Take a deep breath, relax. What’s got you so worked up?

Is it your three hundredth rejection letter? A hypercritical response from a beta reader? A moron/cyber bully with a keyboard and a bone to pick?

If you’re going through the traditional route, rejection letters are part of the game. It’s kind of like pledging a fraternity…you’re going to get knocked down only to be built back up.

Take Amazon reviews with a grain of salt, don’t let them offend you. If you get upset, the bad guy wins. You don’t want them to win, because that means you lose. And you don’t want to be a loser, do you? =)

If you can distance yourself from your work, your emotional health will be in a lot better shape than if you get wrapped up in all of the personal jibes. It’s perfectly fine to get wrapped up in your book when you write that first draft. Pour your heart out, write everything and anything.

But when it’s time for the second and subsequent drafts, go in with that little violent bugger in the back of your head. Kill your darlings. After your mass murder during the second draft, you should feel a whole lot better about your work and have that emotional distance to know that you’re creating to the best of your ability. Show it back to your hypercritical beta reader. Compare the two drafts, did the comments made/suggested make sense in retrospect? Did you write the best book you possibly could and the reader/reviewer/critic just doesn’t know what they’re talking about?

Or was there more truth than lies? Don’t be afraid of the troll under the bridge. Think of their criticism as the toll you paid to make a second, third, or fiftieth book that much better.

Good luck!

World-building – Driblets from the fermentation tanks

June 22, 2011

David Carrico

Last post in this chain we looked at one approach to the “how-2” of world-building. Today, just some more or less random musings on this part of our craft.

* * *

There are without a doubt other approaches to world-building, including the “make it up as you go along” approach.

Don’t let all the structure of the last post mislead you. My experience is that the world-building process is nowhere nearly as organized as all that post would indicate. Most authors that I’ve heard mention the subject tend to have some degree of organization (usually notebooks or spreadsheets), if for no other reason than so they can find that decision they made six months ago. And I know of at least a couple of special cases where a group of people brainstormed and designed a detailed story universe that was shared among them. But that level of detail and control is probably unusual, unless you’re doing work-for-hire for TV, movie, or game tie-ins, in which case someone else has already built the universe and all you have to do is figure out how to tell your story in it.

I’m certainly not that ordered. In fact, I tend to be very intuitive; jumping to a decision or a conclusion, then looking backwards to figure out why that would be a good idea is not unusual for me. On the other hand, I typically don’t totally make it up as I go along. I usually make decisions about the big obvious stuff up front, then fill in additional details as I write the story. (Sorry, I don’t outline well. Or often. Or at all, most of the time.) And yes, I do tend to carry it around in my head, only making physical notes of really abstract or subtle points.

I suspect the majority of writers are more flexible than rigorous.

* * *

Keep in mind that every change to the starting default should have a price. If we change one aspect of the world, what will be affected by it?

I mentioned in a previous post that in the biological “world”, there are desired constructs that might be possible, but only with trade-offs in other areas that might be prohibitive to you or your characters. (See Robin McKinley’s new novel Pegasus for an example.)
If you’re going to use a magic system, where does the “power” come from, and how does it get renewed? For the story to ring true, there has to be a cost to it. Supermen of any type are boooooring. But a character who pays a price–perhaps a heavy one–to do something super . . . what can you the writer do with that?
If a character gets a super-normal ability, what does he/she lose or impair to have it? For example: DNA modification produces human level intelligence in elephants: what do they give up to have it, and how do they feel about it?
Etc.

* * *

A few thoughts on research.

Yes, research is necessary.
Yes, probably lots of research is necessary.
But “Sometimes plausibility is more important to a story than sheer accuracy.” (Tim Powers, Soonercon discussion, June, 2011)
Do Not do your research in other fictional works, lest you trip over another author’s missteps or “plausible” decisions.
Wikipedia is not 100% reliable. It can point you in certain directions, but do not accept anything it says as valid unless you know from your own personal knowledge it is correct or you have verified it through other research.
Actually, the Wikipedia point may be true about the Internet in general, considering how many times I find the same paragraphs (word for word match-ups) posted in multiple locations. Frequency of occurrence does not necessarily equate to accuracy of content.

