feel a connection between old world and modern world, today it would be filed under paranormal. I checked it out from my school library, my favorite place in school. After a few years, it hadn't gone into the dream file but I couldn't remember who wrote it or where to find it or anything else. I didn't even remember the title. But I would always think about it every once in a while. Over the years, I had even tried to find it again and never did until just last year. I knew the word gift was in it and knew that it maybe had the word magic in it. By some strange chance, I stumbled upon something about Lois Duncan and saw a list of her books. Voila. There it was. I bought it.
Then there's "A Wrinkle In Time" by Madeleine L'Engle, read just after "A Gift of Magic." I had actually forgotten all about this book until I saw it in a book store many years later. I got incredibly excited because even though I hadn't thought about it, I remembered it so vividly. I bought it. Just remembering reading it brings warm fuzzies.
Then there's "Cat's Cradle." I can't tell you the author because I don't remember but I can tell you this much: it was horror and it wasn't William W. Johnstone, as far as I know, his was published several years later. I came to this after a bender on reading things like "North and South" by John Jakes and the VC Andrews books. I wanted a change. So I got into horror and Stephen King. Here's what makes this book so special, though. I read it, liked it and a few months later went to check it out from the library again. I like to reread books. I ended up with Kurt Vonnegut by mistake. And now I love Kurt Vonnegut.
I can go on and on about books that made an impact on me in some way, shape or form but the list would get out of control. All of these books were read at fifteen or under. It's interesting to go back over them and think about how much they meant when I was a kid. At the time, I didn't realize what they meant. Hell, I probably still don't realize it. If I had to make this list again tomorrow, it might look a little different.
As I mentioned in my previous post, I've been thinking about reading my first real book ever. It's probably no surprise that I don't remember since books make into the "dream" file. That leaves me with only one option. The books that I remember in the most interesting way.
The Encyclopedia Something or Other. No, that's not the real title but my parents had a set of encyclopedias that also came with a book of nursery rhymes and another for fairy tales. I read these often. When I was older, I read all the mythology stuff repeatedly.
The first book I truly remember wearing down the spine and killing a book from near constant use was really a set of books. Comic books, actually. It was the entire Peanuts collection by Charles M. Schulz. At the time, the collection wasn't that large but it was a seven or eight hardback box set my parents had bought me. I read that set over and over and over and over. I remember once asking my dad a question about it. It went something like this:
Little Miss Brat: "Dad, how do you pronounce this name?"
Dad: "Bay-toven."
LMB: "Nuh uh!"
Dad: "I'm serious. That's how you say it."
LMB: "Okay. Thanks." But I really don't believe you and I will continue to pronounce it Beeth-oven until I'm truly old enough to know better.
Mr. Schulz is responsible for my very deep love of comics and graphic novels.
"Bunnicula" by Deborah and James Howe. I loved the vampire bunny so much that this book never made it to the dream file because I owned it for a very long time. Maybe you can see my tastes developing with the above three choices.
As I got older, a book that I remember made an impact on me was "A Gift of Magic" by Lois Duncan. I read it in probably the seventh grade. It was my first experience with a fantasy book made me feel a connection between old world and modern world, today it would be filed under paranormal. I checked it out from my school library, my favorite place in school. After a few years, it hadn't gone into the dream file but I couldn't remember who wrote it or where to find it or anything else. I didn't even remember the title. But I would always think about it every once in a while. Over the years, I had even tried to find it again and never did until just last year. I knew the word gift was in it and knew that it maybe had the word magic in it. By some strange chance, I stumbled upon something about Lois Duncan and saw a list of her books. Voila. There it was. I bought it.
Then there's "A Wrinkle In Time" by Madeleine L'Engle, read just after "A Gift of Magic." I had actually forgotten all about this book until I saw it in a book store many years later. I got incredibly excited because even though I hadn't thought about it, I remembered it so vividly. I bought it. Just remembering reading it brings warm fuzzies.
Then there's "Cat's Cradle." I can't tell you the author because I don't remember but I can tell you this much: it was horror and it wasn't William W. Johnstone, as far as I know, his was published several years later. I came to this after a bender on reading things like "North and South" by John Jakes and the VC Andrews books. I wanted a change. So I got into horror and Stephen King. Here's what makes this book so special, though. I read it, liked it and a few months later went to check it out from the library again. I like to reread books. I ended up with Kurt Vonnegut by mistake. And now I love Kurt Vonnegut.
I can go on and on about books that made an impact on me in some way, shape or form but the list would get out of control. All of these books were read at fifteen or under. It's interesting to go back over them and think about how much they meant when I was a kid. At the time, I didn't realize what they meant. Hell, I probably still don't realize it. If I had to make this list again tomorrow, it might look a little different.
Monday, March 21, 2011
And you thought zombies weren't real.
Time, y'all. It's just a matter of time. Scientists are involved. If you're using your handy-dandy once-was-fiction-but-not-anymore guides for zombie destruction (hint: double tap and aim for the brain), that's never good. The zombie apocalypse is nigh. Zombie-proof your homes, build your compounds and prepare to hunker down. With lots of ammo.
