Learn Writing with Uncle Jim, Volume 2

Silver-Midnight

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I don't know what Uncle Jim is going to advise. He is a very wise man, so you should probably ignore this posting and wait for his.

Still, I shall offer my opinion: I think you're sabotaging yourself. Don't do that.

That sounds ridiculously easy but I'm serious. Just don't do it. It brings to mind something that happened many moons ago. For some reason, a certain long haired girl realized that when she pulled on her hair, a few strands came out. She started getting worried and meanwhile, she keeps tugging it and every time she does, more strands came out.

The next time she sees her doctor, she tells him, "I'm getting worried because every time I pull on my hair, some comes out," and he says, "Quit pulling on your hair."

:D

In addition to the usual sage advice of "just don't do that," a few small strategies come to mind:

* If the problem is that you're not planning well, take a few minutes to write a description outline of what you want to write. Then, when it's time to bull through and just get the darn draft down, you'll at least have a map of the territory you can refer to as you go. Hopefully that will bolster your confidence that you're writing a real draft and not a tangled mess.

* If the problem is an attack of perfectionism, try tricking yourself. Create a second document, titling it "notes" or something else that says to you "This isn't the real story, this is just babble." Then, talk to yourself about the page. It's OK if it's not perfect - it's just notes. It doesn't even have to be the story. "I want to write about X character who wants Y but Z antagonist has other plans. The protagonist is A years old, grew up in B, loves to spend their time doing C. The story will start when the protagonist notices D has gone wrong..."

* Something else that helps me when I can't seem to get off the BACKSPACE key is to remove the BACKSPACE key from my process. Put away the computer, pick up a lined notebook, and write by hand for awhile. Or try using a typewriter, if you've got one.

All of which sound really simple, but maybe something in there will help. Good luck!

Silver-Midnight, NicoleJLeBoeuf and kkbe both have excellent suggestions. You could also create a file called "Outtakes" and cut the paragraphs you don't want to use into that.

Don't throw anything out. It may be exactly what you want.

Here is my beloved bride and long-time co-author on the subject: http://drdoyleeditorial.com/2012/06/12/five-ways-to-write-a-chapter-and-one-that-worked/

Thanks, guys. :) I really do usually write with a stronger plot in mind. However, I haven't been doing it recently, which is probably why I was having the issue.

And I typically have issues with my confidence and writing. It's something I'm trying to work through, but I'm not as successful with it as I'd like to be.
 

Buffysquirrel

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Somewhat off-topic, but I was watching the Mastermind tv quiz show the other day, and a contestant suggested that our very own Uncle Jim wrote the Wheel of Time series. You've kept very quiet about that, unk!
 

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One other thing in addition to the excellent suggestions posted above - think of each chapter as a scene in a play or a movie. Watch the scene play out on stage in your mind's eye and think about how you'd set the stage, who'd be your cast, how the lighting is, what the sound effects are, etc.

Don't try to watch the whole play or movie at once - just watch that one little scene.

Then go write it.

You're the writer, director, producer, cameraman, key grip, stage designer, set director, stunt director, everything (and your budget is infinite). Your characters have to read your script, start where you tell them, and act in accordance with your direction. Even the world has to obey your script.

Look at each chapter as its own little 1-act play. Each portion, each act, pushes the story just a little further. Don't look at the big picture. Look at each chapter as a single scene in a long string of scenes where together they make a wonderful story that all ties together in the end.
 

calieber

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Followed a link off AW and was linked right back to this post. It inspired me to make a note to look at the sex scene I inadvertently dropped into my NaNo WIP.

(The first one. The second one, which consists solely of the words "they were copulating," is fine as it stands.)
 

James D. Macdonald

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A bit of personal egoboo here: a textbook from Oxford University Press is using excerpts from one of our stories.

Available for preorder right now: Oxford English 2 by Paul Grover.

Oxford Insight English is a new series for the Australian Curriculum:English. The blended print and digital series has a strong emphasis on the language and literacy strands of the Australian Curriculum: English and provides students with a firm grounding in grammar and language use. It also has a significant obook-only literature component, with guidance on covering the cross-curriculum priorities and other classic and popular texts. The Oxford Insight English series offers:integrated coverage of the Australian Curriculum: English for years 7 - 925 focused units per book, covering grammar, punctuation, comprehension, reading, writing, spelling and vocabulary a wealth of engaging literary, non-literary and digital texts used as stimulus a flexible format with room for student answers in the write-in workbooks, or in the accompanying digital obooks extensive literature material including a range of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander and Asian texts, as well as those that link to the sustainability cross-curricular priority.
As long as I'm being shameless, the story in question is "Nobody Has To Know," and it's available in electronic form in our collection Vampires and Shapeshifters, or in paperback in its original anthology, Vampires edited by Jane Yolen.
 
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Silver-Midnight

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One other thing in addition to the excellent suggestions posted above - think of each chapter as a scene in a play or a movie. Watch the scene play out on stage in your mind's eye and think about how you'd set the stage, who'd be your cast, how the lighting is, what the sound effects are, etc.

Don't try to watch the whole play or movie at once - just watch that one little scene.

Then go write it.

You're the writer, director, producer, cameraman, key grip, stage designer, set director, stunt director, everything (and your budget is infinite). Your characters have to read your script, start where you tell them, and act in accordance with your direction. Even the world has to obey your script.

Look at each chapter as its own little 1-act play. Each portion, each act, pushes the story just a little further. Don't look at the big picture. Look at each chapter as a single scene in a long string of scenes where together they make a wonderful story that all ties together in the end.


I'm sorry. But was this directed at me? If it was, thanks for the advice. I appreciate it. And if it wasn't, well, thanks anyway.

I'm going to be honest before I started trying to write things that were novella/novelette range, I mostly wrote 2K length short stories. Plus not to mention, I've changed genres since I first started writing.

And I think I've just hit another one of those road blocks, maybe not necessarily writer's blocks, where starting the story is the hardest part quickly followed by starting the story and continuing to write it. I don't think it's that I don't want to write or I don't have any good ideas; it's just my execution of the ideas that I have isn't that good, and I don't how to make it good. And I'm sure the only way to do that is to write another draft followed by another draft after that. However, getting through the first draft is like pulling teeth for me.

And I know that I'm partially just stalling sometimes when it comes to writing, simply because, as much as I try to stop myself, I play around with the fonts in whatever program I'm using to find a "good" one I want to use. I even did it today. I don't know how to stop myself. Basically, how to make myself choose a font and stick with that one.

I think most of my issues deal with the fact that I'm really kind of busy right now. But I can't even guarantee that. When it comes to my writing(and possibly almost anything else I do), I just hold myself to an insanely high standard I think. And I just don't know how to get out of that. I really don't.
 

allenparker

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A bit of personal egoboo here: a textbook from Oxford University Press is using excerpts from one of our stories.

Available for preorder right now: Oxford English 2 by Paul Grover.

As long as I'm being shameless, the story in question is "Nobody Has To Know," and it's available in electronic form in our collection Vampires and Shapeshifters, or in paperback in its original anthology, Vampires edited by Jane Yolen.


congrats. Before long, we will be seeing you on Letterman's top ten list.

Wonder what the category will be.
 

James D. Macdonald

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It's the twelfth of December now, so it's time for the Annual Christmas Challenge!

Twelve days to go 'til the 24th, and on the 24th ... a short story of at least 2,400 words.

Here are the constraints:

1) Must be in a genre that you usually don't write.
2) Must be based on a song which is never quoted, or mentioned, in the story.
3) Must break at least one of the rules found in the "74 Reasons Agents Won't Read Past the First Page" article, in its very first paragraph (choose one at random). You have to make it work.
4) Have fun doing it.

Okay, 200 words per day (that's less than a page), every day.

Let's do it!
 

James D. Macdonald

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The first page from my Christmas Challenge story:
"L-3 Station, this is RS-24, inbound, request permission to dock."
Brother Dominic had the Vespers watch in control. He flipped on the TACAN transponder and the range lights before keying the mike.
"RS-24, this is L-3. Request number of souls on board." The Vespers bell rang, and the first words of the chant came over the 1-MC, station general announcing system, so that those working in the fields, and in the control spaces, could join in their hearts although they could not be in the chapel with their brothers. Vespers is the sunset service. At this moment L-3 was in full sunlight, even the side away from the sun bright with the reflected light from earth. But far below on the blue-and-white planet, Monte Casino, the abbey that was their house, was slipping below the horizon. L-3 worked on Rome Standard Time.
"One soul on board," RS-24 replied.
"Do you have an emergency?" Today was an unusual time for any vessel to approach the monastery; market day was two weeks away, when station would be in the dark shadow of the earth.
"Visiting and seeking counsel," RS-24 replied.
The abbot would be at Vespers; Brother Dominic didn't want to disturb him. So he replied, "Permission granted. One to dock."
If the abbot didn't like it, Brother Dominic might spend a month doing penance in the water reclamation plant. But so be it. RS-24 would be alongside in a few hours; plenty of time to inform everyone.
 

JustSarah

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Something I'm wondering, what exactly is the definition of being realistic for fiction? I mean some fiction is realistic in one way, but not so realistic in others.

I know in some fiction there are different ways to be realistic, for example one book might be more realistic when it comes to current tech, while others are more realistic in a, once your dead your dead kind of fiction.
 

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Ah ok, like mastering the voice of the protagonist, realistically portraying the age group your going for.
 

James D. Macdonald

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Ah ok, like mastering the voice of the protagonist, realistically portraying the age group your going for.

Yes, kinda.

For me "realism" is keeping the readers from throwing the book against the wall while exclaiming, "No friggin' way!"

============

In other news, John Scalzi describes in detail how he sold Old Man's War.
 

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