* * *

As I said somewhere back up the chain of posts, this series is not an all-encompassing list, partly because each world-building exercise is different from the last one. You may find other items you want to add to it. You may have your own list you want to compare to my list. That’s all good.

If you haven’t seen it before, author Lee Killough wrote an excellent short book on world-building entitled Checking on Culture. (http://www.yarddogpress.com/Checking%20On%20Culture.htm) She goes into a great deal more depth than I have, and I freely confess to having learned a lot from it. Even though it’s slanted toward science fiction and fantasy, the general teachings in it are universally applicable, and I highly recommend it to and for writers of all genres.

Nest post: Oops!

What We Do in the Meantime

June 20, 2011

Kevin Cioffi

Craft & Skills Kevin Cioffi 1 Comment

Whether we want to write the next big thing, or simply see our names in print just one time, writers worth their salt will quickly realize: writing the story is but one battle in a multi-front war. The journey to being published involves many different elements coming together and lots of hard work slowly coming to fruition. What we do in the meantime, to keep our sanity, or help us along the way, can often be just as important as toiling on that manuscript. For example:

We need to eat

And that, unfortunately, means we need to work, not just on our novels, in order to put food on the table. For most writers, writing begins as a hobby, develops into a passion and can even become our single greatest drive. It would be great to clock in, work on our story all day, and see a paycheck at the end of the week for all our hard work, but obviously that is not realistic. So what do aspiring novelists do in the meantime to keep the bills paid? Some find related work, writing or editing, to keep their skills sharp. Some work the bare minimum and live frugally in order to make time to keep their dream alive. Others still find jobs that allow them to work on their novels while getting paid.

I know of a couple published authors that first worked as technical writers, which involves writing often dry, technical documentation for companies. This can range from descriptions in a product catalogue to patch notes for various software releases. Although this type of writing does not require much creativity, it can be a way to write for a living while you work on becoming self sufficient with your own work.

I know another published writer that worked the graveyard shift for some time at a hotel’s front desk. He was straightforward with the hotel during his interview: he knew the job did not pay well, but he wanted the ample down time the job provided to work on his writing while collecting a paycheck.

Personally, I’ve been working part time as a bike courier for the past year and a half making lunch time deliveries, while searching for freelance writing and editing gigs. I’ve found work ranging from editing student’s essays to traveling around the city, gathering information from businesses and compiling them for online listings. The up side to this approach is the extreme flexibility. I have short, mandatory hours during the afternoon where I make pretty decent money from tips, and collect additional writing work as needed on a case by case basis. The downside is the same as the up: the work is flexible, but inconsistent. You may find yourself struggling for money sometimes, while other times you are doing perfectly fine. You may find yourself leaning on your significant other or family as a crutch when the money is scarce, which can cause strain on those relationships.

The point is, there are multiple options a writer can pursue to keep food on the table in the meantime. Dedicating yourself to your art does not necessarily mean you have to starve for it.

We need to learn the ropes

Every aspiring writer is eventually disillusioned when they discover the publishing world is not eagerly anticipating the dawn of their artistic revolution, and is instead run just like any other business out there.

While the artistic integrity of our work is perhaps most important to us, every writer will eventually have to learn the ropes of the industry, try to break in and eventually establish a presence there. Invariably, that means networking, which can be a shy artist’s nightmare.

Networking is perhaps the single greatest challenge I have faced so far on the road to publication, but take hope! Once you get over your fear of networking, you will find the veil of fear slipping away, and instead begin to realize how truly advantageous it is towards getting your foot in the door and preventing your hard work from ending up at the bottom of a pile of slush.

Certain generous authors host seminars about becoming successful as a writer. Superstars Writing Seminars is one such example. Attending a seminar like this can get you face time with successful, published authors, a wealth of information about breaking into the industry, and a slew of friends and connections working towards the same goal. How do you think the Fictorians came together?

Another great place to meet affluent members of the industry is at conventions. I attend Dragon*Con each year in Atlanta. Not only are some of my favorite authors usually in attendance, but editors from their publishing houses as well. With a little bit of research, you can find out who will be attending and try your best to swing a social situation into a business opportunity. Last year I attended a small Wheel of Time banquet and was able to talk to an editor from Tor, walking away with a business card.

