Catholic Writers Conference Online Provides Practical Help
World Wide Web--This year's Catholic Writers’ Conference Online, which will be held February 26-March 5, 2010, will focus on the practical things the writer needs to succeed.
The conference is held via chats and forums at http://www.catholicwritersconference.com/. Sponsored by the Catholic Writer’s Guild, the online conference is free of charge and open to writers of all levels who register between October 1, 2009 and February 15, 2010.
"We've always concentrated on workshops and chats that teach the writer skills or provide information in the areas of crafting, publishing and marketing their works, but this year, we're adding critique workshops and some incredible opportunities to pitch to leading publishers," said organizer Karina Fabian.
This year, publishers hearing pitches include well known Catholic publishers like Pauline, large Christian publishers like Thomas Nelson, and smaller presses like White Rose. Thus far, eleven pitch sessions are scheduled, running the gamut from Christian romance to Catholic theology.
In a new program, at least fifty attendees will have the opportunity to have pieces of their work critiqued by successful editors and writers. In addition, there will be forum-based workshops and chat room presentations covering topics from dialogue to freelancing to how Catholic fiction differs from Christian fiction.
"Even in good economic times, it's hard for writers to attend live conferences," said Fabian, "but this year, we think it's even more important to help careers by utilizing an online format. We're so grateful that our presenters are willing to share their time and talent."
Early registration is recommended. Although the conference is offered free of charge, donations are accepted; proceeds will go toward future conferences. Non-Catholics may attend, as long as they respect Catholic beliefs and the conference's Catholic focus.
To register or for more information, go to http://www.catholicwritersconference.com/.
Wednesday, December 16, 2009
Friday, December 4, 2009
So You're Thinking of Writing a Vampire Novel....
If you've had the impulse to write a vampire novel, you want it to be better than those 'me, too' type of forgettable vampire romances. The key to that is building your vampire-world just as carefully as you would build an alien world for a science fiction novel.
Research and planning is the key. My best resource for vampiry research is The Vampire Book: The Encyclopedia of the Undead
by J. Gordon Melton, which has vampire folklore from around the world, some cases of alleged real-world vampirism, and accounts of literary and film vampires.
Some points of interest I have discovered:
Nosferatu--- I had always assumed that German film director Murnau just made the word 'nosferatu' up in order to defraud the estate of Bram Stoker by filming 'Dracula' without mentioning Dracula by name.... But actually the term has history. It's derived from the Greek word 'nosophoros' which means 'plague-carrier'. So it relates to the illness model of vampirism, as in the New England vampire epidemic, caused by cases when a family died one by one from 'consumtion' (tuberculosis) and it was assumed that the earliest to die were preying on the others....
Undead--- I looked up the term 'undead' in the dictionary, and found that words like 'undeadly' and undeadliness' were obsolete terms for immortal and immortality.
I'm creating a vampire-world-creation checklist/form which will cover the various issues you as an author have to confront while building your vampire-containing fictional world.
Some sample questions: Can your vampires cross running water? Are your vampires able to be active in daylight? Do they need to return to their native soil, or their coffin, at night? Are your vampires demonic, or damned souls, or are they capable of being either good or evil? Do your vampires have to feed on blood, and what kind of blood does it have to be? What happens to them if they don't feed? Do they have to kill their victims or are they able to feed without harming anyone? How can vampires be killed? Which traditional anti-vampire methods (crucifix, holy water) work and which don't?
Eventually when I finish the checklist in its final form I will put up a copy on this blog. Do you have any ideas for further questions for the list? If you are working on vampire fiction (or might be) please leave a comment to tell me about it, make suggestions for the checklist, or to shamelessly promote your blog. ;) Or perhaps list the best vampire fiction you've read or your favorite vampire movies and TV shows.
Research and planning is the key. My best resource for vampiry research is The Vampire Book: The Encyclopedia of the Undead
by J. Gordon Melton, which has vampire folklore from around the world, some cases of alleged real-world vampirism, and accounts of literary and film vampires.Some points of interest I have discovered:
Nosferatu--- I had always assumed that German film director Murnau just made the word 'nosferatu' up in order to defraud the estate of Bram Stoker by filming 'Dracula' without mentioning Dracula by name.... But actually the term has history. It's derived from the Greek word 'nosophoros' which means 'plague-carrier'. So it relates to the illness model of vampirism, as in the New England vampire epidemic, caused by cases when a family died one by one from 'consumtion' (tuberculosis) and it was assumed that the earliest to die were preying on the others....
Undead--- I looked up the term 'undead' in the dictionary, and found that words like 'undeadly' and undeadliness' were obsolete terms for immortal and immortality.
I'm creating a vampire-world-creation checklist/form which will cover the various issues you as an author have to confront while building your vampire-containing fictional world.
Some sample questions: Can your vampires cross running water? Are your vampires able to be active in daylight? Do they need to return to their native soil, or their coffin, at night? Are your vampires demonic, or damned souls, or are they capable of being either good or evil? Do your vampires have to feed on blood, and what kind of blood does it have to be? What happens to them if they don't feed? Do they have to kill their victims or are they able to feed without harming anyone? How can vampires be killed? Which traditional anti-vampire methods (crucifix, holy water) work and which don't?
Eventually when I finish the checklist in its final form I will put up a copy on this blog. Do you have any ideas for further questions for the list? If you are working on vampire fiction (or might be) please leave a comment to tell me about it, make suggestions for the checklist, or to shamelessly promote your blog. ;) Or perhaps list the best vampire fiction you've read or your favorite vampire movies and TV shows.
Saturday, November 21, 2009
How Fiction Writers can Learn Story Structure
Working on Nano this year I've run across the same problem I always have--- I can think up story beginnings just fine, but what then? I've started novel after novel without completing. I've even written outlines for a few, but the only part of the outlines that seemed to be any good was the beginning.
Recently I bought a few books on story structure, outlining, and similar topics. They are:
Story Structure Architect: A Writer's Guide to Building Dramatic Situations and Compelling Characters
Book in a Month: The Fool-Proof System for Writing a Novel in 30 Days
Both of these books are written by Victoria Lynn Schmidt. The first one is most helpful in that it introduces the traditional story structure of three acts. The first act contains: a setup, the mood or tone, a hook, catalyst or inciting incident, the serious problem/goal, introduction of the villain and main characters, and a turning point. In the second act: the problem intensifies, there is a temporary triumph, a reversal, a dark moment, and another turning point. In the third act there is the final obstacle, the climax, and the resolution. (All these elements are described in a bit more detail in the book.
This was so helpful! Today I took my current work-in-progress, a steampunk story called 'The Aether Key' and jotted down some notes as to how I saw the story going going through all these steps. When I was done I had a rudimentary outline in which the story progressed nicely to a satisfactory ending, not the vague and unsatisfactory ending I had in other outlines I have written.
The second book, called 'Book in a Month' is even more helpful. It gives a step-by-step daily guide to writing a novel in a month OR for writing a detailed novel outline in a month. This is so helpful to me because I have such a hard time creating good work habits--- in particular I don't know how much is enough work for one day, so when I quit for the day no matter how much I've done I feel like a quitter.
Today--- doing day 2 of the BIAM (book in a month) schedule, I completed my assigned task--- to write 10 scene cards for the ten most important scenes in the book. In order to do that I had to do the task I described above where I jotted down how the story would progress through the steps of the traditional story structure.
I feel optimistic with this new approach. I think it might be a real help for other writers who, like me, are struggling with Asperger's/Autism Spectrum disorders or other things that might hinder them from writing success. For me, I wonder if my ASD has made it more difficult to discern story structure in the books I've read and made me get so caught up in the details I couldn't see the big-picture aspects.
Victoria Schmidt has a Yahoo group for writers following her method, called VBIAMClub. It does seem to be still active as there were 148 posts this month, but I can't see them as the moderator must approve new group members.
COMMENT PROMPTS:
Have you used Book in a Month's schedule to write a book or outline? Please comment on how it worked for you, or if you are considering trying it.
ALSO: If you are willing, tell one odd detail about your current Work-In-Progress. I'll start: in my story, set in 1868, Adolf Hitler's father, Alois Schicklgruber, along with his mistress at the time, are in the US working out some details concerning customs inspections. At the story's conclusion Alois decides to marry his mistress and stay in the US, thus preventing the birth of Adolf Hitler.
Monday, November 16, 2009
Can People with autism/asperger's become published Fiction Writers?
Yeah, I know there are a lot of writers from the past like Herman Melville who are believed to have had an ASD. But I'm wondering about right here right now--- me.
One of the problems is that people with autism/asperger's have problems with social interactions, understanding the social rules that everyone else knows without being told. So can we learn to write about social interactions?
Actually, when it comes to that part I don't think it's that difficult. But there is another factor. In real life, people I meet don't choose to be my friend---even though I try to be nice to them, and to act like I'm 'normal'. So will people want to be a 'friend' of my writing? I mean, maybe no matter how good I get at it, people will be able to tell it was written by the kind of person that no one wants to be friends with and so they'll want to read something else instead.
And in these days the writer has to be involved with marketing their books and I'd imagine the last thing any publisher wants is to be saddled with some autistic person that isn't personable enough to do well at things like interviews and book signings....
I once tried to get in contact with other folks living with autism/asperger's by posting something on a writing forum, but the admin took offense because my reference to autism wasn't politically correct enough for him since I had the poor taste to joke. Well, I guess it's okay to mention it on my own blog, I've said a lot of stuff I shouldn't here and have had no complaints from Blogger.
I've searched the net for writer's forums for autistic/asperger people but I just find a lot of resources for parents/caregivers of those with autism. Don't know what to do about it really, so those I would whine about it on my blog where at least I'm not bothering anyone....
