He Said, She Said -- Dialogue Tags

Sorry I haven't been sharing writing links with you lately. The Writer's Fun Zone is is a good site for you to explore, and today's post by Jami Gray is a good one.

When do you use tags (he said) and when do you use action (she glared)?

Check it out!

And whatever else you're doing--keep writing!

Breaking All the Rules

You know how they say you have to know the rules before you can break them? Mary Robinette Kowal has a few words to say about that, and I think they're worth reading, whether or not you've read Ender's Game [which I haven't].

Excerpt:

In 2005, I was fortunate enough to attend Orson Scott Card’s Literary Boot Camp. I had read his books Characters and Viewpoint and How to Write Science Fiction and Fantasy, but his boot camp itself was a transformative experience. Before boot camp, I felt as though I could write a good story by accident, and afterward, as though I could write one on purpose.

Card explained the rules and how fiction worked so clearly that it had gone from being a mysterious process to being something repeatable. After the camp, I pulled out my battered copy of Ender’s Game and re-read it because I wanted to see how he applied the rules that he just taught us.
I was stunned. 

Card breaks the rules all over the place. Pretty much every piece of wisdom I’d received in his boot camp, he took and inverted at least once in the book...

A Cautionary Tale

I stress that when you sign a contract with a publisher you need an agent. There are so many ways a publisher can take advantage of you, and no matter how nice or professional or respected your editor is, that editor has a responsibility to the publisher to present their contract without caution or advice to you. They represent their bosses. They are paid by their bosses. They have no control over the contract.

Today Roxanne St. Clair writes about a small clause that is costing her thousands of dollars and much heartache. And I'm sure many agents allowed that clause to pass without realizing its danger, because it was in the early part of the century and electronic books weren't a Thing like they are today.

But there were many other clauses that her agent did catch, that other agents struck from contracts to protect their writers' money [because they were protecting their own money, too, since the only pay they get is a percentage of the writers' money].

You need an agent or a very good intellectual properties lawyer who specializes in NY publishing contracts.

Here's just one reason why.

A Couple of Links to BVC

Something that has come up in class lately:

Do you write about horses? Do you know the subject inside out?

This is a book you might find extremely helpful.

Available here or on
Amazon or where other ebooks are sold.

How far can a horse travel in a day? What does a horse eat? When is a brown horse really a sorrel (or a bay, or a dun)? What do tack and withers and canter mean?

In this long-awaited and much-requested book based on her “Horseblog” at Book View Café, author and horse breeder Judith Tarr answers these questions and many more. She looks at horses from the perspective of the writer whose book or story needs them as anything from basic transport to major plot device, and provides definitions, explanations, and links and references for further research–leavened with insight into the world of the horse and the humans who both use and serve him.

How fast can a horse run? What happens when a foal is born? How have humans and horses evolved together over the millennia? And above all, what mistakes do writers most often make when writing about horses, and how can the educated writer avoid them?

Here is a guide to the fine art of getting it right.

You can find Judy's books here at BVC, and also where other ebooks and print books are sold.

Also, I've been asked about Doranna Durgin, whose fiction is often about dogs and horses, both of which she knows a lot about.

Not your average glamour shot.
 (Stacy Keach with Miss P, from the 
Westminster site.)

She regularly blogs at Book View Café. You can find her dog-blogs here, in reverse order, most recent first.

Her most recent post is about Miss P, the recent Best of Show winner at Westminster.

Doranna shows beagles at agility trials so has a real affinity for the breed.

You can find Doranna's books here at BVC and also where other ebooks and print books are sold.

Entries on dogs by all BVC authors.

Entries on horses by all BVC authors.

About Writing Women

Kate Elliott, whose writing I love, has knocked this one out of the park. Read it and think about it and incorporate it into your writing.

At the most basic level, one-dimensional, shallow, and cliched characterization comes about because of poor craft on the part of writers whatever the gender of the characters. If a writer can’t be bothered to dig deeper than a commonly deployed trope (defined as a literary or rhetorical device), their characters aren’t going to be well drawn.

If the clichés and tropes they use belong to a subset of character types that is currently valued and commonly agreed upon as “typical” or “realistic” in the popular culture of the moment, then some readers may not notice the shallowness or cliché because it is a portrayal they EXPECT to see and have seen a thousand times before.

Its very familiarity comforts and feels right.

[skipping some really strong examples you should read for yourself]

The Evil Seductress With Her Sexually Tempting and Irresistible Wiles; The Slutty Girl Who Pays For Her Sexual “Freedom” With Her Life; The Girl Too Ugly To Get Married; The Passive Bride who will either Be Crushed By Life or who will Find Her Strength; The Withering Old Woman Who Hates Her Youthful “Rival” Because There Is No Meaning For Women Beyond When They Cease Being Sexually Attractive to Men; The Peaceful Matriarch Whose Nurtures All Because It Is The Essential Nature of Womanhood To Nurture.

They write themselves.

This is why I feel it is important to carefully examine your women characters as you conceive and begin to write them. Consider if they are individuals or types. Sometimes the cliché or the “type” might work well in a plot; there can be reasons to use two-dimensional characters in certain roles. But be sure you’re doing it deliberately, not unthinkingly.