Fungus Makes Zombie Ants Do All the Work
A tropical fungus has adapted to infect ants and force them to chomp, with surprising specificity, into perfectly located leaves before killing them and taking over their bodies
Fungus Makes Zombie Ants Do All the Work
A tropical fungus has adapted to infect ants and force them to chomp, with surprising specificity, into perfectly located leaves before killing them and taking over their bodies
*Thanks to Confessions from Suite 500 for bringing this to my attention.
Thursday, March 17, 2011
Red Cross fundraising for Japan relief efforts
The League of Reluctant Adults has an awesome fundraising auction going on! They've split into two teams to auction off crits of the beginning of your ms and your synopsis, all ya gotta do is win. And this isn't one crit. It's everyone on the team reading and critting. Holy smokes, if that ain't awesome.
Go bid, win a crit and help raise money!
Team Fang
Team Claw
Go bid, win a crit and help raise money!
Team Fang
Team Claw
If you haven't seen Margaret Atwood's Publishing Pie talk, check your internet connection, something's not getting through to you. This awesome talk has spawned T-shirts!
Saturday, March 12, 2011
Dream books?
Like most writers, I've read for as long as I can remember. I started thinking about my first book, trying to find out if I could remember what it was. Instead, I thought of the book that I thought was a dream.I had a book when I was young, I can't tell you how young because I don't remember. As I got older, the memory of this book (and a couple others) faded into the depths of my unconscious. For a while, I remembered specifics. Then I remembered bits and pieces. Then I only remembered illustration. Illustration morphed into a simple feeling the book gave me. Until it finally got filed under dreams I must have had when I was a tiny kid.
I found out at *cough, cough, cough* years old that my dream that could've maybe possibly been a book that I once read really was a book. Before I tell you the title, I must add my disclaimer. I graduated through the ranks of reading fairly quick and I promise you that once I graduated, I didn't slum it in the younger ages anymore. I was too well read to go back to kiddie books. *snark*
My husband and I were in the bookstore (Borders, we're sad to see it go) searching for books to load up for our soon to be born child. I squealed when I found THE BOOK (or rather, one of a couple). Maurice Sendak's In The Night Kitchen. Now you might be snickering at me and wondering why I wouldn't remember a book like that. Especially since I do remember Where The Wild Things Are. WTWTA seems to be more visible than In The Night Kitchen. Let me just refer you back to my disclaimer above.
I knew it when I saw it because the dream-like thing I always remembered was how cool the illustration was but I couldn't describe it, I could only know it when I saw it. I remember something about a naked boy in a dough airplane flying around a huge jar of milk. Now, this isn't something you go around asking people, "Hey, was there a book about a naked boy and an airplane?" Go ahead, ask someone. I dare you to try it and see what looks you get. Come back to me afterwards so I can say I told you so. Because that's precisely why I didn't ask anyone.
I have another book I hope to one day rediscover that has also entered into that "maybe it was a dream" file. It was dark and scary and had super cool illustration but that really is all I remember about it. I think it had something do with a couple mice making a deal with the devil. I also remember a fallen tree.
The Lion, The Witch and Wardrobe (the cartoon, not the book) was like that for me for a couple years, too. Only the cartoon got played often enough that I eventually rediscovered it much earlier. I was a kid when I filed it in dreams and was still a kid when I rediscovered it.
Do you have anything like that or am I the only crazy lady in the house? Have you read something so long ago that you start to think it was a dream when your memory gets all fuzzy and squirelly about it? Something you think about and wonder if it was a dream or some kind of amalgamation of a book you read with a movie you saw and maybe some urban legend thrown in the mix?
I always think I'm the only person with those. I'm hoping I'm not.
Wednesday, February 23, 2011
10k words by Sunday
Yup. Busy mom, here, goes and decides to have a challenge in the crit group to write 10k words by Sunday. I have about 2.5k. I'm behind, as usual. Today, the only thing I've written is a blog post. I've been swamped today. And the rest of the week isn't looking much better.
Late night for me! Woo hoo! Who's with me?
*crickets*
I do have a couple of things, though. I find Write It Sideways to be a fantastic blog. Lots of great and useful information. I think I've plugged it before. This post brought some interesting thoughts.
I'm not very good at writing a short story. I tend to have too much to say and any story I want to be short ends up growing in plot and size because I can't keep help but add subplots and such. In essence, I can't write short. I can't throw away ideas just to keep within a word count. I've tried, I've failed. So I plan to look over the links in the post just to see what the hell I'm doing wrong. I'm sure it's a lot.
On Stacia Kane's blog, there's a great post that not only tells you to not "kill your babies" - thank you, Stacia, I could kiss you, but also a good explanation on what it means to write what you know. You've heard that said over and over. I write UF. I don't know how to fly. If you don't know that there's a deeper meaning to "write what you know" then this would definitely be a good post to read.
And now I'm off to try to catch up on my word count.
Late night for me! Woo hoo! Who's with me?
