Reason not to automatically obey Microsoft Word's grammar checker #587:
It just recommended I replace the phrase 'the most high-profile' with 'the high-profileest'.
Riiiiiiiiight.
Saturday, October 4, 2008
Sunday, September 28, 2008
All's well if you end Well
The useless word of today is 'Well'.
Not in the context of "He performed that task well." but in the beginning of dialogue.
For example:
"Well, if you say so."
Notice how the sentence works perfectly fine as "If you say so."? This usage of the world is superfluous most of the time. It pops up a lot in dialogue, particularly if you're the kind of person who uses "Well..." in your everyday life to stall in speaking (as opposed to "Umm...")
This is fine if you have a character who is particularly nervous or hesitant. However, when you're using it in every character's speech, it not only increases your word count, but makes all your characters sound like they have the same voice.
I'm currently flipping through my manuscript, and there's far too many of these things. I love it when I find a repeated mistake in my work that is easily fixed once I know what to look out for. It means I'm improving, hopefully.
Not in the context of "He performed that task well." but in the beginning of dialogue.
For example:
"Well, if you say so."
Notice how the sentence works perfectly fine as "If you say so."? This usage of the world is superfluous most of the time. It pops up a lot in dialogue, particularly if you're the kind of person who uses "Well..." in your everyday life to stall in speaking (as opposed to "Umm...")
This is fine if you have a character who is particularly nervous or hesitant. However, when you're using it in every character's speech, it not only increases your word count, but makes all your characters sound like they have the same voice.
I'm currently flipping through my manuscript, and there's far too many of these things. I love it when I find a repeated mistake in my work that is easily fixed once I know what to look out for. It means I'm improving, hopefully.
Thursday, September 18, 2008
Infatuation
So writing a book is like dating.
Okay, I'll admit that I'm not Casanova or Stephen King, so I'm not the most experienced person when it comes to either, but work with me here.
For some unknown reason, a lot of people get it in their heads that they want to write a book. The part of the brain responsible for this crazy phenomenon is likely the same one that leads people to jump out of airplanes for fun, buy lottery tickets, and try out for American Idol. Not even considering the near-impossibility of getting published, most people don't even manage to finish their book. Why is this?
Infatuation. The same thing that makes people ignore the obvious flaws in a new relationship keeps them from putting down the pen and realizing their writing sucks. They spend all their time thinking, "OMG, this book is going to be so cool and it's going to be unique and it's going to sell a gazillion copies once it's done!" without thinking about the short term of actually finishing the thing.
Even if their writing doesn't suck, when this infatuation goes away (usually about 1/3 of the way through their novel), they no longer have the drive to finish their masterpiece. It's no longer fresh, and while they may be looking forward to writing their exciting climax (if they haven't written it already), that big empty spot in the middle is so daunting that they just give up hope of ever finishing.
Things like NaNoWriMo exploit this infatuation by saying, "OMG if you can write 50,000 words in one month it'll be so cool and everyone will be here supporting you and once you've started your novel it's already half done!" Now, I don't know the statistics for how many of those books ever get completed, but I'd expect the number is less than half. That's not a bad thing -- I like the concept, and any excuse for the general public to become better at writing is beneficial. Otherwise, one day we'll be getting all our information through powerpoint slides and pop-up books (which, when you think about it, are pretty much the same thing.)
I'm currently in this infatuation stage with my second book. I've written the first three chapters, and it's going so well that I actually feel like writing over a thousand words every day. I'm taking advantage of this while I can, because I know at some point I'm going to hit that middle-slump and things will be slow-going once more.
The good thing about infatuation is that it means the author is excited about his/her work during the opening chapters. Readers can always tell when the author is bored, so having an exciting opening requires an excited writer typing out the words. When you put a book down somewhere in the middle, and never pick it back up, that's usually a case of the author's infatuation running out and making the transition between excitement and trudging along too obvious.
In any case, I should get back to chapter 4, instead of wasting all my words on this blog. Have to ration those out, ya know.
Okay, I'll admit that I'm not Casanova or Stephen King, so I'm not the most experienced person when it comes to either, but work with me here.
For some unknown reason, a lot of people get it in their heads that they want to write a book. The part of the brain responsible for this crazy phenomenon is likely the same one that leads people to jump out of airplanes for fun, buy lottery tickets, and try out for American Idol. Not even considering the near-impossibility of getting published, most people don't even manage to finish their book. Why is this?
