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Messages - prophet224

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1
Author Craft / Going to DragonCon next week?
« on: August 26, 2011, 04:02:02 PM »
Hi all! Last year's DragonCon was sweet, what with Jim being there and all (and one of my other favorites - John Ringo).

Is anyone going this year? The sessions with authors, discussion of technique, and the publisher and editor Q/A sessions were all amazing, and I came away from last year with pages of notes, including things like (from Jim Mins, editor at Baen) Use scotch. “Something with a port or sherrywood finish.” No ice. :-)

Anyway, hope to see people there!

2
Author Craft / Re: Question for... Everybody, I Guess
« on: August 26, 2011, 03:56:13 PM »
Just a couple of other notes -

- Beta readers and critique partners (strangers) will always be hit or miss with their reviews and honesty.
- So will friends/family
- If you are in school for something other than writing, take a creative writing class as one of your electives. Other students often just don't care about your feelings.
- Try checking for local groups. For instance, Maryland has the Maryland Writer's Association with local chapters and critique groups.

3
Author Craft / Re: FREE! FREE! FREE! Writeoncon.com starts Sept 15th
« on: August 26, 2011, 03:51:10 PM »
This looks really cool! Sadly, it looks like it actually started *August* 15th, so we ALL missed it! :( Oh, well, transcripts ahoy!

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Author Craft / Re: Angel / Fallen naming help
« on: October 14, 2010, 02:25:27 AM »
Angels aren't really male or female so as far as the names... <shrug>

Book(s) of Enoch will be your best bet historically.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Book_of_Enoch

Good luck and enjoy!

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Author Craft / Re: Angel / Fallen naming help
« on: October 14, 2010, 12:28:28 AM »
Honestly, if you just look up 'Angel Names' you will get tons of hits.

Basically, the canonical Bible and the Torah (which, yes, is included as the very beginning of said Christian Bible) only give a few angel names. Most others come from various Hebrew stories.

Here's an example site (yes, terrible layout and whatnot, but pretty good breakdown for names - obviously avoid the variations of 'Angel').
http://www.20000-names.com/angel_names_messenger_names.htm

6
That's a tough spot to be in - hamstrung by an outline and stuck for motivation/fire.

If it helps, I outline on the fly. As I write those scenes that are in my head, if I think at all about order or get ideas for how to lay things out, I enter them into a basic outline. It isn't my limit, but my guide. I use that outline to know what to write about next. It is sort of just notes on the scenes I want to work on, and it becomes a very basic outline. Helps me to not get stuck. :D

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Author Craft / Re: Handicapping your characters.
« on: October 13, 2010, 02:03:54 PM »
@Quantus - Gotta say, it made sense and I like it!

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Author Craft / Re: Starting Out
« on: October 12, 2010, 10:48:44 PM »
Yeah... continuity issues... about that... <whistle>

That is definitely one of the potential hazards in this style of writing.  :D

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Author Craft / Re: Starting Out
« on: October 12, 2010, 04:22:22 PM »
Hey Breandan! If your way is crazy, then I'm crazy too. I find that writing out all the scenes in my head helps me keep the 'fire'. Those "tying together" scenes later are really tough though. But I keep finding that I learn so much about the story and the characters by writing out the scenes that I am imagining, so much of the rest of the story gets filled in on the way. Basically writing some scenes makes me think about a new set of scenes. :D

10
That is a very common problem. Many people drown in it - 10-20k words here, another 10-20k words somewhere else. Then they have a bunch of half-written projects around.

So do you know where the climax is or how it will happen? Is that scene in your head anywhere? Or are there other scenes floating around in your head?

Write them. Write it out. Keep the fire burning by writing the parts you keep thinking about. If you don't have parts that you keep thinking about, maybe it really isn't the right project, at least for now.

Another thing that comes to mind is something Neil Gaiman said in one of the many forewards/afterwards of "Good Omens". He was talking about Terry Pratchett and said this:
Quote
Then again, Terry is that rarity, the kind of author who likes writing, not having written, or Being a Writer, but the actual sitting there and making things up in front of a screen.
http://www.neilgaiman.com/p/Cool_Stuff/Essays/Essays_By_Neil/Terry_Pratchett:_An_Appreciation

I guess all I'm saying is that we all (or at least most) feel like that at some point.

11
Author Craft / Re: NaNoWriMo 2010
« on: October 08, 2010, 02:27:28 PM »
Just signed up, but we'll see if I participate. If I do, I'll still be 'prophet224'. :-D

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Author Craft / Re: NaNoWriMo 2010
« on: October 07, 2010, 03:50:44 PM »
I'm thinking about it, but at the same time I'm finally in the home stretch with my main project, and it has taken me a while. I'm pretty concerned about not finishing it up before moving on to something else. If I can somehow finish the first draft by Nov, I'll do it. :)


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Author Craft / Re: sleeeeeep, or internal clock? what internal clock?
« on: October 07, 2010, 03:18:36 PM »
The wife just gave me a birthday present that helps with the 'traveling' problem.

I finally went over to a smartphone a month or two ago, specifically the Droid X with its nice big screen.

She then got me the Freedom Pro bluetooth travel keyboard. It folds up to just a bit larger than the droid itself, is a full-size keyboard, and pairs pretty seemlessly. With that and pretty much any note-taking program (I use mywritingnook.com), you can write anywhere. :)


14
Author Craft / Re: Awareness
« on: October 06, 2010, 11:44:02 PM »
Re: mysteries
Recently Jim said, while on a "Supernatural CSI" panel, that the way to do a mystery is (paraphrase here) "Write a newspaper headline with all of the information - how it happened, who did it, where it happened, etc. Then take away parts until you are left with what your detective character knows. Sometimes that is nothing at all."

Re: revealing magic
Another panel (no Jim, but some other authors like Brandon Sanderson, John Ringo, and Timothy Zahn) basically said "Reveal as little as you can get away with. Make sure your magic is consistent, but don't go into detail if you don't have to."

I do agree, though, that for DF there is a need, but it still all comes out over time.

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Author Craft / Re: sleeeeeep, or internal clock? what internal clock?
« on: October 06, 2010, 11:36:54 PM »
When that does happen I usually just take some notes, though if I am able I will stick it out and actually write.

Frankly, I have to be able to work, so... I just do the best I can with the late writing and make sure I can do my day job.

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