Michael Hiebert's Blog, page 7

Archetype Videos: The Mentor

This is the fourth in my series of videos on archetypes I’m using as part of the class I’m teachng at WVU (Writer’s Village University). You’ll find it at www.writersvillage.com. The class is on Writing the Hero’s Journey.

This video is on the Mentor Archetype. Again, these are mainly for the class, but I thought I’d post them here too, since some people might get something out of them.

Michael out.

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Proposals: The Bugbear of Writers

If you’re like most writers, you either don’t know how to write a proper proposal, or you loathe having to do it so much that the end result is something so hastily patched together it doesn’t come close to reflecting the high quality of the work it’s supposed to be attempting to sell. This was my initial problem with proposals. I just didn’t get it. I would rush through them in the same way you close your eyes at the dentist just wishing to God he’d hurry up and get the pain over with.

But it doesn’t have to be this way.

These days, I only sell on proposal, and I’ve written so many that I’ve grown used to writing them. For me, there isn’t much difference between the art of the proposal and the art of the first draft. In fact, my first draft of my proposal usually contains almost enough information to just become the first draft of my story. In other words, I overwrite them.

When I sold the sequel to Dream with Little Angels (a book called Close to the Broken Hearted) to Kensington, I did so with a forty page proposal and, if memory serves, about fifty sample pages. The proposal contained the forty major scenes or so from the book. It had an introduction explaining the theme of the book and what the proposal document was meant to convey—the major story beats. I said right up front that I wasn’t including any minor scenes that weren’t absolutely pertinent to the plot.

I then wrote the proposal exactly as if I was writing the book. I had already written the first,say, ninety pages of the book, so I knew where I was headed. Now, in the proposal (or outline, if that word makes you feel better… the word “proposal” really means the outline combined with the sample pages. I have a bad habit of calling the outline the proposal) I just kept writing, only doing so in a very condensed matter, trying to keep to just the major chapters and manage to stay down to one or two paragraphs for each.

As I got closer to the end, this became harder and harder for me to do. I am a believer that dialogue is so important to a book that it should appear in the outline. Not a whole lot of it, but some. Especially if you’re writing a book in a vernacular where different characters sound different, like I was. The trouble with dialogue is, as soon as you start including it, things begin to get bigger really quickly. So I always find that, as my stories get closer to the climax, the outlined scenes tend to grow.

I am in the middle of writing a proposal for my newest project right now. It’s a big book and the start of a brand new series. It will probably finish up at around 120,000 words when all is said and done. Currently, the outline sits at sixty-eight pages (that includes a six page introduction). Is this too long? That depends. I’m lucky, as I already have an editor who’s waiting to read it, so I can probably get away with at least a fifty page outline. You may not be so lucky. If you’re shopping your project around to agents, or you’re sending it out to editors on your own, you definitely want to keep your proposal outlines as short as possible, but not at the expense of not capturing what’s special about your story. If you can make the work shine and keep the outline to twenty pages, you’ve done the miraculous.

One thing I do to save space in my outlines is have very “telly” parts for the reviewer. I generally put these in boxes at points where they are important and give them titles like: This is What the Characters Don’t Yet Know. And then I describe in the shortest way possible some secret information the reader will have been spoon fed (in other words, exposition) that certain characters aren’t privy to. Or I will have titles like What the Reader Doesn’t Know but the Sheriff Does and such. It’s just a way to cut down on having more prose than I need in the outline while still allowing me to get the information across to the reviewer.

The first pass on my outlines are always massive, and I always tuck them away to be used as starting points for those major chapters of my book. In fact, the first thing I’ll do once my book has been accepted for publication is go through and number all the chapters I think I’ll have, and insert with square brackets the description of the scene from my original uncut outline. It gives me a great starting point and lets me launch into a book with 30,000 words already written. It makes it feel like I’ve gotten a real jump on the project and, in a lot of ways, I have.

Do I stick to my outline? Not completely. I’m a fast writer. I tend to write my novels in four to six months and, in that time, my plot will sometimes meander off the outline I spent a few weeks on constructing. Usually it meanders into better places than I originally thought out, which is a good thing. But then I have to remember that my publisher bought the book based on the outline I gave him, and that is the book he expects to get when I’m finished. So I’m always careful to veer back onto the course of the outline at the next major scene at the first chance I get. In the end—so far at least—it has worked well, and everyone’s been happy with the final drafts I hand in.