Infatuation. The same thing that makes people ignore the obvious flaws in a new relationship keeps them from putting down the pen and realizing their writing sucks. They spend all their time thinking, "OMG, this book is going to be so cool and it's going to be unique and it's going to sell a gazillion copies once it's done!" without thinking about the short term of actually finishing the thing.
Even if their writing doesn't suck, when this infatuation goes away (usually about 1/3 of the way through their novel), they no longer have the drive to finish their masterpiece. It's no longer fresh, and while they may be looking forward to writing their exciting climax (if they haven't written it already), that big empty spot in the middle is so daunting that they just give up hope of ever finishing.
Things like NaNoWriMo exploit this infatuation by saying, "OMG if you can write 50,000 words in one month it'll be so cool and everyone will be here supporting you and once you've started your novel it's already half done!" Now, I don't know the statistics for how many of those books ever get completed, but I'd expect the number is less than half. That's not a bad thing -- I like the concept, and any excuse for the general public to become better at writing is beneficial. Otherwise, one day we'll be getting all our information through powerpoint slides and pop-up books (which, when you think about it, are pretty much the same thing.)
I'm currently in this infatuation stage with my second book. I've written the first three chapters, and it's going so well that I actually feel like writing over a thousand words every day. I'm taking advantage of this while I can, because I know at some point I'm going to hit that middle-slump and things will be slow-going once more.
The good thing about infatuation is that it means the author is excited about his/her work during the opening chapters. Readers can always tell when the author is bored, so having an exciting opening requires an excited writer typing out the words. When you put a book down somewhere in the middle, and never pick it back up, that's usually a case of the author's infatuation running out and making the transition between excitement and trudging along too obvious.
In any case, I should get back to chapter 4, instead of wasting all my words on this blog. Have to ration those out, ya know.
Thursday, September 11, 2008
Change
To quote Semisonic: "Every new beginning comes from some other beginning's end."
Novels begin (ideally) when a change to the status quo forces the characters to advance the plot forward instead of just sitting around and watch TV for the next 300 pages. A dramatic shift introduces conflicts to be fought, obstacles to be overcome, and goals to be reached. Much like what happened on this day years ago, we can't go back to the way things were, all we can do is move forward and see what happens.
My life has taken a dramatic shift recently. I won't go into all the gory details, suffice to say both my dating and my work life have done an about-face and I'm looking into a future that is not quite as certain. I'm not too bad off, as I've put some money aside, but things are not the way they used to be, and I'm going to have to find a new way of living.
Some might chalk this up to 'life experience' and say I can use it in my future writing. I'd like to respectfully give those people the middle finger.
In any case, things are going to be in flux for me over the next couple months, so I'm not sure yet just how much this blog and my writing will suffer. All I can do is hope that I can turn things around and find a new beginning that is better than the old one.
Novels begin (ideally) when a change to the status quo forces the characters to advance the plot forward instead of just sitting around and watch TV for the next 300 pages. A dramatic shift introduces conflicts to be fought, obstacles to be overcome, and goals to be reached. Much like what happened on this day years ago, we can't go back to the way things were, all we can do is move forward and see what happens.
My life has taken a dramatic shift recently. I won't go into all the gory details, suffice to say both my dating and my work life have done an about-face and I'm looking into a future that is not quite as certain. I'm not too bad off, as I've put some money aside, but things are not the way they used to be, and I'm going to have to find a new way of living.
Some might chalk this up to 'life experience' and say I can use it in my future writing. I'd like to respectfully give those people the middle finger.
In any case, things are going to be in flux for me over the next couple months, so I'm not sure yet just how much this blog and my writing will suffer. All I can do is hope that I can turn things around and find a new beginning that is better than the old one.
Sunday, August 31, 2008
Meeting Mr. Rothfuss
So just got back from the Decatur Book Festival, where I got a chance to meet Patrick Rothfuss, author of the amazing fantasy novel The Name of the Wind, which I have already reviewed on this blog. He was speaking in a forum along with Peter S. Beagle, author of such books as The Last Unicorn. They discussed at length the purpose of the fantasy genre, and how important it is to say 'What if?' and look beyond reality into the vastness of fantasy.
They answered questions afterward, and I got a chance to ask Mr. Rothfuss the following question:
"Before you were published, you were just some crazy guy who worked on a book for 12 years without anything to show for it. How did you go on? How did you know that this book was meant to be published, and not just a piece of crap to stow away in a shelf so no one would ever see it?"
