Category Archives: The Writing Life

The Number One Rule of Cons

Colette Black The Writing Life 5 Comments

After attending World Fantasy Convention a couple of weeks ago, I thought it fitting to do a post about such a monumental annual convention. I could talk about the workshops I attended, the interviews with Neil Gaimon, the nearly hyperventilating fans coursing around him, or the amazing information and advice I received from well-published authors. I could talk about my first public reading of my own published work; it went well and I enjoyed doing it more than I ever thought possible. Instead, I’m going to rehash a subject that I’ve seen blogged multiple times, but I don’t think it can ever be said enough. The number one rule of cons, of being in the public eye, of our dealings in our private lives, of being a human being: be nice.

There were a few notable authors/agents/editors I met or became reacquainted with who, in my opinion, handled this side of public relations exceptionally well. I hope we can all learn from their examples. Number one on my how-could-you-be-so-nice list was author David Brin. I met him for a total of, maybe, ten seconds in a bar. He walked by, I said hello, his eyes lit up, he shook my hand effusively and with a genuine smile he asked my name and said it’s nice to meet you. Then I glanced at his name tag and realized who I was talking to. I didn’t have to recognize him, say anything great about his books, or be introduced by someone he knows in order for him to be cheerful, pleasant and friendly.

Julie Wright effused the same outgoing acceptance. I almost felt like I’d found a sister after talking with her for only a couple of minutes. Amazing people. I met David B. Coe who was extremely nice even after I ran into him repeatedly within a short amount of time and probably seemed like a stalker.

Am I name-dropping? Oh, yeah. To prove a point. Because they’re so nice and willing to hang around with the new, unproven writers, I’m going to be looking for more books by them. In fact, I bought some at the convention and I’ll be paying attention to these particular writers in the future. I’m throwing their names around on our blog and making positive comments because they were nice. It’s as good for business as it is for life in general. Since I’m on a role, Mary Robinette Kowal, Jessica Day George, and Patrick Rothfuss are some other authors who made themselves available and took time to meet and talk with other attendees.

Only matters with writers? I don’t think so. Cherry Weiner, one of the best agents in the field, whom I’ve met and talked with multiple times has given me advice and help despite the fact that I have nothing for her. She doesn’t represent my genre. Still, I would bend over backward for this woman and do anything I could to help her clients if it was within my capability.

An editor from Baen, Jim Menz, remembered me from a brief meeting two years before, excitedly told me about an upcoming line of books, and mentioned some authors with great projects coming out. I will be on the lookout for those authors and projects.

On the flip side, an agent whom I met for the second time at WFC wouldn’t look at me when he talked to me, talked in clipped, annoyed tones, and literally turned his back on me. I wasn’t pitching, I wasn’t asking for anything, and all I’d attempted was to ask about upcoming projects I might be interested to read. I already knew he wasn’t a fit for my work. This unfortunate incident has made me reticent to read the authors he represents and tainted my attitude toward the ones I already liked. Do I have it in for him or anything? Of course not, and I know he’s a great agent. I won’t be pointing him out so I can make derogatory comments. That wouldn’t be nice. There were a few other authors/agents/editors who seemed to avoid people and only pasted on a smile when introduced through someone they already knew.

Now I’m not saying we should hold grudges, make judgments, or plan business decisions based on these types of interactions. I didn’t even realize I had these feelings, ultra-positive or negative, until I was thinking about writing this post and the impact the con had on me as a writer.  But I know my experiences affect my perception of the books I read and people I want to work with or support.

So, it’s been said before and I’ll say it again: number one rule, no matter how important you become, is to be nice…to EVERYONE. Seems simple, but I’m sure I’ve had my moments, too. I don’t like crowds and socializing wears me out. I wrote this blog as much for myself as anyone else.

Oh, and I have to mention the amazing illustrator, Lee Moyer, who will not only be at the top of my list for cover art because of his amazing skill, but also because he’s just such a nice guy.

Burst Writing

Craft & Skills Frank Morin The Writing Life 4 Comments

This is not a new term, but the concept is new to me this year.  In a nutshell, it means writing as much as possible in a concentrated burst, like a sprinter in the 100-yard dash.  You can cover a lot of ground this way really fast.  It’s a lot like the November NaNo challenge, only even more intense.

It’s extremely productive, so why don’t I do it all the time?  Two reasons:

First, it requires setting aside a block of time in which to burst-write.  This is challenging in our hectic lives and limited vacation time.

