Victoria Janssen's Blog, page 99

Researching WWI Uniforms - Linkgasm #5

Even if you don't have a library of World War One books, there are a number of useful websites that provide information about uniforms in that era. Here are some of the ones I've found useful.The Sutlers Stores produces replica uniforms for museum display and docent use. Note the "grayback" shirt which I mentioned in The Moonlight Mistress.Reenactor.net has a WWI section. It's not only useful

You Make Your Own Luck

A fellow Romance Diva recently told the story of her first sale, which resulted from a series of events at an RWA Conference - not random events, not entirely. She had taken actions that led to those "random" events. The lesson I took away from her story was that it's better to make your own luck.What do I mean by that? I mean that not every path (in this case, to publication) is the same.

Elements Critique

A writer friend once commented that sometimes she needed a critique on plot and sometimes she needed a critique on character. And I think she was absolutely right.Characters make plot, of course. And plot affects character, giving them things to do and things to which they must react. Plot and character have synergy. Sometimes, though, one of them is working better than the other.A physical

Writing Emotion

This post is more questions than answers.I've been thinking about what makes some fiction so much more satisfying to read than other fiction, aside from factors such as story elements one loves, a well-constructed plot, and elegant prose style. At bottom, I think emotional resonance is the most important element. Some characters, some stories, reach deeper inside me as a reader than others, and

Unrealistic Dialogue

It's a pretty common observation that dialogue in a story is unrealistic.There are all sorts of linguistic studies that relate to "real life" dialogue. Here's a pretty good introduction to sociolonguistics, for example. One of the things I learned from taking a linguistics seminar, many years ago, was how different speech is different from written communication, including letter-writing and

Geoffrey Faber, "Home Service"

Home Service"At least it wasn't your fault" I hear them console When they come back, the few that will come back. I feel those handshakes now. "Well, on the whole You didn't miss much. I wish I had your knack Of stopping out. You still can call your soul Your own, at any rate. What a priceless slack You've had, old chap. It must have been top-hole. How's poetry? I bet you've written a stack."

Wilfred Wilson Gibson, "Back"

BackThey ask me where I've been,And what I've done and seen.But what can I replyWho know it wasn't I,But someone just like me,Who went across the seaAnd with my head and handsKilled men in foreign lands...Though I must bear the blame,Because he bore my name.--Wilfred Wilson Gibson (1878-1962)

Slow Writers Anonymous

At the 2003 WisCon, there was a panel about "Slow Writers." I've been thinking about it again, and thought it would be a good thing to post in my blog.This post is comprised of my distilled memories of the panel.Everybody works differently, and everybody is right.There are at least two kinds of slow writers: those who write a tiny bit consistently, and those who just don't write very often.

The Long and the Short of It

How do we decide a length for our stories?I think a lot of it has to do with the stories themselves.A friend of mine used to say that novels didn't adapt as well into feature films as short stories did, because a feature film was essentially a short story, about the Most Important Event in a person's life. If you adapt a whole novel into a feature film, you must perforce skip a lot, because

Turn Your Writing Topsy-Turvy

In Jane Yolen's Take Joy: A Writer's Guide to Loving the Craft, she writes, "When we force ourselves to go topsy-turvy, we can see anew what is on the page," (p. 49).She suggests taking a single chapter and re-reading the whole thing while changing the gender of the characters, or the point of view, or leaving out all the modifiers, or counting how many times you've used each sense for events