Wednesday, July 15, 2015

Links of Interest

COMPOUNDING CONFLICT IN YOUR STORY USING “JURASSIC PARK” (SPOILERS) AS AN EXAMPLE:


THE VALUE OF BETA READERS:


ARE YOU USING TOO MUCH INTERNAL DIALOG IN YOUR FICTION?


NEGOTIATING A CONTRACT, PART 2:


KEYWORDS, CATEGORIES, ETC. FOR AMAZON AUTHORS:


WAYS TO CREATE CHARACTERS:


USING POV TO STRENGTHEN YOUR STORY’S CHARACTER:


AVOIDING DEAD END DIALOGUE:


THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN SPAM AND PROMOTION:


CREATING A GOOD CHARACTER ARC AND AVOIDING A BAD ONE:


PARANORMAL SHORT STORY MARKET:


AUTHORS GUILD WANTS 50/50 ROYALTIES ON EBOOKS FROM THE BIG PUBLISHERS:


WORLDBUILDING, USING ANCIENT MAGIC:


USING SOME OF AMAZON’S MARKETING TRICKS:


A REVIEW OF JAMES PATTERSON’S MASTER’S CLASS IN WRITING:


WHAT EDITORS DON’T WANT TO SEE:


MORE ON GETTING SELF-PUBS IN LIBRARIES AND THE NONPAYMENT ISSUE:


THE ONE TYPE OF EDIT YOU REALLY NEED:


CONFLICT AND EMOTIONAL NARRATIVE AS PACING:


DENIAL AND BURIED SECRETS AS A WAY TO GIVE CHARACTERS DEPTH:


WHAT ISN’T SAID IS SOMETIMES THE BEST DIALOGUE:



Monday, July 13, 2015

Sex and the Single Alien

The sexy alien has long been a media staple, but it has never been an accepted trope in literary science fiction which has higher standards of accuracy.  

If an author tosses in a sexy alien who is not only sexually compatible but also offers offspring, she might as well give up any hope of having people who read "real" science fiction as readers.

Aliens, according to many scientists, probably won't look like humans. You can create a reason why aliens do look like humans if you want to. I did for my race, the N'Videri in THE ONCE AND FUTURE QUEEN. (Note: ONCE is sf adventure/space opera so readers give you a bit more leeway than in standard sf, and I was counting on that leeway.)

In my worldbuilding, the N'Videri protected and nurtured those races who looked like them and pushed evolution for bipeds on certain planets so that they would have living camouflage for their own secretive presence in space. Humans, unlike many space races, were protected from conquest or self-destruction so they went safely into space.

It is extremely unlikely that a human and alien could produce a child. Human DNA has more in common with Earth grass DNA than it would have with any alien. 

Alien differences would also make breeding unattractive. For example, find two old pennies that are made of real copper. Wash them really well then put them in your mouth. The seriously nasty taste is what kissing Spock with his copper-based blood would taste like. 

Anything more than a small amount of copper is also toxic to humans and an effective, if hazardous, spermicide so there’s no way in heck that Spock would have been born even with scientific help.

Aliens that are essentially humanoid forms of Earth animals have their own problems. Fish reproduce outside of the body. (The female lays the eggs, and the male sprays his sperm on them then.) That's not exactly wild or possible sex for a human female. Lizards and snakes have a much cooler body temperature than we do. Part of the sexual excitement of the act involves heat.  A cold-blooded male in a hot-blooded female would be uncomfortable for both parties.  A hot-blooded male in a cold-blooded female might very well lose his erection because of the chill.

Aliens based on mammals have the danger of bestiality to be considered. Most of us are repelled rather than excited by reading about a human sexual encounter with a dog, big cat, horse, or whatever. Werewolves and other were-animals also have this problem unless they change into human form for sex.

I'm sure some people get their sexual buzz from all the above, especially in erotica which has little to do with logic or scientific accuracy and probably shouldn't, but any writer who wants their books read outside of a narrow category of readers has to consider such things.

Wednesday, July 8, 2015

Links of Interest

USING PARALLEL TIMELINES:


DOING A PHOTO SHOOT FOR YOUR BOOK COVER:


USING METADATA TO IMPROVE SALES OF YOUR SELF-PUBBED BOOK:


CHARACTER MOTIVATION:


HOW TO CREATE A SMARTPHONE “SHOWCASE” FOR YOUR BOOK:


HOW SELF-PUBS CAN HAVE THEIR BOOKS DISTRIBUTED TO LIBRARIES:


MAKING YOUR CRITIQUE GROUP FLOURISH:


MISPLACED MODIFIERS, THE SCOURGE OF MANY WRITERS:


SAVING A BUNDLE ON EDITING COSTS:


THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN CATEGORY ROMANCE AND SINGLE TITLE:


WRITING REALISTIC DIALOGUE:


GIVING YOUR CHARACTER A GOAL:


MAKING SENSE OF THE FIRST DRAFT:


CONNECTING PLOT POINTS:


WHEN THE STAKES AREN’T HIGH ENOUGH IN YOUR STORY:


WORKING ON THE SAGGING MIDDLE OF THE BOOK:


SELF-PUBLISHING PLATFORMS:


TELL BETTER, SHOW MORE:


THE DREADED DREAM SEQUENCE:


THE BIG PROBLEM WITH THE NEW AMAZON REVIEW ALGORITHM: 


SETTING THE RIGHT TONE FOR YOUR STORY:


THREE WAYS TO TEST TENSION AND PACING IN YOUR STORY:


BOOK MARKETING, STARTING WITH A SMALL GROUP:


USING LINKEDIN TO SELL BOOKS:



Monday, July 6, 2015

Figuring Out that Cover Copy

QUESTION: I’ve read your article on blurbs, but I still can’t figure out one for my book.  Help!