*crickets*
I do have a couple of things, though. I find Write It Sideways to be a fantastic blog. Lots of great and useful information. I think I've plugged it before. This post brought some interesting thoughts.
I'm not very good at writing a short story. I tend to have too much to say and any story I want to be short ends up growing in plot and size because I can't keep help but add subplots and such. In essence, I can't write short. I can't throw away ideas just to keep within a word count. I've tried, I've failed. So I plan to look over the links in the post just to see what the hell I'm doing wrong. I'm sure it's a lot.
On Stacia Kane's blog, there's a great post that not only tells you to not "kill your babies" - thank you, Stacia, I could kiss you, but also a good explanation on what it means to write what you know. You've heard that said over and over. I write UF. I don't know how to fly. If you don't know that there's a deeper meaning to "write what you know" then this would definitely be a good post to read.
And now I'm off to try to catch up on my word count.
Tuesday, February 15, 2011
What makes you put a book down?
Over on Nathan Bransford's blog, he's got a poll asking what type of reader you are - the kind to power through what you feel is a bad book or the kind to toss it as soon as you know you don't like it.
It got me thinking - what makes me put a book down? Since I've generally always powered through even when I was less than thrilled, I never considered myself much of a stopper. I'll usually put a book down for a while and pick them back up when I've run out of better options on my shelf. But I have stopped. And I found that in the last year, I stopped more books than I ever have before. I stopped three books last year knowing I will never pick them back up. Which is kind of unheard of for me. My history has really been to only give up on maybe 1 book every few years.
So why did I put these three down with no desire to pick them back up?
Book 1:
I'm not a fan of first person. I'm especially not a fan of first person/third person changes. Even moreso, please don't go from first person present to third person past when switching to different POV characters. It really bugs me and throws me out of the story. But even then, I'll usually power on and see if the story will redeem the dislikes - there are plenty of first person stories that I adore even if it's not my favorite POV.
But then there were just things about the story I couldn't accept. I can easily accept changes in mythology and someone putting a new twist into an old story. But too much of a twist that just isn't easy for me to picture or get beyond the status quo of what it should be? Not so much. If I could handle sparkling vampres, I should've been able to handle this change but I couldn't. It totally turned me off and coupled with the POV issues for me, it was a total goner. If I'm too busy complaining about the mechanics, I can't look beyond them and follow where the writer wanted me to go.
Book 2:
It was YA that really should've been more middle grade. It was simply too young for me and didn't have a good enough sense of wonder and enchantment. It wasn't like Harry Potter where you could be whisked away without really thinking about the age of the characters. When the mentality of the characters are that of a 7 year old when they are 16 or 17 and it's not balanced with something redeeming and more mature, its a no-go. There really needed to be more character development. I like a good plot but if it's attached to one dimensional characters, it turns a good plot into a bad series of convenient happenings with no depth. Which may be fine for the actual genre and not really any reflection on whether or not the book was good given the intended audience - I may just be too old for it, after all. I don't really know what publishers look for in YA and MG as far as maturity of the writing vs. audience expectations.
Book 3:
Oh my God. There are certain things that the rest of the world might not feel the same way as I do and this might be one of them because when I say bad writing, I don't mean bad grammar or shallow story or flat characters. I'm sure that less people will agree with me on this one but I can't help it. It really affects how I view a story. Here it is: titles (personal titles, not book titles - things like Major or Captain) that are just dumb. Whenever I see dumb titles I'm reminded of a movie to which I can't remember the title but here's what I do remember: the MC was called GS-5 So-and-So. Now, to most people, this might not matter one iota. To me, it grated on my nerves absolutely every time it was said because I'm an Army brat and a GS-5 is never called that. A GS-anything is never called that. They are called Mr./Mrs./Ms. So-and-So. It's a pay grade, not a title. Not to mention that fact that the person you call in as some specialist to Vietnam to handle sensitive stuff, which I no longer remember (that should tell you how much I hate this type of thing - I remember exactly why I hated it but can't remember squat about the story) is not going to be a GS-5. A GS-5, Step 1 makes about $27.5k today, but much less back when this movie came out. It's not the paygrade of a badass, even for government standards. And more importantly, it simply doesn't flow off the tongue. So when I hear a title, even one that is fictional, it better flow. This one did not. It took the mythology the book was based on and turned types and jobs of the different players within the mythology into titles. And it truly ruined the entire book for me since it was all over the first few chapters. I put it down in disgust, that's how strongly I feel about crappy titles of people.
What about you? What kinds of things made you put a book down forever? We all know the basics. Bad writing or bad story but what specifically turned you off?
It got me thinking - what makes me put a book down? Since I've generally always powered through even when I was less than thrilled, I never considered myself much of a stopper. I'll usually put a book down for a while and pick them back up when I've run out of better options on my shelf. But I have stopped. And I found that in the last year, I stopped more books than I ever have before. I stopped three books last year knowing I will never pick them back up. Which is kind of unheard of for me. My history has really been to only give up on maybe 1 book every few years.
So why did I put these three down with no desire to pick them back up?