Having said all this, my proposal I am working on now has a seventy page outline. I know that sounds insane, but I am having problems making it any smaller without losing some of what makes my new book special. Right now, the outline is very reflective of the book (which is easy when it’s 1/5 the finished size of the final product). In fact, reading the outline, as you get closer to my climax (and in the climax), you’d probably think you were reading full chapters if you flipped it. You aren’t, but there is a lot of prose there. One scene takes up four pages of the outline. This is a high tension book, and to build that tension into the outline requires me to pretty well write it as though I am writing finished book chapters.

I still need to make at least two more passes on it. I really hope to knock it down closer to fifty pages. That’s my target. It might be a pipe dream, but you have to have some sort of goal in life

That’s another thing. Some writers seem to think their outlines are almost a throw away. They’re not. In a lot of ways, they’re more valuable than the chapters you are including with your proposal. Spend time on your outlines. Edit them well. Polish them. Redraft them if you need to over and over until all the plot elements work and make sure you’ve included everything you need so there’s no holes anywhere in your story (I’ve found sometimes even though I’d made sure my book’s plot was airtight, I haven’t put enough information in the outline to show this, and it looks like I have huge gaping holes in my story). Even if you have to fill the holes by just putting a box on the page with the tile This Isn’t a Plot Hole and explaining why it’s not, that’s better than leaving the outline “unfinished.” The reviewer of your outline (whether it be your agent or an editor) should come away from your outline and proposal feeling as though he or she has read your book. They should have that same satisfied feeling finishing a good novel always brings.

Technical Details

Outlines should always be in third person point of view (POV) and present tense. This is one aggravation when I transfer the outline over to my working draft; I have to change all my tenses and point of views (unless my story happens to be in present tense, but I generally always write my novel in past tense with one character in deep first person POV and the rest in deep third person POV). For more information on Deep Point of View, see my previous blog post, here.

Make sure you include an introduction in your proposal before launching into the outline. Tell the reviewer that the outline contains only the major scenes crucial to the plot lines. If you have more than one plot line, describe them. Label them your “A” plot (that’s your main plot, “B” plot, “C” plot and so on. If two plot lines weave in and out of each other or coalesce into one at some point, mention it here. Tell the reviewer what the themes of your story or major symbols are. Introduce your characters. If you plan on making the book into a series, talk about any “series hooks” you’re building into the book. In other words, sell the book up front. Don’t be afraid to talk to the reviewer in the proposal document. I generally take the first four to six pages and use them for my introduction. By explaining a lot of these things up front, you can get away with pushing back or even leaving out some information in your outline. This will also make everything in the outline easier to understand.

Lastly, remember to include your sample pages. I always send these as two different documents. One is called “Novel Name – Sample Pages,doc” and the other is “Novel Name – Proposal.doc.” Your sample pages should always be the pages that start at the beginning of your book and include your title page. Generally speaking, the first fifty pages is a good number to use, but make sure you stop at the end of a section or chapter and make sure it’s a place where you leave the reader wanting more. A good cliff-hanger always makes a great sample page ender. You may even want to construct your story just so you have a cliff-hanger right at the fifty page mark.

Also, make sure your first fifty pages line up with your outline as far as it reflects them as it describes the opening major scenes in your story. If the outline and the sample pages don’t jibe, the reviewer of your proposal will either get very confused or simply won’t trust you’ll bring in the book you’re telling him you will.

Proposals for Finished Books

Many of you might be writing proposals for novels that are already completely finished. If this is the case, make sure you tell the reviewer of the proposal in he introduction. Having your book complete should make the proposal somewhat easier to write. Just go through your story, one chapter at a time, and, using a different color of text than black (which I assume you write in, and if you don’t, do), tag every chapter that is essential to the plot. Any chapter not tagged just leave out of the outline. Then start making your outline from your first chapter onward. Don’t call them Chapters in your outline, though, call them Scenes. Otherwise, you’ll make it confusing when the chapters don’t line up because of the ones you left out. Outline each scene in as little detail as possible while still getting everything across. It may take a few passes to get the outline down to a manageable size.

