S.L. Viehl's Blog, page 172

Need I Say Don't Buy This?

Click on screenshot to see larger version:



Has to be an ARC. My editor doesn't even have the finished book yet.

So why shouldn't you take advantage of this offer? Well, if you wait four more weeks to buy the mass market edition of Nightborn when it's released on March 6th, you will:

a) get an instant $992.00 discount.

b) assure that I actually receive royalties from your purchase (and that forty-two cents will go right in the piggy bank, I promise.)

c) be able to use all the money you save to buy 124 other paperback books you want to read.

Also you'll be demonstrating that you are, you know, a sane person.

Revisions Ten

Ten Things to Do While Working on Requested Revisions
(dedicated to me and Raine and every other writer out there working on revisions this week.)

Avoid e-mailing your friends who work as editors and asking them things like "Do you all belong to one big crazy club, or what?"

Don't answer comments or queries until you are feeling calm, cooperative and understanding, or the chocolate-covered Valium finally kicks in; whichever comes first.

Follow the directions on your writer's revision towel.

Invoke the Writer's Revision Serenity Prayer: Grant me the serenity to accept the things my editor wants to change; the courage to change at least 75% of the things that I want to STET; and the wisdom not to mouth off about any of it.

Print out an extra copy of your editor's revisions request letter and (just for your own amusement) edit it. Go on, you know you want to.

Realize that you're in good company.

Remember while on the phone discussing revisions with your editor that you have the right to remain silent, and why.

Remove all firearms, lethal doses of drugs, ropes, sharp objects and telephones from arm's reach of your computer desk.

Repeat your revisions mantra: OMigod. OMigod. OMigod.

When all else fails, remind yourself of how lucky you are, because while you have to deal with 1 editor, your editor probably has to deal with at least 26 yous.

Winners

You guys mentioned some very intriguing methods and sources of inspiration for the All the Answers giveaway; I'm definitely going to test-drive a few of them the next time I need to try something new.

We got the magic hat revved up, and the winners are:

Emily, who uses the 'open a book to a random spot' method

terlee, who has been inspired by the names from paint chip cards, a one-line lyric in a song, and conversations overheard while out and about

Deb Salisbury, who plotted an entire novel using a Tarot deck

Winners, when you have a chance please send your full name and ship-to address to LynnViehl@aol.com, and I'll get these cards & books out to you. My thanks to everyone for joining in.

Outfit the Author

A couple of you (you know who you are) have asked about the writer's revision towel I showed Raine in comments over at the Chicas.

Here's the towel (click to see larger image):



It's not bath towel-size (how would you get that in your mouth?); it's 7.5" X 11.5". It actually works nicely as a dusting cloth, with or without the spit.

If you want your own or one for a friend, you can order it online here at Author Outfitters. They have lots of neat products for writers, and can even customize them for you with your images or cover art. I love their mugs, which are a great size, immaculately printed and perfect when you need a gift for a writer or editor friend.

Domain Explained

Meet Stanley. Stanley is a gopher tortoise. Stanley has been hanging around my yard for about a month now, and sleeping in strange spots, so I'm pretty sure he's homeless.



Meet George. George lives in this burrow on my property, which has been his exclusive domain for seven years.



Now anyone want to guess why Stanley has been hanging around my yard?



Yes, it appears that Stanley would like to move into George's burrow. I can't ask him why, but I'll guess he wants it because it's roomy, well-established and in a great location. No doubt Stanley also realizes that moving into George's burrow will allow him to munch on all the nice greens in my yard and keep him from becoming tortoise tartar for the local predators.

George, however, does not want to give Stanley his burrow. I also can't ask George why, but I'll wager he feels that finding the spot first, digging the burrow himself and living in it for the last seven years gives him the right to call it his.

George doesn't actually own his burrow; he just dug it out and lives in it. He's protective of it, though, and has had to defend it a couple of times. The people who used to own this property before we bought it didn't like George, and according to neighbors they "filled in" the burrow once when George was out grazing in hopes of getting rid of him. Aside from this being heartless and illegal (gopher tortoises are an endangered species, and you have to have a permit even just to relocate them) the burrows can be up to thirty feet long and twelve feet deep; they probably only filled in the entry foyer. A couple of times we've noticed other critters like black racer snakes, owls and foxes have tried to evict George, too, but with no luck.

But let's consider this dilemma from Stanley's point of view. Since George doesn't really own the burrow, why doesn't he simply give it to Stanley? After all, Stanley is homeless, and he really wants it, and it is perfect for him. Of course giving up the burrow would make George homeless, but really, George has been around practically forever, and has all that experience with finding and digging and defending that Stanley doesn't. It would be nothing for old George to go somewhere else and start over, right?

The point of this story: when you two-legged Stanleys out there e-mail me and tell me all about you, and your plans for making a home for yourself online, and then mention how absolutely perfect the name Paperback Writer is for the weblog you want to start, and then beg me to do things like give you my URL, change the name of my blog, and/or go find another place to write?

From now on I'm going to refer you to George.

Video

This entry into a digital diary contest in Italy won Matthew Brown the grand prize. Watch it and you'll see why (for those of you at work, this is narrated, also contains background music.)

Dreaming It{aly} from Matthew Brown (Matty Brown) on Vimeo.

All the Answers

You never know what gems you'll find in your book store's discounted stock sections. At my local BAM they always have a pretty decent selection of mini boxed kits, usually discounted up to 75%. Rummage through these and you might find anything from Paris in a box to a little Zen garden for your desk.

I like to play with cards, so whenever I see a card deck of any kind it grabs my attention. Since I also have lots of questions, I definitely couldn't resist The Answer Deck, created and designed by Nicholas Zann.

The Answer Deck is a kind of alternative Tarot, with 73 illustrated divination cards that use concept words like Abundance, Challenge, Greed, Power, Truth, etc. Mixed among these are random characters (The Master, Dark Haired Woman, Friend, Hidden Enemy) and a few nouns (Battle, Journey, The Lesson.) The cards are all beautifully illustrated with graphic black and white images representing the corresponding words. According to the mini instruction booklet you ask a question, draw cards from the deck, arrange them on the included paper mat, and then interpret an answer* based on the layout and how they relate to each other (also briefly explained in the booklet.)

I paperclipped my mat to a piece of cardboard to keep it flat before I dealt a few layouts and ran some questions by it, and the answers were certainly entertaining. I'm either going to take over the world, become rich beyond my wildest dreams, or finally find the egg slicer my guy put away and subsequently forgot where he put it. If the fates are listening, I'd really like the egg slicer back now ((and click on any of the following images to view a larger version):



The really interesting thing about these cards for me was how well they might work as creative prompts. Simply shuffle the deck, deal out a couple of cards, and see what ideas they spark, which you can jot down like this:

Woman of the World - Scandal

Immediate thoughts: How do you take down a woman of the world? Scandal certainly does an excellent job, but if she is a woman of the world, why didn't she see it coming? Or maybe she became a woman of the world because of a scandal in her past, or she intends to cause one.


The Fool - Talent

Immediate thoughts: Talent and wisdom rarely go hand-in-hand. One is random, the other has to be earned (usually the hard way.) I also recalled something from a baseball documentary about a very talented player who still had to be actively discouraged from chasing after firetrucks.

Add more cards to what you deal out, and you can see story patterns beginning to emerge:



Faith - Clarity - Change - Fair/Gray Haired Man

Immediate thoughts: What we believe can change in an instant. One is never so adamantly confirmed in their beliefs as the moment just before they're ripped apart. Like believing you're done with love, and your life is so much better lived alone, and then that fair-haired guy with the amazing voice and gorgeous green eyes smiles at you . . . . well, we'll save the rest of that for the autobiography. You get the general idea.

I had such a blast playing with these cards that I went back and bought three more decks for a giveaway. If you'd like a chance to win one, in comments to this post tell us about an unconventional source of inspiration you've tried (or if you can't think of one, just toss your name in the hat) by midnight EST on Saturday, January 28, 2012. I'll choose three names at random from everyone who participates and send the winners The Answer Deck and a signed copy of my Kyndred novel Nightshine. This giveaway is open to anyone on the planet, even if you've won something here at PBW in the past.

*Please note that as with most mass-produced divination tools The Answer Deck is intended for entertainment purposes only.

Digging for Story

The January/February issue of Archaeology magazine features among other way cool stuff the top 10 archaeological discoveries of 2011. These include:

- A Viking boat burial found in western Scotland

- An untouched burial chamber in Guatemala that may be the tomb of a rare female ruler from the second or third century AD

- An ancient Roman ludus (gladiator school) in Austria that is being digitally reconstructed

-- A bronze vessel unearthed in Xinjiang, China found to contain the world's oldest soup, with millet noodles still intact after 2,400 years

There are articles about researchers finding evidence off the coast of Sicily of why Rome won the war at sea it waged with Carthage (bronze battering rams fitted to the prows of their ships); interesting theories about what fulachtaí fia, mysterious burnt mounds in Ireland, were used for; and the rush by scholars at the University of Chicago to create digital images of tens of thousands of clay tablets unearthed in Iran in 1930 before some ongoing and very complicated legal battles result in the sale of the tablets or their return to the Iranian government.

All of these real-life discoveries, theories and issues make terrific reading, but they also provide innumerable opportunities for storytellers. Reading about such marvelous finds always invokes a sense of wonder in me. Who is that Viking, and why is he buried in Scotland? How did a female end up ruling a male-dominated culture? What subjects did they teach at gladiator school? Were they really eating Ramen noodles as far back as 2,400 years ago?

Archaeological discoveries are always a goldmine for the historical fiction writer, but they offer a lot for a modern-day story as well. Imagine a university intern rushing to scan those embattled ancient Persian tablets, and in the process he accidentally drops one. It breaks open and . . . what happens next? Does he find something concealed inside the clay? Does it release some kind of ancient Persian demon? What if just arranging the tablets in a certain pattern can open a doorway to another time, another world, another reality? Maybe the legal disputes over the tablets is a ruse, or a way to disguise the real battle (and if you're a political thriller writer, I'm sure you can run with that all the way to Tehran.)

Antiquity attracts me as a storyteller not just for the evidence of it that archaeologists discover, but for all the details we'll likely never know. Ireland's burnt mounds, which date back to the Bronze Age, may have been used for cooking, bathing, brewing alcohol or dyeing textiles -- some activity that involved heat intense enough to crack stone. Since there is no general consensus among the scholars, the purpose of the mounds is up for grabs (from the way they're described, they sound to me like some kind of ancient kilns.)

Even small details from real life discoveries can enrich your fiction. On page 14 of this issue is a little sidebar with an image of a gold and sapphire medieval ring and a brief explanation of why sapphires in the medieval period were primarily worn by royalty, nobility and important members of the clergy. Wearing sapphires was (and still is) supposed to bring clear thinking, enlightenment and good luck. One of my characters from the new Darkyn trilogy definitely needs all three, so now by reading this I've learned something I can use in that book.

I love this magazine, but there are also plenty of resources on the web where you can go virtually digging for story for free:

UK's Antiquity offers some free articles from their archives to read on their web site (scroll down to the bottom left for the editor's choice.)

Exploring Ancient World Cultures takes you on a virtual reading trip around the world by way of the distant past.

Run searches on specific eras and topics you're interesting in researching, and you'll find sites like Friends of the Hunley, a group dedicated to educating people about the recovery, conservation, and exhibition of a Civil War-era combat submarine.

LiveScience -- at the moment the history section is running an interesting piece here on a strange ancient Roman "winged" stone stucture found in England.

Why do civilizations collapse, anyway? Here's an interactive web site set up by Annenberg Learner to answer your questions.

Scarab Outlining

Last night, after rescuing a ladybug trapped on the porch -- yes, I occasionally do insect search and rescue -- I got an idea for a quick way to outline a scene or story. I then went in search of my ancient Egyptian coloring book (what, you expected Dora the Explorer?) and found what I wanted:



This is a scarab, a symbol inspired by a common black beetle (Scarabeus sacer) which was held in high regard by the Egyptians. To them the scarab represented the sun god Khepera (also known as Kheper, Khephri and a couple other names) who represented renewal and eternity; both very important themes in their culture.

For our purposes this elegant creature is going to help prepare a micro-outline for writing, and to do that I'm going to borrow the letters from its name: SCARAB.



Each letter of its name represents an idea prompt to help you think about what you need to know in order to write your story:

Situation: Here's your main premise. What is it?
Characters: Decide on your cast. Who is involved?
Action: These are the main events. What happens?
Reason: Determine the motivating factor. Why does it happen?
Ambiance: The type of story this is. What's the mood, theme or genre?
Building: The world of your story. Where/when does it happen?

Be brief when you answer these questions, as you don't want to write a synopsis. This is a very basic outline, the sort of thing you'd scribble down in a pocket notebook. I have a story I'm writing based on my story card prompt for January, so I'll use that as an example:

Situation: a lady delivering flowers is trapped inside a haunted house and must befriend (the thing?) haunting it in order to survive.
Characters: the lady, her business partner, the thing.
Action: lady delivers flowers to haunted house, is trapped inside by homicidal business partner, discovers the thing. The thing protects the lady in exchange for her promise to stay. The lady discovers the thing's real motives, must choose to escape or stay/risk her life to protect it (from business partner? Public discovery? Whatever made it a thing?)
Reason: the thing has been secretly watching the lady for some time, wants her for itself, and manipulated business partner into bringing her there.
Ambiance: dark fantasy, scary, erotic, ironic
Building: modern day northern California (rural, city?)

At this point you don't have to chisel in stone all the story details, either. As you can see I've included in my scarab micro-outline a couple of questions for myself; these are elements I haven't yet decided on, like exactly what the thing is, what the final threat is, and where the story takes place.

I think the scarab approach can help you nail down an idea for a scene as well as a full story, or even rough out the main premise for a novel. Adapt it to suit your needs. It may also prove easier to deal with for writers who would like to play with the basic framework but don't want to work out a lot of detail ahead of time.

Scarab image credit: Ancient Egyptian Design Coloring Book by Ed Sibbett, Jr., ISBN# 048623746X, published by Dover Publications

Outline Ten

Ten Things to Help Outline Your Novel

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

The Lite version of Action Outline "consists of an Explorer-like interface where you can store and arrange all your information in a tree outline form. Arrange items using your keyboard or mouse, cut and paste branches, place checks or tags next to listed items, search information, print data, export to the external file, or link to web or local files" (OS: Windows 2000, 2003, 2008, XP, Vista and Windows 7.)

Essential PIM is a "personal information manager that allows you to keep all your information in electronic form. All your appointments, tasks, notes, contacts, password entries and email messages are stored in a graphical user interface and easily accessible form. Automatically import your data from pretty much any PIM software that just isn't working for you. Synchronize with popular online services such as Google Calendar and Contacts, Yahoo Contacts, SyncML and CalDAV servers and more, always keeping your data up-to-date and accessible anywhere, anytime" (OS: Windows XP, Vista, 7)

The Guide "evolved from the need to have an application that could organize information and ideas in a hierarchical, tree-like structure. Tree-based structures are frequently employed to manage information through a "divide-and-conquer" approach, wherein each level of the tree represents a further level of specialization of the parent-level topic — the best example of this being a book. The Guide is an application that allows you create documents ("guides") which inherently have a tree (which you can modify as you please) and text associated with each node of the tree. The text itself is of the rich-text variety, and the editor allows you to modify the style and formatting of the text (fonts, bold, italics etc). For the initiated, the Guide is a two-pane extrinsic outliner. This concept is similar to mindmapping in some ways" (OS: Designer notes: "The Guide is available as an installable package for Microsoft Windows 2000 and upwards (XP, 2003, 2008, Vista). The binaries are also available as a zip file that requires no installation and supports portable use. The Guide is a 32-bit native C++ Win32 application (that uses MFC). It will work on 64-bit platforms also.")

MemPad "is a plain text outliner and note taking program with a structured index. All pages are stored in a single file. User interface available in 15 languages. The program offers standard editing functions including cut, copy, paste, undo, date/time insert, drag&drop, and supports Web links as well as network and local file or folder links (full path not required) and internal page links. Environmental variables can be used in file links to run programs, for example" (OS: Win95 / Win98 / WinME / WinNT / Win2K / WinXP / Vista / Win7)

Mind Raider is a "personal notebook and outliner. It aims to connect the tradition of outline editors with emerging technologies. MindRaider mission is to help you in organization of your knowledge and associated web, local and realworld resources in a way that enables quick navigation, concise representation and inferencing" (OS: Windows, Linux and Mac)

The Note & Do free plugin for MS Office applications (Excel, Outlook, Powerpoint and Word) allows you to: "Drag and drop text from the documents to instantly create notes or tasks; Drag task or note text directly into your document; Categorize notes and tasks with color; Auto arrange the notes; Remove all notes at once; Pin a note to all applications or just the ones you choose; Create application-specific tasks; Complete and re-enable tasks (OS:Windows 7 (x86, x64), Windows Server 2008, Windows Vista (x86, x64), Windows 2003, Windows XP. .NET Framework 2.0 must be installed.)

NotesLogExp "can store, retrieve, catalog, manage, search, sort and export notes, documents, links, etc. The program can save and automatically fill forms as well as usernames and passwords (with auto login). The program includes a search tool, the database is password protected, and includes export to HTML" (OS: Windows 98, Vista, 7)

Text Tree was built on Randy Ingermanson's Snowflake outlining method, and "is designed make structured, understandable documents easily and quickly. Text Tree has been found useful for story writing, FAQ creation, novel planning, manual writing, software support, biographies, and lesson planning. What really sets Text Tree apart from other outliners is its export abilities. In other outliners, you make a outline of everything, then you have to cut and paste or go node by node to get your information out. Text Tree allows you to quickly export all or part of the information in your outline" (OS: Windows XP with Java installed)


TreeLine is "a structured information storage program. Some would call TreeLine an Outliner, others would call it a PIM. Basically, it just stores almost any kind of information. A tree structure makes it easy to keep things organized. And each node in the tree can contain several fields, forming a mini-database. The output format for each node can be defined, and the output can be shown on the screen, printed, or exported to html (OS: Windows XP, Vista, 7, Linux)