Tag: Writing

Series Incongruities

I’ve been reading books by Scott Westerfeld: Uglies, Pretties, and now halfway through Specials. I like the world he’s created for Tally Youngblood and her friends, and it shows her character changing throughout the three books.

But I also noticed the little bit about SpagBol, his word for Spaghetti Bolognaise dehydrated, then re-created with a purifier.

In Uglies, Tally runs out into the wild with a bag created by [evil] Dr. Cable, and every single packet of food in her bag was SpagBol. After that, she’s had trouble looking at it. Can’t blame her, since that’s all she ate for three meals a day for a few weeks.

In Specials, Tally reacts to another character eating SpagBol with some revulsion. Months have passed since Uglies, but this is still a strong reaction.

So why does Tally have SpagBol in her own hand-packed bag when she escapes to the wild in Pretties? And why doesn’t she react when, admittedly another character, eats it?

Those kinds of questions sometimes keep me up at night. I found the little inconsistencies even toward the end of editing The Art of Science, and I hope to find them all with my current projects.

I’m only human, though. I must take into account that I will not fix everything, even if I have help.

Scott Westerfeld couldn’t find all the tiny details with all of Simon Pulse behind him. It wasn’t a pivotal point. It was just part of the minutiae.

I’m sure a series bible would help, but it’s also difficult to accept that as a writer I might not be able to create a perfect story. I suppose I’ll just hope enough people read it to discern the things I missed.

We all do the best we can. I’m loving the books in spite of that – extremely small – detail.

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Today’s Topic: HTML

Oh, I’m not sure why I haven’t really picked this up yet. Right- I haven’t really built a web page.

Sure, there was that one, way back right after I got married, that my friend built. But I only got the pictures together and provided captions. The two girls with me worked on scanning them and putting them together on a pretty page to share.

Definitely not the way to actually learn how to do it.

I’m finally sitting down with books and other resources (an online writer friend/recovering enginerd and w3schools.com) and putting things together in my head. It really isn’t that hard. I’m actually enjoying it.

Why? Doesn’t everyone need a website at some point? I might hit that point, and I’d really like to see if I can manage.

I also don’t want that to get in the way of the writing, but the writing has been on a precipice for awhile. My goal of creatively putting it off until the pressure builds into a necessity is slowly gaining speed. I’m thinking about my current project more, and the pieces have been falling together.

I have no idea why this strategy works so well for me, only that it’s doing its job to refocus me for what I really want to happen to the book.

It also helps that I have a tutoree or two in my target audience right now. I do the typical adult responsible thing with texting to give the proper info, and I get a one-word reply.

It makes me smile and think of Ethan and all the new and improved obstacles I’m going to throw at him. Let’s see if he makes it through all this unscathed!

I love pouring on the drama, as long as it isn’t my life the drama’s going to seep into. All right, I’ll admit it. I only love fictional drama!

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Continuing Education

What do you choose to do to further your education?

A friend mentioned that her job (and mine, come fall) requires some continuing education and for it she was studying from a book. I’d read the same book for a student I’m tutoring. (Kiss My Math by Danica McKellar) She appreciated that they college requires you to continue to refine your skills by learning.

I can appreciate that, too. My home library speaks to a lot of continued education through books on several subjects. I’m looking up other opportunities to keep skills fresh, as well.

Math might not pertain to writing, but it’s good to keep a lot of skills going. One thing I have always wanted to do is learn another language; I have a few phrases here and there but nothing fluent.

I’m always learning more about writing. With my new part-time employment gigs, it’s sometimes difficult to sort out what my primary function is. (After motherhood, of course!) I like to think I’m a writer, which means I need to focus on the written words.

My focus takes me to critique groups. I learn from the other writers as well as teach them things. I’ve been carting books back and forth from the library in order to hone my skills from published books in fiction and the writing section.

Plus I read and write and rewrite and edit and polish. Some of those are overlapping functions, but each has a special place in the writer’s agenda.

I currently need to finish the fiction book I’m reading by Jacqueline Carey that’s due tomorrow, plus one by Scott Westerfeld that will be due not too much longer.

Some days the difficulty lies in learning versus doing. If the doing (the writing) takes over, there is at least something to work with, something to fix. If the learning takes over, no output. There has to be a balance so both can be done for the betterment of my work. (Well, anyone’s work, I suppose.)

So another question: how do you think the experts learn more about their fields?

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You Can’t Edit a Blank Page

This saying has been credited to many authors and I can’t find the original. I do believe it’s true, though.

The newest member of my writing group stated she had a story she had been writing in her head, and alarms went off in my head. How can she think she’s writing if it hasn’t left her head?

Perhaps it’s fortunate I curbed my tongue. I did want her to come back. She seems like a good addition to the group.

However, I am wary of those who think they can create stories – which are made for sharing – without writing them down. A first draft is usually crap. It’s allowed to be crap. Perhaps even supposed to be crap.

That’s why re-writing and editing exist – to cure the first draft into something wonderful.

I know some first drafts are pretty amazing. I have a friend who puts my first drafts to shame. It’s not a mark of a good writer vs. a bad writer, just that our starting points are different. We both rework our manuscripts until they shine. At the end, we have styles that change our work and voices that speak to the reader. We hope they’re clear and emotionally moving.

Sometimes we succeed.

Other times we scrap a project as not worthy. It’s just part of the process. But if we’d never written a word, we’d never know. And neither would those who read our work be able to share in the story we create.

Some of these sayings are popular for good reason. Imagine a plain white sheet of paper with red dots all over it. Meaningless without the (presumably) black text underneath. Because of this, I give myself permission to make bad first drafts. I just want the story to shine through, and it might take a few tries.

I haven’t failed until I quit trying, and I count it as forward progress as long as my pages aren’t blank.

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The Market Says

Discussing the magazine market with my friend, she said there was a bigger market for ‘how to write’ especially in the speculative fiction field than there was for the fiction. She’s been researching for her own magazine, and I don’t doubt it.

But it’s a little funny, since in order to write for any genre you need to be familiar with the genre. Of course, they’re probably buying books instead of magazines, but why?

If we’re out for the short story market, it’s best to get our hands on the actual publication we want to have purchase our work. (I’m sure that’s best in every market.) Wouldn’t that make the demand equal for both products?

Are we trying to write in a vacuum?

Maybe we’re listening to the characters in our head. What’s to stop them from taking over the story? Not that it’s bad for them to take over the story, that’s part of what happens when they become real to the author. I guess I’m asking: How do we know they have the best plot possible, if we have nothing to compare to?

Not that we want to redo a plot. I know I’ve heard Twilight has a lot of similarities to Wuthering Heights (can’t be bad to be compared with a classic), but I wonder sometimes where the line can be drawn between using an old plot with newish characters, like Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, and the arguable every plot can be traced back to one of [insert number of plots below 50 you think there are].

Have you ever wondered what the true fascination with Zombies really is? I think if I get around to reading those re-makes, I’ll choose Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters instead…

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During Naptime

To see my first installment at Novelspot’s Behind the Scenes, click here.

It’s much harder to write when the baby falls asleep on your arm. She’s warm and snuggled in and not moving until she wakes up- which means my arm will be numb. It’s getting close now.

The fun part about the baby napping in your lap is a bubble of calm settles over both of us. If only my other hand were free, I could type like there were jumping beans in my fingers. Except, you know, hitting the correct keys.

I’m back to getting through my library books and finding snippets of time to write around the domestic distractions. I also need to dig out my notebook for the lists and update them for the new week.

New weeks are good, but they fly by. I had a wonderful weekend and now I need to catch up. Good Monday to you all, I hope.

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Workshops

What are you looking for in a writer’s workshop?

I see these advertised online and off, and I wonder what it means to everyone out there. I should also mention I teach a class about speculative fiction writing, but it’s not online – or it isn’t yet.

Partly what I like about teaching is the discussion aspect, but I can’t speak for my students. I like to touch on basic things like plot, character, and point of view, as well as more genre-specific things like background and world-building.

Each time I teach the class (I’m almost done with the third section) it changes. I don’t think that’s a bad thing, it just is part of the evolutionary process.

I just hope I teach them something. And that they continue to write.

My copyeditor friend Sarah Holroyd is starting up her own. We will definitely have to keep an eye on her! You may want to keep an eye on me, too…

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Getting Critiques

While this isn’t the most fun part of writing, it is a useful tool to move on the way to publishing. (Or, at least, a better final product.)

I got a critique yesterday, as I mentioned, at the SCBWI-Iowa Spring Conference. It wasn’t all good, it wasn’t all bad, and it held at least one gem from my critique group. I knew they had a point when they brought it up, but I was hoping I’d solved it enough to keep going.

The answer is, I haven’t. I need a satisfying resolution to the puzzle. It’s not quite a Rubik’s Cube where you can just take the thing apart. (Note: I was never a fan of removing the stickers. Eventually they’ll stop sticking. Plus, it’s noticeable.)

So it’s not- quite- back to the drawing board. I just need to explore the other avenues that I had originally drawn up during my brainstorming phase and see in which direction my characters gravitate.

They (my group) will probably be glad to know I’m listening to them.

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SCBWI Conference

I attended today! It was all I could manage of the three day conference, but I got there. They offered a manuscript critique (of synopsis and first ten pages) from an agent, author, or editor.

First, the manuscript critique… I’m still mulling over the advice. I thought of one of them after I’d sent it, so that’s something. And my critique group had been wondering about another thing she brought up. I have to figure out how to fix the things she pointed out. I’ll owe a thank you to Laura Arnold from HarperCollins when Don’t Tell Your Mother gets somewhere.

Second, I managed to meet some members from my area. I haven’t been able to connect with them around here, though I keep running into the Romance Writer’s group. They say they do all genres, but there’s something to be said for joining specific organization that you write. SCBWI focuses on the children’s genres from picture books to young adult, and this is very different from the focus of RWA, who will tell writers all about romance, erotica, and the other shades of love writing. SFWA will tell still different things, taking a turn for the speculative. If we could easily get lumped into one genre, we wouldn’t have them.

But that’s just my opinion.

Third, I got to listen to some great speakers. I learned things about picture books, so of course now that’s what’s running through my head thinking about coming out. I doubt it’ll come out soon, maybe not even this year, but it’s bouncing. One day it’ll gel.

I’ll just worry about capturing it at that time. I’ll keep pen and paper by my side. (Like any good writer should do.)

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Work.

Authors don’t work like other people. We grab snippets of time for our novels where we can. At least, those of us who aren’t lucky enough earn our living each day writing.

So how many moments do we need to finish our masterpieces? Do you cram it in at the end of the day? Do you get up early to manage a few quiet moments before the other inhabitants wake?

Dedication means working in the stolen moments – but when is the downtime?

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