You may even want to transcribe the complete major scenes directly into the outline and then just go through and start deleting the parts that are unessential to the scene. That’s a good way to get started at any rate.

Again, make sure when you’re done that you edit and polish everything to a bright shiny finish. If you’re proposal is a mess it will only make those reading it think your novel’s going to be worse. Make everything as easy to read and as pretty as possible and it will reflect the rest of your work in a positive light without anyone even having seen it.

I hope this helps anyone out there trying to write a proposal. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to go cut twenty pages somehow.

Michael out.

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Archetypes Videos: Creating Complex Characters

This is the third in my series of videos on archetypes I’m using as part of the class I’m teachng at WVU (Writer’s Village University). You’ll find it at www.writersvillage.com. The class is on Writing the Hero’s Journey.

This video is on Archetypes and using them to create complex characters. Again, these are mainly for the class, but I thought I’d post them here too, since some people might get something out of them.

Michael out.

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Archetypes Videos: Archetypes & Dramatic Tension

This is the second in my series of videos on archetypes I’m using as part of the class I’m teachng at WVU (Writer’s Village University). You’ll find it at www.writersvillage.com. The class is on Writing the Hero’s Journey.

This video is on Archetypes and Dramatic Tension. Again, these are mainly for the class, but I thought I’d post them here too, since some people might get something out of them.

Michael out.

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Archetype Videos: An Introduction

As most of you know, I’m teaching a Hero’s Journey class at WVU (Writer’s Village University). It’s a great online place to go if you want to learn to write. You’ll find it at “www.writersvillage.com

I’ve decided to do a series of video seminars on archetypes and how to build complex characters out of them. These are actually supplementary to the rest of the class material and not mandatory. I have no idea how many I will post. We have five weeks left in the class, and I’m shooting for two a week, but that might be a pipe dream. At least one a week, for sure.

At any rate, I thought I’d post them here, too. There’s some good information here. They’ll each run between ten and twenty minutes.

This one’s the first, and it’s simply called: Hero’s Journey Archetypes 1: An Introduction.

Michael out.

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Lost in the Battle: A Status Update

First off, I’d like to apologize to my slowly but ever-growing fan base who consistently read my blogs. The content has been sparse, to say the least, lately. I am hoping that will change once I become a little less busy.

Problem is, I like to keep myself busy. I thought I would give everyone an update on what I’ve been working on lately and what’s coming down the pipe.

First off, I’m still teaching courses at Writers’ Village University. We are currently halfway through my Writing and the Hero’s Journey course. It is not an easy course and we lost a few members in the beginning due to attrition, but a large group are hanging on and performing superbly well.

I’ve also finally got the green light on the manuscript I finished way back in February for the sequel to Dream with Little Angels. A book called Close to the Broken Hearted, my editor wants to send it to the copy editor next month so I have until the end of September to do one final pass on it before giving it up. I’m trying to do fifty pages a day, which seems to be working out okay. One of the main things I’m doing is getting rid of unneeded dialog attribution. I’m also reading it aloud, and checking the rhythm of the sentences, making sure they fall nicely together. I’m willing to bet, once I’m done, I could go through it another two or three times and continue to find things wrong with it. That’s the problem with books. There comes a time when you just have to say, “Okay, I’m done with it.”

My editor also wants me to supply reading group questions for the book like we did with the first one. I enjoy writing those, so that shouldn’t be a problem. He wants fifteen.

I’ve received a lot of positive feedback from people about the first book (thank you very much) and really, the only consistently negative thing I’ve heard about it was my inconsistencies in my understanding of the Baptist faith, particularly Southern Baptists. So, I decided to do something about that. I called a pastor at a Baptist church in Alabama and talked with him for about a half hour, asking every question I could think of. Now, not only will the new book have its religion right, my editor is going to reprint Dream with Little Angels, updating the few things it took to bring the facts into place. Did I mention I loved my publisher? It turned out to not actually take a lot of changes. Mainly maybe ten two word substitutions and three or four two or three sentence replacements.

I’m also working on a third book that my agent thinks she’ll have no problem selling (probably to Kensington). This is the start of a new series and involves a DEA agent and his family and takes place in Seattle. Being only a two hour drive from Seattle, I should have much less researching to do to get my agriculture and wild animal and other facts straight. I’ll be heading down south for a few camera safaris to get things right. I’m also working with two police officers and a DEA agent to make sure all my police work actually works.