His response (paraphrased because I didn't have a tape recorder or anything) was something along these lines:
At this point, Peter Beagle jumped in and said how he found it so ironic that he hated The Last Unicorn when he wrote it, and wouldn't look at it for one and a half years after it was published. Yet it's cherished today by so many people.
In any case, what Pat said really struck me because, to be honest, I wrote my own novel not because I wanted to become famous or even published, but because I had to. I had written before, but with this work the characters were screaming at me to tell their whole story. If all I cared about was publishing, I would've researched the industry more, known what the limits were, and written something formulaic. But I didn't. I wrote this story, the whole story, because I needed to tell it, even if only to one person in the world. And to be honest, even if it never gets published, I had the joy of the journey I made in seeing it complete. I got to see the characters born, the world created, and the tale told.
It's so much easier to write when you see it as play, and not as work, you know?
So I'd just like to thank Mr. Rothfuss for his words, his inspiration, and for chatting it up with one of his fans afterward. He's a really down-to-earth guy, and I wish him much success with the rest of his career. He certainly deserves it.
They answered questions afterward, and I got a chance to ask Mr. Rothfuss the following question:
"Before you were published, you were just some crazy guy who worked on a book for 12 years without anything to show for it. How did you go on? How did you know that this book was meant to be published, and not just a piece of crap to stow away in a shelf so no one would ever see it?"
His response (paraphrased because I didn't have a tape recorder or anything) was something along these lines:
"You don't go into writing thinking that you're going to be published and become a bestseller and make a million dollars. If you do that, then if you reach any height less than that, you're going to be disappointed. I mean, I knew the statistics -- only this many people try to write a book, only this many people finish, only this many people get published, and of those people, only a few can make a living and even less get rich.
You write because of the joy you derive from the journey. I mean, it's like when I went through college. Most people go through college saying 'I want to get a degree', whereas when I went there, I said, 'Wow, you can really LEARN stuff here!' So I signed up for all these electives and I didn't go through saying, 'Hey, if I spend ten years in college I'll get a really good job!' No, I wasn't looking at the job, I was looking at the experience and the wonder of all these new things.
And to be honest, there was a point about 5 years in when I was writing the book, typing away..." Rothfuss makes keyboard-tapping motions on the table. "...and I just stopped and said, '...this is crap!' This was just pure and utter crap and no one will ever read it and what do I think I'm doing? And it wasn't just a thought, it was an epiphany. This was really complete crap!"
Rothfuss pauses for a good second or two, shrugs, then goes back to making typing motions on the table. Audience laughs.
"I just had to keep working on it, because of the joy I was getting out of it. You don't write for that publication or fame or whatever. You write for the joy of writing."
At this point, Peter Beagle jumped in and said how he found it so ironic that he hated The Last Unicorn when he wrote it, and wouldn't look at it for one and a half years after it was published. Yet it's cherished today by so many people.
In any case, what Pat said really struck me because, to be honest, I wrote my own novel not because I wanted to become famous or even published, but because I had to. I had written before, but with this work the characters were screaming at me to tell their whole story. If all I cared about was publishing, I would've researched the industry more, known what the limits were, and written something formulaic. But I didn't. I wrote this story, the whole story, because I needed to tell it, even if only to one person in the world. And to be honest, even if it never gets published, I had the joy of the journey I made in seeing it complete. I got to see the characters born, the world created, and the tale told.
It's so much easier to write when you see it as play, and not as work, you know?
So I'd just like to thank Mr. Rothfuss for his words, his inspiration, and for chatting it up with one of his fans afterward. He's a really down-to-earth guy, and I wish him much success with the rest of his career. He certainly deserves it.
Thursday, August 28, 2008
Blogdust
So I haven't posted in a while, obviously. There have been a few reasons for that.
First of all, there have been some changes outside my writing life that have demanded my attention, and those things have also distracted me from the blog.
Secondly, I did what I'm calling the final 'self-revision' of my book, where (barring opinions from others), I don't touch the book except to send it out to agents. Since that entailed trimming it down (again) to 159k, it took a while.
Lastly, I'm starting on my next book.
I have various reasons for this. First of all, it gets me back to writing, instead of endlessly revising. Secondly, it helps make waiting for responses to my queries easier. And of course, if I can't manage to sell my first book, I'll eventually have a second one to pitch, with evolved writing and a shorter word count.
Yeesh, I'm being listy today.
My first temptation was to start working on the sequel to the first book, but obviously selling a sequel requires my selling the first one, which isn't guaranteed. Besides, if I manage to sell this new book, it makes selling my original easier, since I won't be a first time author.
