Brian Yansky's Blog, page 30

Doors&Windows

Another thing I work on in revision, maybe after the first couple passes, is adding physical details. I'm a writer who underwrites in the early stages of my work, so what I do at some point in the revision process is look for windows or doors, places where the manuscript needs or can benefit from more details, places I can enter to add these details. I want to slow things down and I want to make the reader more involved in the scenes.

Overwriters should go through the manuscript looking for p...

Another thing I work on in revision, maybe after the firs...

Another thing I work on in revision, maybe after the first couple passes, is adding physical details. I'm a writer who underwrites in the early stages of my work, so what I do at some point in the revision process is look for windows or doors, places where the manuscript needs or can benefit from more details, places I can enter to add these details. I want to slow things down and I want to make the reader more involved in the scenes.

Overwriters should go through the manuscript looking for p...

It's not enough to write well

I was reading this interview with several editors and they were talking about how they pick books for their list. We've all heard the "I just don't feel like I would be the best editor for this book" and "I just wasn't excited enough to take this one" etc. etc… But what the he#* does that mean? Basically it means that, for whatever reason, the editor can't see himself or herself married to this book for a year or more. The commitment is huge. They have to be able to read the book a dozen time...

What's a writer?

When people ask me why I write I have to say it's because I can't help myself. That's the way it is now. I love it. I'm addicted to it. I need to do it. But, of course, that wasn't always my answer. I started out writing because it was fun and I secretly hoped it would make me rich and famous and able to work in my pajamas all day. Unless I was traveling the world, of course, in which case I would gladly wear clothes.

I did love to read.

I did love stories.

But, like many people, I had crazy ...

Process

Okay the old "to outline or not to outline" question came up at a recent writerly social event I was at. I've heard many writers on this subject. Sometimes writers get very adamant about their position. They point their pens menacingly and say, OF COURSE YOU SHOULD OUTLINE. OR--OF COUSE YOU SHOULDN'T OUTLINE.

There are various degrees of outliners. Some say they just put down some vague notions about plot and character knowing they will change as they write. Just having them down somehow ma...

WI

POSTED (Albert Einstein was definitely a big brain kind of guy but as a young man he responded so slowly to questions that his parents and teachers suspected he was mentally disabled. Also, he did poorly in school and failed his college entrance exams the first time. Go figure.)
Most writers are smart. Yes. But how smart? Are they, for instance, the smartest person in a room of people? Depends on the room, I suppose. If the room is The Poodle Dog Lounge on an all-you-can-drink-for-ten-dollar...

Wolves and Sheep

My sheepdog is 105 pounds but looks even larger because of all the hair. In the winter, we let it grow long, let him get back to his primitive self. That hair was supposed to help protect sheepdogs from the inevitable wolf bites when they protected sheep. Naturally, when you're protecting sheep, you have to expect to meet some wolves.

This makes me think about the wolves and sheep we contend with in our fiction. What I notice some writers doing and what I've done myself is sometimes allow a...

conversation

Sometimes it's helpful to listen to other people's conversations. Of course, you're not going to try to transcribe them. You're going to listen and mark interesting phrases or turns of phrase or parts of conversation and use them sometime down the writing road when you're in a scene. Most likely you'll use a reasonable facsimile of them. I heard two teenage boys talking at the pool the other day. Not that I was purposely listening, but there I hanging onto the edge of the pool and they were t...

Happy World UFO Day

HAPPY WORLD UFO DAY:

According to Wikepedia: June 24th was selected as World UFO Day because the first UFO report that was widely reported took place on June 24, 1947. This UFO sighting was reported by Kenneth Arnold. He spotted nine unusual objects flying in a chain near Mount Rainier on that day.

I begin some novels with characters and some novels with situations and some novels with voice. I began ALIEN INVASION & OTHER INCONVENIENCES with a situation. I decided that I wanted to have a va...

why write?

This is from an interview over at Editorial Anonymous http://editorialanonymous.blogspot.com/. If you've never looked at this blog, you should. This anonymous editor has some interesting things to say about the business of publishing and writing. Sometimes she has interviews. She had one recently with Adam Rex whose new YA novel—coming out this summer—is titled FAT VAMPIRE. I haven't read it yet, but it sounds great.

Anyway, towards the end of the interview, E.A. asks him if he has any advi...