Funny story: it took fifteen calls to Alabama to finally find a Baptist pastor who would actually talk to me and answer some questions for my book. It took two calls, the second being straight to DEA headquarters in Quantico, to find an agent willing to discuss things like what sort of guns the agents carry and what caliber of bullets will pierce their body armor. I find that strange. My first DEA call was odd, too. I am pretty sure the person on the other end of the phone spent most of it thinking I had a meth lab set up somewhere.

This DEA story has the first hundred and fifty pages written along with an eighty page proposal. The proposal is too long, and the pages are in need of polishing, so I plan on working on that next. I only need to send out fifty pages from the beginning of the book, but it would be nice if the outline was down to about forty. Hopefully that won’t be a problem. It’s going to be a long book. I’d like to have about a 145,000 words to run with, but my agent (having read what I’ve written so far) cut me off at 120,000.

The other book I’m working on (and this one is simply at the research stage so far, although a lot of the story elements are floating around in my head, is a non-series historical fiction that takes place in the 10th and 11th century in India and Tibet. It’s the story of how Buddhism was rejuvenated in Tibet after it had crumbled and morality had sank. All this was accomplished by a great Buddhist pandit named Atisha. This is the true, factual background upon which the rest of the story will be written. I’m excited about this project because it’s so different from anything else I’ve done. There’s also a wealth of documented history for me to draw on. I am thinking this will also be a thick book. Probably around 120,000 words or even more if my agent and editor let me turn into Ken Follet for a day.

I have two other things pretty much ready to go. One is a zombie book I wrote about eight years back that needs a new pass on. The other is a Buddhist YA book called Darkstone. You’ll find covers for these books in my Coming Soon section. I’m not certain how “soon” they’ll be coming, though. My priorities don’t have them very high on my list.

There. That, in a nutshell, brings you up to date with what I’ve been and am working on. Like I said, I enjoy keeping busy.

How about you? What are you doing these days?

Michael out.

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Point of View, Dropping Down Deep

I’m scheduled to give a topic chat at Writers’ Village University on Deep Point of View (POV) on Sunday, October 6 at 8:00 PM EST. If you don’t know what Writers’ Village University (or WVU for short) is, it’s something I’ve talked about before. It’s a very large online writing university with a ton of educational programs that, for the money, cannot be beat. Currently, my co-teacher Von and I are giving a class on Writing the Hero’s Journey and it is coming along quite nicely. I think it’s going to be a big success (however we’re only now coming up to the halfway mark, so I don’t want to jinx it). If you don’t know what a topic chat is, it’s basically a bunch of people in a chat room, “listening” (or in this case, reading) while one person gives a lecture on a certain subject. Somehow the subject I got dealt was Deep POV. Luckily, once I started researching it, I realized Deep POV isn’t nearly as foreign as it sounds. Indeed, it’s the way I’ve been writing the past ten years.

In fact, a lot of people have been using it even longer than that. It’s been around fifteen to twenty years, and nowadays, if you’re reading fiction written in the third-person, odds are you’re probably reading Deep third-person POV, so it shouldn’t seem too foreign to you. Certain authors do it better than others. Stephen King is a master at it, but then, there’s little he isn’t a master at.

Let me try to give you a simple definition:

Deep POV is a third-person POV where you are as deeply entrenched inside the POV character’s head as you can possibly go. It’s almost exactly the same as telling the story in first person from that same character;s POV. What this means is that you are aware of all the charaacter’s senses. You also know his or her thoughts, feelings, and everything else and it happens directly in the narrative.

Let’s use an example to show the difference between regular “Old School” third-person POV and Deep third-person POV. I will write the same scene both ways and then we can go through and talk about the differences between them.

Old School Third-Person POV Version:

Martha noticed Sally had been watching her and Johnny while they kissed each other in the hallway during lunch hour. Until now, they had managed to keep their relationship a secret. Now, Martha thought, the worst person possible knows about our relationship. Sally was the worst person because Johnny had told Martha Sally still had feelings for him and kept trying to get him back even though he didn’t want to date her anymore. They had broken up over a month ago. He had told Martha she was his girl now. Why couldn’t Sally just leave Johnny alone?, Martha wondered.

Hearing the bell ring, Martha got her supplies from her locker and made her way to art class. Along the way, she saw two bullies picking on a younger student, trying to push him into a locker. She saw her friend Sasha sitting at one of the back tables and sat beside her. Sasha leaned over and said, “Sally’s really mad and ready to fight you after school.”

Having never been in a fight, Martha was nervous about this. What should I do? she worried to herself. If I run away everyone’s just going to think I’m a coward. But if I don’t, I’m just going to get the snot beat out of me. She knew Sally’s reputation as a fighter. Martha felt a pit form in her stomach and slowly fill with dread as she watched the clock slowly tick toward the end of the school day bell.

# # #

Pretty standard stuff, right? Okay, now let’s try the same scene, still in third-person but from Deep POV:

Deep POV Version:

Sally glimpsed Martha and Johnny kissing during lunch hour in the hallway, Martha was sure of it. So much for secrets, now the worst person possible knows about us. Sally wanted Johnny back even though they’d been broken up a month. Johnny wanted nothing to do with her. Martha was Johnny’s girl now. Well… secretly.

The bell rang, ending lunch. Grabbing her art supplies, Martha headed to class, unsure of how she felt. Along the way, two older students pushed and shoved a younger one. His head was bruised and his cheek bleeding. They were trying to force him into a locker. Students could be so cruel.

In art class, Martha sat beside her friend Sasha. Leaning over, Sasha said, “Sally’s really mad and ready to fight you after school.”

Martha’s pulse quickened. She’d never been in a fight. What should she do? If she ran home, she’d look like a coward and probably only postpone the inevitable. If she fought Sally, she’d get the snot kicked out of her. Sally was a fighter. She’d heard that lots of times.

A pit formed in Martha’s stomach that slowly filled with dread, drip by drip, as the clock ticked away each second to the end of the school day bell.

# # #

So, let’s compare the two.

Well, the first thing you’ll notice is that both of them lock onto a single POV, so they are both obeying the POV rule precisely. They never waiver from the POV character. If you are writing and find that you do want to change your POV character, whether you’re using the Old School POV method or Deep POV, do the switch after a chapter break or a scene break. And do not have too many POV characters in your books. By making your character a POV character, you elevate him or her in your reader’s mind to the status of “main character” or, in the very least, “important character I should probably remember.” Don’t make your readers have to start juggling the ornate details of ten different characters. In most cases, a maximum of three to five is plenty. I usually have two or three. As usual, there are exceptions to this rule and you can break it if you have a good reason to. I once wrote a novel with fourteen different POV characters, but I was trying to write something resembling the movie Crash. I should point out that novel has not yet sold (although there is publisher interest).

So locking the POV is something they do the same.

What do they do that’s different?

A major difference is the amount of stage direction in each piece. You will notice the Deep POV has little to none interferring with the narrative, whereas the Old School version is full of it. What do I mean by stage direction? Phrases such as:

Martha noticed
Martha thought
Martha wondered
she saw her friend Sasha sitting at one of the back tables
she worried to herself
Martha felt

I’m sure there is more in the first version, but these ones pop out at me immediately.

The second example gets away from alll this stage direction because it’s unneeded. It’s assumed due to the fact that we’re so deeply and firmly fixed inside the Martha’s head. We know she’s noticing and seeing and thinking and wondering without having to tell the reader that she is. We even know an actual internal thought simply by putting it in italics. It doesn’t need a tag. I’ve shown this in action in the first paragraph. Then In the second to last fact, I simply stated her thoughts directly through the narrative right into stream of conscious, even leaving out the italics. You can use either.or and you can also use a variety of both in the same book. Deep POV allows for a lot of flexibility. If you put the thoughts in italics, they should probably be in present tense. If you put them in as stream of consciousness, they should probably match whatever tense the rest of your book is written in.

What is the result of this lack of stage direction and direct access to thought?

The result is prose that is much more snappy, responsive, clean, and clear.

Another huge advantage Deep POV has over Old School POV is direct access to the character’s perceptions, feelings, and ability to editorialize on what she experiences as she experiences it.

Take a look at this section of the Deep POV version and you’ll see what I mean:

The bell rang, ending lunch. Grabbing her art supplies, Martha headed to class, unsure of how she felt. Along the way, two older students pushed and shoved a younger one. His head was bruised and his cheek bleeding. They were trying to force him into a locker. Students could be so cruel.

If you compare this with the Old School POV version you will see this one has much more direct action. The students fighting simply fight, without any interruption due to stage direction. But the important part is the last line. “Students could be so cruel.” We get to see Martha’s reaction to this outburst without so much of a “she thought” tag or anything. It simply becomes part of the prose, part of the narrative. We are completely immersed in the world as Martha sees it. Take a minute to consider this, because it’s important. Suddenly, you are seeing the world through not only the eyes of your characters, but also their judgment and discriminations. This gives you an infinite possibility for characterization and a slew of ways to define characters and character traits without so much as doing anything more than simply writing narrative. And you get all of this because the reader is privy to the characters thoughts and feelings because you’ve placed them so deeply inside the character’s head.

I want to end this discussion on Deep POV with a somewhat unrelated point although it may be an issue for you mystery writers out there, especially if you’re writing in Deep POV.

The golden rule in mystery writing is: You can’t hide information from the reader.

So, if you’re inside the killer’s head, your reader’s going to know he’s the killer. That is, unless your killer has schizophrenia or amnesia or somehow doesn’t remember committing the murder. I say this because, if you’re trying to keep the bad guy a mystery don’t make him a POV character. Sometimes, authors know this and follow it to a T to the effect that you can figure out whodunnit by simply realizing which character hasn’t been given a POV yet. They just point to that character and say, “Aha! You must be the villain!”

And, of course, they’re right.

Michael out.

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Researching Setting

I’m discovering that one of the hardest things to research is the setting for my work. There are three different scenarios you will run into with setting, and they all come with different ways of handling them. Some are easier than others in some ways but then harder in other ways.

The three different different cases are:

The story is set in a mythical place of your own creation. We see this, of course, in science fiction and fantasy, but we also see it in fiction. For my book Dream with Little Angels, I created the mythical town of Alvin, Alabama. The story may or may not be set in present day. In fact, most science fiction is set in the future, and most fantasy is set using some made up calendar only the author fully understands.

The story is set in a real place on the planet at the current time. Many novels take this approach. If you get your setting right, it makes for a very believable book, and people like to read about places they live in, so you’re probably going to get a boost in sales wherever you happen to set it.

The story is set in a real place on the planet at some time in the past. Now we’re in the realm of history, or if you’re writing fiction, you’re book will probably fall under historical fiction, historical romance, or historical fantasy. Or possibly some combination of the above, or maybe even a new historical grafting I have yet to hear about.

Now let’s look at the different obstacles each of these three different conditions present.

In the first case, you may still want to set your mythical city or town somewhere on the real Earth, so it will require a little bit of research and decision on your part as to where you put it. The nice thing about making up your own city, though, is that you’re not going to piss anybody off by getting the Fred Meyer supermarket on the wrong side of Main Street. Within the city boundaries you’ve mapped out in your imaginary city, you’re free to do whatever you wish. Within reason, if it’s not a science fiction or fantasy book.

I say within reason because, depending on what part of the world you set your place in, you will want to research things like the architecture of that area, the land formations, the weather, etc. For instance, you wouldn’t set a story in a mythical town in Maine with everyone living in shotgun shacks sitting on arid desert land. It just wouldn’t work. But these research requirements, by comparison, are at least minimal.

I do strongly suggest you keep a Story Bible containing every detail of information as it enters your story. You should have maps outlining all your streets and keys that relate to textual documents where you list everything you mention in the book. For instance, if you did put a Fred Meyer supermarket on Main Street, maybe give it a 1M key and then, in your city documentation, under 1M list every detail you say about that supermarket as it comes up in your writing. Anyone you mention working there should be written down, the name of the owner, what time they receive deliveries, anything. Whatever goes into your book should also go into your Bible. My Story Bibles are generally thicker than my books when I am done, but trust me. You’ll love yourself for taking the time to do this.

If you’re writing science fiction or fantasy, you may not need to refer to the real world at all. You might not be required to position your mythical place on the real Earth, so you can just run with whatever imaginary pieces of culture you wish to put into your setting. Maybe everyone owns butterfly farms and live in soap bubbles, I dunno. There is absolutely no need for researching the setting, because the setting is going to come out of your head. I would still keep a Story Bible, though, so you have easy access as to who owns what butterfly farm and who lives in what soap bubble. I’d also like to see your maps

With science fiction and fantasy, you don’t even need to adhere to any local standard because you are creating the local standard. The downside, of course, is that you have to come up with everything. Every little detail is your responsibility and, if you want to create the most verisimilitude you possibly can, you want to make your setting as deep as possible. This includes weather, government, history, social aspects, etc.

The second case is more demanding, because now you’re dealing with real cities in the real world with real details that readers are going to know about. And trust me, when you get things wrong, they’ll tell you. So you have to research the layout of your places. You have to know the hills and the valleys and the temples and the bazaars. You need to know every statue, and every cobblestone road. You not only need to know the names of places and buildings and rivers, you need to know if there are local names for them as well. Often people living somewhere don’t call things by the names they are given on maps. Things have colloquial names, too. Like the Red Memorial Bridge might be called Stone Bridge to locals because that’s what it used to be called before they renamed it ten years ago.

These things are hard to find in books. You can look at maps, but it’s hard to get the real details, like rocky steps or cobblestone streets, and even harder to get the sounds and the smells you would take in while walking along those streets.

If you’re lucky enough to be able to travel to your locations and go on what I refer to as a “camera safari” (a term I stole from Barney), it is probably well worth your while. But sometimes you’re writing about places on the other side of the world and simply can’t afford to go.

So what do you do?

You need to find people who have gone, or better yet, people who were brought up in these places. Better still, find people who live there now.

The internet has made the world small, and if you ask around enough, you’re bound to find someone who fits the bill. Be nice to that person, offer him or her an acknowledgment in your book, offer a free copy or even five free copies and you might be able to nudge them into going on a camera safari for you.

I’m not advocating giving up on traditional research. You’re still going to need that. But having someone you can interview on a regular basis is a godsend.

The third and final case is the worst, because now you’re writing about a place that no longer exists. My suggestion to you is to still get someone with the knowledge of the place in present day. They may, if you are lucky, have heard stories about how it used to be. This is also where books continue to come in handy, along with Internet articles. Try to imagine yourself what it must have been like, now that you know the details of how the place looks today. You can read about what wars or devastation assaulted the area and try to piece together a hypothesis that is at least somewhat believable.

One rule of thumb: if you’ve exhausted all the research material you can find on a place in the past, and followed up every lead for people to interview that you can, you’re pretty safe going with your imagination on whatever is left, because it’s doubtful that any of your readers will know anyway. And if they do, you’ll find yourself with that one bad review on Amazon that keeps dragging your score down to a 4.8.

Having said all that, now comes my commercial:

I’m writing a book that takes place in 10th century India and Tibet and I have been to neither place in neither time. Now, I know there’s no time machines available (that’s a work in progress in my garage), but I was wondering if there was anybody who has been to either place and could discuss setting with me? Or maybe even have photos?

I’d value any chat about either country, but the specific cities I’m looking at are: Bengal, Bangladesh, the Munshiganj District, Nalando, Bodhgaya, Sumatra, Vikramasila, the kingdom of Gugemarker, Nyetang, Lhasa, and Dhaka.

You can either fire me off an IM from here at the Village, or email me at whiterabbit7844@aim.com. Or just reply to this topic.

I thank you in advance for any help you can give me, and you’ll for sure get a big acknowledgment in the book plus a signed copy! Or even five, if you’re willing to be a big help

Michael out.

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Common Manuscript Mistakes

Hey all you writerly types out there,

I was wondering if you could give me a hand. I’m trying to compile a list of the most common problems / mistakes people make in manuscripts / stories / etc.

Surely you all know of a handful. I have my bunch. Mostly made by Yours Truly.

I look forward to hearing your responses.

Michael out

The post Common Manuscript Mistakes appeared first on Michael Hiebert.

The Reader’s Writers

Interesting little interview with me on the Reader’s Writer website.

It’s nice waking up to this stuff

Michael

The post The Reader’s Writers appeared first on Michael Hiebert.