The new work currently sits at just over 4000 words, and things are going pretty well. What's the book about? Well, that's a secret, but I will say that it's a fantasy novel tentatively titled "The Spirit Shifter".
First of all, there have been some changes outside my writing life that have demanded my attention, and those things have also distracted me from the blog.
Secondly, I did what I'm calling the final 'self-revision' of my book, where (barring opinions from others), I don't touch the book except to send it out to agents. Since that entailed trimming it down (again) to 159k, it took a while.
Lastly, I'm starting on my next book.
I have various reasons for this. First of all, it gets me back to writing, instead of endlessly revising. Secondly, it helps make waiting for responses to my queries easier. And of course, if I can't manage to sell my first book, I'll eventually have a second one to pitch, with evolved writing and a shorter word count.
Yeesh, I'm being listy today.
My first temptation was to start working on the sequel to the first book, but obviously selling a sequel requires my selling the first one, which isn't guaranteed. Besides, if I manage to sell this new book, it makes selling my original easier, since I won't be a first time author.
The new work currently sits at just over 4000 words, and things are going pretty well. What's the book about? Well, that's a secret, but I will say that it's a fantasy novel tentatively titled "The Spirit Shifter".
Thursday, July 31, 2008
Guest Blog
For those interested, I wrote a guest Blog for Writer Unboxed, which was posted today. Head over there if you'd like to check it out.
Monday, July 14, 2008
The New Opening
As I have mentioned, I recently did a complete revision of my book, which among other things, completely changed my opening three chapters. Today, after having my first page posted on Flogging the Quill, I have decided to upload the first five pages (including an updated first page) of my novel for everyone to see. They can be found here, or from clicking the link on the left sidebar. Enjoy.
Wednesday, July 9, 2008
Gluttons For Punishment, Get Your Rejections Here!
As posted over on Lit Soup, the L. Perkins Literary Agency is giving out personal rejection letters to queries received over the course of the next two weeks (until the 23rd). Naturally, if your query is good enough, they'll ask for a partial, but if you've ever griped about 'those lazy, insensitive agents sending nothing but form rejections', here's your chance to get an honest opinion on your work.
Oh, and please, if you do receive a rejection, take it like a man (or woman, as applicable), and don't send them hate-mail back. That sort of negative thinking is what makes personalized rejections such a rarity in the first place.
Oh, and please, if you do receive a rejection, take it like a man (or woman, as applicable), and don't send them hate-mail back. That sort of negative thinking is what makes personalized rejections such a rarity in the first place.
Tuesday, July 8, 2008
Time Goes By
I apologize for not posting much lately, but I have been busy discussing my work with beta readers and critiquers, sending queries out, and other mundane, not-interesting-to-blog-about topics. That said, a few interesting things I learned in the past few weeks:
If you're looking for whether or not a word is appropriate for your fantasy novel, sites like this can give you a good estimate.
Posting your entire novel into sites like this tends to break them, particularly when your book is over 150k words.
The Cayman Islands seem obsessed with reptiles, be they turtles, iguanas, or various lizards. You can get all sorts of stuff there made out of turtles (for eating or otherwise), but can't ship them into the USA. Also, instead of squirrels, they just have lots of chickens, which is a lot more convenient when you think about it, because people look at you strange if you eat squirrel.
This looks like a pretty good summer for movies. I saw Wall-E and Wanted in the same weekend, and both were good. I'm looking forward to seeing Hancock.
Plugging a deep-fat-fryer and a griddle into the wall that holds your fridge and stove when you KNOW the wiring for the stove is funky... bad idea.
Having lived in the South for half my life, I decided to try sweet tea again. I still hate it.
If you're looking for whether or not a word is appropriate for your fantasy novel, sites like this can give you a good estimate.
Posting your entire novel into sites like this tends to break them, particularly when your book is over 150k words.
The Cayman Islands seem obsessed with reptiles, be they turtles, iguanas, or various lizards. You can get all sorts of stuff there made out of turtles (for eating or otherwise), but can't ship them into the USA. Also, instead of squirrels, they just have lots of chickens, which is a lot more convenient when you think about it, because people look at you strange if you eat squirrel.
This looks like a pretty good summer for movies. I saw Wall-E and Wanted in the same weekend, and both were good. I'm looking forward to seeing Hancock.
Plugging a deep-fat-fryer and a griddle into the wall that holds your fridge and stove when you KNOW the wiring for the stove is funky... bad idea.
Having lived in the South for half my life, I decided to try sweet tea again. I still hate it.
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