Learn Writing with Uncle Jim, Volume 2

Ink-Pen-Paper said:

A writer was referring to his writing style as "A beginning, three disasters, and a save".

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That's the same as "Get the Hero up a tree, throw rocks at him, get him out of the tree." It's a workable skeleton.

Do you have any suggestions that I should read to understand more about the tempo of the plot?

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Read lots and lots of novels. Award winners, best sellers, and everything else. Let it seep in that way. No how-to-write book will teach you more.

Seven Years of Uncle Jim

Just over seven years have passed since you started this thread, which is very good for anything online. Have there been any major changes in the publishing side of the business that you think are worthwhile knowing?

Ink-Pen-Paper said:

Just over seven years have passed since you started this thread, which is very good for anything online. Have there been any major changes in the publishing side of the business that you think are worthwhile knowing?

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Good question. And as a follow up, I'd particularly be interested in the changes in style of writing. To elaborate, do publishing houses have different interests than say a decade ago...in genre, in how authors present and write their work and ideas.

Ink-Pen-Paper said:

Just over seven years have passed since you started this thread, which is very good for anything online. Have there been any major changes in the publishing side of the business that you think are worthwhile knowing?

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Heck, one way of looking at it there haven't been any major changes since 1920. At least not in the ways that affect writers.

There haven't been any changes since Lascaux. We're still telling stories.

People are still trading their beer money to hear them.

Folks with the ability to tell stories that are worth the same or more than a glass of beer are still rare and still in demand.

++++++++++++++++++++

The major publishers are jumping into e-publishing now. There've been major changes in their standard contracts in the last year, as they try to sew up more rights. What I expect is going to happen in the future is that most ebooks will be sold by the same dozen publishers, just like right now most paper books are sold by the same dozen publishers. They're still going to be trying to put the writers into golden handcuffs, but at least we get gold. Lower-rent places, they're just handcuffs.

On the use of language: We're still using the most appropriate language to tell our stories to our audiences. Urban fiction is a genre now. So is urban fantasy. Horror hasn't made a comeback (though it will). Steampunk is on the way up. Chicklit is on the way down and may be out already.

As to our role: Flash to the movie Gladiator. Recall the scene where the title character is standing amid the carnage in a provincial arena, shouting to the stands, "Are you not being entertained?!"

That's us, alone, on the bloody sand. And the mob is still the mob.

Algis Budrys

Ink-Pen-Paper said:

A writer was referring to his writing style as "A beginning, three disasters, and a save". When I was outlining my novel I realized that is what I had written already.

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Here's a link to a SF writer who expands on this idea, a little:

http://www.webdreamer.com/algis_budrys_writing_part_one.html

It's time for the annual Christmas Challenge!

Each year the denizens of this thread write a story for Christmas.

Here's what we'll do this year:

Go down to a video-rental shop and get a movie in your favorite genre that you've never seen. Watch it.

Now, write a short story based on that movie. But:

It has to be mirror universe. If the protagonist in the movie is a heroic cop and the antagonist is a clever bank robber, the protagonist in your story must be a stupid bank robber and the antagonist a cowardly cop.

Your story must reach a different, opposite, climax.

Your setting must be a different, opposite, place or time.

Twenty to thirty pages in standard manuscript format. Due on Christmas Eve.

Ready, set, go!

If Hollywood wants to ruin one of my books, they can. Any time.

Life Imitates Fiction?

While researching a story idea I came up with a few years ago I happened to come across a series of news articles about a very similar situation. In fact eerily similar with a couple of exceptions. The actual death was a man who died of natural causes this year, where I had my victim murdered in the future turning out to be roughly next year, which was based on when I came up with the idea.

I have not found any other death such as this one, there was a suicide in another country a couple of years ago but that was a nasty bloody affair where the death by natural causes and death by murder were clean and subtle.

I do plan on writing the story and I expect that by time it is published (I am a very optimistic person) there should be enough time between the real life death and my novel.

Do you have any thoughts about this?

There are no NEW plots. Go for it.

Then there's the guy who fired a shotgun out the window, coincidentally as a would-be suicide who jumped off the roof was going past, who was charged with murder because the guy who jumped was killed by the blast....

Yes, you *can* make this stuff up. Which doesn't stop it from happening.

The story is still yours. And by the time you're done, it will be wholly yours.

Having stunned everyone into silence... I've posted a one-piece summary of much of my standard advice here: How to Get Published.

Thanks for that, sir.

Can I ask a really strange, and possibly really stupid question? It's more about manners than writing, I think, but I'm going to ask it anyway, because I don't know who else to ask.