Much, much more here.

My head exploded.

But fortunately Chuck Wendig's head exploded first and he shared his admittedly foul-mouthed/penned but spot-on reaction to a former creative writing professor's true confessions about his students.

And I think you'd benefit from reading it.

Here.

Editing Explained

A book acquired by a traditional print publisher goes through several stages of editing.

Self-published books need the same.

Welcome, Basics classes of Winter 2015!

I'm looking forward to seeing you tonight and tomorrow morning.

In the meantime, let me share this for you and for everyone else following this blog.

ConDFW is coming up in a couple of weeks, Feb 13-15, and it's going to be fun, as always.

Early registration for hotel and conference ends Jan 31.  Check it out!

In addition to many other fascinating presentations, The Cushing Memorial Library Science Fiction and Fantasy Research Collection will be represented.

And I'll be there participating on panels, reading from my books, and signing.

I hope to see some of you there.

Write Like Hemingway

Ernest Hemingway's 1923 passport photo

Some writers begin with a character in their heads who won't shut up until the writer starts writing, and then hopefully, still won't shut up.

Some writers begin with a "what if" that captivates them in amazing ways, and makes them want to play with the idea as it tangles and untangles and leaves the reader in a puddle of amazed delight.

Whatever is in your head, you may sometimes find yourself sitting in front of the keyboard unable to find the words to begin.  Sometimes a writer gets frozen by the blank page.

Here is some advice that begins with Hemingway, spins off to McKee and beyond.

Great advice, whether it's something you do before writing a word of your novel, or something you do a few chapters in when the first burst of energy has burnt through.

But How Do I Keep People From Stealing My Ideas?

This is one of the biggest newbie fears, and the one pro writers worry about least. In classes I've given examples of how seemingly unique ideas all got bought within weeks, from writers who don't know each other and have no idea other people came up with similar.

I sometimes tell of a writer friend who was convinced an acquaintance 'stole' her story premise, rewrote it, and sold it to a different publisher, because the acquaintance's book came out a couple of years later and did start off in a different location but with the same sequence of events, not particularly going off in its own direction until about chapter ten.  But when I mentioned this to a mentor, my mentor laughed and said, "If you're going to use the oldest chestnut in the genre, don't be shocked that others use it, too."

My friend was convinced that her idea was new, but it wasn't new at all. It was new to her, but people who had been reading for many years had seen it before. And before. And before. It still made a good story, but it wasn't unique, and it's doubtful that the acquaintance stole it.

This comes back to me after reading the following on agent Kristin Nelson's Facebook page:

And it never ceases to amaze me when I see trends in that query inbox. It's like suddenly all writers have hit on the same concept independently. 

This month's zeitgeist? Young adult stories where the main narrator has to train as an assassin in order to protect a family member or the whole fam. 

Just in the last 3 weeks alone I've read over a dozen query letters with this theme.

And there ya go. No new ideas. In publishing what sells is how YOU write it. What you bring to it that's new and fresh. 

So, are you writing in 2015? If not, why not?

Sports Writers

I've said before that some of the best, most dynamic writing around today comes from the sports scene.  As much as I love the Dallas Cowboys, and even though I've been at a number of the games in recent years, I am not savvy enough to know if I agree with the following, but man, is it an example of writing that uses solid energy and imagery to make a point.

About Dez Bryant:

The NFL’s greatest receivers each bring a little something different to the table, but for the most part, they’re tall, graceful, fluid athletes who make catching a football somehow look beautiful. Bryant is an exception. He makes it look brutal. Whether it was on his rampage of a 35-yard touchdown off a screen pass (which left half a dozen Jaguars disposed to the turf), his get-off-me 68-yard score, or the unstoppable back-shoulder throws that will forever populate Dwayne Gratz’s nightmares, Bryant was an absolute monster.

I'm making progress on nanowrimo, even though I'm not where I oughta be. Hope you're writing like crazy, whether you're part of the madness or not!

Awesome Story Analysis!

Seriously, this is great stuff. If you are at all familiar with the Disney movie Sleeping Beauty [or possibly even if you aren't] you may find this as terrific as I did.

Read it here.

It's about why Sleeping Beauty is the most feminist Disney movie ever, and why the protagonist isn't who you think it is.

Blogging nanowrimo

Day One, and I am sharing the true glamour of a writer's life, complete in technicolor.

If you're nano-ing, find me there as pooks!

About Those Minor Characters

Jody Hedlund has a nice piece on writing minor characters and understanding the story purpose that they serve.

She mentions that a single character can serve more than one purpose, but I'd like to point out that they can even serve counter-intuitive purposes. A character who is a supportive sidekick can turn into a nemesis in a scene where they suddenly draw the line and will go no further. (Neville Longbottom, anyone?)

Enjoy the article.