So--- enough of that. To update my life for anyone that cares--- I'm still working on my NaNoWriMo novel but have stopped to outline using the method in the book "First Draft in 30 Days", don't know how well that will work.
I have mentioned on this blog that I've had two kittens die recently. They were the two kittens out of the current batch that actually liked me enough that they'd purr when I picked them up. Recently, though, someone abandoned two half-grown kittens here and one of them is really friendly. I've named him Chan-ho, after major league pitcher Chan-ho Park, and the other kitten is named Chantho, after the alien in Doctor Who. You know, the one who started every sentence with 'chan' and ended it with 'tho'? As in, 'Chan that was one weird Doctor Who alien tho'. The picture at the top of this post is of Chan-ho.
Thursday, November 12, 2009
My Writing's Really gone to Hell this Nano
This year for National Novel Writing Month, I'm working on a project called 'Famine of the Heart' which is a dumb title since it sounds like a romance novel, and the actual story is a steampunk novel featuring sideshow freaks.
It's meant to be a lighthearted romp but the main theme seems to be.... hellfire. Specifically, the main character's mom is not saved (not in a state of grace) when she dies (killed while rescuing a child from a rampaging elephant.)
The main character Kerenza is quite sure her mother went to hell because: her mother had been guilty of the sin of adultery, when she is mortally injured she calls for a priest, but the priest who comes is actually an actor in a Roman collar, who cannot legitimately give absolution and also does not know how to encourage the dying woman to accept Christ.
The Christian theme of the story seems to be about forgiveness. Because Kerenza feels there is virtually no hope that her mother is anywhere else but in hell, she cannot forgive her father for having lured her mother into a life of adultery, and yet she knows that as a Christian she must forgive.
I know it's beginning to sound all boring, but there are also a lot of steam-powered machines and clockwork robots and stuff. And Kerenza is the only one who knows that an inventor's brother is Not To Be Trusted, and she really likes the inventor but they can't get involved because he's Jewish....
And then there are the conjoined twins, one of whom wants to be baptized and the other who doesn't want a drop of baptismal water touching him....
Which reminds me--- shouldn't I be working on my Nano novel right now? (I'm doing some outlining work for the next two days to figure out where the story is headed...)
My page at the NaNoWriMo web site.
It's meant to be a lighthearted romp but the main theme seems to be.... hellfire. Specifically, the main character's mom is not saved (not in a state of grace) when she dies (killed while rescuing a child from a rampaging elephant.)
The main character Kerenza is quite sure her mother went to hell because: her mother had been guilty of the sin of adultery, when she is mortally injured she calls for a priest, but the priest who comes is actually an actor in a Roman collar, who cannot legitimately give absolution and also does not know how to encourage the dying woman to accept Christ.
The Christian theme of the story seems to be about forgiveness. Because Kerenza feels there is virtually no hope that her mother is anywhere else but in hell, she cannot forgive her father for having lured her mother into a life of adultery, and yet she knows that as a Christian she must forgive.
I know it's beginning to sound all boring, but there are also a lot of steam-powered machines and clockwork robots and stuff. And Kerenza is the only one who knows that an inventor's brother is Not To Be Trusted, and she really likes the inventor but they can't get involved because he's Jewish....
And then there are the conjoined twins, one of whom wants to be baptized and the other who doesn't want a drop of baptismal water touching him....
Which reminds me--- shouldn't I be working on my Nano novel right now? (I'm doing some outlining work for the next two days to figure out where the story is headed...)
My page at the NaNoWriMo web site.
Saturday, November 7, 2009
No More Head Shaving. Ever.
Sometimes my eyes see stuff that just isn't there. Like when I noticed an ad reading 'No more head shaving.' OK, what it really said was 'no more shaving' but what my eyes saw at first was way better. Imagine never having to shave your head ever again, for the whole rest of your life. I hope there's a product for that.....
If you're wondering why this post is tagged 'axe-wielding homicidal maniac'--- LOOK BEHIND YOU!!!
If you're wondering why this post is tagged 'axe-wielding homicidal maniac'--- LOOK BEHIND YOU!!!
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
Oh, No, it's Nanowrimo!!!
Ok, it's November. It's been November for a couple of days now. I've even flipped over the page of my calendar to November already. So why wasn't I aware until just now that National Novel Writing Month, AKA Nanowrimo, had started.
I'm going to do it, of course. I've never finished a nanowrimo, but during my first Nano, I did get saved.
It happened like this. I was a Norse Pagan and had been one for over a decade. I'd even edited a self-published Norse Pagan magazine until my stalker ruined that for me.
I was working at my Nano novel and had decided to pray about it. The question, as a Pagan, was which God to pray to--- Odin, Thor, Freya? As a Pagan I did not disbelieve in the God of Christianity, I just believed that He was just one tribal/ethnic God among many.
On impulse I decided to pray to the Christian God--- I gave Him a challenge. If He would give me measurable help with my novel, I would become a Christian.
I didn't really expect any help. And I didn't finish my Nanowrimo novel that year. But I did complete over 120 pages, which came out to 50 pages more than my previous best on any one writing project. And so I became a Christian.
I'm glad I did even though it meant I had to commit to a life of chastity because of my new faith, rather than being chaste in a unplanned way because of my unattractiveness.
So, participating in Nano is important to me even if I don't win. My nickname on the Nano site is 'ilsabein'. If you are participating in Nano, look me up!
Now, I must get to work naming the characters in my story (they are a family of freak show performers) and then I must start my first chapter. I have no idea where the story is going. But that's all right.
I'm going to do it, of course. I've never finished a nanowrimo, but during my first Nano, I did get saved.
It happened like this. I was a Norse Pagan and had been one for over a decade. I'd even edited a self-published Norse Pagan magazine until my stalker ruined that for me.
I was working at my Nano novel and had decided to pray about it. The question, as a Pagan, was which God to pray to--- Odin, Thor, Freya? As a Pagan I did not disbelieve in the God of Christianity, I just believed that He was just one tribal/ethnic God among many.
On impulse I decided to pray to the Christian God--- I gave Him a challenge. If He would give me measurable help with my novel, I would become a Christian.
I didn't really expect any help. And I didn't finish my Nanowrimo novel that year. But I did complete over 120 pages, which came out to 50 pages more than my previous best on any one writing project. And so I became a Christian.
I'm glad I did even though it meant I had to commit to a life of chastity because of my new faith, rather than being chaste in a unplanned way because of my unattractiveness.
So, participating in Nano is important to me even if I don't win. My nickname on the Nano site is 'ilsabein'. If you are participating in Nano, look me up!
Now, I must get to work naming the characters in my story (they are a family of freak show performers) and then I must start my first chapter. I have no idea where the story is going. But that's all right.
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
Writing Christian Science Fiction: An Impossible Dream?
Writing science fiction and getting published has long been a life goal for me--- but Christian science fiction for a Christian publisher hasn't been a part of my plans.
In part it has been because I've considered it unrealistic. Christian fiction publishers are mostly evangelicals; I'm Catholic. And being Catholic isn't something I'd want to absolutely hide in my fiction. Would my work ever be accepted by readers?
But recently I've reconsidered and am reading books about how to write Christian fiction. None of the books have any high hopes for a work of Christian science fiction. The one that is most optimistic seems to indicated that 'spiritual warfare' science fiction is the kind that gets published, not something with space aliens.
The books have a lot to say about who is reading Christian fiction: mostly women, mostly evangelicals.... But who is reading Christian science fiction? Have there been any studies, formal or informal, of that? Perhaps I ought to ask some Christian science fiction writers what sort of people they believe are reading their books.
The second question: what do the readers of Christian science fiction most want to read? What Christian science fiction books are the most popular? What secular science fiction books are most popular with Christian readers?
I wish I could find the answers to such questions. Not that I would concoct some plotline based on what's popular. But knowing who the readers aare and what they like to read might help me pick what story-ideas might be the best one to pursue.
In part it has been because I've considered it unrealistic. Christian fiction publishers are mostly evangelicals; I'm Catholic. And being Catholic isn't something I'd want to absolutely hide in my fiction. Would my work ever be accepted by readers?
But recently I've reconsidered and am reading books about how to write Christian fiction. None of the books have any high hopes for a work of Christian science fiction. The one that is most optimistic seems to indicated that 'spiritual warfare' science fiction is the kind that gets published, not something with space aliens.
The books have a lot to say about who is reading Christian fiction: mostly women, mostly evangelicals.... But who is reading Christian science fiction? Have there been any studies, formal or informal, of that? Perhaps I ought to ask some Christian science fiction writers what sort of people they believe are reading their books.
The second question: what do the readers of Christian science fiction most want to read? What Christian science fiction books are the most popular? What secular science fiction books are most popular with Christian readers?
I wish I could find the answers to such questions. Not that I would concoct some plotline based on what's popular. But knowing who the readers aare and what they like to read might help me pick what story-ideas might be the best one to pursue.
Saturday, August 22, 2009
A Darkover Retrospective: Marion Zimmer Bradley's writing beginnings
One important thing for a writer is to learn from the example of the careers of other writers. A very inspirational source for me has been Marion Zimmer Bradley's A Darkover Retrospective, which is included in a volume which collects 'The Planet Savers' and 'Sword of Aldones', the first two Darkover books ever published.
Sword of Aldones is the hardest to obtain of all the Darkover books. She essentially re-wrote the story told in Sword of Aldones in the much more mature work, Sharra's Exile.
Marion Zimmer Bradley explains in A Darkover Retrospective why the Sword of Aldones seems to be such an immature work--- she began working on its original form as a teen.
In the beginning, the world of Darkover was called Al-Merdin, and the Comyn--- the telepathic caste--- were called the Seveners, and consisted of seven families with telepathic gifts. The Hasturs, the Elhalyn, the Serrais, the Ardais and the Aldarans were, even at this early stage, much the same as in the Darkover books we know. The Altons were then known as the Leyniers, and the Aillards were then the Marceau of Valeron.
