Richard Lee Byers's Blog, page 53
August 6, 2012
Basil & Moebius & Me
I'm currently writing a novelette about the adventuring duo Basil and Moebius, who star in a forthcoming series of graphic novels. Timothy Zahn is doing a story, too, so I'm in excellent company.
Basil and Moebius also appear in "No Rest for the Wicked," a short film starring Zachary Levi, Ray Park, and Malcolm McDowell. If you're going to DragonCon, you can catch it there.
To find out more about Basil & Moebius, click the link:
http://www.whoisthecollector.com
Basil and Moebius also appear in "No Rest for the Wicked," a short film starring Zachary Levi, Ray Park, and Malcolm McDowell. If you're going to DragonCon, you can catch it there.
To find out more about Basil & Moebius, click the link:
http://www.whoisthecollector.com
Behold, I am interviewed!
Gabrielle Harbowy's new blog post contains a brief interview with me that relates to my story in the new anthology When the Villain Comes Home. Check it out here:
http://www.gabrielle-edits.com/2012/08/06/meet-villains-2/
http://www.gabrielle-edits.com/2012/08/06/meet-villains-2/
August 3, 2012
My Gen Con 2012 schedule
For those who are interested, my 2012 Gen Con schedule. This is where to find me if you want to say hi, get books signed, or listen to me expound on whatever.
THURSDAY
11:00 AM – SEMINAR – In the Mood
1:00 PM – SEMINAR – Painting with Words
FRIDAY
8:00 AM – SEMINAR – This Means War
9:00 AM – SEMINAR – Mano a Mano
11:00 AM – SEMINAR – Stealing from History
Noon – SEMINAR – Pathfinder Tales Author Summit
3:00 PM – WORKSHOP – Advanced World Building
4:00PM – SIGNING – Wizards of the Coast booth (Exhibition Hall)
SATURDAY
9:00 AM – SEMINAR – Breaking Into RPG Fiction
Noon – SEMINAR – Self-Publishing
3:00 PM – SIGNING – D&D Experience room
SUNDAY
9:00 AM – SEMINAR – Self-Promotion
THURSDAY
11:00 AM – SEMINAR – In the Mood
1:00 PM – SEMINAR – Painting with Words
FRIDAY
8:00 AM – SEMINAR – This Means War
9:00 AM – SEMINAR – Mano a Mano
11:00 AM – SEMINAR – Stealing from History
Noon – SEMINAR – Pathfinder Tales Author Summit
3:00 PM – WORKSHOP – Advanced World Building
4:00PM – SIGNING – Wizards of the Coast booth (Exhibition Hall)
SATURDAY
9:00 AM – SEMINAR – Breaking Into RPG Fiction
Noon – SEMINAR – Self-Publishing
3:00 PM – SIGNING – D&D Experience room
SUNDAY
9:00 AM – SEMINAR – Self-Promotion
How awesome is this cover?
Check out the cover for my forthcoming Forgotten Realms/Brotherhood of the Griffon novel Prophet of the Dead:
http://www.amazon.com/Prophet-Dead-Richard-Lee-Byers/dp/0786963611
http://www.amazon.com/Prophet-Dead-Richard-Lee-Byers/dp/0786963611
July 30, 2012
"When the Villain Comes Home" now available
The anthology When the Villain Comes Home is now available. A bunch of good writers contributed stories. My piece is a prequel to my Impostor series. Check the book out here:
http://www.amazon.com/When-Villain-Comes-Gabrielle-Harbowy/dp/1897492499/
http://www.amazon.com/When-Villain-Comes-Gabrielle-Harbowy/dp/1897492499/
July 16, 2012
Should the Dark Knight Die?
In my new column at Airlock Alpha, I speculate about what will (and should) happen in "The Dark Knight Rises."
http://airlockalpha.com/node/9251/astrojive-should-the-dark-knight-die.html
http://airlockalpha.com/node/9251/astrojive-should-the-dark-knight-die.html
July 11, 2012
Revising As Per Your Editor's Notes
You sell your first novel. Your friends express their admiration. You receive the first chunk of the advance. Life is good.
Then your editor sends notes advising you what he wants you to change. And making such fixes for the first time may seem a daunting task.
