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Messages - MClark

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16
Author Craft / Re: Deciding on a Story?
« on: May 07, 2012, 10:08:13 PM »
Hmm, my last post got submitted while I was writing it, not quite sure how. I do remember some issues with the caps lock, so maybe I hit the wrong key.

I assume Rule 3 had to be taken more metaphorically, as in an author may never quite be totally satisfied with a work, but has to stop at some point and send it in. I quickly learned I could never follow it literally.

17
Author Craft / Re: Deciding on a Story?
« on: May 07, 2012, 07:12:43 PM »
Quote from: the neurovore of Zur-En-Aargh on May 07, 2012, 04:54:04 PM
You have to finish stories, definitely, but you don't have to finish every story you start; there can definitely be better uses for your time. Some stories are nurse logs; and if a story is going to be one, it probably saves time to recognise that early.

Oh, and wrt Heinlein's rules for writing, the recent biography makes it abundantly clear that the way he was actually writing at the time involved blithe disregard for the guidelines he spouted, particularly in re rewriting, so they may want taking with a grain of salt.

Yes, I know RAH's Rule 3 has to be taken with a grain of salt.

What does the recent biography say about Heinlein's writing habits? I assumed he was so bad ass ( he could get it right on the 2nd or 3rd pass, and Rule 3 was more for people who

18
Author Craft / Re: Deciding on a Story?
« on: May 07, 2012, 04:08:33 PM »
Hi,

I'm in favor of finishing the story you have half written. Its Robert Heinlein's 2nd rule of writing : "You must finish what you write." I believe the writingexcuses.com people -or at least one of them- are in favor of finishing what you write also.

If you're stuck on the training montage because its dull, just write it as best you can. Write the info dump if you have to and keep going. Maybe you'll figure out a way to chop them up into more palatable bits later.

Maybe the book needs a stronger villain to come in and stab the hero in the face to help get things moving.

Or another trainee character for the hero to interact with and this character could later become a Ron Weasley, Hawk (from the mundane mystery Spenser novels), or the Moriarity ANother trainee gives him somebody to talk to and might make the infodumps less infodump-y.

Average joes are really hard to write. Richard Sharpe is very strong and good shot. Horatio Hornblower is good at math, Honor Harrington has a treecat, Give him some cool skill, like a knack for quidditch, or he was a knowledge of poetry (OK, yeah, I'm reading Spenser novels now) and that helps him (or hinders him) in training.

If you don't like how it turns out, set it aside and return to it later.

OTOH, authors have been know to set aside a work that isn't progressing, so your call, of course.

19
Author Craft / Re: Tools for Writers
« on: April 23, 2012, 05:10:17 PM »
Quote from: Jabberwockey on April 15, 2012, 06:41:01 PM
Ok, Ive downloaded the trial version of Writeitnow and it seems like a very interesting program.  Still not sure about committing to the cost, small as it might be, for a program that I will only use for what is currently a hobby.  Having just written that I feel kind of stupid saying it as I spent $700 on my helm for heavy weapons fighting in the SCA!!  Anyway, I just wanted to thank everyone for the different options for programs and the info about using MS Office.  Hadnt really considered the fact that it wasnt created for novel sized documents but for the stage I am currently at, it will work for now.


Scrivener and WriteWayPro are a few dollars cheaper than WriteItnow and ywriter5 is free, so you could try those.

OTOH, if you get words on the page with Office, don't fix what isn't broken.

Good luck with the SCA fighting.

20
Author Craft / Re: A Question About Scene's Within Chapters
« on: April 18, 2012, 01:03:48 PM »
As other replies have said, I think of the scene sections the writing software uses similarly to scenes in a movie- the individual parts the story breaks into.

One thing that confused me for a while is the difference between the scene and the Scene, mostly because they use the same name.

Jim's blog has two long entries on Scenes and the follow-up unit of story telling the Sequel.  I will add the word Unit to them to help differentiate them from scenes. A completely different nomenclature may be even more helpful (Conflict-Emotion?) but lets just use the words Mr Butcher used.

I wasted a lot of time trying to fit my story into Scene Unit-Sequel Unit pairs and then into the Chapter-scene mechanic of Writewaypro (very similar to scrivener).

Your story will probably use Scene-Sequel pairs but they may not follow the physical mechanic of separate scenes in your writing software. For example, your hero may be trying to get information from his cop buddy, but fails (Scene Unit). THe hero quickly rethinks a different approach (Sequel Unit) and tries it on the cop. This time the hero succeeds. (Scene Unit)

Another example (Spoiler from Dead Beat)
(click to show/hide)

All of the above would be in one section of writing in your software. 

Most writing software will put a separator (either an additional line or ### or ****) between the scenes.

Hopefully I haven't confused the issue by bringing up another usage of the word scene.

21
Author Craft / Re: stupid question but can any of you help me
« on: April 05, 2012, 01:53:46 PM »
If you've gone nine chapters without noticing they are gone, then the characters may not be that important.

You need to decide if they are important or not.

If they aren't, they could leave in a variety of ways :

0. Excise them completely from the first chapter.

1. the plot of the book is too dangerous, so they went home. "Tangle with vampires? very dangerous. I need to, uh, get some holy water. You go on ahead. I'll catch up." Or alternatively they could bundle the hero's loved ones off to safety. "Get Mom and drive to Fort Lauderdale."

2. They went off to do research, long term planning or long term building. They can show up in the last chapter with a wheelbarrow and a holocaust cloak.

3. They were redshirts and are dead, in a coma, or in rehab, both physical and mental.

22
Author Craft / Re: World Building vs. Backstory
« on: March 07, 2012, 04:05:57 PM »
I've never thought of it like that.

It sounds like a good guideline. Thanks.

Though it seemed Kim Stanley Robinson broke the rule in his Mars trilogy. The characters were always getting on a glider, blimp, dune buggy or Martian winnebago, so Robinson could spend spend many pages talking about martian geography or the terrra forming scheme. Well, except when he talked about socialism.

I've heard not to spend too much time on world building. Brandon Sanderson on writingexcuses said to focus on areas of conflict, IIRC.

Rereading your post it sounds like I'm getting confused WB- in Story is what you are talking about. WBiS is spending too much time in story talking about your world. Which KSR does in the mars trilogy but gets away with.

The WB sanderson was talking about was just spending more time building the world than writing your WIP, eg "These noble families way over here are having a Gleph-Guibelline type war and I'm spending two weeks figuring out all the players (ie copying from italian history with the names changed a bit), even though my epic will not reach this part of the globe for four more books." Maybe call this World Building-Game Master, since its the sort thing RPG GMs do.

It seems authors will always have WBGM we don't show. Butcher has all sorts of WBGM planned out eg who gave the werewolf belts to the FBI. But you actually have to make progress on your work in progress, so don't spend to much time on WBGM.

Sorry, sort of a rambling post.

23
Author Craft / Re: North and South
« on: February 20, 2012, 10:12:49 PM »
HI,

I believe Lois McMaster Bujold's "The Curse of Chalion" world takes place in the southern hemisphere - indeed the world is basically europe upside down. (Chalion is Spain). Several books in the series won an award or another of some kind, so the idea will certainly work.

24
Author Craft / Re: Writing in a setting you know...without sounding like Lonely Planet guides...?
« on: February 15, 2012, 05:24:34 PM »
Using dialogue as info dump can come across as "As you know, Bob..." type phrases, so be careful.

25
Author Craft / Re: Doing a little Author research on......research
« on: February 15, 2012, 05:17:11 PM »
Dr Google and Professor Wikipedia are my friends. You can go to the external references links and find more even more sources.

People are down on Wikipedia for research papers but its actually pretty good- at least as a first pass for fiction writing. (Although I really wish the article on space habitats had a citation for the phrase "The L5 position is now thought to be too far away and many recommend 2:1 resonance orbits." Thought by whom? And whats a 2:1 resonance orbit and who recommends them?)

Most state university libraries allow any old schmoe to walk in and use the books, microfiches and other resources. Logging onto the university wireless may not or may work. Oddly, I can look through the University of New Mexico library catalog at home, although I cannot log into the wireless network in the engineering library. I did login to the wireless network at the law library. YMMV, so be prepared.

Usually you can buy a pass for a nominal amount (~$50/yr) and then check out books. And you'd probably get access to the wireless network also, though I'm too poor to try this at UNM.

Thoroughily check university parking regulations before parking on campus! Or lock your bike to a proper bike rack, not a landscaping or handicapped railing.

26
Author Craft / Re: Are Readers Growing Tired of New Urban Fantasy?
« on: January 31, 2012, 03:56:49 PM »
Harry Connolly's 20 Palace series was cancelled?

Yes it was. This news depressed me so much I stopped writing this morning.

This may not mean the death of UF. Connolly has a post on the poor sales of the last two 20 Palace books. He checked Amazon and said many of the negative reviews had comments like

 
  • main character unlikeable
  • too dark
  • no romance subplot
  • background world unexplained
So Twenty Palaces may have sold poorly because it was too unlike most other UF, though he does mention other dark/grim UF is doing well.  Last time I checked a bookstore's shelves - almost a year ago?- UF seemed to be doing very well, way better than hard science fiction. Laurel K Hamilton, Charlaine Harris and Kim Harrison had more books between them than all the hard science fiction in the section.

Of course hard SF is not very popular so this may just mean a few UF authors are totally outselling a dying genre.

27
Author Craft / Re: Help with my religion!
« on: January 26, 2012, 01:45:26 AM »
You may have already heard this, but here is the writingexcuses podcasts on Religion in World Building.

http://www.writingexcuses.com/2008/08/10/writing-excuses-episode-27-world-building-religion/


28
Author Craft / Re: Help with my religion!
« on: January 26, 2012, 01:38:33 AM »
Here are some thoughts, hidden by spoiler. Is this ok, or is sending a PM better?

(click to show/hide)

29
Author Craft / Re: When writing, you know you are in trouble when...
« on: December 24, 2011, 02:52:31 PM »
When an idea you hoped would be a 5000 word short story is now at 10000 words, and your critique group tells you "you're telling a lot. You need to expand this whole chapter into two or three and show more."


30
Author Craft / Re: Organization
« on: December 24, 2011, 02:50:17 PM »
Word does have some sort of Master Document feature that will keep track of different chapters for you, but I don't know the incantations to properly invoke and control that demon. You'll have to look deeply into the various Microsoft Grimoires and websites.

Ditto on reading the The Tools for Authors thread, which lists numerous different software packages, priced free to $100.  Pick two or three and download the free demo, check out how it flows for you.

I don't want to mention names for fear others will chime in and we'll repeat the whole thread.

Is there any interest in creating a master list of all the packages/techniques, and posting a summary post at the front of the thread?

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