Book 1:
I'm not a fan of first person. I'm especially not a fan of first person/third person changes. Even moreso, please don't go from first person present to third person past when switching to different POV characters. It really bugs me and throws me out of the story. But even then, I'll usually power on and see if the story will redeem the dislikes - there are plenty of first person stories that I adore even if it's not my favorite POV.
But then there were just things about the story I couldn't accept. I can easily accept changes in mythology and someone putting a new twist into an old story. But too much of a twist that just isn't easy for me to picture or get beyond the status quo of what it should be? Not so much. If I could handle sparkling vampres, I should've been able to handle this change but I couldn't. It totally turned me off and coupled with the POV issues for me, it was a total goner. If I'm too busy complaining about the mechanics, I can't look beyond them and follow where the writer wanted me to go.
Book 2:
It was YA that really should've been more middle grade. It was simply too young for me and didn't have a good enough sense of wonder and enchantment. It wasn't like Harry Potter where you could be whisked away without really thinking about the age of the characters. When the mentality of the characters are that of a 7 year old when they are 16 or 17 and it's not balanced with something redeeming and more mature, its a no-go. There really needed to be more character development. I like a good plot but if it's attached to one dimensional characters, it turns a good plot into a bad series of convenient happenings with no depth. Which may be fine for the actual genre and not really any reflection on whether or not the book was good given the intended audience - I may just be too old for it, after all. I don't really know what publishers look for in YA and MG as far as maturity of the writing vs. audience expectations.
Book 3:
Oh my God. There are certain things that the rest of the world might not feel the same way as I do and this might be one of them because when I say bad writing, I don't mean bad grammar or shallow story or flat characters. I'm sure that less people will agree with me on this one but I can't help it. It really affects how I view a story. Here it is: titles (personal titles, not book titles - things like Major or Captain) that are just dumb. Whenever I see dumb titles I'm reminded of a movie to which I can't remember the title but here's what I do remember: the MC was called GS-5 So-and-So. Now, to most people, this might not matter one iota. To me, it grated on my nerves absolutely every time it was said because I'm an Army brat and a GS-5 is never called that. A GS-anything is never called that. They are called Mr./Mrs./Ms. So-and-So. It's a pay grade, not a title. Not to mention that fact that the person you call in as some specialist to Vietnam to handle sensitive stuff, which I no longer remember (that should tell you how much I hate this type of thing - I remember exactly why I hated it but can't remember squat about the story) is not going to be a GS-5. A GS-5, Step 1 makes about $27.5k today, but much less back when this movie came out. It's not the paygrade of a badass, even for government standards. And more importantly, it simply doesn't flow off the tongue. So when I hear a title, even one that is fictional, it better flow. This one did not. It took the mythology the book was based on and turned types and jobs of the different players within the mythology into titles. And it truly ruined the entire book for me since it was all over the first few chapters. I put it down in disgust, that's how strongly I feel about crappy titles of people.
What about you? What kinds of things made you put a book down forever? We all know the basics. Bad writing or bad story but what specifically turned you off?
Wednesday, February 9, 2011
Trying to write more
I'm slow. I'm actually way too slow. I'm easily distracted by my life which makes writing incredibly difficult. I have two kids, I'm back in school despite already having a degree, I moderate a listserve and a few other boring things I won't mention.
That leaves me pulled in a lot of directions. I haven't posted on here in a week simply because I have to get some control over things. I need to make time to write my ms.
I'm quite disappointed in myself. I honestly thought I'd be finished by now. So finish, I must. I #amwriting, are you?
That leaves me pulled in a lot of directions. I haven't posted on here in a week simply because I have to get some control over things. I need to make time to write my ms.
I'm quite disappointed in myself. I honestly thought I'd be finished by now. So finish, I must. I #amwriting, are you?
Wednesday, February 2, 2011
Is it now cliche to say I love Neil Gaiman?
I do, I really do. I don't care that 50,000,000 other people love him, too. I'm okay with that and hope he picks up more and more fans. I'm already grooming my kids to love him. (If you haven't read Instructions to your children, do so now.)
I follow his blog, follow his twitter and I hang on his every word as if he were speaking directly to me. Okay, well, maybe not. I'm delusional. Sort of.
Jim C. Hines wrote a fantastic post about Mr. Gaiman called "20 Neil Gaiman Facts." (I can't even bring myself to call him Neil - I'm such an idiot.) It will have you rolling on the floor laughing, pinky swear. He made a T-shirt, too. I'm not sure why it's not in the zazzle store anymore, but keep checking, maybe it'll pop back up.
I haven't been able to decide on a favorite. I think it might be number one.
I follow his blog, follow his twitter and I hang on his every word as if he were speaking directly to me. Okay, well, maybe not. I'm delusional. Sort of.
Jim C. Hines wrote a fantastic post about Mr. Gaiman called "20 Neil Gaiman Facts." (I can't even bring myself to call him Neil - I'm such an idiot.) It will have you rolling on the floor laughing, pinky swear. He made a T-shirt, too. I'm not sure why it's not in the zazzle store anymore, but keep checking, maybe it'll pop back up.