We need to keep our sanity

Finally, while hard work and diligence are necessary to success in the publishing industry, do not burn yourself out before you have a chance to make it. By no means am I telling you to neglect your work, but remember to pursue your other interests as well.

For example, writing fantasy is but one interest of mine. I also enjoy reading it. I also enjoy watching it, on television or in movies. And finally, I also like playing it. Video games can be the ultimate opiate for the escapist. While it is certainly a favorite pleasure of mine, it can also suck away your time before you even know what happened. I wanted a way to combine my love for video games with my passion for writing, as to not have it be a complete detriment to my productivity, so my friends and I started a video game site, The Flashy Review. By working on the site I get to play my games with the ultimate goal of developing my writing abilities. This even ties into my first point above, that we all need to work and eat. A website like this can become a great source of writing samples, which can help land a job doing what you love: writing.

There is no direct path, like a paved road, waiting to guide us to the top, and straightforward, tireless writing is likely not enough to get us there. It is often what we do in the meantime: meeting and connecting with others, keeping ourselves afloat, and keeping things in perspective, that determines our success as much as the craft itself.

Economy of Character

June 17, 2011

Brandon M Lindsay

Brandon M. Lindsay Character Craft & Skills The Writing Life 2 Comments

The human brain can only retain so much information; real estate in there is limited. One of the purposes of our minds is to condense that information to a manageable level. This is done through the formation of concepts, the most abstract of which are like skyscrapers on that limited real estate.

When using your mind to create these concepts (i.e. thinking), you are combining two or more objects or concepts (chair and table) into a higher-level concept (furniture). This new concept in effect gives you information about a potentially infinite amount of chair- or table-like objects (that they have the qualities of furniture). This applies to anything else your mind deems worthy of being called furniture.

Why bring this up in a discussion about character?

I primarily write in the fantasy genre, which is known to suffer from a malady called the cast of thousands, which is exactly what it sounds like. In order to achieve the epic scope they desire, some authors create many cultures and lands and people them accordingly. Some of the better writers attempt to alleviate this problem through masterful characterization and differentiation, but the problem remains: the human brain can only retain so much information.

It’s happened to everyone I know (myself included) who reads fantasy, especially the doorstoppers. We come across a character, and the name seems vaguely familiar, but we just cannot remember who that character is. We either figure out who the character is by the context, just ignore him, or treat him as a completely brand new character, history forgotten. None of these is ideal for a writer trying to tell a coherent story with a powerful emotional impact.

One solution to this problem is the very same process that you’ve used your whole life to make sense of the real world: combining lower-level units into higher-level abstractions.

Let’s say you have a character who is a policeman. Then, later on, you decide you also want to include a serial killer in your story. Nearly opposites, to be sure, but what if you combined these characters? A serial killer that is also a cop? Such a character already exists: Dexter, from the popular show of the same name. One of the hallmarks of both the book series and the show is how complex and interesting the main character is.

Of course, it’s easy just to smash two characters together and call it a day. But, like forming real concepts, it has to make sense (or rather, you have to make it make sense, since you are the one creating the character). You would never subsume chainsaw under the concept furniture. Also, the concept needs to have something essential about it that justifies its existence. The concept furniture tells us more about the world than just knowing about tables and chairs. The same must be true of the character. That essential attribute is that character’s identity, which in fiction usually boils down to his motivations, his personality, his beliefs, his psychology, etc.

In the example above, that identifying attribute could be Dexter’s homicidal urges as framed by his strange moral code.

Some of the immediate advantages of doing this should be obvious. First of all, your readers know who all of the characters are. But also, those two characters, who were perhaps a little flat to begin with, become three-dimensional when combined into one (if handled properly). This leads to deeper, more thoughtful fiction. Remember when I said that thought is concept formation? That’s why: the reader actually engages in that process when coming across characters like this.

Of course, this applies to other aspects of fiction as well, such as worldbuilding. So, take pity on your poor, confused readers and please, please economize your characters. Not only will they enjoy your stories more, but you’ll have made them feel smarter by the end, and that is always a good thing.