Wednesday, August 29, 2012

Links of Interest


SETTING UP YOUR NOVEL IN THE FIRST PARAGRAPHS:

WHAT TO DO WHEN YOU RUN OUT OF PLOT:

HOW TO CREATE A CHARACTER:

THE NEW WORDS IN THE OXFORD ENGLISH DICTIONARY “mwahahaha:”


HOW TO MAKE YOUR COMPUTER, SMARTPHONE, ETC., LESS VULNERABLE TO A HACK:



PACING:



UPING THE STAKES:



TWENTY WAYS TO CRY:



PAINTING A SCENE WITH WORDS:



FREE SOFTWARE OF USE TO WRITERS:



GETTING TO THE CORE OF YOUR CHARACTERS:



TURNING VERY MINOR CHARACTERS INTO ONE CHARACTER:



RELIGION IN WORLDBUILDING:



PUTTING CONFLICT IN THE SCENE, NOT YOUR CHARACTER’S HEAD:



PICKING UP THE PACE IN YOUR STORY:



Sunday, August 26, 2012

Bad Weather and Authors


I rerun this article a lot because of the various disasters that continually plague us, and with Isaac plowing into Florida on the way to the Gulf Coast and the wild fires in the West, I thought it a good time to post this article, yet again.

Here in North Carolina, we probably will get a little rain from Isaac but little else, but emergency teams from the Red Cross, the power companies, and state emergency management are already on the road heading south to help our fellow Southerners.  Good thoughts and prayers are also headed your way from those of us who have lived through disasters like this.

A bit of advice I want to emphasis here is that, even if you aren’t in the path of a storm or other disaster, your Internet provider or the company which hosts your website, blog, or whatever may be, and your content may be lost forever if you don’t back up.  

Most blog sites, etc., offer a means of backup in their control sections so make use of that service NOW.

Marilynn


Are you, as a writer, ready for bad weather or emergencies?

Preparing for bad weather can be as simple as having a storm alert radio that will cut on, if dangerous weather approaches, so you can shut down that computer before lightning fries it. The storm alert radio also doesn't interfere with writing like a regular radio for those of us who like to work in quiet. 

Is your computer plugged into an alternate power source (APS) so it won't be damaged or your current work lost if the power goes out?   (If you are still not sure what an APS is, go here for an example: http://www.officedepot.com/a/products/911559/APC-Back-UPS-ES-550-Battery/?cm_cat=2000000371

Most alternate power source makers claim an APS with a surge protector will protect your computer and peripherals from lightning, but nothing will protect electronics from a close lightning hit. A good friend lost everything when lightning hit a transformer over a block away, and he had high-end surge protectors and an APS system. 

The safest thing to do is unplug everything, including the APS. 

Also remember to unplug your modem from the electricity and your computer. Dial-up modems are particularly prone to lightning. A cable modem is supposed to be much safer, but I err on the side of paranoia and unplug mine.

If you have a laptop as well as a desktop, you need to keep it charged to use during bad weather so keep it plugged in, but remember to unplug it, as well, when a storm comes. 

If you want to keep working through bad weather, remember to save a copy of your work to a flash disk, CD, or whatever to move your work to your laptop so you can continue to work. 

Weather preparation isn't just for a short summer or winter storm. It's for major disasters like hurricanes, tornadoes, and wild fires. Always have a back-up copy of all your works in another location, or, better yet, several locations.

In the days before I wrote by computer, I had paper copies of my books at my home, my mom's beach house, and my brother's home near Charlotte. Despite being in different parts of the state, all three homes were damaged by Hurricane Hugo, but the manuscripts stayed safe. That experience has reaffirmed my determination to keep copies of my manuscripts and important papers elsewhere.

These days, I also keep a flash disk copy of my books in my safety deposit box at the bank so I can keep my updates recent. A flash disk or drive, if you're not familiar with the term, is one of those tiny storage units you plug directly into your USB or Firewire connection on your computer or iPod.  

You can also store your works and your computer contents online at storage sites, but as recent outages and disasters have proven, online or “in the cloud” shouldn’t be your only storage solution.  I have my own personal paranoia about how hacker-proof these sites are, as well, so I’ve avoided using online as a storage solution.