So here are tips on how to rewrite in accordance with an editor’s notes. If your brain doesn’t work exactly like mine and your approach to writing isn’t exactly like mine, some may not be useful. But I hope some will.
If you read the notes and think, Sure, I can do that, then good. Get to it.
But if you read them and think the editor has dissed your genius and following his advice will ravage your masterpiece like a rain of napalm, put the notes and the task of revision aside for a day or two. With luck, you’ll calm down.
When you come back, remember your editor isn’t the enemy. (At least not usually.) He’s a professional whose goal is to make the book better.
Remember, too, that even when you’re skilled at editing you own work, you have a natural tendency to believe you said what you meant and created the effect you intended. Because he has some distance from the work, the editor is likely better able to determine that you didn’t, really.
Finally, remember it’s beneficial for the editor to have a good opinion of you. You want him to want to work with you on future projects. You don’t want him to decide you’re a prima donna, more trouble than you’re worth, and share this judgment with his colleagues.
With all the above in mind, I recommend the following approach:
If you agree that a change will improve the book, then (obviously) make it.
If you see as a change as unnecessary but not harmful, make it.
If you see a change as unfortunate but not so damaging it will sink the story, make that one, too. As I suggested above, your editor is more likely to buy future work from you if he sees you as cooperative and reasonable, not an egotist who regards his every word as sacrosanct. He’ll also be more inclined to listen if the moment comes when you have to argue over something truly important. As it may.
If, after giving the matter serious thought, you decide a certain change will wreck the novel, that’s when you resist. But by resist, I don’t mean get belligerent. Be cordial and respectful when you suggest the change is detrimental and lay out the reasons as clearly and logically as possible. With luck, the editor will either come to see things your way or the two of you will arrive at a mutually acceptable compromise.
(Note that you can reasonably expect to exercise more control over a book that’s all your own than work-for-hire like a Forgotten Realms or Star Wars novel. But either way, the same basic rule applies: Don’t give the editor grief over the small stuff.)
Changes come in different sizes. For example, your editor may suggest fixing a particular sentence on page 123. He may also suggest that throughout the book, the narrative would benefit from more description.
Make the little, specific changes first. That way, you won’t have the need to make them distracting you when you go through the novel addressing broader issues.
It can be helpful to do the little fixes working from the end to the beginning. The editor’s notes may be keyed to specific page numbers, and changes can alter the pagination of the manuscript. If you work backwards, you and the notes you have yet to address won’t get out of synch.
Replace All is a terrific timesaver, but bear in mind that it can trip you up. In Called to Darkness, my forthcoming Pathfinder novel, I used the word “targe,” then found out it wasn’t a proper Pathfinder term. So I relied on Replace All to change it to “shield” throughout the novel. Which would have been great, except that in the process, I also changed the word “target” to “shieldt.”
No big deal. A second use of Replace All dealt with the problem. But keep your eye out for stuff like that.
Also bear in mind that a change at one point in the story may require changes later on in the interests of consistency, and the editor may not have indicated where the subsequent fixes belong. If not, you’ll have to figure out it out for yourself.
Finally, when trying to make significant changes to a scene, you may find yourself newly captivated by the original version. After all, it’s already the way you thought it ought to be, the way you made it after going over it repeatedly, and you may feel there’s simply no way to do what the editor wants without disrupting the flow.
But that’s probably an illusion. The old version of the scene seems profoundly right to you because you worked so hard on it. But in reality, there’s more than one way to say anything, and if you dive in and start tinkering, you’ll add, cut, or change things as required and end up with a sequence that’s at least as coherent and effective as before.
And when the rewriting’s done, you can get back to work on your follow-up novel.
Then your editor sends notes advising you what he wants you to change. And making such fixes for the first time may seem a daunting task.
So here are tips on how to rewrite in accordance with an editor’s notes. If your brain doesn’t work exactly like mine and your approach to writing isn’t exactly like mine, some may not be useful. But I hope some will.
If you read the notes and think, Sure, I can do that, then good. Get to it.
But if you read them and think the editor has dissed your genius and following his advice will ravage your masterpiece like a rain of napalm, put the notes and the task of revision aside for a day or two. With luck, you’ll calm down.