If my tools aren't enough to dissect your book into a blurb, you may want to get some second opinions (critique or beta readers) on the book to see if you have a coherent plot with your main character's goal firmly in place.  If you don't, you are probably far from the point of self-publishing or sending it out to agents or publishers.

If even this doesn’t help, you may have a truly different book.  Years ago, I helped one of my science fiction publisher's authors with the blurb from hell.  Her novel was a series of mythic stories within stories within stories like A THOUSAND AND ONE NIGHTS, and we ended up using a comparison to NIGHTS and a famous book of amassed mythology but on speed.  A comparison like this works only in cases of desperation, and you need a comparison that many readers would know.   

Once you have your blurb written, get your critique partners or some helpful reader friends to read it to see if it draws them in.  Make sure they actually read this kind of book.

There is, also, one site that does query critiques— Agent Query.   

Every so often, one of the sites I check for my “Links of Interest” posts will have a temporary free critique offer so keep an eye out for those in my Wednesday links post.

Good luck!


Wednesday, July 1, 2015

Links of Interest

FIVE WAYS POV MAKES YOU A BETTER WRITER:


THE VACUUM OF SPACE AND THE HUMAN BODY:


FOUR DANGERS OF WRITING GROUPS AND HOW TO FIX THEM:


CREATING AWESOME SECONDARY CHARACTERS:


USING BACKSTORY EFFECTIVELY:


BUILDING A BLOG TOUR:


TIPS FOR EFFECTIVE RESEARCH:


NEGOTIATING A CONTRACT:


HELP FINDING A CRITIQUE PARTNER OR GROUP:


PUTTING BLOG READERS FIRST:


DESIGNING A READABLE BLOG POST:


HOW TO BOOKS ON FANTASY WRITING:


UNDERSTAND GIRL GROUP DYNAMICS:


PUNCHING UP YOUR ACTION SCENE:


AN OVERVIEW OF PUBLISHING’S INTEREST AND REACTION TO CURRENT CHANGES:


TWEAKING AN UNLIKEABLE CHARACTHER:


HOW STARTING WITH ACTION CAN FAIL AND HOW NOT TO:


THE PSYCHOLOGY OF A GOOD BEGINNING OF A STORY:


RAMPING UP TENSION AND PACING:



Monday, June 29, 2015

Formating Telepathic Dialog

QUESTION: I have a character who is a telepath. Should I italicize what she picks up from others' minds?

If the characters are "speaking" mentally, I've often seen authors italicize the conversation.

Mary thought to Matt, What happened to my son?

He fell into the river but grabbed a log.

If, however, Mary is picking up the images from Matt's head, I'd do something like this--

Mary tilted her head and concentrated harder on what Matt was trying to show her with his thoughts.

Darkness. A river surging past. A hand reaching out of the water and grasping a log. Then her son's head coming up out of the water as he pulls himself up onto the floating log.

"He's not dead," Mary sobbed and rubbed away her tears. "Billy's not dead."


I’ve also seen writers use colons for mental dialogue in the same way as you would use quotation marks. 

Mary thought to Matt, :What happened to my son?:

:He fell into the river but grabbed a log.:

The advantage of using the colon is that there will be no confusion about when speakers change.


Wednesday, June 24, 2015

Links of Interest

BANDING TOGETHER FOR PUBLICITY:


A TIP FOR USING FIRST PERSON:


CREATING AN UNFORGETTABLE VILLAIN:


QUESTIONS TO ASK YOURSELF AS YOU ARE EDITING:


AMAZON’S PAY PER PAGE, SOME INTERESTING THOUGHS AND ANALYSIS:


STRAGEGIC BLOGGING TO FIND READERS:


BEST MARKETING STRATEGIES:


PICKING THE RIGHT WORDPRESS THEME FOR YOUR BLOG:


WRITING EFFECTIVE DIALOG:

IS YOUR MAIN CHARACTER WORTHY OF YOUR READER’S ATTENTION?


FOUR WAYS TO IMPROVE PACING:


FIVE WAYS WRITERS GET LAZY:


STORY 101, WRITING CHARACTER:


LESSONS LEARNED IN LINE EDITING:


YOUR CHARACTER’S SECRETS AND HOW TO USE THEM:


AVOIDING GUN ERRORS:


EFFECTIVE WAYS TO SHOW CHARACTER EMOTIONS: