S.L. Viehl's Blog, page 191

One Book

Author Shiloh Walker asked me some interesting questions the other day (and my answers will be appearing on her blog tomorrow.) Among them was one I didn't want to answer because I thought it couldn't be answered: What's the one book you think everybody, writer or not, should read?

Like saying you want world peace at a beauty pageant, the Holy Bible seems to be the default answer. But the Bible and I have our issues, and I feel it's simply not appropriate for everyone. So back to the drawing board. Shakespeare was next on my list, but he wrote plays, not books, and he can be difficult to understand. I came close to saying Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer because I do think that illustrates the human character from soup to nuts, plus it's funny -- but also, not an easy read.

I finally turned around the question and thought what is it that I wish everyone would get from reading one book? And then I knew.

I read this book when I was quite young, probably too young to be exposed to the content, which is brutal. It's not a pleasant read, especially for writers. Even after you learn that the author actually lived it, you don't want to believe it. Thinking about it afterward made me cry a couple times and I even had some nightmares about it.

So why would I want everyone to read a horrible book like that? Honestly, it made me grateful. Grateful for everything I had: the tiny room I shared with two sisters, the squashed peanut butter and jelly sandwich in my lunchbag, the hand-me-down clothes that were too big or too small, the cheap shoes that pinched my toes, even the dismal prospects waiting in my future. I didn't believe that I had anything of value in my life until I read this book, and then for the first time clearly saw and understood exactly how fortunate I was. That the few things I had, the things that had never before been good enough, were blessings that could so easily be taken away from me, along with my family, my home, and even my future.

In answering Shiloh's question I also realized I've never given anyone a copy of this book, which I intend to remedy right now. In comments to this post, name a book that changed how you think about yourself or anything (or if you've not yet read that one book, just toss your name in the hat) by midnight EST on Thursday, June 23, 2011. I will draw one name at random from everyone who participates and send the winner a copy of the book that I think everyone should read, and I will also grant the winner a BookWish*. This giveaway is open to everyone on the planet, even if you've won something at PBW in the past.

*A BookWish is any book of your choice available to order from an online bookseller, up to a maximum cost of $30.00 U.S. (I'll throw in whatever shipping is involved.)

Graphic credit: © Yellowj | Dreamstime.com

Search Terms Ten

I've never checked what search terms new visitors use that lead them to here because I don't know how to do that spy stuff. Turns out Blogger does, though, via their Stats section, and they also list the terms at the very bottom of the Traffic Sources page.

The good thing is that it's anonymous; they list only the total number of visitors who used the search terms to get here. I guess you could use it to judge if your content is appropriate to your audience. With that in mind, here are:

Ten Things People Look for at PBW

Face Generator (130): Probably the best face generator I've found is the Morphases Editor.

Paperback Writer Blog (156): There are a couple of other blogs that use the same name, but I'm probably the best-known in the Publishing Industry and (far as I know) the original.

Plotting a Novel (488): Here are all the plotting posts I've tagged from most recent to the earliest.

Lynn Viehl Website (501): I don't have a formal website, sorry, but all the pertinent info about my books can be found via the sidebar links.

Place Name Generator (674): My old post about place name generators is
Novel Outline (770): Here are all of the posts about outlining that I've tagged, from latest to earliest.

Outlining a Novel (880): See Novel Outline.

How to Outline a Novel (1,658) Now I understand why the most popular writing post of all time on PBW is Novel Outlining 101.

Paperback Writer (3,370): Just in case anyone came here to listen to The Beatles' song, after which this blog is named, here's a video of them performing it:



Lynn Viehl (6,132): Yep, you found me. Welcome. My bibliography is here, the most important info about me and the blog can be read here. Links to all of my free novels, novellas, stories and other stuff can be found here.

Those of you who have Blogger as your host, do you use these search term lists for anything useful? Let us know in comments.

Wishing You

Seeing the Light

You know you're a series writer when you never want your stories to end. I happen to be that kind of storyteller. I'm also allergic to happily ever after, don't like saying good-bye, and refuse to believe in Armageddon.

Then there is the frustrating mystery of the appropriate time to stop replying to e-mail replies, which I have never been able to solve. Do I stop replying too soon? Do I drag it out longer than I should? I'd put -30- at the end of mine, but not everyone would get it. And there's no graceful to say "Do you still want to reply, and then should I reply, or is it okay if I stop after you send the next one?"

Hey, I'm a writer. I worry about this stuff.

I also hate ending books, which is why I often rush through writing my last chapter. It's like taking cough medicine; sipping it slowly is simply not possible. For a while it was becoming a real problem for me; during the full manuscript editing phase I almost always threw out the last chapter because it sucked and rewrote it from scratch. Then someone mentioned online that they wrote their final chapter way before they got to it so they could work toward an ending versus screeching to a halt and wrapping it all up (and I'm sorry, but I don't recall who said that or I'd give them credit.)

I'm also a linear writer, in that I write from beginning to end without stopping, so I knew from the start that this was not going to be easy for me. Still, I wanted to see if it worked, so I tried it. I stopped when I was writing in first third of the book, and put together a draft of the last chapter. Once I finished it, I parked it at the end of the manuscript anyway and went back to pick up where I left off.

I don't think about what I've already written while I'm writing, so I forgot about it. And sure enough, when I got to the end of the book and started getting the usual, "Oh, God, I have finish it" heebie-jeebies, the ending was already there, like a nice little light at the end of the bridge.

Now granted, that last chapter draft was pretty rough, and needed plenty of revision because certain things had changed during the process of the novel. But I am much less stressed when I edit, especially when I have a completed manuscript to work on. I also didn't take as much time off between the writing and the full manuscript edit because I wasn't annoyed with myself or how I'd written the ending. Having it waiting for me was actually energizing.

If you wrestle with your endings and want to try this method, I have a few suggestions:

Know how you want your book to end (obviously writing ahead isn't going to work for organic writers) and briefly outline the chapter before you write it.

Write light. This is a draft, not a finalized chapter, so keep it simple and nail the most important details.

Characters, dialogue and action make a great framework for a draft chapter. Avoid things that bog down the writing, i.e. tons of description, endless setting, weather reports, travelogues, etc.

Don't tell yourself it's set in stone, because it's not. If it sucks you can always toss it and rewrite a new version from scratch.

Writing the last chapter while you're still working on the front of the book also has one final benefit: once you have it written, the book is technically finished. Then all you have to do is write toward that light at the end of the story bridge.

Image credit: © Karin Jehle | Dreamstime.com

True or Fake?

I am bailing on you guys today to take care of some new contract negotiations. So your trip here was not entirely wasted, you might visit Mikhail Simkin's True Art, or a Fake?*, a quiz to test your knowledge of authentic abstract art.

I scored 92%, but then I'm a student as well as a fan of abstract art, and recognized all but one of the real artworks. Just the Klee threw me for a loop.

*Link swiped from Gerard over at The Presurfer.

Props

In Naming the World, a how-to with a collection of essays and exercises from writers/editors/teachers, author Nick Arvin wrote a piece about revision, specifically about how to revise physical objects in the story -- what he refers to as props -- to make them more effective as a story element. He mentions Chekhov's Gun, one of those literary theories they beat into our heads in high school.

According to Chekhov, no object in the story should be there without a reason:

"If you say in the first chapter that there is a rifle hanging on the wall, in the second or third chapter it absolutely must go off. If it's not going to be fired, it shouldn't be hanging there." —Anton Chekhov (From S. Shchukin, Memoirs. 1911.)

I agree with Chekhov, sort of. I think of props as active and benign; the active ones are there for a reason, the benign there for the setting. Active props are probably the least-used story element in genre writing, and it's a shame, too, because when employed with some imagination they can be pretty effective. Not only as elements to provide some foreshadowing for the reader, but as inspiration for dialogue, focal points in an otherwise ho-hum scene, etc.

My new Darkyn trilogy is unusually object-driven. When plotting I always like to use unusual active props, so it's probably no surprise that I employed Mickey Mouse ears to inspire and put a fresh spin on what would have otherwise been a pretty standard confrontation scene (and if you want to see how I did it, head over to the stories blog and read the partial scene here.)

Most of the time I see great stuff in other writers' stories that is only described, and this kills me, because when I come across that mysterious urn of ashes or portrait of a one-legged man I start telling myself stories about them while I'm reading. Then I get to the end of the story and those great props are still sitting there, unused and covered with dust, like story clutter.

That said, not every prop in a story has to have a reason for being there. Some props are active and others aren't. Not all rifles go off; sometimes they really do just hang on the wall as part of the setting description. If we didn't have at least some benign props, every story would be written in a series of empty rooms, vacant lots and flowerless meadows.

What's your favorite type of active prop in a story? Do you think the rifle hanging on the wall always has to go off? Let us know in comments.

The House That Frank Built

While hunting for some architectural info, I discovered Cristóbal Vila's short CG movie showcasing Falling Water, the magnificent home Frank Lloyd Wright designed, which was built over a waterfall back in 1936.

For those of you at work there is background music to this one, which is definitely worth viewing full-screen.

Fallingwater from Cristóbal Vila on Vimeo.

The Namator Game

We all need to do some exercises in spontaneous creativity now and then or we forget how to have fun. That said, we don't have a lot of spare time. So here's a quick and easy game you can play that will spark ideas, get your muse working and maybe even inspire a story or two.

To play the game, you must visit Namator.com and, using the four generators there, pull three words from each list of results you generate. Then, very quickly and without thinking about it too much, write who or what they are.

Here are mine:

Companies:

Effenoise -- Records to make your parents swear. Company motto: Turn up the Effenoise.
Silemony -- Like alimony, only your ex pays this company to keep you quiet (there's a whole creepy story in this one.)
Phonevox Corps -- something steampunk, I think. Maybe like the Peace Corp, but they go to third world countries to install the vox, a primitive form of land line communication.

Fantasy:

Jeffrry -- The werebeast version of Jeffrey the pest control guy. Not my pest control guy. His name isn't Jeffrey. I promise.
Arakgaret -- I really liked the way this sounded when I said it out loud. An Egyptian deity. The God of Airless Spaces.
Dracass -- Pernish-sounding. Maybe the dragon version of the jackass.

People:

Augustine Hinsch -- Sourpuss. Penny pincher. Dog hater. Priss lips.
Minta Dasilva -- Her dad owned a mining company, and though he was being funny.
Dhanya Ishida -- Nice and lyrical. Maybe a poet or a samurai. Or a samurai poet.

Planets:

Ancient Baseor -- Okay, so God coughed up this huge hairball, and then . . .
Gothdustrial Silver -- Ahhhhh. Gothdustrial. I'm in love. I want to live on this planet. Take me there, please.
Terra Floraop IV -- the planet of adorable floppy-eared bunnies who got kicked off earth, or invaded earth . . .wait, I think Spinrad already wrote that one.

If you play the game and want to share some of your results in comments, please do.

Writer Dad Ten

Ten Things to Get Your Writer Dad for Father's Day

James Scott Bell's excellent writing nonfic, The Art of War for Writers , may help a writer dad get back on track.

Check out special events at your local indy book store that your writer dad might enjoy. Here's a store in Marin, California that has a luncheon this week with author Anne Patchett plus a signed book for $55.00.

For the writer dad who has not had his brains sucked out of his skull by an e-reader, try a set of Bookends.

I still wince over the title, but Bill Bryson's The Mother Tongue ~ English and How it Got That Way is one of those books I always give guys who read and write, and they always love it.

If the budget is tight, you can download tons of free e-books in all the formats you can imagine over at ManyBooks.net. For those writer dads who love SF, I recommend Jay Caselberg's Binary.

Give him the ultimate writer dad outerwear: The I Write T-shirt from InkyGirl Debbie Ridpath Ohi's online shop.

A blank book, notebook or journal encourages writer dad to write, and one that is handmade or artfully altered can provide add some addition inspiration. Currently you can shop over forty-seven thousand journals for sale by independent artisans over on Etsy.com

Buying from Levenger can be extremely expensive, but there are often bargains to be had, too. It's not on sale, but I like this Lamy lightweight Safari fountain pen (which, btw, I found nine dollars cheaper over at WritersBloc here. So do shop around.)

Office Depot gift cards have no expiration date and are shipped to your writer dad for free.

I love Platinum fountain pens, so I also have to mention Writersbloc for their nice, reasonably-priced stock of Plaisirs. They also sell the hard-to-find Platinum cartridges and converters.

SF Contest

Very few SF writing contests catch my eye, but this one from across the pond sounds decent:

"The James White Award is a competition for original short stories of not more than 6,000 words by non-professional writers. The closing date for entries to this year's competition is midnight (GMT) January 31, 2012. The winner will be announced at Eastercon 2012 during the BSFA Awards ceremony. It is open to entrants from any country but all stories must be in the English language. The prize for the winner of the James White Award is £200 plus publication in Interzone, the UK's leading science fiction magazine."

A big bonus is that they don't accept entries from professional writers (aka members of SFWA.) More details can be found at the contest page here.