What i find most interesting is that here is a story, started by a fifteen year old girl, which became a series which the writer continued to her death (and beyond.) The story grew and changed as the author did--- which is why the series is more inconsistant than more closely planned series.
Although the Darkover books are commonly called a series, MZB herself did not like the term. For her, a series meant the sort of series--- perhaps a trilogy--- which was really just one very long book, which had to be read in order, and in which any given volume might end in a cliffhanger instead of a resolution.
MZB had her own code for writing Darkover stories. She wanted each volume to be a stand-alone story, with a resolution at the end. She didn't want to assume the reader of any new Darkover book had read the others and so was familiar with the world, its customs and its characters, and she wrote accordingly.
A Darkover Retrospective tells the story of the writing of many of MZB's early Darkover books, and also tells the story of her writing career--- from writing stories for small amounts of money, as well as writing 'potboiler' gothics and even editing an astrology magazine to provide extra family income, from her gradual realization that she was in fact regarded by editors and readers as a 'real' writer, and that this was something she could make a career of.
She also gives us an account of the various changes within the science fiction writing scene at the time and how she interacted with them--- the things she embraced, and the things, like the political/feminist science fiction novel, that she did not enjoy.
The label MZB uses for the genre of fiction that the Darkover books represent is 'science fantasy'. The books are science fiction in that they are set on another planet, with all the trappings of space travel. Yet they are fantasy-like in that there are sword-fights, and 'magic', though this is in the form of psionics--- telepathy, telekinesis and the like, all of which are deemed to have scientific explanations.
The 'Pern' series by Anne McCaffrey is similarly 'science fantasy'--- it's set on another planet, and though there are dragons, they were created by genetic engineering. But otherwise the label 'science fantasy' seems to be little used these days, and I presume that means that when pitching a novel that the writer might consider science fantasy, one is better off not using the words, but just pointing out the similarity to Darkover.
I found 'A Darkover Retrospective' sufficiently useful that I would have wanted to buy the volume containing it even if I had both of the Darkover novels in the book in other editions (I had 'The Planet Savers' but not 'Sword of Aldones'). For me, it's worth re-reading from time to time just as inspiration.
The Planet Savers/The Sword of Aldones
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Sword of Aldones is the hardest to obtain of all the Darkover books. She essentially re-wrote the story told in Sword of Aldones in the much more mature work, Sharra's Exile.
Marion Zimmer Bradley explains in A Darkover Retrospective why the Sword of Aldones seems to be such an immature work--- she began working on its original form as a teen.
In the beginning, the world of Darkover was called Al-Merdin, and the Comyn--- the telepathic caste--- were called the Seveners, and consisted of seven families with telepathic gifts. The Hasturs, the Elhalyn, the Serrais, the Ardais and the Aldarans were, even at this early stage, much the same as in the Darkover books we know. The Altons were then known as the Leyniers, and the Aillards were then the Marceau of Valeron.
What i find most interesting is that here is a story, started by a fifteen year old girl, which became a series which the writer continued to her death (and beyond.) The story grew and changed as the author did--- which is why the series is more inconsistant than more closely planned series.
Although the Darkover books are commonly called a series, MZB herself did not like the term. For her, a series meant the sort of series--- perhaps a trilogy--- which was really just one very long book, which had to be read in order, and in which any given volume might end in a cliffhanger instead of a resolution.
MZB had her own code for writing Darkover stories. She wanted each volume to be a stand-alone story, with a resolution at the end. She didn't want to assume the reader of any new Darkover book had read the others and so was familiar with the world, its customs and its characters, and she wrote accordingly.
A Darkover Retrospective tells the story of the writing of many of MZB's early Darkover books, and also tells the story of her writing career--- from writing stories for small amounts of money, as well as writing 'potboiler' gothics and even editing an astrology magazine to provide extra family income, from her gradual realization that she was in fact regarded by editors and readers as a 'real' writer, and that this was something she could make a career of.
She also gives us an account of the various changes within the science fiction writing scene at the time and how she interacted with them--- the things she embraced, and the things, like the political/feminist science fiction novel, that she did not enjoy.
The label MZB uses for the genre of fiction that the Darkover books represent is 'science fantasy'. The books are science fiction in that they are set on another planet, with all the trappings of space travel. Yet they are fantasy-like in that there are sword-fights, and 'magic', though this is in the form of psionics--- telepathy, telekinesis and the like, all of which are deemed to have scientific explanations.
The 'Pern' series by Anne McCaffrey is similarly 'science fantasy'--- it's set on another planet, and though there are dragons, they were created by genetic engineering. But otherwise the label 'science fantasy' seems to be little used these days, and I presume that means that when pitching a novel that the writer might consider science fantasy, one is better off not using the words, but just pointing out the similarity to Darkover.
I found 'A Darkover Retrospective' sufficiently useful that I would have wanted to buy the volume containing it even if I had both of the Darkover novels in the book in other editions (I had 'The Planet Savers' but not 'Sword of Aldones'). For me, it's worth re-reading from time to time just as inspiration.
The Planet Savers/The Sword of Aldones
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Thursday, August 20, 2009
Write a book along with Holly Lisle
Author Holly Lisle, whose web site is a treasure trove for the writer or would-be writer, has a new feature 'Write a book with me'.
She shares a little about the progress of her current book, and those participating share their word-counts and issues with one another in the form of comments to her blog entries. To view the latest post, here is the 'Write a book with me category'.
I'm considering whether to play along, myself. So far sharing about my works in progress has been more embarrassing than encouraging--- not because of what people say or don't say, but because I just look back at what I wrote about with intense shame. (My internal editor is Adolf Hitler.) But I have just started a fantasy story, one about an orphan whose new legal guardian is an evil mage, and who finds an interesting solution to that dilemma which leads to only more trouble.
I'd really like to hear from anyone who is or might be participating in Holly Lisle's 'Write a book with me' project. Drop me a comment!
She shares a little about the progress of her current book, and those participating share their word-counts and issues with one another in the form of comments to her blog entries. To view the latest post, here is the 'Write a book with me category'.
I'm considering whether to play along, myself. So far sharing about my works in progress has been more embarrassing than encouraging--- not because of what people say or don't say, but because I just look back at what I wrote about with intense shame. (My internal editor is Adolf Hitler.) But I have just started a fantasy story, one about an orphan whose new legal guardian is an evil mage, and who finds an interesting solution to that dilemma which leads to only more trouble.
I'd really like to hear from anyone who is or might be participating in Holly Lisle's 'Write a book with me' project. Drop me a comment!
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
How Robin Parrish got his First Novel Published
Photo credit: Ashley Morgan.Getting a novel published these days can be hard, even if your novel is good. The advent of home computers with word processing software has increased the number of people able to throw a manuscript together by great amounts. Most of these novels are bad, and most publishers and agents have received so many that they adopt draconian policies to avoid unsolicited manuscripts and unproven writers.
Robin Parrish, author of our current blog tour book Offworld, found away around the barriers. He had a website called Infuze. One of his ideas for Infuze was to have a serialized story, with new sections brought out every two weeks. His website became popular enough that several publishers became aware of the story and were willing to publish.
Can other writers use Robin Parrish's method? Possibly--- but the story in question not only needs to be well-written, it needs to be a real page-turner that will get the reader totally addicted and coming back for more. It must be posted on a website or blog with a lot of traffic. And the writer must have a lot of luck!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
OFFICIAL BLOG TOUR STUFF:
THE BOOK: Offworld by Robin Parrish: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0764206060
THE AUTHOR: Robin Parrish on Twitter (Yes, he tweets): http://twitter.com/robinparrish
THE BLOG TOUR GANG:
Brandon Barr
Jim Black
Justin Boyer
Keanan Brand
Gina Burgess
Canadianladybug
Melissa Carswell
Valerie Comer
Karri Compton
Amy Cruson
CSFF Blog Tour
Stacey Dale
D. G. D. Davidson
Jeff Draper
April Erwin
Karina Fabian
Linda Gilmore
Beth Goddard
Todd Michael Greene
Katie Hart
Ryan Heart
Becky Jesse
Cris Jesse
Jason Joyner
Julie
Carol Keen
Krystine Kercher
Dawn King
Melissa Meeks
Rebecca LuElla Miller
Mirtika
Eve Nielsen (posting later in the week)
nissa_amas_katoj
John W. Otte
Lyn Perry
Steve Rice
Chawna Schroeder
James Somers
Speculative Faith
Stephanie
Rachel Starr Thomson
Steve Trower
Fred Warren
Dona Watson
Elizabeth Williams
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
A Writer's Show-and-Tell
Okay, so here I am sitting down to write a story. My main character is tall, red-haired and has a long tail. So--- I write: "Melinda was tall, red-haired and had a long tail."
But--- wait a minute! A writer is supposed to show, not tell, and that was telling. So--- I pen a scene illustrating the fact that Melinda was tall, another one that established that she was red-haired, and a third scene where we very definitely are informed about the tail thing.
I re-read. Eww, ick! My story is now cluttered with three irrelevant scenes! And while 'show, don't tell' is supposedly an important rule, the much more important one is this--- EVERYTHING in a story, even the stuff that seems thrown in to give it color and flavor, is there to do one thing--- to move the story forward.
Sometimes that means--- especially in a science fiction or fantasy work where there is quite a bit of infomation the reader needs to have to understand the story--- that you have to tell things.
A section of story where you tell some things is called an info-dump. Like the contents of a nuclear waste dump, an info-dump can grow too big to be safe, so unless you want your readers to glow in the dark, keep the amount conveyed in any one dump small.
Some writers convey information in dialog. So, instead of saying 'the alien Lizards only had one language back on their planet, Home, you have a bit of dialog where the alien Lizard Ttomalss says 'Why do you Big Uglies (humans) have so many languages? On Home, we have had only one language for tens of thousands of our years.'
The dialog method can go very badly wrong. When you find yourself conveying loads of information in dialog, and, worse, when your characters are telling one another things they obviously already know, you are writing dreadful dialog and must be stopped. No one wants to read, 'As you know, Kodos, our home planet is so civilized that we have not had a war in fifty trillion years,' said Kang. 'And as you surely know,' said Kang, 'our official planetary sport was changed from public executions to bikini designing a million years ago. Aren't we just so civilized!'
READING ASSIGNMENT: Reading the novel of your choice, take note on how the author is giving you information. How do you learn what the main character looks like, for example? (I hope there were no mirrors involved.) What came in the form of 'telling' and what was 'showing'? Do you feel the author made the right decisions on when to tell and when to show?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
How to Write Science Fiction & Fantasy by Orson Scott Card
On the Prowl by Patricia Briggs
Write Great Fiction - Dialogue
But--- wait a minute! A writer is supposed to show, not tell, and that was telling. So--- I pen a scene illustrating the fact that Melinda was tall, another one that established that she was red-haired, and a third scene where we very definitely are informed about the tail thing.
I re-read. Eww, ick! My story is now cluttered with three irrelevant scenes! And while 'show, don't tell' is supposedly an important rule, the much more important one is this--- EVERYTHING in a story, even the stuff that seems thrown in to give it color and flavor, is there to do one thing--- to move the story forward.
Sometimes that means--- especially in a science fiction or fantasy work where there is quite a bit of infomation the reader needs to have to understand the story--- that you have to tell things.
A section of story where you tell some things is called an info-dump. Like the contents of a nuclear waste dump, an info-dump can grow too big to be safe, so unless you want your readers to glow in the dark, keep the amount conveyed in any one dump small.
Some writers convey information in dialog. So, instead of saying 'the alien Lizards only had one language back on their planet, Home, you have a bit of dialog where the alien Lizard Ttomalss says 'Why do you Big Uglies (humans) have so many languages? On Home, we have had only one language for tens of thousands of our years.'
The dialog method can go very badly wrong. When you find yourself conveying loads of information in dialog, and, worse, when your characters are telling one another things they obviously already know, you are writing dreadful dialog and must be stopped. No one wants to read, 'As you know, Kodos, our home planet is so civilized that we have not had a war in fifty trillion years,' said Kang. 'And as you surely know,' said Kang, 'our official planetary sport was changed from public executions to bikini designing a million years ago. Aren't we just so civilized!'
READING ASSIGNMENT: Reading the novel of your choice, take note on how the author is giving you information. How do you learn what the main character looks like, for example? (I hope there were no mirrors involved.) What came in the form of 'telling' and what was 'showing'? Do you feel the author made the right decisions on when to tell and when to show?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
How to Write Science Fiction & Fantasy by Orson Scott Card
On the Prowl by Patricia Briggs
Write Great Fiction - Dialogue
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
Autism and the Rules of Mockery
Most people with an autism spectrum disorder have a history of being mocked by the other kids in school. It doesn't seem to matter whether one has one of the more severe forms, or a high-functioning form such as Asperger's Syndrome with which some can 'pass' as neurotypical ('normal'). Other kids just seem to know there's something odd about us, and some of them, lacking good home training, think it's okay to make fun of us, torment us, and otherwise make school into a foretaste of hell.
I was picked on in school, and I hated it. I was not usually made particularly aware of other kids who were outcasts like me and the subject of mockery, but when I was aware of other kids being mocked, it hurt just as much as if I were the target. I don't claim this as a virtue, it's just an oddity of the way my mind works.
There is one sad exception. Very late in my career as a student, I became aware of another student, a girl, who was gossiped about as being 'dumb'. Now, I was at a Christian school and we were not little children any more, so she was not mocked to her face, just behind her back. I suppose I was flattered at being included in this and so I am ashamed to say I took part in the negative gossip.
But over time as I participated in the dumb jokes I became uncomfortable. I began to realize that some of the kids were amused in an odd way at my remarks. In one case a friend (to the extent I had a friend) wondered at the vendetta I had against this girl even though I wasn't saying any more than the others were.
Now, looking back, I begin to understand that when I was not present, I was also a subject of mocking gossip. Perhaps to a much greater extent than this other girl. The amusement I finally noticed was because one outcast was mocking the other.
The rule of social behavior --- and Christian behavior--- that I learned is to never participate in negative or mocking gossip, and to stand up against it if others do this in your presence. You just never know what others are saying about YOU behind your back; take the high road! I imagine that if I had done so in the incident above, I might have been more respected by the other kids for sticking to high-minded Christian principles, rather than amusing them by daring to mock another person when I was so mockable myself.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I was picked on in school, and I hated it. I was not usually made particularly aware of other kids who were outcasts like me and the subject of mockery, but when I was aware of other kids being mocked, it hurt just as much as if I were the target. I don't claim this as a virtue, it's just an oddity of the way my mind works.
There is one sad exception. Very late in my career as a student, I became aware of another student, a girl, who was gossiped about as being 'dumb'. Now, I was at a Christian school and we were not little children any more, so she was not mocked to her face, just behind her back. I suppose I was flattered at being included in this and so I am ashamed to say I took part in the negative gossip.
But over time as I participated in the dumb jokes I became uncomfortable. I began to realize that some of the kids were amused in an odd way at my remarks. In one case a friend (to the extent I had a friend) wondered at the vendetta I had against this girl even though I wasn't saying any more than the others were.
Now, looking back, I begin to understand that when I was not present, I was also a subject of mocking gossip. Perhaps to a much greater extent than this other girl. The amusement I finally noticed was because one outcast was mocking the other.
The rule of social behavior --- and Christian behavior--- that I learned is to never participate in negative or mocking gossip, and to stand up against it if others do this in your presence. You just never know what others are saying about YOU behind your back; take the high road! I imagine that if I had done so in the incident above, I might have been more respected by the other kids for sticking to high-minded Christian principles, rather than amusing them by daring to mock another person when I was so mockable myself.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Friday, June 5, 2009
An Exercise against Writer's Block
If you ever feel like you just can't write, don't know what to write, or don't feel like you write well enough to actually put any words on paper right about now, here is a simple exercise that may help. I think I got it from one of the books about writing by Lawrence Block.
Just take any novel off your shelves, open it somewhere, and begin typing the copy into your computer until you have the urge to alter, change and improve the text at hand.
I have done this at some length and it does seem to help, especially the part where I am moved to add my own take on the work I'm copying. I've changed characters from the ones in the text to ones from my own writing, and changed the setting.
A variation is to copy out first paragraphs from several different novels, and perhaps copying them and then creating altered versions of them. This is a great exercise if you have a hard time coming up with story-beginnings. Or do the same thing with dialog segments, descriptions, narrative-in-general, first person or third person, and so on.
One point--- most of the time you will want to be giving yourself examples that are good, but useable. So avoid Shakespeare or Chaucer for your model, avoid equally first novels and novels of less-than-average quality. You don't want to teach yourself writing mistakes, if you are like me you can do THAT quite well on your own.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Just take any novel off your shelves, open it somewhere, and begin typing the copy into your computer until you have the urge to alter, change and improve the text at hand.
I have done this at some length and it does seem to help, especially the part where I am moved to add my own take on the work I'm copying. I've changed characters from the ones in the text to ones from my own writing, and changed the setting.
A variation is to copy out first paragraphs from several different novels, and perhaps copying them and then creating altered versions of them. This is a great exercise if you have a hard time coming up with story-beginnings. Or do the same thing with dialog segments, descriptions, narrative-in-general, first person or third person, and so on.
One point--- most of the time you will want to be giving yourself examples that are good, but useable. So avoid Shakespeare or Chaucer for your model, avoid equally first novels and novels of less-than-average quality. You don't want to teach yourself writing mistakes, if you are like me you can do THAT quite well on your own.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Tuesday, June 2, 2009
Money and the Writer with Autism or A.S.
There is a stereotype out there that REAL writers are Artistes, who couldn't possibly care less about something as mundane as money, and that any writer who does think about money is a no-talent hack.
But in the real world of people who have to live on ramen noodles and dollar-store microwave popcorn at the end of the month, there are good writers who have relied on their writing to put food on the table.
This is particularly true in the case of the writer who has one of the Autism Spectrum Disorders such as Asperger's Syndrome (A.S.). I read once that about 80% of people with Asperger's Syndrome are unemployed--- this even though people with Asperger's Syndrome tend to be quite intelligent, and very many are led by their 'special interests' to obsessively learn about some subject, such as computers, and thus have skills an employer might want.
When reading a book about writing where the author speaks about how to know when it's time to quit your day job, the topic seems quite different when the reader rarely has had a day job, and has had to leave--- or been fired from--- even quite menial jobs because the employer just could not understand the need to accommodate an Autism Spectrum worker who after all isn't blind, mentally retarded, or missing any limbs.
A previous post on this blog has covered Holly Lisle's excellent book "Mugging the Muse" which is available for free in PDF format. Holly's book has an excellent approach to the issue of writers and money, and many useful tips for writers at all levels.
When you sit down at your writing station for the day's work, the factor of whether or not you have a hope of getting monetary rewards for your work will be a factor--- in how much time you can afford to put in on a writing project, for example. And how probable it is you will get published and earn money on your novel depends in part on what kind of novel you are writing, and what publishers you are aiming for.
There is a fine balanced to observe here. Romance novels, for example, are a very popular genre, a large number of romance books come out each month, and many romance publishers are open to first time unagented novelists. If you are an eager romance novel reader, this may end up being what you want to write. But Holly Lisle tells the cautionary tale of her romance-writing effort, which ended in a very bad and unsalable novel because her interest was not in the romance genre, but fantasy.
On the other hand, writer Tanya Huff, in the intro to 'The Blood Books, Volume One', which contains her two novels 'Blood Trail' and 'Blood Price', tells that she chose her subject--- vampires--- because she had noticed, working in a bookstore, that fans of vampire books were very loyal to their chosen sub-genre, and she thought that the book would be salable.
In the case of the writer with an Autism Spectrum Disorder, I would suggest this: find a genre and subgenre that not only interests you, but that tends to sell well and for which there are publishers that are open to new writers. Then, when choosing the precise topics for your proposed novel, try to include ideas that connect to one or more of your Special Interests.
A Special Interest is a feature of the Autism Spectrum Disorders. A Special Interest is a topic, often a narrow (precise) one, that is a mild obsession for the autistic person. Special Interests can be computers, railway timetables, Star Trek, and any number of other things. These interests may change over time. My own current special interests include Doctor Who and Torchwood television series, languages, especially Polish, Korean and Esperanto, and the Catholic faith.
You may get the idea I am promoting some sweetness and light idea of 'write what you love and the money will come'. Not so. There are a lot of things we can write about that would not bring about money at all. For example, back when I was a neopagan I had the idea of writing a novel based on the evangelical Rapture doctrine (like the Left Behind series) only from a neopagan point of view. Obviously there are very few people out there who want to read a story based on the Rapture doctrine, but who are OK with it being from a neopagan point of view!
You have to use your common sense to find topics that other people might want to read. You also have to get good at your craft, on every topic from worldbuilding to dialog to spelling and grammar.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
But in the real world of people who have to live on ramen noodles and dollar-store microwave popcorn at the end of the month, there are good writers who have relied on their writing to put food on the table.
This is particularly true in the case of the writer who has one of the Autism Spectrum Disorders such as Asperger's Syndrome (A.S.). I read once that about 80% of people with Asperger's Syndrome are unemployed--- this even though people with Asperger's Syndrome tend to be quite intelligent, and very many are led by their 'special interests' to obsessively learn about some subject, such as computers, and thus have skills an employer might want.
When reading a book about writing where the author speaks about how to know when it's time to quit your day job, the topic seems quite different when the reader rarely has had a day job, and has had to leave--- or been fired from--- even quite menial jobs because the employer just could not understand the need to accommodate an Autism Spectrum worker who after all isn't blind, mentally retarded, or missing any limbs.
A previous post on this blog has covered Holly Lisle's excellent book "Mugging the Muse" which is available for free in PDF format. Holly's book has an excellent approach to the issue of writers and money, and many useful tips for writers at all levels.
When you sit down at your writing station for the day's work, the factor of whether or not you have a hope of getting monetary rewards for your work will be a factor--- in how much time you can afford to put in on a writing project, for example. And how probable it is you will get published and earn money on your novel depends in part on what kind of novel you are writing, and what publishers you are aiming for.
There is a fine balanced to observe here. Romance novels, for example, are a very popular genre, a large number of romance books come out each month, and many romance publishers are open to first time unagented novelists. If you are an eager romance novel reader, this may end up being what you want to write. But Holly Lisle tells the cautionary tale of her romance-writing effort, which ended in a very bad and unsalable novel because her interest was not in the romance genre, but fantasy.
On the other hand, writer Tanya Huff, in the intro to 'The Blood Books, Volume One', which contains her two novels 'Blood Trail' and 'Blood Price', tells that she chose her subject--- vampires--- because she had noticed, working in a bookstore, that fans of vampire books were very loyal to their chosen sub-genre, and she thought that the book would be salable.
In the case of the writer with an Autism Spectrum Disorder, I would suggest this: find a genre and subgenre that not only interests you, but that tends to sell well and for which there are publishers that are open to new writers. Then, when choosing the precise topics for your proposed novel, try to include ideas that connect to one or more of your Special Interests.
A Special Interest is a feature of the Autism Spectrum Disorders. A Special Interest is a topic, often a narrow (precise) one, that is a mild obsession for the autistic person. Special Interests can be computers, railway timetables, Star Trek, and any number of other things. These interests may change over time. My own current special interests include Doctor Who and Torchwood television series, languages, especially Polish, Korean and Esperanto, and the Catholic faith.
You may get the idea I am promoting some sweetness and light idea of 'write what you love and the money will come'. Not so. There are a lot of things we can write about that would not bring about money at all. For example, back when I was a neopagan I had the idea of writing a novel based on the evangelical Rapture doctrine (like the Left Behind series) only from a neopagan point of view. Obviously there are very few people out there who want to read a story based on the Rapture doctrine, but who are OK with it being from a neopagan point of view!
You have to use your common sense to find topics that other people might want to read. You also have to get good at your craft, on every topic from worldbuilding to dialog to spelling and grammar.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Sunday, May 31, 2009
A Chain of Mentoring; and Mugging the Muse
As a writer I have a mentor, Holly Lisle. She would undoubtedly be surprised beyond words to know that I consider her my mentor, as I am mentored through her excellent web site and blog--- you may find it at Holly Lisle.com.
I recently (yesterday, I think) downloaded her free ebook Mugging the Muse: Writing Fiction for Love And Money. Among the many things I learned when reading the ebook 'cover to cover' yesterday was that she herself had a mentor, Mercedes Lackey, and Mercedes Lackey had a mentor, C. J. Cherryh. So, to the extent that I can be mentored through an ebook and a web site, I am part of a chain of mentoring, and a pretty cool one--- at least to me.
Mercedes Lackey, one of those on the chain, is one of my favorite fantasy authors, and possessor of one of the most interesting writer-names ever. (What is a Mercedes lackey? Why, the servant who takes care of your Mercedes, of course). Mercedes Lackey published her first story (or one of the first) in a Darkover anthology. Darkover is a fantasy world created by the late Marion Zimmer Bradley, and MZB was very generous in helping new writers get started by editing a large number of Darkover anthologies.
I really like the idea of writer mentoring chains, and in a way that's a part of what this blog is about--- a sort of an exchange of mentoring, as I am mentored by the many writers (published and not-yet-published) on the CSFF blog tour list and elsewhere, and I try to pass the mentoring on by sharing what I have learned.
Mugging the Muse gives some very practical advice on how to become a professional writer, and how to avoid some of the mistakes she made that have had a bad impact on her career.
As a result, I've decided it's important to actually plan my writing career, and I have determined a bunch of activities which will help me to do this (not all of which I feel like sharing.)
One of the things that she mentions as being good for the career is series novels (as in MZB's Darkover series) and she gives some good advice for creating a series character you can live with.
I have decided that perhaps what I ought to do is work on an old fantasy world of mine (or a fantasy/sci-fi world, similar to Darkover in that respect) and add to it elements of other worlds I have created--- most specifically the Five Elements, a fantasy world organized around the Asian Five Elements of myth and legend. I want to put together a good solid fantasy/sci-fi world which I can use for a variety of story ideas I have had.
I also want to work on a couple of short stories. I haven't done that in a while, and I believe I have only finished about 3 short stories (5 if you count the 2True Confessions stories I wrote, of which one was published much to my embarrassment--- but I did get about $90 bucks for it.) But that is certainly more than the number of novels I've finished.
The advantage is that I can use the short stories to build my writing career and to prepare the way for my novel (assuming I finish one.)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I recently (yesterday, I think) downloaded her free ebook Mugging the Muse: Writing Fiction for Love And Money. Among the many things I learned when reading the ebook 'cover to cover' yesterday was that she herself had a mentor, Mercedes Lackey, and Mercedes Lackey had a mentor, C. J. Cherryh. So, to the extent that I can be mentored through an ebook and a web site, I am part of a chain of mentoring, and a pretty cool one--- at least to me.
Mercedes Lackey, one of those on the chain, is one of my favorite fantasy authors, and possessor of one of the most interesting writer-names ever. (What is a Mercedes lackey? Why, the servant who takes care of your Mercedes, of course). Mercedes Lackey published her first story (or one of the first) in a Darkover anthology. Darkover is a fantasy world created by the late Marion Zimmer Bradley, and MZB was very generous in helping new writers get started by editing a large number of Darkover anthologies.
I really like the idea of writer mentoring chains, and in a way that's a part of what this blog is about--- a sort of an exchange of mentoring, as I am mentored by the many writers (published and not-yet-published) on the CSFF blog tour list and elsewhere, and I try to pass the mentoring on by sharing what I have learned.
Mugging the Muse gives some very practical advice on how to become a professional writer, and how to avoid some of the mistakes she made that have had a bad impact on her career.
As a result, I've decided it's important to actually plan my writing career, and I have determined a bunch of activities which will help me to do this (not all of which I feel like sharing.)
One of the things that she mentions as being good for the career is series novels (as in MZB's Darkover series) and she gives some good advice for creating a series character you can live with.
I have decided that perhaps what I ought to do is work on an old fantasy world of mine (or a fantasy/sci-fi world, similar to Darkover in that respect) and add to it elements of other worlds I have created--- most specifically the Five Elements, a fantasy world organized around the Asian Five Elements of myth and legend. I want to put together a good solid fantasy/sci-fi world which I can use for a variety of story ideas I have had.
I also want to work on a couple of short stories. I haven't done that in a while, and I believe I have only finished about 3 short stories (5 if you count the 2True Confessions stories I wrote, of which one was published much to my embarrassment--- but I did get about $90 bucks for it.) But that is certainly more than the number of novels I've finished.
The advantage is that I can use the short stories to build my writing career and to prepare the way for my novel (assuming I finish one.)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Friday, May 29, 2009
Autism Speaks vs. Autistic People
The 'charity' Autism Speaks is being promoted heavily on Ask.com among other places. Since their group raises money for scientific research with the aim of creating a prenatal test that will eliminate autistic people before they are born, for some reason a lot of autistic people don't like them. Go figure.