It's always a good idea to have an emergency bag or briefcase for your writing partially packed and ready to go in case you need to get out fast because of an approaching hurricane or wild fire. 

Things to keep in this bag include a power plug for your laptop and an updated flash drive. Also include copies of current book contracts as well as notes, etc., of what you are working with at the time.   A paper list of all  your passwords is another must.

It would also be prudent to have a recent complete copy of your computer drive in case  your home computer is destroyed.

If you use an external hard drive as a backup, you can pack this up very carefully.  (Motion can damage desktop innards.)

This bag is also a good place to store a copy of your house and car insurance, pictures of your valuables, etc., in case disaster strikes. Also include a CD with copies of your favorite family pictures, etc., in case the worst happens, and there's no home to return to.

Make a list of the last minute things you will need to pack and stick that in the front of the bag. When emergencies happen, we tend to forget the most basic things so that list will be well worth the time.

Monday, August 20, 2012

PERCEPTION and the Art of Creating Characters


I’ve always been a sucker for a mystery show involving a brainiac of some sort who helps an FBI agent or police detective solve crimes. NUMBERS, BONES, love them.  So it’s no surprise that I love the new TNT show, PERCEPTION.

Dr. Daniel Pierce is a neuroscientist who is a world-class expert on the brain, and he’s also an obsessive puzzle solver.  He works with a former student, FBI Agent Kate Moretti, when a witness or possible criminal appears to have some form of mental illness or brain damage.  

But the catch is that Pierce is a schizophrenic who is prone to hallucinations and who doesn’t have very good people or coping skills in the real world.  

He can’t tell the difference between an hallucination and a real person so he’s followed around by an assistant who verifies what is real and what isn’t and tries to keep him on an even emotional keel.

When a puzzle in the shape of a crime appears, he is prone to see elements of the puzzle as people hallucinations.  A man on a bike who appears where he shouldn’t is Pierce’s subconscious nudging him about a clue in some photos he saw that had a bike rider in the background.  

When he tries to solve a cypher, his hallucination is a British WWII cryptographer who helps him talk through to a solution.  

In each episode his emotional life and his past are examined by his conversations with the hallucination of a beautiful woman who may have been his lover years before.  

What does this have to do with writing?  The use of the hallucinations is brilliant writing, but it also shows what most writers do as we create the framework for our scenes and novels.  

Most characters aren’t just characters.  They are there to show readers the elements of the story.  

The best friend isn’t just there so the writer can have them talk about things to avoid way too much introspection from the main character.  The best friend is often there because she represents the emotional goal or part of the journey.  She pushes at the heroine’s resistance to change or whatever so the heroine must face her own issues, and the reader can become aware of them.

Another character may the literal embodiment of an opposing viewpoint.  He may represent people who don’t believe in the supernatural while the heroine is trying to face her own ability to see ghosts.  He is busy telling her that ghosts don’t exist and only people with mental illnesses see them so he’s stating many of her own fears about this new ability.

Still another may believe so much in the supernatural that her statements are so ridiculous and extreme that the heroine cringes that she may be as foolish. 

Like Daniel Pierce in PERCEPTION, a good writer must create the story as people who are part of a puzzle the reader must solve in order to see the final and complete picture of the story.

NOTE: If you are a TV STAR TREK fan, keep a close eye on the guest stars.  Many are former TREK actors from the various TREK franchises.  Levar Burton has a recurring role as the head of Pierce’s college department.

Wednesday, August 15, 2012

Links of Interest


PUTTING EMOTION INTO YOUR CHARACTERS:

WHAT YOU SHOULD BE GETTING FROM SOCIAL NETWORKING AT EACH STAGE OF YOUR CAREER:

WHEN TO ITALICIZE:

SYNOPSIS WRITING 101:

ORAL PITCHES 101:

AGENT CONTRACT CLAUSES AND HOW THEY CAN SCREW AUTHORS:

WHAT TO DO WHEN YOUR WORD COUNT IS WAY TOO LOW:

GRAMMAR, MODIFIER MISTAKES:

UNPREDICTABLE PLOTS:

THIS YEAR’S WINNERS OF THE BULWER-LYTTON CONTEST FOR THE WORST UNPUBLISHED SENTENCE OF A NOVEL:

TEN LINKS TO FAMOUS AUTHORS ON HOW THEY OUTLINE:

A COLUMNIST WRITES ABOUT HOW PIRACY IS DESTROYING MUSIC:

THE RED FLAGS OF WRITING CONTESTS:

 INTERVIEW WITH THE PUBLISHER OF BELLEBOOKS:

SOME SERIAL KILLERS BELIEVE THEY WILL GAIN SUPERNATURAL POWERS WITH THEIR MURDERS:

EIGHT TIPS FOR PROMOTING YOUR BOOK ONLINE:

SHOW VISCERAL REACTIONS FIRST:

Monday, August 13, 2012

Beware the Bungling Bad Guy


I’ve written a great deal about bad guys and how to create them and use them, but one problem I see from other writers is defining the villain as a super menace then turning him into a bungling idiot so the good guy can keep escaping.

In the novel I just finished, the hired killer after the hero and his friends is billed as a professional killer with a military background who has killed dozens of people leaving no real trace.   In his first appearance, this assassin is in the audience of the man who is supposed to be his first victim in the story.  

The hero is a professional magician who supposedly reads the minds of the audience.  The assassin volunteers to be mind-read then tries and fails to kill the magician with a small pocket knife no self-respecting professional killer would use while a spotlight is on him in front of hundreds of witnesses.  

Later, the assassin has trouble killing an dottering, elderly couple, and the only way he can get to other victims who know he is after them is for them to be too stupid to live.  

Needless to say, this inept bad guy sucked the energy right out of the plot.

Don’t tell the reader that your bad guy is a super menace then have him show himself as worse than an amateur because you need the tension to keep the story moving forward.  Really put yourself in the bad guy’s shoes.  If he has a military background and training as an assassin, let him use it.  

Instead, let him fail through luck on the part of the good guys or a supposed victim’s unexpected skill or knowledge.  

Artificial suspense by telling rather than showing a bad guy’s skills is no suspense at all.

Wednesday, August 8, 2012

Links of Interest

TRICKS TO BETTER DIALOGUE:

A NONFICTION READING LIST FOR WRITERS USING MYTHS OR MYTH ELEMENTS IN THEIR STORIES:

CONTRACT CLAUSES TO AVOID, THE NON-COMPETITION CLAUSE:

DISCOVERING THE READING LEVEL OF YOUR WRITING, ESPECIALLY GOOD FOR YOUNG ADULT WRITERS:

MARKETS, NOVELS AND SHORT STORIES:

NAMING YOUR CHARACTERS:

CONFUSING WORDS:

STORYBOARDING TO PLOT A NOVEL:

MINIMIZING YOUR RISKS OF HAVING ALL YOUR ACCOUNTS HACKED:

HOW POINT OF VIEW WORKS, MORE ESOTERIC THAN PRACTICAL ADVICE BUT INTERESTING:

CREATING STRONG WRITING:

GETTING TO THE CORE PERSONALITY OF YOUR CHARACTERS:

AGENT QUERY LETTERS 101:

Monday, August 6, 2012

Marilyn Monroe and Genre Writing

After Marilyn Monroe was dressed for going out and finished with her makeup, she'd study herself in a full length mirror, then turn her back and glance back at herself.  Whatever element of her makeup jumped out at her, she'd make less noticeable.  She'd do this until she had a complete look.

I've always thought this story is an excellent metaphor for writing genre fiction.  Anything like overwriting, fancy words, and moments of being too clever need to be toned down.

That doesn't mean that a viewpoint character can't be clever or use an occasional big word if it fits his personality, but it should be the viewpoint character, not the author.

During the rewriting process, be sure to look for things that stand out too much and remove them so the story is what is important, not your writing.

Wednesday, August 1, 2012

Links of Interest

FIVE PRACTICAL LINKS FOR WRITERS (MAINLY SOFTWARE):
REVERSION CLAUSES, A REALLY THOUGHTFUL LOOK AT WHY WRITERS SHOULD AVOID THEM:
WHICH TYPE OF OPENING WORKS BEST?
TOP TEN QUERY MISTAKES:
THIS FREE WIDGET FOR BLOGS AND WEBSITES ALLOWS READERS TO BUY YOUR BOOK AT MOST ONLINE BOOKSTORES: