S.L. Viehl's Blog, page 165

Student Attitude

Sorry I'm late posting today; I was up late last night wrestling with a project and forgot to queue up my post for publication.

The online art class I'm taking is going well, I think. It's a bit more complicated than I expected, and some of the skills that I took for granted definitely need some rust remover. Lots of work, too, but I'm learning new things, and discovering some old truths: stencils are (still) not my friends; nothing ever turns out like it looks in your head; and if the instructions say wait until the paper is completely dry before you do something, wait until the paper is completely dry.

Being a virtual student is interesting, though. Earlier this year I took a six-week, in-real-life Bible study class with my mom, and while the art class is completely different I can't help comparing the two. When an instructor asks a question, no one ever wants to be the first to answer. There always seems to be someone who doesn't understand the simplest assignment, and someone who already knows everything and probably should be in a more advanced class. No matter what the subject or question is, everyone seems to dread being called on in case they don't have the right answer.

Then there are the personalities. Among real-life students you can always pick out certain types: the over-achiever, the oddball, the suck-up, the talker, the whiner, the fight-picker, the peacemaker. Virtual classes, on the other hand, have the internet as a buffer, and people seem to bring with them their cyber personas, which are all pretty similar.

Not being the teacher for once is also something of a challenge for me, especially when there are questions. My natural inclination to try to problem-solve and provide answers, but that's not my role in this situation, so I have to constantly remind myself to shut up. It's good for me, however, because when you do nothing but teach you tend to forget what it's like to be on the receiving end of the information. I'm seeing that an instructor can easily fall into the trap of assuming everyone knows what they're talking about, which results in leaving behind some people who didn't get it but were too shy to speak up.

I'm taking away from this experience a lot of data on what and how I want to teach in the future as well as how and what I want to pursue as a student. That may be the most valuable part of taking any course online or in real-life.

Now a couple of questions for you guys: What sort of online or real-life classes would you like to take (doesn't matter what subject)? Have you taken any classes either way that you found were particularly helpful? Let us know in comments.

Freebie Ten

Ten Things You Can Have for Free

Freeware caution: always scan free downloads of anything for bugs and other threats before dumping the programs into your hard drive.

AcMp3Converter is a "MP3 and WAV converter accessible for the blind or persons with low vision (20/200), tag editor, player. Different voices, large print, change background color, sound cursor heart. Supported languages: English, Polish. Uses Lame as coding engine" (OS: Windows 98/ME/2000/XP/2003/Vista/7)

The AeroClock is "a simple but at the same time beautiful desktop clock with alpha transparency. This very decorative desktop clock shows the local time at the Desktop. The basic functions: total transparency, size, setting, and the selection of the Clock-texture or the appearance are available. The Aero Clock does not have to be installed and can be executed easily from the desktop" (OS: Windows 2000/XP/2003/Vista/7 32-Bit/64-Bit)

Best CashBook is "the ideal tool to manage cash and finance. Based on [cash + deposits - cards = net cash], it treats cash, deposits, credit cards and all other finance as one to give an insight of incomings, outgoings and fund changes. It will be very simple and easy to use once you overcome learning the entry principles. Without programming skills, anyone can translate the program and distribute his own translated version even for free" (OS: Windows 98/ME/2000/XP/Vista/7)

FireAlpaca is "the image editor that can be used readily and easily" (OS: Windows XP/Vista/7; Mac OSX 10.5.8 or later)

There's a new release of GIMP, the versatile image editing and manipulation freeware which comes highly recommended by many writers, and which can be downloaded from the official site here (OS: Windows 2000/XP/2003/Vista/7, Unix, Mac OSX)

iBooks Author is a "free mac app is for those who have wanted to release an iBook but didn’t have a program to do so. This app allows you construct iBooks, by adding text, pictures, all to your specifications. You can include photo gallers, movies, and more. After you’re finished, you can submit your work to the iBookstore" (OS: Mac OS X)

Peacock Color Picker "allows you to retrieve the color of any pixel on your screen. It is the perfect color picking solution for professional graphic designers, webmasters and home users. Thanks to the revolutionary fade-out user interface you will be presented with an unobstructed view of your screen, and you can immediately start picking & mixing the color scheme of your choice" (OS:Windows 2003/XP/Vista/7/2008)

Also from Reohix, Sleep Moon Xpress is "a next-generation Automation Utility that takes computer automation to the highest level. It puts at your disposal some innovative ways to shut down or restart the system, put it into hibernation, stand-by or log off the user, run a specific file or sound an alarm without as much as touch the computer. You can clap your hands, yell, howl or make whatever sound you like to trigger the action; or you can exploit the mobile technology and use the mobile phone to do all of these things, either by appealing to Bluetooth or connecting it to a wireless network." {PBW notes: Sounds like a handy utility for handicapped users, too] (OS: Windows 2003/XP/Vista/7/2008)

viJournal Lite, the freeware version of viJournal, is "designed as an analogue of the good old-fashioned page-a-day bound diary - the kind you buy in a stationer's. You write your entries under dated headers and save them collectively by month and year" [PBW notes: This looked interesting, and although it appears that the Lite version doesn't offer as many bells and whistles as the pay-for version, I thought it might be interesting for the Mac users to check out] (OS: Mac OS X 10.5)

Twin Visions allows you to "navigate through your photos in 3D, fix flaws, apply effects, create albums and calendars, share your favorites through e-mail, prints and online sharing websites" (OS: Windows 2000/XP/Vista/7)

Story Therapy

Once or twice a year your creative muse goes off on a jaunt, leaving you with a blank design wall and a blank mind, wondering where your next idea is going to come from. -- Rayna Gillman

Lately I've been working on preparations for the piece I hope to enter into an art quilt challenge. I have several techniques I want to use, including two I invented myself. I have all the materials I need. I even have little experiment pieces I'm making to test out how to put it together. But the design itself, the most important part of the piece? I couldn't figure it out. Everything I put on paper looked too busy, too complicated, too overdone.

I got to where I stopped sketching because everything I drew sucked. After twenty-odd years of designing and sewing I actually had a horrendous case of quilter's block.

I put aside the project last week, and in hopes of clearing out my head, I decided to do something different. For this I consulted my April/May 2012 issue of Quilting Arts magazine, in which I found Rayna Gillman's article, Stitch Therapy. First thought: Do these editors have me under surveillance?

I dutifully read the article, and I didn't like it. To summarize the technique it described, you're supposed to just sew a bunch of free-cut, random strips of scrap fabric together. No rulers, no templates, no pattern, no specific type of fabric, no color choosing or matching. Just cut and stitch. Like quilting could be organic. The author called it playful sewing.

You guys know me. As a writer I'm ruthlessly pre-planned and organized; as a quilter I'm even worse. Playful sewing? Please. I have my entire stash color-coded. I've cataloged my quilting magazine and book collections. I've even alphabetized my templates (okay, and cross-indexed them by size and shape.) I do not play, baby, I sew. And this is my biggest creative stonewall: I have to have everything perfect and prepared and figured out ahead of time.

Of course I know the universe wants me to color outside the lines, so I decided I probably needed some stitch therapy and went ahead with doing a project based on the article.

It's very tough to break old habits, and I won't say I had a great time putting together this piece. I kept trying to color match my scraps, cut them into uniform-sized strips and then sew them together in straight rows. I had to toss out four blocks before I finally got the hang of the no-technique technique. As I was making them I could see that the blocks were all over the place. The crooked seam lines and insane colors made my right eye twitch. But when I finally put the blocks together and had a complete piece, it surprised me with how fun it looked:



It's fresh, bright, and not like anything I've done before. It's nowhere near as good as the author's examples, and it's not going to win any awards. But it's still rather neat. Much as I hate to admit it, I'm looking forward to quilting and finishing the piece.

While I was doing the stitch therapy, I was also thinking about my challenge piece. I have been obsessing over the composition when it's the techniques that I want to showcase. To show a technique clearly and communicate the idea to as many people as possible, the ideal way to go is with an easy-to-understand example. I realized I'd been over-thinking the design. Rather than doing a hugely sophisticated piece with all the bells and whistles, I needed to step back and keep it simple.

I still don't know what my challenge piece design will be, but I have some new ideas. I also know I need to back off on the designing and think more about communicating. Stitch therapy didn't give me all the answers, but what it did was put some distance between me and my problem, and provide the chance to step outside my lines and think in a different direction. Which is where I know the answers can be found.

Right now you may be suffering from the same problem with your writing. You have all these ideas and yet you can't make them work. Everything is too complicated. One thing I've always recommended to writers who are blocked is to stop working on what's not working and do something different. It doesn't have to be a novel; write a short story. Set it in a genre you've never tried before now; if the story you're blocked on is a romance try writing a SF story, or an urban fantasy, or a YA. If you hate vampire stories, write a vampire story. The idea of story therapy is to step outside yourself and play for a short period of time. What you produce you may never be able to sell, but as with my stitch therapy project, it may get your head in the right place to go back and solve the problems with the work you do want to sell.

Memed Again

The author meme: "...post 7 lines from page 77 of our latest book or current manuscript, starting after the 7th sentence."

Blame it on: Shiloh Walker.

Excerpt From Nightbred by Lynn Viehl, to be released in December 2012:

She hugged her waist with her arms and looked away. "Sometimes, when I'm too tired to drive home, I sleep up here."

"Alone?" he couldn't help asking.

Her eyes glittered. "No, I usually invite the entire garrison up to cuddle with me. Unless the guys want to play Strip Scrabble or Naked Twister. Then we go to the rec room down the hall." She stalked out of the kitchen.

EuroSPAMmed

As always, I reserve the right to make fun of anyone who SPAMs me -- and this wee gem was just pleading for it:

Dear Lynn

Dear Clueless Stranger, my real name is not actually Lynn. It's Don Diego de la Vega, but you can call me Zorro. Fray Felipe, my horse!

You're one of the first to hear about a new Billion-Euro Weekly Lotto.

Eh? What's that again, Sonny?

As an online lottery, we thought it would be appropriate to tell bloggers before the traditional media.

I understand. Those traditional media bastards are so picky, aren't they? Always asking for references and fund accounts they can verify, actual business licenses, corporate CEO info, what country's laws govern your operation. etc. Bloggers hardly ever do that.

In addition, we're making a game of it.

Ayuh. I myself am utterly dazzled by your gravity and professionalism.

The Challenge: Use your elite blogging powers--

My elite blogging powers? I thought I was an impolitic anti-group-think pacifist/satirist who has authority issues. When did I become an elitist? And will I need penicillin or cognitive therapy to get rid of it?

--to help find Beta Testers for the world's first weekly Billion Euro Lotto, [Anti-Scam Duct Tape]. We want to make sure it's perfect when ticket sales start [Anti-Scam Duct Tape].

So you want me to use my newly elite awesome blogging powers to pimp your online lottery, which you're awarding in a currency that is not used in my country -- do you guys even own an atlas? -- to my readers, about 60% of whom also don't use euros as currency, just so you can make sure you didn't screw up said lottery. Was hiring a web site designer to do a run-through for you too expensive, then?

What Your Readers Get: Each reader who tries out [Anti-Scam Duct Tape] at no cost gets a Complimentary Play for joining, plus 10 more Complimentary Plays with just one regular play in the inaugural draw. Plus, they're participating in the start of something revolutionary.

Newsflash: lotteries have been around since 205 BCE. You're about as revolutionary as toilet paper (and your tickets are probably about as useful.)

You'll understand what we mean when you see it.

Thanks, honey, but I do believe I already have your number.

Your Motivation: (Or Why You'd Be Almost Crazy Not to Take Part)--

Almost crazy? Why not seriously crazy? I mean, we're talking about a billion euros a week here. Obviously you're not Nigerian, and you're not wailing about your dead husband Prince Pondecherry or how you need my bank account data in order to transfer the funds he stole before his senseless murder so that I might keep 95% for myself. No, you're genuinely . . . uh . . . giving away a billion euros a week! To online readers of author blogs even! Honestly, how could anyone in their right mind pass up this opportunity of the lifetime? Hell, I'm in. Okay, so what do I get for helping you out?

--A complimentary play for every Beta Tester who follows your link to start an account.

One lousy play per referral? That's it? That's all?

You've probably got an idea of how many that could be.

Yeah, zero. Wait. Mom, I forbid you to play this lottery. Okay, now it's zero.

The Icing on the Cake:

I'm thinking more like the slop on the hog, but please, complete the grave-digging, by all means.

The highest referring blogger on our leaderboard at the end of the Beta Test earns a vacation for two to Antigua--

Ah, Antigua. The current Mecca for racketeering operations fronting themselves as online gaming companies. How quickly things crystallize.

Hope to see you in Antigua--maybe even as a billionnaire after using all those complimentary plays.

You know, I have trust issues, too, so why not send me a billion euros and make me one now? Would save time. Considering the awesome force of my elite blogging powers, would also be an excellent investment, yes? Just send me the data for your bank account and I'll arrange the transfer.

This message has been manually sent after an individual review and approval of your blog.

You mean you saw my ranking on Technorati and thought, "High-traffic Sucker." Oh, well, you're not the first. Those people from the writing software site offered me five grand a year to whore their overpriced crap product to my readers. You guys are cheapskates. Sniff.

We won't be bothering you again.

No, you psychic moron, you won't be. (Blocking e-mail address)

L'Odyssée Ten

Ten Things About

Wishing You

To explain the Easter photo: I went out this morning to water my sweet potato vines by refilling the aquabloges that I knew would thought were keeping the doves from nesting in the hanging pots. But there was a dove sitting in one. When she saw me she flew off, and when I carefully took down the pot, want to guess what I found?

Unveiling Your Characters

A new theory about a hotly-debated religious relic recently popped up in the news (and the news item will remain unnamed in this post so as not to attract any attention from the flaming sector of debaters). Since I once extensively researched a similar artifact for a story, a friend e-mailed me the link. Then, because my friend believes the newsy relic is authentic, we ended up debating it:

Me: It's a fake. It's an excellent one, and the artwork is really convincing, but it's a fake.

Friend: No, it's real. They've done all kinds of scientific tests on it and they can't explain how it was made. It might even date it back to the time of Christ.

Me: Okay, so they faked it in the time of Christ.

Friend: You're going to burn in hell, you know.

Me: Undoubtedly. But it's still a fake.

Friend: How can you say that? You weren't there. You don't know.

Me: I know just from looking at it.

Friend: How?

Me: Let's agree on two things first: I know fabric, and I know how to drape, yes?

Friend: Those curtains you made for the livingroom are pretty awesome. I agree.

Me: Let's also agree that [the relic] contains a perfect image of the Holy One's face, right? Eyes, nose, mouth, chin, it's all there. Every detail.

Friend: That's why it's real.

Me: Sure it would be real, if the Holy One had been a paperdoll.

Friend: What?

Me: Unless they're the victim of a total facial smash, or their family tree only had one branch on it, human beings generally have three-dimensional faces. Wrap or drape a face with cloth -- even a mystical one that has the power to magically transfer an image of what it's touching -- and at best you'll get contact impressions from the highest points on the face: a blob in the middle for the nose, maybe a blob under that for the chin, and two vertical ridges for the eyebrows. The eyes won't show. Also, when you flatten out the cloth it will distort the image.

Friend: But--but--

Me: The relic's image is complete and perfectly flat. Like a paperdoll's. As if it were rendered by people who sucked at realistically portraying dimensional objects. Like, say, medieval people who faked stuff.

Friend: I hate you.

Me: You're welcome.

When you're writing about your characters, you generally need to describe them to the reader. Beginners do this like a laundry list: He was six-foot-five with shoulder-length pitch black hair. His eyes were gold, his nose was patrician and his mouth was sexy. His cheekbones were sharp. His jaw was hard like concrete. His chin was dimpled (the big tip-off that you may be laundry-listing is the endless use of was, was, was.)

Even after a writer improves enough to get past the wases, there's still the tendency to describe all of the character's features at once to the reader in hopes of giving them a clear visual.

I think it's more interesting to scatter character description through the story. When you look at someone, what's the first thing you notice? Eyes, hair, clothes, body frame? I've tested myself and I tend to look at their clothes first, probably because I really do love fabric. Also the colors, patterns, fit and style of clothing choices offer interesting hints about the person. This is also why many of my character descriptions begin with what they're wearing.

Rather than listing details for the reader, I try to portray them by seeing them through another character's eyes and working in their impressions of who they're looking at from their POV. We all have some sort of emotional reaction to what we see, especially when it's other people, and those emotions help paint a more dimensional portrait for the reader.

Writers, how do you approach describing characters? Readers, what sort of character descriptions work best for you? Let us know in comments.

Don't Hate Hemingway For Writing So Pretty

It's true, Papa was no Samantha Brick*, but the man could tell a story. This mesmerizing stop-motion ingemination of his The Old Man and Sea takes show-don't-tell to a different dimension (and for those of you at work, it also has some background music):


the old man and the sea from Marcel Schindler on Vimeo.

*Yes, even I heard about it here at ye olde ivory tower.

Here We Go Again Again

If I haven't mentioned it, Spring has arrived at Casa PBW. I know this because the birds are once more building nests in strange places. Experience makes us wiser, so this year we're keeping the grill covered to avoid this, the porch is now screened in to prevent this, and I've adjust my aqua globes to discourage the little feathered sex maniacs mommies from setting up nurseries in my sweet potato plants again.

We've left the birdhouses open for occupancy, but pushed them together to eliminate any possibility of this. Alas, back in March the ditzy dove once more out-maneuvered us and built her nest on top of them. This gave me three fun-filled weeks of checking the ground every time I went out in the yard for eggs or nestlings who might have rolled out of her rooftop nest. Fortunately her first set of twins made it through and flew off without a hitch.

Yes, I said the first set.

You see, after her babies flew off, I said to my guy, "We'd better clean that nest off those bird houses or she's going to come back and have more babies." He said I had her mixed up with the blue birds from last summer and not to worry about it.

I thought he was right, until I walked out this morning and saw this:



I think it's the same dove, so I've stopped calling her Ditzy and renamed her Nympho.



And I know she did this on purpose. Just look at the smirk on her face:



As a pro writer you'll find yourself in similar exasperating situations. You'll draw on your experience in order to get a jump on things and eliminate a repeat of the problems you've had in the past by doing what you can to avoid or prevent them. This is not a bad idea because we all want to learn from negative experiences so that someday we can feel like doing something other than puking whenever we think about them.

The thing is, it doesn't always work. For example, if you've ever had an editor or agent who was not a good match for you, it's such a stressful experience that you may go a little crazy and do anything to make a better match the next time around. But while you can change things that are under your control, that doesn't guarantee success. There's that other person about whom you don't know everything, someone who can and likely will do whatever they want. Your next editor may be great or horrendous. Your new agent may be wonderful or terrible. You can take every precaution in the book and still end up in an as bad or even worse situation than the last one.

I'd like to tell you that I have a handy-dandy solution, but this is the reality of the biz. We have to work with others who may or may not be ideal working partners. We can't rewrite other people or delete bad passages from our careers. We can't even plot out how the next working relationship will go. It's our job to handle whatever the industry throws at us. Sometimes it's all roses. Other times it's nothing but stones.

Whatever the outcome, doing what you can to make your side of any working relationship positive is never wasted energy. It makes you a better person, and gives you a healthier outlook; you're moving in a productive direction. Keep thinking, keep improving, and whatever you do, keep moving forward.