Autism is a spectrum of neurological disorder/difference which includes 'high functioning' individuals and 'low functioning' individuals with different problems and different skills. Having a form of autism is NOT a fate worse than death and in fact many famous and successful people are believed to have Asperger's Syndrome (high functioning autism).
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Autism is a spectrum of neurological disorder/difference which includes 'high functioning' individuals and 'low functioning' individuals with different problems and different skills. Having a form of autism is NOT a fate worse than death and in fact many famous and successful people are believed to have Asperger's Syndrome (high functioning autism).
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Writing a "Character Sketch" of an Object or Institution"
Sometimes a key character in a work of fiction isn't a person at all, and when this happens the writer will find himself doing what I am doing now--- working up a character sketch on something that isn't a person, or even particularly person-like.
Think of J. K. Rowling, planning her Harry Potter series, writing up a character sketch of Hogwarts, the school of witchcraft and wizardry. Or Gene Roddenberry, creator of Star Trek, doing a character sketch of the Enterprise. Or Herman Melville writing a bio of the great white whale.
(At this point newcomers to this blog are leaning toward one another and whispering, 'This nissa_amas_katoj that writes this blog, she must have something wrong with her brain!' I do; it's called autism/Asperger's Syndrome.)
How do you know if an object or institution in your planned novel is worth writing a character sketch for? If it something that looms large--- or at least medium-sized--- in your story; if it changes or grows over the course of the story, or thwarts or aids your human characters on a regular basis; if it has an importance similar to that of one of your second or third tier characters--- there is a case for writing up a character sketch on it. (I wouldn't recommend making an object or institution your main character if you are hoping for publication.)
In one of my current projects-in-the-planning stage, there are two rival organizations that will play a role--- the Freemasons and the Jesuits. I've chosen the organizations in question as both have been accused of being sinister secret organizations involved in unholy conspiracies. One at least of my characters is convinced that both orgs. are equally evil, but must ally with one or the other....
In a big organization like these, I won't be writing a sketch on the whole of Freemasonry or the whole of the Society of Jesus (Jesuits). Instead the sketches will be of the Masons and Jesuits on-the-spot and in the era in which my story takes place.
The Freemasons in this story will have an inner circle which is very sinister and that will be the center of the sketch.
An organization or institution is made up of people; it also may have a physical presence in the form of a building or buildings, it will also have a philosophy/ideology.
One important thing is to differentiate between the organization/institution's ideology, and the ideology of the main representative of the institution in your story. In Harry Potter, the Dark wizards are more-or-less slaves of Lord Voldemort and must do as he says and think as he thinks. But just because Lord Vordemort likes snakes doesn't mean all Dark wizards keep snakes as pets. The snake-loving thing is a personal quirk of Voldemort and not part of the Dark wizard ideology, as Muggle-hating is.
I suppose one drawback of writing a 'character sketch' of an object/institution is that you might make it more human than you ought. It may seem like that apparently haunted house hates your main character but you (probably) don't want to make the house so human that your reader wonders if it might not BE a human enemy transformed to a haunted house by some spell (unless, of course, that's how the story is going to come out....)
And then to wrap the whole thing up you might decide to look at your characters as a bunch of cogs in the machinery of your story and write up a 'wiring diagram' that shows how they all fit in to the machine....
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Think of J. K. Rowling, planning her Harry Potter series, writing up a character sketch of Hogwarts, the school of witchcraft and wizardry. Or Gene Roddenberry, creator of Star Trek, doing a character sketch of the Enterprise. Or Herman Melville writing a bio of the great white whale.
(At this point newcomers to this blog are leaning toward one another and whispering, 'This nissa_amas_katoj that writes this blog, she must have something wrong with her brain!' I do; it's called autism/Asperger's Syndrome.)
How do you know if an object or institution in your planned novel is worth writing a character sketch for? If it something that looms large--- or at least medium-sized--- in your story; if it changes or grows over the course of the story, or thwarts or aids your human characters on a regular basis; if it has an importance similar to that of one of your second or third tier characters--- there is a case for writing up a character sketch on it. (I wouldn't recommend making an object or institution your main character if you are hoping for publication.)
In one of my current projects-in-the-planning stage, there are two rival organizations that will play a role--- the Freemasons and the Jesuits. I've chosen the organizations in question as both have been accused of being sinister secret organizations involved in unholy conspiracies. One at least of my characters is convinced that both orgs. are equally evil, but must ally with one or the other....
In a big organization like these, I won't be writing a sketch on the whole of Freemasonry or the whole of the Society of Jesus (Jesuits). Instead the sketches will be of the Masons and Jesuits on-the-spot and in the era in which my story takes place.
The Freemasons in this story will have an inner circle which is very sinister and that will be the center of the sketch.
An organization or institution is made up of people; it also may have a physical presence in the form of a building or buildings, it will also have a philosophy/ideology.
One important thing is to differentiate between the organization/institution's ideology, and the ideology of the main representative of the institution in your story. In Harry Potter, the Dark wizards are more-or-less slaves of Lord Voldemort and must do as he says and think as he thinks. But just because Lord Vordemort likes snakes doesn't mean all Dark wizards keep snakes as pets. The snake-loving thing is a personal quirk of Voldemort and not part of the Dark wizard ideology, as Muggle-hating is.
I suppose one drawback of writing a 'character sketch' of an object/institution is that you might make it more human than you ought. It may seem like that apparently haunted house hates your main character but you (probably) don't want to make the house so human that your reader wonders if it might not BE a human enemy transformed to a haunted house by some spell (unless, of course, that's how the story is going to come out....)
And then to wrap the whole thing up you might decide to look at your characters as a bunch of cogs in the machinery of your story and write up a 'wiring diagram' that shows how they all fit in to the machine....
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Sunday, May 24, 2009
Why Villains Exist in Fiction
Villains exist in real life because, let's face it, SOMEONE has to be president.... But in fiction, why is your villain there? What is his function?
What makes your story interesting instead of a conflict or drama-free zone is that your hero (protagonist, main character) is in danger. The villain of your piece serves as a human (alien, robotic, other) personification of that danger.
In the Harry Potter series the relation is pretty direct. Hero Harry Potter is in constant peril because villain Lord Voldemort wants to kill him. A great part of the danger Harry was in came from just that situation--- he was in danger from Voldemort. In other cases he was in danger from followers of Lord Voldemort. In other cases the 'danger' came as a result of his status as a celebrity in the wizarding world--- the Boy Who Lived. But this celebrity status was a result of Voldemort having tried to kill him. Even the bad reputation that Harry got briefly when it became known he speaks Parseltongue (snake language) is a result of Voldemort's attack on Harry when he was a baby.
In most fiction the danger the hero faces is less obvious. In a romance, the 'danger' is that the heroine won't find her True Love, or that she won't win his or her attention or that he or she will marry someone else. In some stories the conflict is Man against Nature--- let's say a story about exploring a distant planet with a harsh environment.
Even in these cases, a villain can personify the danger. In a romance, the villain can be a woman who is also in love with the heroine's True Love and who is willing to go to great lengths to win him. It can also be the True Love's father who forbids the match--- or who needs his son to make a marriage to a rich heiress rather than the penniless governess heroine.
In a space-exploration story, the 'villain' can be some authority figure who wants to cut short the exploration against the hero's advice--- or one who insists on the exploration in spite of the dangers the hero informs him about. The 'villain' can also be a careless or inexperienced team member who is constantly doing things that endanger the hero.
Whether the villain is a fully evil dude out to get the hero, or just a guy doing his job, the villain must also have his good qualities if he is to be more than a cartoon villain. For example, Lord Voldemort had his background as a motherless illegitimate child--- which doesn't really go anywhere near explaining his extreme evil and self-destructive tendency to kill people, especially Muggles, just for fun.
A more realistic villain is the soap opera character Adam Chandler from All My Children. Over the many years of his tenure, Adam has amassed a long list of crimes and other evil actions. But he is also shown as a man who very much loves his twin brother Stuart, who cares for his children (though he drives them all to drink). This human touch accounts for the character's longevity. Soap opera characters who are pure over-the-top evil last only a year or two before someone murders them (and usually everyone in town's a suspect and the killer is often a sympathetic character who gets away with the crime.)
But I believe in old-fashioned storytelling in which the villain is villainous and the hero is relatively good--- or at least less evil than the villain. A lot of modern writers, perhaps to express their idea that there is no right or wrong anymore other than political incorrectness, have heroes who are thieves, con men, or even hit men. Villains, from this type of writer, might well be Christians as in the eyes of such people calling someone a Christian is the same as calling him a KKK member. You can see this from the character Stilson, in Stephen King's 'The Dead Zone', who starts out as a Bible salesman who kicks a dog to death.
But the problem of this approach I think is that you can lose your reader, as Stephen King lost me for all time with a minor villain character he created for his novel 'Cell', which is about how cell phones destroy humanity.
The hero and his companions, a Gay man and a teen girl, are making their way out of the destroyed city when they come across an old woman who wonders what these two men are doing with an unrelated young girl. But this evil woman turns out to be a *gasp* Christian--- a prolife Christian, in fact. The 'hero' slaps the woman and moves on as the Gay man explains his hatred for Christians based on the fact he had Christian family members.
The problem is that the United States (primary audience for Stephen King) is something like 80% Christian, so that large numbers of his readers can be expected to have known many Christians in person even if they are not personally Christian. So when THEY see an old woman going up to two strong young men in order to see if a young girl needs rescuing, they won't recast her as a villain just because she's a prolife Christian who is not politically correct about Gay people. They see her as a very brave woman who is risking her own life for the sake of a girl who might need her help.
Stephen King ruined the book 'Cell' for me, as well as ruining his first important Gay character, with this one slap, based on his misunderstanding of how the average person will react to this villain/hero divide. He could have saved the situation in a number of ways--- lightened the Christian identity of the villain, or allowed one of the main characters to be a stronger Christian. He could have made the villain physically stronger so that standing up to the hero wouldn't have been an act of courage, or perhaps made the hero and his Gay friend weaker or disabled. Or he could have given this villain a selfish motive for intervening on behalf of the girl--- for example, if this villain had been a straight man or a Gay woman with possible attraction for the girl.
The old fashioned hero who has an aversion to doing wrong, coupled with a villain who at least in some circumstances is willing to do wrong, is my idea of a writer's best friend. It's far easier to take your audience along for the ride with you and have them cheering and crying in the right places if you do this rather than if you insist on turning the world upside down ALL the time.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
What makes your story interesting instead of a conflict or drama-free zone is that your hero (protagonist, main character) is in danger. The villain of your piece serves as a human (alien, robotic, other) personification of that danger.
In the Harry Potter series the relation is pretty direct. Hero Harry Potter is in constant peril because villain Lord Voldemort wants to kill him. A great part of the danger Harry was in came from just that situation--- he was in danger from Voldemort. In other cases he was in danger from followers of Lord Voldemort. In other cases the 'danger' came as a result of his status as a celebrity in the wizarding world--- the Boy Who Lived. But this celebrity status was a result of Voldemort having tried to kill him. Even the bad reputation that Harry got briefly when it became known he speaks Parseltongue (snake language) is a result of Voldemort's attack on Harry when he was a baby.
In most fiction the danger the hero faces is less obvious. In a romance, the 'danger' is that the heroine won't find her True Love, or that she won't win his or her attention or that he or she will marry someone else. In some stories the conflict is Man against Nature--- let's say a story about exploring a distant planet with a harsh environment.
Even in these cases, a villain can personify the danger. In a romance, the villain can be a woman who is also in love with the heroine's True Love and who is willing to go to great lengths to win him. It can also be the True Love's father who forbids the match--- or who needs his son to make a marriage to a rich heiress rather than the penniless governess heroine.
In a space-exploration story, the 'villain' can be some authority figure who wants to cut short the exploration against the hero's advice--- or one who insists on the exploration in spite of the dangers the hero informs him about. The 'villain' can also be a careless or inexperienced team member who is constantly doing things that endanger the hero.
Whether the villain is a fully evil dude out to get the hero, or just a guy doing his job, the villain must also have his good qualities if he is to be more than a cartoon villain. For example, Lord Voldemort had his background as a motherless illegitimate child--- which doesn't really go anywhere near explaining his extreme evil and self-destructive tendency to kill people, especially Muggles, just for fun.
A more realistic villain is the soap opera character Adam Chandler from All My Children. Over the many years of his tenure, Adam has amassed a long list of crimes and other evil actions. But he is also shown as a man who very much loves his twin brother Stuart, who cares for his children (though he drives them all to drink). This human touch accounts for the character's longevity. Soap opera characters who are pure over-the-top evil last only a year or two before someone murders them (and usually everyone in town's a suspect and the killer is often a sympathetic character who gets away with the crime.)
But I believe in old-fashioned storytelling in which the villain is villainous and the hero is relatively good--- or at least less evil than the villain. A lot of modern writers, perhaps to express their idea that there is no right or wrong anymore other than political incorrectness, have heroes who are thieves, con men, or even hit men. Villains, from this type of writer, might well be Christians as in the eyes of such people calling someone a Christian is the same as calling him a KKK member. You can see this from the character Stilson, in Stephen King's 'The Dead Zone', who starts out as a Bible salesman who kicks a dog to death.
But the problem of this approach I think is that you can lose your reader, as Stephen King lost me for all time with a minor villain character he created for his novel 'Cell', which is about how cell phones destroy humanity.
The hero and his companions, a Gay man and a teen girl, are making their way out of the destroyed city when they come across an old woman who wonders what these two men are doing with an unrelated young girl. But this evil woman turns out to be a *gasp* Christian--- a prolife Christian, in fact. The 'hero' slaps the woman and moves on as the Gay man explains his hatred for Christians based on the fact he had Christian family members.
The problem is that the United States (primary audience for Stephen King) is something like 80% Christian, so that large numbers of his readers can be expected to have known many Christians in person even if they are not personally Christian. So when THEY see an old woman going up to two strong young men in order to see if a young girl needs rescuing, they won't recast her as a villain just because she's a prolife Christian who is not politically correct about Gay people. They see her as a very brave woman who is risking her own life for the sake of a girl who might need her help.
Stephen King ruined the book 'Cell' for me, as well as ruining his first important Gay character, with this one slap, based on his misunderstanding of how the average person will react to this villain/hero divide. He could have saved the situation in a number of ways--- lightened the Christian identity of the villain, or allowed one of the main characters to be a stronger Christian. He could have made the villain physically stronger so that standing up to the hero wouldn't have been an act of courage, or perhaps made the hero and his Gay friend weaker or disabled. Or he could have given this villain a selfish motive for intervening on behalf of the girl--- for example, if this villain had been a straight man or a Gay woman with possible attraction for the girl.
The old fashioned hero who has an aversion to doing wrong, coupled with a villain who at least in some circumstances is willing to do wrong, is my idea of a writer's best friend. It's far easier to take your audience along for the ride with you and have them cheering and crying in the right places if you do this rather than if you insist on turning the world upside down ALL the time.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Friday, May 8, 2009
The Writer's Desk Book and How to Organize One
Recently I re-read the book The Craft of Writing Science Fiction That Sells by Ben Bova
. I liked this book when I bought it because I had actually heard of the author, Ben Bova, as a science fiction writer. If a book is going to tell me how to be a fiction writer, I like it when the author of that book is a fiction writer himself rather than a college English professor.One of the more useful sections of the book is where he describes his desk book--- a three-ring binder in which he keeps stuff related to his novel. He suggests that the desk book have sections for characters, names, background information, lines and phrases, and a chart of character appearances.
He kind of ruins it all by mentioning that now his desk book consists of a batch of files on his computer. My own experience with computer files is that sooner or later you can no longer open them. I have had writing files on floppy disks which I carefully preserved in case I ever wanted to revive the writing project in question. Some of these floppy disks could no longer be opened in a new computer when I replaced the old one. Now, of course, my computer doesn't even have a floppy disk drive. Only those writing projects which have hard-copy versions are able to be recovered for any purpose.
I decided to organize my old and current writing projects into a desk book. Now, I don't have enough dividers to create all the sections--- characters, background and so on--- for each individual novel project. So I reserve the sections for the current project, whichever that is, and have other dividers for the project on the back burner. I also have a second notebook for older projects that won't fit in the first.
The picture above shows the two notebooks, the desk book and the overflow book. It also shows my two new kittens, Germanicus 2 and Claudius 2. They are named after my two favorite cats who died last December. Germanicus 2 is the black and white in the front, and Claudius 2 is the one with her back to the camera. (Yes, this Claudius is a girl and I didn't change her name to Claudia lest anyone think she was named in honor of Claudia on General Hospital.)
In the course of putting together the notebooks I've come across a lot of old writing projects I haven't looked at in years. I'm surprised to find that all of those I have recovered so far seem to be quality work which would be worth reviving. I guess my less worthwhile work is buried deeper in my junk pile or lost altogether. One in particular is one that I have been 'writing' in my fantasy life for years, seems to be one I need to write. First step is to write down the story as I know it from my mental work over the years.
My other most urgent project is a brand-new story based on the idea of cloning. You may be familiar with James BeauSeigneur's book In His Image (The Christ Clone Trilogy, Book 1)
and its sequels.My idea is a little less daunting than cloning Jesus. What if someone decided to clone a visionary such as Saint Bernadette or one of the Fatima children with the idea of discrediting the Catholic church, either because the clone-child will have a religious vision (proving her insane and her original likewise) or else she might be irreligious (showing what the Saint would have been if she'd had a proper, non-religious upbringing.) Of course to a Catholic this cloning effort would be simply sad, rather than something that could in any circumstances weaken one's faith, but the sort of person that would do the experiment wouldn't know that.
At any rate, I believe that organizing a writer's work may well be the difference between a writer that succeeds and one that fails. There are writing projects that take the author many years; they can't succeed if the writer loses the notes periodically!
Of course each writer has to organize the desk book in his own way. Do you use a desk book or the equivalent? How is yours organized? Let me know in a comment--- and good luck with your writing today!
Blog Post:
katarzynaradzka: Do You Keep a Writers Diary?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Wednesday, May 6, 2009
As Swine Flu becomes Novel Flu, Will Writers Suffer?
On a recent commentary on This Week in Agribusiness, Orion Samuelson pointed out the need to change the name of the so-called Swine Flu. Although the virus is genetically similar to the Swine Flu which affects pigs, it spreads human to human and had not been found in pigs, though there is a case where a pig may have caught the disease from a human who had been to Mexico.
Yet in spite of the facts some nations have been banning pork product imports using the flu as an excuse. People are being asked if they have given up pork because of the flu--- even though this is an utterly futile measure to take.
Orion Samuelson pointed out that this flu is not a true swine flu and that the Europeans have started calling it Novel Flu to avoid confusion, not to mention international agricultural trade wars disguised as health concerns.
But what will happen if the name 'Novel Flu' catches on? The news media still wants to generate hysteria over the disease. Will they be asking people if they have given up novel reading to avoid catching the Novel Flu? Will bookstores and libraries be asked to shut down for the duration? Will countries ban the publication of foreign novels?
