Tara Maya's Blog, page 42

McGuffin Found In the Wild!

A few posts back, I mentioned ever-useful the McGuffin plot. If you pay close attention, you will often see Hollywood writers wink slyly at the viewers in the know by mentioning the McGuffin right in the script. It's a meta-McGuffin!

Here's one McGuffin I recently found in the wild on The Penguins of Madagascar (Season 2, It's About Time):
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Published on November 20, 2012 12:39

What Is Bad Writing?

Nathan Bransford wrote a controversial post in which he defended, not the content but the prose of 50 Shades of Grey. (Honestly, I don't think anyone needs to defend the content either. Sexist? Sure; also the plot of pretty much every erotica novel ever. And since these are books by women for women there's something else going on besides anti-feminism.) But let's say that you loathe the content, does it follow the writing itself is also pure trash:

Nathan Bransford, Author: What People Talk Ab...

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Published on November 20, 2012 09:16

NaNoWriMo Tip #20: Scene Helper

<br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-09rxPDkDv8A..." imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="266" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-09rxPDkDv8A..." width="400" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><i><span style="color: #660066; mso-bidi-font-family: Times;">These are my personal tips for NaNoWriMo. You know the drill. Take only what works. This is a new and streamlined post about Scene Helper, revised from an earlier post.</span></i></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><i><span style="color: #660066; mso-bidi-font-family: Times;"> </span></i> </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">What is a scene? </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">A scene is the usual unit of writing for me. I sit down, begin a scene and keep writing until I finish it. If I am interrupted before I finish the scene, say by the requirement to cook dinner for a hungry hoard of munchkins, those munchkins better like peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. I’m not g...</span></div><!-- /* Font Definitions */ @font-face {font-family:Arial; panose-1:2 11 6 4 2 2 2 2 2 4; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:auto; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:10887 -2147483648 8 0 511 0;} @font-face {font-family:Times; panose-1:2 0 5 0 0 0 0 0 0 0; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:auto; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:3 0 0 0 1 0;} @font-face {font-family:"ＭＳ明朝"; panose-1:0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0; mso-font-charset:128; mso-generic-font-family:roman; mso-font-format:other; mso-font-pitch:fixed; mso-font-signature:1 134676480 16 0 131072 0;} @font-face {font-family:"ＭＳゴシック"; panose-1:0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0; mso-font-charset:128; mso-generic-font-family:modern; mso-font-format:other; mso-font-pitch:fixed; mso-font-signature:1 134676480 16 0 131072 0;} @font-face {font-family:"ＭＳゴシック"; panose-1:0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0; mso-font-charset:128; mso-generic-font-family:modern; mso-font-format:other; mso-font-pitch:fixed; mso-font-signature:1 134676480 16 0 131072 0;} @font-face {font-family:Calibri; panose-1:2 15 5 2 2 2 4 3 2 4; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:auto; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:-520092929 1073786111 9 0 415 0;} @font-face {font-family:Cambria; panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:auto; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:-536870145 1073743103 0 0 415 0;} /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-unhide:no; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; margin:0in; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:Times; mso-fareast-font-family:"ＭＳ明朝"; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";} h2 {mso-style-priority:9; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-link:"Heading 2 Char"; mso-style-next:Normal; margin-top:10.0pt; margin-right:0in; margin-bottom:0in; margin-left:0in; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan lines-together; page-break-after:avoid; mso-outline-level:2; font-size:13.0pt; font-family:Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family:"ＭＳゴシック"; color:#31849B;} a:link, span.MsoHyperlink {mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-parent:""; color:blue; text-decoration:underline; text-underline:single;} a:visited, span.MsoHyperlinkFollowed {mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; color:purple; mso-themecolor:followedhyperlink; text-decoration:underline; text-underline:single;} span.Heading2Char {mso-style-name:"Heading 2 Char"; mso-style-priority:9; mso-style-unhide:no; mso-style-locked:yes; mso-style-link:"Heading 2"; mso-ansi-font-size:13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:13.0pt; font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family:"ＭＳゴシック"; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; color:#31849B; font-weight:bold;} .MsoChpDefault {mso-style-type:export-only; mso-default-props:yes; font-size:10.0pt; mso-ansi-font-size:10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt; font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria; mso-fareast-font-family:"ＭＳ明朝"; mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria;} @page WordSection1 {size:8.5in 11.0in; margin:1.0in 1.25in 1.0in 1.25in; mso-header-margin:.5in; mso-footer-margin:.5in; mso-paper-source:0;} div.WordSection1 {page:WordSection1;} </style></style>

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Published on November 20, 2012 09:05

Update on #NaNoWriMo 19: Length

Control the length of your writing, or this could happen to you.
It's ironic. I wrote my Tips ahead of time. The order of writing tips is an not exact science (which is why I'm offering them as a complete ebook for those who want to "cheat" and read ahead.) As it happens, however, when I woke up this morning I was worried about two things, (A) how to cook a turkey, and (B) that my NaNo novel was going to be too long.

Also, I think I'm going to put the shoe scene back in. (A decision not unrelat...

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Published on November 19, 2012 16:30

NaNoWriMo Tip #19: 7 Signs Your Book Is The Wrong Length...and How To Fix it

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Published on November 19, 2012 05:30

Stages of Writing a Novel

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Published on November 18, 2012 12:10

NaNoWriMo Tip #18: How Long Should Your Novel Be?

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Published on November 18, 2012 06:00

Cutting Your Golden Prose

This was one of my seed scenes, and the except I've had up until now on my NaNoWriMo page for my novel October Knight. Now it looks like it might not make it into the novel. I tried really hard to work my Outline around to include it, until I realized that's what I was doing--twisting my Outline into knots to save my Golden Prose.

Argh.
One of the most important (and most difficult) parts of writing is letting go of scenes we love when they don't forward the project. I publish it here as I bid...

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Published on November 17, 2012 20:50

Rys Rising Blog Tour and Giveaway

I'm excited to be a stop on the Feel Real Fantasy blog tour celebrating the completion of the Rys Rising series by Tracy Falbe. Here's an excerpt from the first novel, Rys Rising.

This scene takes place in the city of Jingten. It is a remote colony where tabre magic masters have bred a new race of magical beings called rys. The tabre tightly control the small rys population, and the leader Daykash Breymer has decided to use corporeal punishment against Onja. The rys Da...

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Published on November 17, 2012 12:00

NaNoWriMo Tip #17: Why You Should Learn To Think In Wordcount

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Published on November 17, 2012 06:01