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- Feb 12, 2005
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I like using the multi quote function! Remember, you can click on the blue arrow beside Uncle Jim's name to read the post in the context of the thread (recommended).
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1116.
In The Lord of the Rings we don't get a whole lot of backstory until the Council of Elrond, by which time we've been chased from the Shire to Bree to Rivendell by Black Riders, gotten trapped by a barrow wight (and a willow), and much else besides ... and the reader cares about the characters and is asking "What the foo is going on?"
We also have the hobbits, who don't have a clue themselves, and so need to have everything explained them.
Giving the reader the impression that they're studying for a test is bad. Few people read geography books for fun.
1117.
From The Gates of Time (work in progress):Originally Posted by anodyne
What in the world does that look like? I keep trying to visualize it in my head. I'm not the type of girl who giggles often, but that worked.
"I don't have a plan," Satan said. "And this miracle isn't my doing. Angelo ... he's won. We're outside time and I can't touch him. Not only that, we're stuck here."
"Liar."
"Flattery will get you nowhere." He went over to the open doorway and pressed against the air. His hands stopped at the threshold.
"Then I have some things to do," I said. I pulled the elfstone out of my pocket and screwed it into my eye. Johnny was standing in the corner, having performed some vital function that the author will think of later. Perhaps he was the one who brought in the relic of St. Eloy and the pistol and gave them to me after I'd been searched. That would be a good thing for an invisible servant to do.
Anyway, I turned to Johnny. "I'm ready to hear your confession," I said.
"This might take a while," he said, coming toward me.
"No worries; we've got all the time in the world."
1118.
A database of which agents sold which books to which publishers (in the SF & F genres) over the past two years:
http://www.members.optusnet.com.au/~mgoodin19/locus.htm
1119.
What we're up to these days:
Publicity for our most recent book.
Yeah, I know, I keep saying that authors aren't in charge of doing publicity, yet here I am, doing publicity. So, what have I done?
Answer: I've put stuff about the book on my web page. This is wonderful, and free (I already have a web page because, face it, who doesn't?). Whether it will lead to any sales, who knows?
I've talked about the book here, and in my news group at SFF Net.
I have it in my sig line here at AW (I rotate various things through there) -- the sig changes, and by the time y'all read this perhaps something different will be in the sig. (Look at the bottom of this post.)
I posted the book in the AW library. (More content for AW! Woo!)
I've been doing readings from works-in-progress at SF conventions for years. Since this book has been in progress for years....
When the publisher sent us a bunch of ARCs, I dropped them on various places (including my two local weekly newspapers). I live in a town of 2,000 people; those guys are personal friends of mine (the writers' community), and we got a couple of very nice newspaper articles out of 'em. Hurrah, go us!
Now the signings and such. Where did these come from?
Answer: from the publisher. They found the bookstores, and worked out the dates and times. (We talked to the publisher's publicity guy, he talked with the bookstores.)
And this leads us to the next bit, when we got an e-mail from New Hampshire Public Radio, asking if we'd like to be on one of their programs, about our upcoming book. The answer was, you betcha.
So yesterday we had a telephone pre-interview (to find out, perhaps, if we're the sort of authors who can actually talk, and have anything to say that might fill a half-hour). Upshot of that: We'll be on The Front Porch on Monday, 27 November, 6:30PM EST.
This is New Hampshire Public Radio, and the show is available on the air, as streaming audio, and archived afterwards.
- 88.3, Nashua, WEVS
- 89.1, Concord, WEVO
- 90.3, Nashua, WEVO
- 90.7, Keene, WEVN
- 91.3, Littleton, WEVO
- 91.3, Hanover, WEVH
- 97.3, Plymouth
- 99.5, Jackson, WEVJ
- 103.9, Portsmouth
- 104.3, Dover, WEVO
- 107.1, Gorham, WEVC
- MP3 Player Stream
- Windows Media
1120.
Rules for Writing: http://mumpsimus.blogspot.com/2006/11/rules-for-writing.html
As far as mechanical text-to-voice solutions: they can be fun. But reading it aloud has its own advantages. Machines won't get out of breath during over-long sentences. You will.
1121.
Here's Woman's Day's essay guidelines: $2,000 for 650 words.
Here's their article guidelines.
Woman's Day isn't a fiction or poetry market in the USA.
Woman's Day in Australia is.
============
Brenda, if your story is good fit at Not One of Us, then sell it there. But really, do let the top markets reject it first. Don't reject it for them.
1122.
If it was me, I'd leave the first and cut the second (put in the actual number, maybe).
Making the reader pause to figure out what you meant probably isn't a good idea.
Rewriting now, before you've reached "The End," probably isn't a good idea either. Unless you really gotta.
1123.
Abnormal? Not at all. If there are 25,000 words that aren't the right words, cut 'em and replace 'em with the right words.
Our novel, Groogleman (in French: la nuit des hommogres): at one point we cut everything after Chapter One and rewrote fresh from there. (I may still have the other book that it could-have-been around here somewhere.)
1124.
I hope you like it.
Meanwhile:
Y'all know the three-point-plot outline:
1.) Get the hero up a tree.
2.) Throw rocks at him.
3.) Get him out of the tree.
And the seven-point plot outline:
1). Introduce the main/viewpoint character
2). Present him with a problem.
3). In a particular setting.
4). The character tries to solve the problem...
5). And fails.
6). The character tries to solve the problem again...
7). And receives validation.
Well, here's a very detailed working-out of those general plot outlines:
http://www.miskatonic.org/dent.html
Y'all can try writing a story based on that plot outline as your Christmas Challenge. As always, the challenge is to actually submit the story you wrote to an appropriate paying market.
The Post Office is closed on Christmas, and the mail is nuts in the days before ... shall we say the deadline for mailing your completed story (in accordance with the market's guidelines) is 26 December?
(If you finish your story early, lay it aside and give it a final read-through-and-polish on Christmas Day.)
1125.
I intended the third, last, longest and most detailed plot outline; the one at miskatonic.org. Not because I think that paint-by-numbers, cookie-cutter storytelling is a good thing to aspire to, but rather for the same reason that one might do scales if one intends to become a concert pianist.
Consider it a wordgame.
Consider also doing the crossword in your daily newspaper every day. If your daily newspaper doesn't run a crossword, get a book of crossword puzzles.
1126.
If you look around you can also find an 8-Point Plot Structure (Stasis, Trigger, Quest, Surprise, Critical Choice,Climax, Reversal, Resolution), a Nine-point Plot Structure, (apparently from Story: Substance, Structure, Style and The Principles of Screenwriting by Robert McKee) and probably any number of other numbered plot structures.
1127.
To what should be no one's surprise:
You're a Plot writer!
Take this quiz!
Quizilla | Join | Make a Quiz | More Quizzes | Grab Code
1128.
The radio interview went pretty well; the host mentioned the title of the book several times. It's archived in streaming form here: http://www.nhpr.org/node/11869
The first signing went well; the bookstore had 24 copies and sold 12 of them. (We also got 40% off on anything in the store. Hoo hah, Christmas shopping!) Folks were coming by and chatting all evening.
The second signing didn't go so well. Of course it was also bucketing down rain, there was thunder and lightning, and 50-60 MPH wind gusts. If we didn't have to be there we wouldn't have gone either. The bookstore had 14 copies and two sold. On the plus side, we each got a $25 gift certificate to that bookstore. (Hoo hah! More Christmas shopping!)
We signed remaining stock at both places, where they're now out with Autographed stickers.
A benchmark for success is Anyone At All Shows Up.
1129.
The nice lady from the radio station had one of the advanced reading copies of Mist and Snow. That had come from the publisher.
At the Book'em event, back in September, we sold a bunch of books (I didn't count), from the freebie author copies that publishers have sent us over the years. Eventually the revenue sharing brought back about thirty bucks.
It was interesting. At Book'em, even though there wasn't any assigned seating at the place (a school gym with tables arranged in a large horseshoe around the walls), the folks separated out naturally into the published authors, the publishers and bookstores, and the self-and-vanity-published authors.
I was amazed at how slick the self-published guys were in their presentations. Balloons with their titles imprinted on 'em, pens, bookmarks, stands, custom printed tablecloths.... I was impressed. Over on our side of the room we were just putting piles of books on the tables and sitting there with the little "Hi, My Name Is" stickers that the event organizers handed out on our shirts.
One of the self-published folks (who had driven there from Virginia -- that was something else: a lot of the self-published folks had come a long way) was handing out full-color flyers for her book, Take the Mystery Out of Promoting Your Book. The flyer tells us that her book is available in bookstores everywhere, and has a tear-off order form at the bottom to buy a copy from the author.
Anyway, that flyer also includes an inventory list for "A Booksigning In A Bag." Here's the list:
Tablecloth
Candies and dish
Flowers
Props
Scissors and tape
Pens -- booksigning and other
Mailing list
Book cover stickers
Business cards
Water/water bottle with screw-on cap
Change for parking meters
Emergency personal supplies/first aid kit
Book marks
Posters/flyers/advertisements
Loudspeaker announcements
Book stands
Blank card stock and marker
Presentation materials (projector, flip chart, etc.)
Lightweight table
Lightweight folding chair
Camera
Thank-you gift for store employee(s)
------------
I feel like such a slacker. Doyle and I had one pen between us at the first signing (until one of the visitors gave us another). We had to borrow new batteries for our camera (Doyle usually carries a camera in her purse). In the past we'd done the dish of candy thing, but forgot this time. I'd intended to build a nice model of a Civil War ship (perhaps USS Kearsarge) as a prop, but never got around to it. We did have change for parking meters (that usually rides in the car) but we didn't need it. My big EMT jump kit was in the car (but we didn't need it either, thankfully).
The bookstores provided the tables, chairs, water, book stands, and books. They had posters and signs (and flyers, too).
I'd taken it on myself to send press releases to the local newspapers a month before the signings, with a cover flat from the book included in each. Might help, couldn't hurt. I don't know if anything was ever printed.
Maybe next time I'll try to do better.
1130.
I'm doing the Christmas Challenge myself. First page: http://mist-and-snow.livejournal.com/18656.html
1131.
I've also been having way too much fun with the Official Seal Generator:
1132.
My pseud for tie-ins.
1133.
Woo! An interview with Doyle and me, including Doyle on "Constructing Villains":
http://www.andwerve.com/october06_featured_artist
1134.
How about telepathically creating the impression of a human body?
If you can answer the question "why must this character be a feline?" you might find the answer to "how can it communicate?"
1135.
My latest Eos/blog post is up, and it has more of a discussion on the secret origins of Land of Mist and Snow. A bit of How I Dun It. It's about Civil War songs.
Oh, and I've finished the Christmas Assignment (first draft), over on our LiveJournal. It's friendlocked, but I make friends easily. Doyle will do her magic on it next.
If it ever gets published, y'all can compare the first draft to the finished piece.
1136.
Welcome, lfraser -- I'm glad you're finding it informative. Please let us know how it all goes.
1137.
For folks interested in an agent's perspective on what to do if a manuscript has been making the rounds for a while with no nibbles, check out "Giving up on it" in Rachel Vater's LJ.
(Rachel is an agent at Lowenstein-Yost Associates.)
My advice is this: By the time you know that a particular book isn't getting any nibbles, you should have a new book ready to make the rounds. So start sending the new book around and begin work on your next.
1138.
Beats the heck out of me. I haven't read your book.
This may well be in the put-it-in-the-desk-drawer-for-six-months-then-reread area. Or it may be in the "What do the betas say?" area.
Is there some reason that you can't just leave your antagonist drifting in a lifeboat/working at Burger King under an assumed name/returning to his Fortress of Silence to work on his plans?
1139.
Y'know, if he's the last of his species, he's going to have a very hard time finding a date for Friday night....
1140.
Some seriously brilliant writing advice.
Unfortunately it's a PDF, but it's worth it.
http://homepage.mac.com/noteon/Sites/Snyder_on_writing.pdf
1141.
Whatever works for you, Writerdog.
Me, I'll turn off the monitor sometimes and type blind. That way I don't get distracted by the words on the screen.
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It's well-over novel length. Just my own contributions come to over a thousand pages in standard manucript format.
1144.
Yes: See Uncle Jim, undiluted.
Be advised, though, that there's an awful lot of meat in the other posts, and some of my comments are pretty meaningless out of context.
1145.
For reasons that seemed good to me, I just added the rest of the Mageworlds books and the Crossman short stories to the AW Library: http://www.absolutewrite.com/forums/showthread.php?t=40178
1146.
Happy/Jolly/Season's/Merry
Christmas/Holidays/Greetings
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