Second, we need to be prepared.  You can’t sit down at your computer at the beginning of a burst sprint and ask yourself, “Now what should I write about?”  It would be like trying to sprint through a bamboo forest.  You won’t get very far.

A successful burst sprint is the culmination of a great deal of prep work.  Just like an Olympic sprint, which may only take a few seconds, can only be successful after months of preparation by the sprinters.

I have historically written more like a long-distance runner: slow and steady.  Depending on my work schedule, I might get to write once a week for a couple of hours, or not at all.  I’ve pushed myself to write daily, and for a few months this year I managed to do it.

I tried burst-writing this year for the first time.  I set aside a week in March and physically removed myself from all of the normal day-to-day distractions and just write.  For the first time, I’d developed a detailed outline of the story I wanted to write.  I had already written the first few chapters, soI felt like I had the character voices down pretty well, and I had a plan in place.

In one week, I wrote 52,000 words.  See my full blog post about the event here

Major success.  I completed about half of my novel.  I am currently working on the second draft of that same novel.  The burst was the culmination of several months of worldbuilding, brainstorming, planning, and outlining.

Lessons learned from the writing burst:

  1. Plan well.  I did have a pretty good outline, but I hadn’t addressed a few key concepts in the book, and I’ve had to go back in the second draft and revise.
  2. Don’t need an entire week.  Out of that week, I was most productive over a four-day period, averaging over 10,000 words per day.  It was hard to set aside an entire week, but it would be a lot easier to take a weekend and hide away somewhere for two or three days.  I could reasonably expect to complete at least 25,000 words in that timeframe.  That’s pretty good.  Outside of a burst-sprint, it can take weeks or even months to write that much, depending on my schedule.
  3. Don’t edit while writing.  To crank out that many words, you have to trust the plan and let your fingers fly.  Just write and keep pushing through the story.  This is where a weak outline will kill you because if you hit a snag or don’t know what happens next, you’ll totally lose your momentum.

One of the greatest benefits of burst-writing is seeing solid progress in a short period of time.  It’s exciting.  Sometimes the slow, plodding pace I’m forced into can be a little discouraging.  I start wondering if I’m ever going to finish.  Burst sprints help re-vitalize my enthusiasm and keeps me focused on the project.

I am gearing up for another burst-writing session, probably 3 or 4 days in length.  I was hoping to do it in November as part of the NaNo challenge, but the timing didn’t work out.  I’m still editing this story, and my outline of the next novel is only about 70% complete.  I’m hoping for a small burst sprint in December, with a longer one in January.

Until then, I look for one day a week where I can mini-burst:  at least 3 hours of dedicated, focused time.  Sometimes all I get is an hour, but longer periods are so much more productive because I can get in “the zone’ and stay there, cranking out the words.

For me, a two-hour minimum block of time is most productive.   What have other people found works best for them?  Have you tried burst-writing?  Has it worked for you?

The Invisible Library

P.S. Demian Reading 3 Comments

I love collecting digital bits.

And I am considered an early adopter by friends.

As disorganized as I may be with files littering my virtual and actual desktops, I have an excellent track record of not losing digital data. Misplacing, yes, but my backup processes are fairly secure.

I hit the save key reflexively every few seconds or whenever I stop typing. I email copies of documents to myself to ensure they’re backed up in the cloud. I have onsite and offsite physical backups of all my files.

Ever since the advent of the Kindle and the iPad, I’ve been delighted. There are so many ways to access the rich library of documents I’ve been squirreling away for all these years. And with tools like Dropbox and various PDF viewers on the iPad, I’ve been able to have useful subsets of my digital library with me wherever I go.

Recently I’ve even begun backing up bits of my library. I’ve taken a number of big tomes and sent them to Blue Leaf Bookscanning to get turned into PDFs and word documents and even robot-read audiobooks.

But there’s a cost for me to digitization.

Serendipity.

In my home I have bookshelves. Many of them. And I have an area where I keep all my language books. And sometimes, when I walk over to that part of the shelf, I feel compelled to learn some more Portuguese verbs. Or another Latin phrase. It’s not planned.

I have another shelf full of mid 1800s American “Cyclopediae”. Had I planned to look up something in that? Not really. Was I enriched by it? Yes.