I haven't been able to decide on a favorite. I think it might be number one.
Monday, January 31, 2011
New feature!
If you'll kindly look to your right, you'll see I've added a new widget. You can now subscribe to the blog via email. Woot woot!
Sunday, January 30, 2011
Nathan Bransford's first paragraph contest
Wow. I mean, wow. 1,515 entries. My sympathies to agents that see this daily in their inboxes.
I don't really know what possessed me to enter the first paragraph competition since I'm not even sure that's where I'm going to start anymore but luckily, with the odds above, I'm not too worried about getting picked.
Speaking of Nathan Bransford, have you all sent in your first 250 for page critique friday?
I sent mine when he moved it to the forums and I have to say, I've edited several times. I'm afflicted by that terrible disease - you know, the one that makes you tweak what you write a gazillion times? Yeah, that one. I've tweaked and tweaked until I had a page I felt was pretty darned good and tweaked and tweaked my way right out of that good page. I haven't edited it since then and every friday I pray that my first page is not picked because I've made it my mission to not tweak anymore until I've finished my WIP. (I'll admit that I probably should at least tweak the first 250 until I'm happy again since there's always a chance it'll be picked and I don't want to be humiliated by something I'm not happy with - I'd rather be picked apart by something I actually think is good.)
I sent it to The Knight Agency's First Impressions draw, too, wherein I'm also hoping not to get picked, especially since I can't even edit that one. WTF was I thinking? I sent in crap and I know it. I think, at the time, I was riding on that high of, "I think I've got it now!" Given a day or two, I realized the bitter truth. At this point, I'm just praying that my critical eye on my own writing is just severe lack of confidence and that it's better than I think it is - but I really do laugh out loud at that thought.
I know that everyone has their doubts on how well they can pull off writing. I wonder, though, how bad is it for everyone else? I always expect to hear how much I suck - even if it's in the nicest words possible. Is it as bad for you as it is for me?
I don't really know what possessed me to enter the first paragraph competition since I'm not even sure that's where I'm going to start anymore but luckily, with the odds above, I'm not too worried about getting picked.
Speaking of Nathan Bransford, have you all sent in your first 250 for page critique friday?
I sent mine when he moved it to the forums and I have to say, I've edited several times. I'm afflicted by that terrible disease - you know, the one that makes you tweak what you write a gazillion times? Yeah, that one. I've tweaked and tweaked until I had a page I felt was pretty darned good and tweaked and tweaked my way right out of that good page. I haven't edited it since then and every friday I pray that my first page is not picked because I've made it my mission to not tweak anymore until I've finished my WIP. (I'll admit that I probably should at least tweak the first 250 until I'm happy again since there's always a chance it'll be picked and I don't want to be humiliated by something I'm not happy with - I'd rather be picked apart by something I actually think is good.)
I sent it to The Knight Agency's First Impressions draw, too, wherein I'm also hoping not to get picked, especially since I can't even edit that one. WTF was I thinking? I sent in crap and I know it. I think, at the time, I was riding on that high of, "I think I've got it now!" Given a day or two, I realized the bitter truth. At this point, I'm just praying that my critical eye on my own writing is just severe lack of confidence and that it's better than I think it is - but I really do laugh out loud at that thought.
I know that everyone has their doubts on how well they can pull off writing. I wonder, though, how bad is it for everyone else? I always expect to hear how much I suck - even if it's in the nicest words possible. Is it as bad for you as it is for me?
Thursday, January 27, 2011
Active vs. Passive Voice
The next in my attempt to add all those pesky things you get in your crits that you don't understand: active vs. passive voice.
Here is a series of explanations and samples from good ol' Purdue University. Just keep clicking "next resource" to see the next set of examples.
Grammar Girl also has some stuff to say about it and tips.
And this is from Daily Writing Tips.
Dark Angel also has some helpful things to say.
And there you have it. Helpful examples, tips and tricks. It's always nice to have it explained.
It should be noted that I did look for agent or published authors but as it was late, several different variations of searches and clicking through the first few pages of each of them yielded no results so I gave up so I could go to bed. If I ever find any, I will be sure to add them.
Here is a series of explanations and samples from good ol' Purdue University. Just keep clicking "next resource" to see the next set of examples.
Grammar Girl also has some stuff to say about it and tips.
And this is from Daily Writing Tips.
Dark Angel also has some helpful things to say.
And there you have it. Helpful examples, tips and tricks. It's always nice to have it explained.
It should be noted that I did look for agent or published authors but as it was late, several different variations of searches and clicking through the first few pages of each of them yielded no results so I gave up so I could go to bed. If I ever find any, I will be sure to add them.
Wednesday, January 19, 2011
Filter words
I've written for a long time. I've always enjoyed writing and telling stories and I'm not that bad at it. But writing a book is different from just telling a story. There are mechanics involved. Since I've only recently started taking writing seriously (starting a hundred chapter ones does not count as serious), I've had a lot to learn.
Fiction itself is easy. You just make stuff up, that's why it's called fiction. Doing it well, on the other hand, is hard. You have to make it believable and draw the reader into the story and characters. How you do that is just as important as the story concept. It takes time and practice and lots of learning.
Giving and receiving critiques help you learn. You hear a lot of comments, though that make sense on the surface but without concrete examples, it's not as easy to grasp as one would think. There are comments on distance, on active vs. passive, showing vs. telling -- the list just goes on. And it's like pulling teeth to get someone to actually explain it to you. Of course, it's not their job to teach you how to write but still, it would be nice to have an explanation every once in a while.
So I think I'd like to troll the web and find all sites that are great at giving examples of all those comments you might receive but don't have a clue what it means or how to fix it.
This particular post on Write It Sideways, I thought, was a great post on filter words and gave examples that are clearly understood. It helped me tremendously.
Sunday, January 16, 2011
First One Publishing Contest, the boo-birds have spoken
Maybe you haven't been online in the last few days. Maybe you haven't checked your tweets or your facebook. Maybe you haven't been on AW in a while. Or maybe you just live in a cave and only get out every third Sunday of the month.Here's one contest you should avoid like the plague. You might even want to wear protective clothing when reading the rules. Yes, it's that bad. Aside from the steep $149.00 entrance fee, it's a rights grab. Once you submit, you no longer own your MS.
There's been plenty said on the matter. You can read some of it here, here, here, here and here. And if you still want more on it, here, here, and here. As you can see, it's everywhere so I won't be adding anything new to the pile. But if you're wondering why so many writers are calling themselves boo-birds today, it's because of this lovely sentence from Karen Hunter in a response to criticism of the contest on AW (which is the second "here," btw):
If your goal is to be a boo-bird. Good job. If you're goal is to help change publishing, get in the game and let's play.
I'm a boo-bird.
Whatever the case may be, if you've somehow missed this, here it is:
First One Publishing Writing Contest
- All entries must be original works, in English. Plagiarism, which includes the use of third-party poetry, song lyrics, characters or another person's universe, without written permission will result in disqualification. Excessive violence or sex, determined by the judges, will result in disqualification. Entries may not have been previously published in professional media.
- To be eligible, entries must be works of prose. We regret that we cannot consider poetry, or works intended for children for this contest.
- The contest is open to nonprofessional writers who are legal residents of the United States over the age of 18 as of February 1, 2011. Employees (or relatives of employees living in the same household) of First One Publishing, The Walnut Group, Blackwave Media Group, or any of its affiliates are not eligible. This contest is void in Puerto Rico, Quebec, and wherever prohibited or restricted by law.
- FORMAT: Entries must not be more than 65,000 words long and must not have been previously published. Entries must be sent as Microsoft Word documents. The font must be Times New Roman, 12-point size. Do not justify right-side margin. Along with the cover letter, the author’s name, address, email address and phone number must appear on the first page.
- All submissions must be in English. Entries are void if they are in whole or in part incomplete, or damaged, or if they do not conform to any of the requirements specified herein. Sponsor reserves the right, in its absolute and sole discretion, to reject any entries for any reason, including but not limited to based on sexual content, vulgarity, and/or promotion of violence.
- Each entry may be submitted only once. Please retain a copy of your submission. You may submit more than one manuscript, but each submission must be emailed separately and paid for separately. Entries must be received by April 11, 2011.
- FEES: There will be a $149.00 entrance fee for each submission. The fee must be paid online before the manuscript will be accepted.
8. PRIZES:
One Grand-Prize Winner will receive:
• First One Publishing contract for terrestrial and digital publication of winning book.
• Five thousand ($5,000) cash
• A complete marketing and publicity tour tied to the winning book.
• First One Publishing Library (20 books valued at $240.00)
• Grand-Prize Winner must sign the publishing contract, which contains additional terms and conditions in order to be published.
Twenty Second-Prize Winners will receive:
• A First One Publishing contract for digital publication
• A complete marketing and publicity plan to promote the digital book as well as feature placement (bio, blog, etc.) on the First One Publishing website.
• A First One Publishing Collection (10 books valued at $120)
• Second-Prize Winners must sign the publishing contract, which contains additional terms and conditions in order to be published.
No contestant can win more than one prize
BOOK THEME
We are not restricting books to any specific topic or genre, however they should embody what all First One Publishing authors encompass—they should smart, thoughtful, and edifying.
9. JUDGING
Submissions will be judged on the equally weighted criteria of (a) basis of writing ability and (b) the originality of the book. Professional judges will include editors, John Paine (The Book Doctor), Tracy Sherrod (former S&S editor), and overseen by best-selling author/publisher Karen Hunter. There will also be a slate of celebrity/author judges for the finals.
10. NOTIFICATION
Winners will be notified by email or phone on June 11, 2011. The Grand-Prize Winner must sign the publishing contract in order to be awarded the prize. All federal, local, and state taxes are the responsibility of the winner. A list of the winners will be available on June 11, 2011 on www.firstonepublishing.com.
11. PUBLICITY
Each WINNER grants to the Sponsor the right to use his or her name, likeness, and entry for any advertising, promotion, and publicity purposes without further compensation to or permission from such winner, except where prohibited by law.
12. INTERNET
If for any reason this CONTEST is not capable of running as planned due to an infection by a computer virus, bugs, tampering, unauthorized intervention, fraud, technical failures, or any other causes beyond the control of the Sponsor, which corrupt or affect the administration, security, fairness, integrity, or proper conduct of the Contest, the Sponsor reserves the right in its sole discretion to disqualify any individual who tampers with the entry process, and to cancel, terminate, modify or suspend the CONTEST. The sponsor assumes no responsibility for any error, omission, interruption, deletion, defect, delay in operation or transmission, communications line failure, theft, or destruction, or unauthorized access to, or alteration of entries. The Sponsor is not responsible for any problems or technical malfunctions of any telephone network or telephone lines, computer on-line system servers, or providers, computer equipment, software, failure of any email or entry to be received by the Sponsor due to technical problems, human error or traffic, congestion on the internet or at any website, or any combination there-of, including any injury or damage to participant’s or any other person’s computer relating to or resulting from participating in this Contest or downloading any materials in this Contest.
CAUTION: ANY ATTEMPT TO DELIBERATELY DAMAGE ANY WEBSITE OR UNDERMINE THE LEGITIMATE OPERATION OF THE CONTEST IS A VIOLATION OF CRIMINAL AD CIVIL LAWS AND SHOULD SUCH AN ATTEMPT BE MADE. THE SPONSOR RESERVES THE RIGHT TO SEEK DAMAGES OR OTHER REMEDIES FROM ANY SUCH PERSON(S) RESPONSIBLE FOR THE ATTEMPT TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW. In the event of a dispute as to the identity or eligibility of a winner based on an email address, the winning entry will be declared made by the “Authorized Account Holder” of the email address submitted at time of entry. “Authorized Account Holder” is defined as the natural person 18 years of age and older who is assigned to an email address by an internet access provider, online service provider or other organization (ie. Business, education institution, etc.) that is responsible for assigning email addresses for the domain associated with the submitted email address. Use of automated devices is not valid for entry.
13. LEGAL Information
All submissions become sole property of Sponsor and will not be acknowledged or returned. By submitting an entry, all entrants grant Sponsor the absolute and unconditional right and authority to copy, edit, publish, promote, broadcast, or otherwise use, in whole or in part, their entries, in perpetuity, in any manner without further permission, notice or compensation. Entries that contain copyrighted material must include a release from the copyright holder. Prizes are nontransferable. No substitutions or cash redemptions, except by Sponsor in the event of prize unavailability. Sponsor reserves the right to its sole discretion to not publish the winning entry for any reason whatsoever.
In the event that there is an insufficient number of entries received that meet the minimum standards determined by the judges, all prizes will not be awarded. Winners will be required to complete and return an affidavit of eligibility and liability/publicity release, within 15 days of winning notification, or an alternate winner will be selected, in the event any winner is considered a minor in his/her state of residence, such winner’s parent/legal guardian will be required to sign and return all necessary paperwork.
By entering, entrants release judges and Sponsor(s), and its parent company, subsidiaries, production, and promotion agencies from any and all liability for any loss, harm, damages, costs, or expenses, including without limitation properly damages, personal injury, and/or death arising out of participation in this contest, the acceptance, possession, use or misuse of any prize, claims based on publicity rights, defamation or invasion of privacy, merchandise delivery, or the violation of any intellectual property rights, including but not limited to copyright infringement and/or trademark infringement.
Wednesday, January 12, 2011
Don't hate me for saying this...
I know, I'm blogging a bit about self-publishing vs. traditional publishing a bit much but it's been an obsession of mine for the last few days. I honestly find the whole debate fascinating. Which way will it go? Will publishers drop like flies? Is self-publishing viable? And so on and so forth.
In all of this, there is one thing that has stood out to me. Multi-level marketing. Now, I don't know about you, but I've been suckered into going to these meetings or parties or whatever they are calling themselves nowadays, more than once. It usually stems from having a friend that's doing it and I don't want to be rude by saying no. Yes, I torture myself.
They all have one thing in common: Enthusiasm. But it's not just a nice amount of enthusiasm, it's a truck-load and they run you over with it. They try to get you to get so hyped up about it that you'll join up with dreams of being super rich and going on these company vacations on yachts in the Bahamas where only the top sellers can attend. Or a pink car. They also like to pull out copies of other people's insanely huge checks and tell you, "this could be your name!"
When I read about all these success stories in self-pubbing, that's kind of how I feel. Not because I don't believe in their success or that I'm not happy for them. I do and I am. But go to enough of these MLM meetings and you quickly become a skeptic on anything that remotely stinks of it. I'm being bombarded with all these stories of the now wealthy authors that it's kind of gotten to that point. The excitement has gotten so hyped and huge and I see people getting carried away on that wave of dollar signs that I can't help but feel that way.
I understand that self-pubbing isn't MLM and I'm not actually comparing to MLM. It's the feeling and tone I'm comparing it to. This whole campaign for self-pubbing sure is starting to sound like the same sales pitch. The enthusiasm has gotten to such heights that I simply can't bring myself to not imagine the MLM marketing pitches or the Shady Preacher/Healer on the Pulpit scenarios. With shouts of "I'm a believer!" coming out of the woodwork, how can I not?
Let me also say that it has not affected my decision-making process and I most definitely don't blame anyone for their excitement. I would be excited, too and I would probably be shouting it from the rooftops with them. So don't think I'm judging anyone. I still don't know what I plan to do when I'm done with my wip.
I believe that many people are doing very well with self-pubbing. I also believe that many aren't. There are plenty of factors that determine why a self-pubber can or will do well. The most important thing, and I think this holds true for self or trad published, is the writing. Right now, I'm just hoping I'm good enough to do well whichever way I choose.
I hope all self-pubbers do well. Who knows, I might be one of them someday. I also want to be able to support myself comfortably as a writer -- what writer doesn't? But are writers riding that wave into a cliffside? Is it just too early to know what kind of long term success anyone will have? I'm sure if you asked the successful ones they'd tell you, "Well, at least I made money while it lasted which is more than what someone that didn't do it got." Which would be true, of course. Maybe these aren't even viable questions.
I think it's all this talk about money that is affecting my delicate senses. Writers want to earn a nice living because it frees us up to write more and it's great to know there is hope for that, but have we lost some semblance of propriety in the process? Hard to say since money is an important aspect of life. We all gotta pay the bills. And it's not like I'm not interested in knowing the details of how well they are doing.
I guess it's just one of those things where you want to know but feel like it's an incredible intrusion in someone's private matters. We've always been taught that it's impolite to ask. Now we are faced with a lot of people just offering it up and we're taking it all in and then rifling through their underwear drawer. When inappropriate suddenly becomes appropriate, I have a hard time switching gears.
In all of this, there is one thing that has stood out to me. Multi-level marketing. Now, I don't know about you, but I've been suckered into going to these meetings or parties or whatever they are calling themselves nowadays, more than once. It usually stems from having a friend that's doing it and I don't want to be rude by saying no. Yes, I torture myself.They all have one thing in common: Enthusiasm. But it's not just a nice amount of enthusiasm, it's a truck-load and they run you over with it. They try to get you to get so hyped up about it that you'll join up with dreams of being super rich and going on these company vacations on yachts in the Bahamas where only the top sellers can attend. Or a pink car. They also like to pull out copies of other people's insanely huge checks and tell you, "this could be your name!"
When I read about all these success stories in self-pubbing, that's kind of how I feel. Not because I don't believe in their success or that I'm not happy for them. I do and I am. But go to enough of these MLM meetings and you quickly become a skeptic on anything that remotely stinks of it. I'm being bombarded with all these stories of the now wealthy authors that it's kind of gotten to that point. The excitement has gotten so hyped and huge and I see people getting carried away on that wave of dollar signs that I can't help but feel that way.
I understand that self-pubbing isn't MLM and I'm not actually comparing to MLM. It's the feeling and tone I'm comparing it to. This whole campaign for self-pubbing sure is starting to sound like the same sales pitch. The enthusiasm has gotten to such heights that I simply can't bring myself to not imagine the MLM marketing pitches or the Shady Preacher/Healer on the Pulpit scenarios. With shouts of "I'm a believer!" coming out of the woodwork, how can I not?
Let me also say that it has not affected my decision-making process and I most definitely don't blame anyone for their excitement. I would be excited, too and I would probably be shouting it from the rooftops with them. So don't think I'm judging anyone. I still don't know what I plan to do when I'm done with my wip.
I believe that many people are doing very well with self-pubbing. I also believe that many aren't. There are plenty of factors that determine why a self-pubber can or will do well. The most important thing, and I think this holds true for self or trad published, is the writing. Right now, I'm just hoping I'm good enough to do well whichever way I choose.
I hope all self-pubbers do well. Who knows, I might be one of them someday. I also want to be able to support myself comfortably as a writer -- what writer doesn't? But are writers riding that wave into a cliffside? Is it just too early to know what kind of long term success anyone will have? I'm sure if you asked the successful ones they'd tell you, "Well, at least I made money while it lasted which is more than what someone that didn't do it got." Which would be true, of course. Maybe these aren't even viable questions.
I think it's all this talk about money that is affecting my delicate senses. Writers want to earn a nice living because it frees us up to write more and it's great to know there is hope for that, but have we lost some semblance of propriety in the process? Hard to say since money is an important aspect of life. We all gotta pay the bills. And it's not like I'm not interested in knowing the details of how well they are doing.
I guess it's just one of those things where you want to know but feel like it's an incredible intrusion in someone's private matters. We've always been taught that it's impolite to ask. Now we are faced with a lot of people just offering it up and we're taking it all in and then rifling through their underwear drawer. When inappropriate suddenly becomes appropriate, I have a hard time switching gears.
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