A while back, I sent a short story out to several markets. I got the usual rejections. but one stood out. The letter itself was a standard "Thanks but no thanks" form letter. But at the bottom, the editor had written nearly two paragraphs by hand. She said she absolutely loved the story and thought I had a terrific voice. The only reason they were rejecting it was because they had just done a couple other stories on nearly the same subject/style, and were unwilling to publish a third. She said very emphatically to please send along my next offering, and moreover, suggested a couple markets who might very well buy the story they were rejecting (and one did!)

I framed that rejection and it now hangs on my bedroom wall (where my computer is). It was the coolest, most confidence-inspiring rejection I ever got. How's that for an oxymoron? I couldn't afford to fly to New York and kiss that editor for that little note (besides, she might have thought that was pretty damned weird).

So for all that build-up, what is the question? The question is, would it have been inappropriate to send her a thank-you note? I didn't, because i was afraid either A) she wouldn't remember me or the story, or B) she'd think I was being hateful or angry about the rejection and the note was my way of being snarky.

Like I said, stupid question. But, being a Southern girl steeped in the "death before bad manners" lifestyle, it's one I'd like to know. If an editor gives you a nice rejection like that, or takes the trouble to ask for the entire manuscript -- whether or not they eventually accept -- is it wrong/stupid/a waste of money and time to say thank you for their efforts?

I'm not yet published, but I see nothing wrong with sending a sincere thank you that includes the success you have after following the editor's advice. I'd also mention that you will be sending her your future work as she requested.

jallenecs said:

Like I said, stupid question. But, being a Southern girl steeped in the "death before bad manners" lifestyle, it's one I'd like to know. If an editor gives you a nice rejection like that, or takes the trouble to ask for the entire manuscript -- whether or not they eventually accept -- is it wrong/stupid/a waste of money and time to say thank you for their efforts?

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The best way to thank her would be to send her your next, even better, story. If you wanted to put in a P.S. (I took your advice on sending [Title] to [Market] and they bought it! Thanks a heap!) that would be okay.

Or, later, when you sell your novel, in the acknowledgments or dedication, you could put "[Jane Editor], who provided inspiration when I needed it most."

Or, really, you could send a nice note card: "You probably don't remember me, but you suggested I send [Title] to [Market], and you were right: They bought it."

Of the three, though, I'd try the first: in a cover letter for an even-more-compelling short story. Hey, it mentions a publishing credit! That's part of a standard cover letter.

Cool! I am a big believer in thank you notes/cards. I was just afraid it would seem unprofessional.

Editors are people too. Usually you don't have a personal relationship with 'em. In this case, through, you do. Slight, but there.

I bought and read a small how-to-edit-your-work book called The 10% Solution by Ken Rand. It's only 95 pages, but I found it very helpful. He distinguishes between the left and right brain. Both brains have their jobs to do, and each should be allowed to do their job, one after the other, so they work as a team. There's more to it than that, of course. I recommend the book.

Murder by Death is turning into a challenge. It is not looking good for a reading in two days. However, I will not give up this early.

I'm sort of struggling with Reservoir Dogs, myself. But I think I see a way through my difficulties.

The world is cold and very cruel if you are over 50 old enough to be your potential boss's mother. The situation requires creativity and a thorough examination of what is available if you are considered to be retirement home material by those hiring for open positions. Possessing creativity is one basic requirement to be a creator of stories, so if the recession combined with a workaday world that prefers kids in diapers rather than hearty souls with experience says "don't call us, we won't call you", take that as the necessary message to consider other options to pay the rent. Although daily applying for paying positions, I have taken this opportunity to do the one activity I have enjoyed my entire life - writing stories.

That's what keeps me trying to ply this trade rather than succumbing to another mind-drudge day-job.

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Yesterday while working on how to kill off a killer and solve two murders I got that tingle in the tummy signaling the story was coming together in a better way than I had outlined it. Yea! I like that feeling.

James D. Macdonald said:

Having stunned everyone into silence... I've posted a one-piece summary of much of my standard advice here: How to Get Published.

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Golden advice here, Jim. It's particularly generous of you to take the time from your own work to lay all this out there for anyone for free.

Go, you, Ink-Pen-Paper!

May it all come together. Not just once, but repeatedly.

Loving family made a decision. I can talk to myself or give them a one minute summary for the December 24th reading. Okay, it is a challenge. But Murder by Death will be presented in one minute (or as long as I can take before they attack me - I was a politician, I can handle them).

The problem that I had to overcome with the story was multiple major characters, the detectives along with Lionel Twain, who in the alternate world became the killer instead of the cold body and the butler, who may have been the original murderer, and Yett the maid who may be Twain.

Lots of fun. Next year I hope to find a more willing audience.

Happy Holidays and a Merry New Year.