Mary Robinette Kowal's Gift to You

Mary Robinette Kowal says:

I know a lot of you are getting ready to begin NaNoWriMo. I’ve mentioned before that I wrote Shades of Milk and Honey for it. I’ve also mentioned before that I had planned a completely different ending for the novel. COMPLETELY DIFFERENT. Since this was the first time I’d written to an outline, I stuck with it through the end of November, even though I had a sense that I wanted the novel to be doing different things.

At the end of the month, I read my 50k words, thought “Yep” and tossed 20k to get back to the point where I was still excited. In subsequant years, I go ahead and revise the outline and count those words towards my overall total. The moral of the story is that if your outline isn’t pleasing you, change the outline.

Edited to add: Bear in mind that this was my first outline for a novel. When writing now, my outlines are longer and, at times, more detailed.

Go here to see the outline. Maybe it will help you with your nanowrimo. Maybe it will help you with your own outline.

She shared another outline the following day, if you want to keep digging on her site.

How important is editing?

[Note: I link to something important for self-published authors at the end of this.]

Editing is so important that most writers I know who are traditionally published--by that, I mean writers who received advances for their work and are under contract, and are published by NYC publishers--have their books edited before they turn them in to their editors.

Some even pay for editing before they send them in to their agents. What does that mean? That means that these are pro writers with a history of publication behind them. Contrary to popular opinion from those on the outside looking in, many agents don't automatically submit their authors' work. It has to meet a level of professionalism and also simply work as a novel before they will risk their reputations as agents by sending it to publishers/editors in an attempt to sell the work. These authors have their books beta-read and often edited before submitting to their agents because they want their agents to have the best product possible to sell, and because they want their agents to be enthusiastic and even passionate about the work their selling.

And they don't want their agent to decline to submit the book in its current state.

Despite the success of digital publishing and the opportunities it gives to self-publish, 70% of all books sold are still print, which means that over 70% of readers demand a professional level of writing, editing, type-setting, etc. in books. Are there are a lot of people who are reading digital books who lower the bar? Yes. But there are vast numbers who immediately disdain a book that has typos and errors and won't buy it at all.

Can you make money selling books that have errors to people who lower the bar and don't care? Oh, yes.

But it's up to you to decide what kind of writer you want to be, and what kind of book you want to be associated with.

All of this is leading up to this post that I am sharing now.

If you're considering self-publishing, read it and consider.

Nanowrimo Prep Begins today...

Today is the day.

Don't know what Nanowrimo is?

Look here.

And if you want great advice on how to prep for it?

Try this.

Your first draft...

I teach this concept. In fact, I just mentioned it to class last Monday night.  I'd lost track of where I first heard it, though. And this made me go, of course.

Sir Terry Pratchett. He is a 'Sir' because the Queen of England knighted him for his magnificent fantasy writing.

For the record, many people recommended his work to me but I just didn't get it, couldn't get into it, until I was told that not only did I not have to read them in order, but that the better entry points were later in the series.  For the further record, these are a few of my faves so far:

The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents (Discworld Book 28)

Monstrous Regiment (Discworld Book 31)

Mort (Discworld Book 4) 

There are 40 Discworld books so far, and I am savoring them slowly, because Sir Terry is ill and, well, there you go. I love that there are so many for us to enjoy. What a brilliant, brilliant man.

 

 

 

That Business Stuff

As some of you might know, I was asked to give a Saturday workshop by the Writers Guild of Texas this November about the 'business of writing.'  And I said, sure!

And then, a week or so letter, I emailed and said, enh, maybe not.

Because I actually pretty much hate having to talk about it, and it is changing so much nonstop that any attempt to do a terrific job of it not only would take a lot more time than I want to spend on it, but would be outdated in five minutes.

Somebody else is going to do it, and I am sure they will do a great job of it.

In the meantime, here is some really smart stuff about the writing as a business from Hugo Award-winning Kameron Hurley.

I had a colleagues come to me recently gushing excitedly about selling their first novel in a two-book deal. “That’s fabulous!” I said.

“I mean… the advance isn’t a lot of money, but I know the publishers and they are great people,” they said.

“Do you have an agent?”

“Oh, well… it’s not for very much money. It’s like $500.”

Alarm bells started going off in my brain. A $500 advance is basically just “go away” money. It’s pat-you-on-the-head ha ha money. “Oh, well… what kinds of rights are they asking for?” I said.

“Oh, you know, everything. World English rights, foreign rights, movie rights…”

“OK, stop right there. You’re going to give a publisher complete ownership of your novels, including movie rights, for $500?”

“Well, the publishers are really nice people…”

Ok, my friends, let’s back up.

No Rules

As I have said many times, there is only one rule in writing that can't be broken.

A WRITER WRITES.

If you're writing, you're a writer. If you're not writing, you aren't. It's that easy, and that hard.

So. Are you a writer today?

Here's a reassuring quote. If you don't know who Neil Gaiman is, check him out. In the meantime, reassurance that there isn't One Holy Way to Write, Amen.

“Some writers need a while to charge their batteries, and then write their books very rapidly. Some writers write a page or so every day, rain or shine. Some writers run out of steam, and need to do whatever it is they happen to do until they’re ready to write again.”

—	Neil Gaiman