I have a shelf next to my bed, supposed to be a nightstand. It’s actually a two foot wide, 5 foot tall shelf. It has possibly 50 books I’m in the middle of browsing or reading. My “nightstand” gives me that same feeling I get when I stand in front of the magazine stand at a good bookstore. “Oooh – what am I going to choose?” There are too many good choices.

To be fair, I have experienced some form of this on my iPad. I’ve loaded up a ton of PDFs into the Apple iBooks app. Sadly (for Apple), I have to say that iBooks is only used store PDFs; Amazon has my eBook business and will keep it until I can read iBooks on my computer. (But that’s a separate rant.)

And so occasionally, I have said “why look there, there’s a book on programming Ruby on Rails, I should browse through that.”

“Oh theres that manual I downloaded on Intellectual Property and patent drafting, I’ll read it. ”

But the point is, I think it will be a while before I have the scant 64Gb of my iPad chock full of ALL my digital documents. Years in fact. I just don’t see it. First theres the scanning, or re-acquiring the book in digital form. Then there’s the filling the space, or hoping that “cloud books” comes out when “cloud music” is just getting started.

There’s no question that eBooks are rising fast. So much so that they will be the most significant part of the Western reading market soon. Ebook sales will be the driver, not just a growing segment, of book sales.

Books will go down fighting. It will probably take generations to fully marginalize books, even though digital formats are eclipsed within two decades. VHS. Tape. CDs. DVDs. Blu-Ray. These are all formats-come-lately. They have not persisted. Photographs and phonograph records are a bit longer lasting. But printed word has millennia of success.

So what of the browse? What of the bookstore? What of the random luck that comes from browsing not just a corner bookstore but of rediscovering one’s own library? Or of putting a reminder to one’s self to read a book, by leaving it in your bag?

When all books are equally accessible in a huge digital bookstore on your iPad, and when new books are constantly marketed to you, invading the privacy of your own tablet, what will this do to undirected reading? How will one continue to enjoy these essential and random encounters with books?

I don’t know. What I do know is that my family is shopping for a house right now. And after digging through probably a hundred houses on the multiple listing service, I remember just two have really stood out to me. I may make an offer on one next week. And only when I was finishing writing this article did I realize something.

Both of those homes have a library.

 

Charles Euchner’s “The Writing Code”

Character Clancy Metzger Craft & Skills Writing Tools 6 Comments
The Writing Code

Recently I attended a half-day workshop by Charles Euchner on using his Writing Code system.  Charlie is charming, funny, über-intelligent and his list of achievements will knock your socks off.  I know I was intimidated, but only a little because he is so easy to talk to.  Anyway, I really liked his approach.

 He utilizes the latest research on the brain and how we learn to make writing more intuitive.  His book, which I am currently reading, explains everything fully.  The Writing Code covers Storytelling, Construction and Analysis and is applicable to every kind of writing – from an email to a blog to an article to a novel.   And though I will do my best here to give you a brief idea of what his system is about, he says it far better than me on his website (listed at bottom).

 One of his techniques is to write everything in landscape mode versus portrait, to put only one sentence per line and to do it single space with a double space between paragraphs.  Okay – I wanted to show you how I wrote this post this way but it doesn’t display correctly, so you’ll have to take my word for it…I wrote it landscape, one sentence per line.  I do not, however, attest to my ability to write great sentences.  

You should start every piece (sentences, paragraphs, sections or chapters, and novels) strong and end every piece strong.  The technique gives you an opportunity to easily see if you are starting and ending strong.  It has other editing advantages as well.  It takes some getting used to, but I’m getting better.

 Another thing Euchner has you do is a Character Dossier.  And, this is not just the standard name, physical description and surface background.  It asks you to go in depth and answer questions with some real thought.  One might be who is that character’s foe in their youth.  You don’t just say, “Bob.”  You’d answer, “Bob used to torment Hero when they were in 5th grade because Hero had a slight lisp.”  Or something like it. 

In this way, you really begin to see the motivations that drive our characters.  Not just in the ways immediately apparent to the current plot, but in ways that could subtly effect the way they react to minor things you hadn’t planned for in the story.

 As I said, I’m reading the book now and trying the techniques he advocates.   I’ve already learned things about my characters I didn’t know.  That was cool.

I found a lot of merit in his methods which is why I’m not only trying his approach, but also blogging about it.  Check it out if you need some fresh ideas or a new method to bolster your writing.

Here’s Charles Euchner’s website:  http://www.thewritingcodesystem.com

Let me know what you think.