When you come back, remember your editor isn’t the enemy. (At least not usually.) He’s a professional whose goal is to make the book better.
Remember, too, that even when you’re skilled at editing you own work, you have a natural tendency to believe you said what you meant and created the effect you intended. Because he has some distance from the work, the editor is likely better able to determine that you didn’t, really.
Finally, remember it’s beneficial for the editor to have a good opinion of you. You want him to want to work with you on future projects. You don’t want him to decide you’re a prima donna, more trouble than you’re worth, and share this judgment with his colleagues.
With all the above in mind, I recommend the following approach:
If you agree that a change will improve the book, then (obviously) make it.
If you see as a change as unnecessary but not harmful, make it.
If you see a change as unfortunate but not so damaging it will sink the story, make that one, too. As I suggested above, your editor is more likely to buy future work from you if he sees you as cooperative and reasonable, not an egotist who regards his every word as sacrosanct. He’ll also be more inclined to listen if the moment comes when you have to argue over something truly important. As it may.
If, after giving the matter serious thought, you decide a certain change will wreck the novel, that’s when you resist. But by resist, I don’t mean get belligerent. Be cordial and respectful when you suggest the change is detrimental and lay out the reasons as clearly and logically as possible. With luck, the editor will either come to see things your way or the two of you will arrive at a mutually acceptable compromise.
(Note that you can reasonably expect to exercise more control over a book that’s all your own than work-for-hire like a Forgotten Realms or Star Wars novel. But either way, the same basic rule applies: Don’t give the editor grief over the small stuff.)
Changes come in different sizes. For example, your editor may suggest fixing a particular sentence on page 123. He may also suggest that throughout the book, the narrative would benefit from more description.
Make the little, specific changes first. That way, you won’t have the need to make them distracting you when you go through the novel addressing broader issues.
It can be helpful to do the little fixes working from the end to the beginning. The editor’s notes may be keyed to specific page numbers, and changes can alter the pagination of the manuscript. If you work backwards, you and the notes you have yet to address won’t get out of synch.
Replace All is a terrific timesaver, but bear in mind that it can trip you up. In Called to Darkness, my forthcoming Pathfinder novel, I used the word “targe,” then found out it wasn’t a proper Pathfinder term. So I relied on Replace All to change it to “shield” throughout the novel. Which would have been great, except that in the process, I also changed the word “target” to “shieldt.”
No big deal. A second use of Replace All dealt with the problem. But keep your eye out for stuff like that.
Also bear in mind that a change at one point in the story may require changes later on in the interests of consistency, and the editor may not have indicated where the subsequent fixes belong. If not, you’ll have to figure out it out for yourself.
Finally, when trying to make significant changes to a scene, you may find yourself newly captivated by the original version. After all, it’s already the way you thought it ought to be, the way you made it after going over it repeatedly, and you may feel there’s simply no way to do what the editor wants without disrupting the flow.
But that’s probably an illusion. The old version of the scene seems profoundly right to you because you worked so hard on it. But in reality, there’s more than one way to say anything, and if you dive in and start tinkering, you’ll add, cut, or change things as required and end up with a sequence that’s at least as coherent and effective as before.
And when the rewriting’s done, you can get back to work on your follow-up novel.
July 3, 2012
A review of The Q Word and Other Stories
Here's a link to a review of my eBook collection The Q Word and Other Stories by writer John Ottinger:
http://www.graspingforthewind.com/2012/07/03/book-review-the-q-word-and-other-stories-by-richard-lee-byers/
http://www.graspingforthewind.com/2012/07/03/book-review-the-q-word-and-other-stories-by-richard-lee-byers/
June 30, 2012
Info and cover art for Called to Darkness
Here's information and the cover art for Called to Darkness, my first Pathfinder novel.
http://paizo.com/products/btpy8tdm?Pathfinder-Tales-Called-to-Darkness
http://paizo.com/products/btpy8tdm?Pathfinder-Tales-Called-to-Darkness
June 18, 2012
I will be at SwampCon 2013
Thanks to SwampCon for inviting me to be a program participant in January, 2013. It looks like it's going to be a fun event, and when's the last time you went to a con that let everybody in for free? For info on the con, go here:
http://swampcon.com/
http://swampcon.com/