This may seem silly, but in actual fact it may be slightly easier to get the Novel Flu from a novel, assuming the novel has been passed hand-to-hand and has been touched by an infected person, than it would be to get it eating pork, which after all is cooked before eating which would kill any germs, including flu germs.
However, writers of the world have one hope that they will avoid taking the hits that hog farmers have. The animal rights wienies of PETA and other hate groups have been trying to use the Swine Flu to scare people into adopting unhealthy vegetarian diets. They have no such motive to promote fear of novels in the case of Novel Flu. Without the help of the wienies, the media may have a harder job promoting the fear.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Yet in spite of the facts some nations have been banning pork product imports using the flu as an excuse. People are being asked if they have given up pork because of the flu--- even though this is an utterly futile measure to take.
Orion Samuelson pointed out that this flu is not a true swine flu and that the Europeans have started calling it Novel Flu to avoid confusion, not to mention international agricultural trade wars disguised as health concerns.
But what will happen if the name 'Novel Flu' catches on? The news media still wants to generate hysteria over the disease. Will they be asking people if they have given up novel reading to avoid catching the Novel Flu? Will bookstores and libraries be asked to shut down for the duration? Will countries ban the publication of foreign novels?
This may seem silly, but in actual fact it may be slightly easier to get the Novel Flu from a novel, assuming the novel has been passed hand-to-hand and has been touched by an infected person, than it would be to get it eating pork, which after all is cooked before eating which would kill any germs, including flu germs.
However, writers of the world have one hope that they will avoid taking the hits that hog farmers have. The animal rights wienies of PETA and other hate groups have been trying to use the Swine Flu to scare people into adopting unhealthy vegetarian diets. They have no such motive to promote fear of novels in the case of Novel Flu. Without the help of the wienies, the media may have a harder job promoting the fear.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Sunday, January 11, 2009
Blogging when I should be novelling
I blog too much. And now I have another blog on which to do it at Today.com. Today.com is an outfit which promises to pay bloggers $1 for each day's blog post, and since I'm always on the verge of financial disaster I was tempted and now have a blog called The Sci-Fi/Fantasy Flying Circus.
*sigh*
I had decided to work on this blog daily to try to expand the readership, but now have to work on the other blog daily. I had thought of just replacing this blog with that one, but over at Today.com I can't put up links to books at Amazon.com and so therefore can't participate in the CSFFBT.
And I really should be working on my novel. Or on my other novel. Right now. Or else searching the snowbanks for a statue of the Infant of Prague I just bought on Ebay and that the Fed-ex guy handed over to my dog. (I've found the box and packaging, Infant of Prague clothing, and an Infant of Prague hand so far. And I'm wondering if the dog will go to hell for destroying a statue of Jesus.)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A list of science fiction and fantasy authors with blogs is to be found at SF Signal. List is limited to those published at major (secular) publishers. Look and see if your fave authors are bloggers!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Jackie Castle has a must-read blog post: Have we really thought through these propositions? dealing with the anti-Gay-marriage propositions in a more Christian and loving way than some, which is sure to cause controversy. I offer her my thanks for that post, which really made me feel like I'm not altogether an outcast in spite of being out as a chaste Gay person.
*sigh*
I had decided to work on this blog daily to try to expand the readership, but now have to work on the other blog daily. I had thought of just replacing this blog with that one, but over at Today.com I can't put up links to books at Amazon.com and so therefore can't participate in the CSFFBT.
And I really should be working on my novel. Or on my other novel. Right now. Or else searching the snowbanks for a statue of the Infant of Prague I just bought on Ebay and that the Fed-ex guy handed over to my dog. (I've found the box and packaging, Infant of Prague clothing, and an Infant of Prague hand so far. And I'm wondering if the dog will go to hell for destroying a statue of Jesus.)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A list of science fiction and fantasy authors with blogs is to be found at SF Signal. List is limited to those published at major (secular) publishers. Look and see if your fave authors are bloggers!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Jackie Castle has a must-read blog post: Have we really thought through these propositions? dealing with the anti-Gay-marriage propositions in a more Christian and loving way than some, which is sure to cause controversy. I offer her my thanks for that post, which really made me feel like I'm not altogether an outcast in spite of being out as a chaste Gay person.
Monday, January 5, 2009
I Challenge Thee to a .... Writing Exercise!
As this is post #100 I decided to make it a challenge to my reader or readers. This is a writing exercise I did some years back and I just rediscovered it today in my file cabinet. The idea is to write ten opening sentences for novels/stories. I believe it's meant to be a help for those struggling with writing the 'perfect' opening sentence for your work. Anyway, I'll show you my ten sentences, and then you can write your own--- in the comments, or at your own blog, or on the restroom wall, wherever.
Opening Sentences
1. "Don't touch that!" the man screamed, seconds before the explosion.
2. If Mary had known that the old book would eventually cause the murder of 75 people, she would have gone into the antique shop instead.
3. The governor knew, of course, that Red Jack was innocent, but he had no intention of stopping the execution.
4. They moved to Wisconsin the year Maia turned thirteen, and things would never be right again.
5. I knew it was a bad idea to stow away on the Andromeda, but I'd rather be spaced out the airlock than stay on the station even one more day.
6. The suns glared orange in the sky ar Aminton killed the last thousand of the Iliani rebels. The last of them, women and children mostly, might have been permitted to live, had any of them thought to ask for mercy. But the sheer weight of those who had gone before them drained off all their hope, and they died, silent.
7. The dragon was small, blue-eyed, and in my living room.
8. "Don't you even b'leeve in God, Charlie?"
"Nah," Charlie told his kid brother, "there isn't no God, not for real there isn't."
9. Reggie was dead, but that didn't mean he wasn't planning on attending the wedding.
10. The day the world ended, Jennie had a terrible fight with her ex-husband. Not a physical fight, of course. Ron was too smart for that.
I've noticed that a couple of these are more than one sentence. Oh, well.
Opening Sentences
1. "Don't touch that!" the man screamed, seconds before the explosion.
2. If Mary had known that the old book would eventually cause the murder of 75 people, she would have gone into the antique shop instead.
3. The governor knew, of course, that Red Jack was innocent, but he had no intention of stopping the execution.
4. They moved to Wisconsin the year Maia turned thirteen, and things would never be right again.
5. I knew it was a bad idea to stow away on the Andromeda, but I'd rather be spaced out the airlock than stay on the station even one more day.
6. The suns glared orange in the sky ar Aminton killed the last thousand of the Iliani rebels. The last of them, women and children mostly, might have been permitted to live, had any of them thought to ask for mercy. But the sheer weight of those who had gone before them drained off all their hope, and they died, silent.
7. The dragon was small, blue-eyed, and in my living room.
8. "Don't you even b'leeve in God, Charlie?"
"Nah," Charlie told his kid brother, "there isn't no God, not for real there isn't."
9. Reggie was dead, but that didn't mean he wasn't planning on attending the wedding.
10. The day the world ended, Jennie had a terrible fight with her ex-husband. Not a physical fight, of course. Ron was too smart for that.
I've noticed that a couple of these are more than one sentence. Oh, well.
Polish Names for Your Characters
Continuing my new obsession with all things Polish.... I'm compiling a list of Polish names in order to help with naming Polish fictional characters.
Nazwisko--- family names
Polish family names are hereditary and passed from father to children. The family name comes last. The most common Polish family names are Nowak, Kowalski, and Wiśniewski. A long list of Polish family names in order of popularity is found at http://www.futrega.org/etc/nazwiska.html
Kamiński
Mazur
Grabowski
Baranowski
Krupa
Pawlik
Barański
Czyż
Mroczek
Grodzicki
Imię - given names
A list of Polish given names is given at http://www.edziecko.pl/ciaza_i_porod/0,79473.html
IMIONA DLA CHŁOPCA male names
Piotr
Krzysztof
Jan
Marek
Stanisław
Jacek
Łukasz
Paweł
Grzegorz
Michał
Józef
Klaudiusz
IMIONA DLA DZIEWCZYNKI female names
Maria
Katarzyna
Agnieszka
Krystyna
Elżbieta
Janina
Halina
Danuta
Jadwiga
Dorota
Grażyna
Natalia
Ewa
Zofia
Pronunciation:
Polish pronunciation can be difficult. 'J' is pronounced like english 'y', 'w' like english 'v', 'y' like english 'i' in 'bit', and 'ł' like english 'w'.
I hope this will help writers in naming their Polish characters. This post will be updated with more names as time goes by, as my similar post on Korean names is.
Polish Name: Wikipedia
Nazwisko--- family names
Polish family names are hereditary and passed from father to children. The family name comes last. The most common Polish family names are Nowak, Kowalski, and Wiśniewski. A long list of Polish family names in order of popularity is found at http://www.futrega.org/etc/nazwiska.html
Kamiński
Mazur
Grabowski
Baranowski
Krupa
Pawlik
Barański
Czyż
Mroczek
Grodzicki
Imię - given names
A list of Polish given names is given at http://www.edziecko.pl/ciaza_i_porod/0,79473.html
IMIONA DLA CHŁOPCA male names
Piotr
Krzysztof
Jan
Marek
Stanisław
Jacek
Łukasz
Paweł
Grzegorz
Michał
Józef
Klaudiusz
IMIONA DLA DZIEWCZYNKI female names
Maria
Katarzyna
Agnieszka
Krystyna
Elżbieta
Janina
Halina
Danuta
Jadwiga
Dorota
Grażyna
Natalia
Ewa
Zofia
Pronunciation:
Polish pronunciation can be difficult. 'J' is pronounced like english 'y', 'w' like english 'v', 'y' like english 'i' in 'bit', and 'ł' like english 'w'.
I hope this will help writers in naming their Polish characters. This post will be updated with more names as time goes by, as my similar post on Korean names is.
Polish Name: Wikipedia
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)