Learn Writing with Uncle Jim, Volume 1

[Nangleator]

Woo hoo! Guess what book I got for Christmas.

Hint: It's got mammatus clouds on the cover.

[James D. Macdonald]

Today's the day to send your Christmas Challenge Story out to a paying market. On your mark, get set, SASE!

[James D. Macdonald]

And today's surprise news: got royalties on the reprint of "Stealing God" that appeared in My Favorite Fantasy Story. (Also available as an ebook.) That means the silly thing's earned out. (This story is another of the Gift That Keeps On Giving stories. Reprinted several times, inspiration for two other stories and a novel, and earning royalties right the way along.)

Only $15.82, but when you consider it's a pro-rata share of 1/2 of the royalties from the period when it earned out ... well, it's $15.82 that I didn't have yesterday.

[Ken Schneider]

Sent my Christmas challenge story out, just like last year, we'll see what happens.

That royalty check on earn out was a final check of many others, I would guess, and as good as my best PA check.

Thought. You received the check on the merit of a writing, where as I received mine on the efforts of my work selling.

Happy holidays, all.

[James D. Macdonald]

Please notice that it took six years for that anthology to earn out. Between 2000 and 2006 all the money we saw on that sale was the advance. (That was the second of three times we'd sold that story though, so it's okay, and no one expects to make a lot of money on short stories.)

[Lilybiz]

Ken and Jim: working on volume sales, the both of youse.

[Ken Schneider]

Originally Posted by aertep

Ken and Jim: working on volume sales, the both of youse.

I'm just hoping to sell another short story, or my most recent novel that's making the rounds.

I'm in year four of the ten year plan, I'm not giving up any time soon.

[Lilybiz]

Volume in years, effort, sweat...luck...

[allenparker]

Do you like to work with anthologies? And what is your criteria for participation in such an endeavor? thankx

awp

[James D. Macdonald]

So far all of our short-fiction sales have been to anthologies, so I guess yeah, we like doing 'em.

The criteria? A well-known editor, and a publishing deal with a known decent publisher. Plus the advance, of course. Look for $0.05/word and up, paid on acceptance.

Stories in anthologies don't get the award recommendations that stories in the magazines get, but ... they can stay in print for years (decades, really), and keep on earning. A reprint from an anthology and a reprint from a magazine are still both reprints.

Think of anthologies as single-issue magazines that stay in print for more than a month.

[Monty]

Have read alot of Terry Brooks and Anre Norton Etc. Fanasty series novels that seem to have a rommance side. The best example I can thing of is Lord of the Rings. Aragon is a romatic character and adventure character roled into one. In my currect book I am working on the Boys in the book the main characters are pre teen to teenage could I use a puppy love type romance to involve the reader deeper with the characters emotions in my book?

If so please explain how in some examples please. thanks monty.

Hope I am still with in the subject matter of said thread.

Originally Posted by James D Macdonald

Okay, and after that pompous lead off, let me say that I'm not going to be talking about novels at all. I'm going to be talking about romances.

Not romances in the Fabio-on-the-cover paperbacks, not the Romance section at Borders, not Harlequin (though there'll be things useful in that genre). Not category romance, or genre romance.

I'm talking about romance in literary theory.

A novel is: A book length work of realistic prose fiction.

A romance is: A book length prose narrative treating imaginary characters involved in events remote in time or place and usually heroic, adventurous, or mysterious.

The thing that the two have in common are that they're book length (call it 50,000 words and up), prose (that is, not poetry or drama), and fiction (some people have said that fiction is when the author tells his own lies; non-fiction is when he tells someone else's lies).

The realism issue, then, is the core of the difference between a novel and a romance. The "realistic" books are the mainest of mainstream; they are the literary works.

The vast majority of the things you find in bookstores labeled "novels" are actually romances. That means:


1) imaginary characters

2) events remote in time or place

3) usually heroic, adventurous, or mysterious

More on all of this later.

I'll try to drop by to talk more after I finish my work every day (except when I'm out of town).

[James D. Macdonald]

Originally Posted by Monty

...could I use a puppy love type romance to involve the reader deeper with the characters emotions in my book?

Yes, you could.

Originally Posted by Monty

If so please explain how in some examples please.

No, I can't.

This isn't something that I can do in a sentence, or a paragraph, or even a chapter. It's organic to the whole.

Here's what you can do ... take some of your favorite books that have the sort of romance you're looking for, and re-read them specifically to see how and where the author included the romance in the whole narrative.

Then write your book. If romance develops between the characters, you can strenthen it and refine it in the second draft.

[Ken Schneider]

Land of mists and snow, an historic fantasy written in an (epistolary) < learned that from UJ, form, had a nice romantic twist to it.

I can't think of anything I've ever read that wasn't tied to another genre, whether it be romance, or take your pick.

Let's take for example any James Bond book, or film.

What elements do one of these stories have encompassing the whole, which we know is mainly spy based?

Plenty of sex- Has nothing to do with being a British spy per-say.

Carry on if you want.

[Lilybiz]

There's a bit of love in "The Name of the Rose" when the young monk falls for a peasant girl. There's romance in "Le Divorce," when the main character has an affair with an older man. Neither of these is a genre romance. Characters fall in love all the time.

I think it's when the romance is the plot that you have whatchya call a genre romance, as opposed to the type of romance Uncle Jim speaks of (imaginary characters, events remote in time or place, and usually heroic, adventurous, or mysterious).

Isn't there usually a love interest in a Ludlum novel, too? Yet those are hardly genre romances.

Examples abound. Love is in the air.

[James D. Macdonald]

I've been spending the day updating and correcting my list of Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror Bookstores. Still not done, but at least the dead links have been cleaned up.

My next convention will be Arisia, in Boston, January 10-12. Here's my schedule:

Friday, 7:00 PM Reshaping Grimm & Goose
Saturday, 11:00 AM Playing in Someone Else's Sandbox
Saturday, 12:00 noon Magic and Christianity
Saturday, 3:00 PM Reading
Sunday, 12:00 noon Pen Names: When and Why?

[J.S Greer]

Originally Posted by James D. Macdonald

I've been spending the day updating and correcting my list of Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror Bookstores. Still not done, but at least the dead links have been cleaned up.

That is right up my alley!

Any way this could be a sticky topic?

[fjeastman]

I think Uncle Jim has said before that he doesn't want the topic stickied or pointlessly bumped because if the conversation has died to the point that it isn't visible on its own merits, it should sink.

IIRC.

--fje

[James D. Macdonald]

That's my attitude. If the topic has worth, it'll stay on the first page. If it doesn't -- people who are interested can still search while other, more interesting, topics move to the head of the line.

[James D. Macdonald]

Speaking of which... I posted this in another thread today, and lest it sink and be lost I repost it here:

Write the best first draft you can, but if, while you're writing it, you look at it and say "This is crap," keep writing anyway.

If it helps: print out and frame this certificate. Hang it above your desk.

[moth]

I once saw you say "I give you permission to write badly." in another thread a bunch of months ago, and though it wasn't my thread, it helped me a lot. This sounds so cheesy but it was like you had said it just for me. It's made a difference for me, so thank you.

[Lilybiz]

I printed the permission (from the other thread) and it's now on my wall. I especially like the seal.

Writing badly got me through my first draft, turning my WIP into the beginnings of an actual book. There are those who say it's not okay to write badly. Maybe it's not okay for them, but it's okay for me. It gives me something to edit, and I'm a damned good editor.

[James D. Macdonald]

You can't make a vase if you don't have the clay on your wheel.

[PeeDee]

Originally Posted by James D. Macdonald

You can't make a vase if you don't have the clay on your wheel.

I've always thought it also helps if you're willing to wind up with a lumpy ash tray as well. If there's less pressure to produce something great, then I think one is more apt to produce something.

[Brickie]

I've done NaNoWriMo the last couple of years - my first attempts at writing any sort of fiction since writing stories in Primary School.

That was the thing that I really got out of doing that - when you've set yourself a target of 50,000 words in a month (1,667 a day) and told everyone you know about said target, you can't worry too much about quality. You bang it out and fix it later.

So now I've got a big word document, about 100,000 words long. Time to start with the editing... :-o

[Lilybiz]

Maybe it has to do with the way one is brought up. I was taught that one should not do something if one didn't do it well. So I didn't play softball--even though I loved the game and all the other kids were having fun--because I was a klutz. I stopped drawing, even though I had pictures in my mind, because my pictures weren't perfect. I only did things I was good at, so I could win accolades and please my parents and teachers.

But this never allows you to be a beginner, or to explore smething, and you're always working only to win accolades and please others. You're never doing the work because you love it, or to please yourself, or because it fulfills you, and pretty soon your life is dedicated to a purpose that isn't your own.

So I'm re-teaching myself, and writing badly frees me to be an artist. It's also allowing me to become good at it. I've even gotten some accolades. But they're not as important to me now as the fulfilmment.