Rob Bignell's Blog, page 335

Recent editing client releases debut novel

A recent editing client of mine, Paul Tannen, has released his debut novel, “An Abysmal Sleepcation.” The book tells the story of Shannon Brewster, a lonely, young woman whose stressful job as a psychiatrist in the mental health unit of a hospital and her non-existent social life has taken a toll on her psyche. Then she meets Greg Mallet, a 28 year-old patient who was unexpectedly awakened after three years in an accident-related coma. Greg doesn't remember who he is, nor does he recall his life before the accident; all that he remembers are the abstract dreams he had while in the coma, which provided him with a very unusual alternate reality. Their meeting leads them on a thrilling, suspenseful, humorous and odd journey of self-discovery, in which they learn to cherish the more important things in life. The book is available for sale online.

Need an editor? Having your book, business document or academic paper proofread or edited before submitting it can prove invaluable. In an economic climate where you face heavy competition, your writing needs a second eye to give you the edge. I can provide that second eye.

 

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Zip two disparate stories into one tale

Rather than follow a lone main character through every chapter of a short story or novel, your tale might follow the experiences of two main characters or of two groups of principal characters that alternate. This is called a zipper story.

The zipper story – a term coined by Cambridge Science Fiction Workshop’s David Smith – includes two (or more) strands, with one usually as a subplot, that occur in turn with one another. Sometimes the strands appear to have nothing in common, but with each new scene, their relationship becomes more apparent until they connect in some way at the story’s climax. A good example of this Fredrick Pohl’s novel “Gateway” or any of several fantasy epic novels in which the principal characters are split into two groups and solving different issues thematically connected to the story’s central problem.

Each strand follows a five-part story structure with their intersection at the climax. Because of this, suspense can be maximized in a story by having a series of cliffhangers that the author doesn’t return to for another chapter. For example, if a dragon corners one group of our heroes at the end of a chapter, the next chapter will pick up with the other group overcoming its last cliffhanger. The chapter after that will return to our first group of heroes and show how they escape the dragon.

A twist on this is that the subplot is an analogy for the main storyline with the intersection at the story’s conclusion. Many episodes of “Star Trek: The Next Generation” aptly do this.

Typically a zipper story is told in third-person omniscient. This prevents the jarring switch in point of view that occurs if alternating between two first-person narrations, though good writers have aptly used both techniques.

Need an editor? Having your book, business document or academic paper proofread or edited before submitting it can prove invaluable. In an economic climate where you face heavy competition, your writing needs a second eye to give you the edge. I can provide that second eye.

 

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Five Great Quotations about Theme

“Often with good sentiments we produce bad literature.” – Andre Gide

“In a good play, everyone is in the right.” – Fredrich Hebbel

“A writer without interest or sympathy for the foibles of his fellow man is not conceivable as a writer.” – Joseph Conrad

“Fundamentally, all writing is about the same thing; it's about dying, about the brief flicker of time we have here, and the frustration that it creates.” – Mordecai Richler

“The task of a writer consists in being able to make something out of an idea.” – Thomas Mann

Need an editor? Having your book, business document or academic paper proofread or edited before submitting it can prove invaluable. In an economic climate where you face heavy competition, your writing needs a second eye to give you the edge. I can provide that second eye.

 

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What ‘write what you know’ really means

Among the most common advice would-be writers receive is “Write what you know.” It’s up there with “Show don’t tell” and “Use active voice” as writing maxims.

At face value, “Write what you know” is bad advice. It seems limiting and can only lead to dull stories. After all, how many of us lead the lives of James Bond or Captain Kirk? How many of us ever have been knights or pharaohs or presidents?

But that’s taking the maxim too literally. Storytellers really ought to stick to writing what they know…but that doesn’t mean their stories can’t be about space opera heroes, ultrasmart detectives or cowboys.

What the maxim really means – in part – is to know your subject matter. For example, if you’re going to write about a space war, get your science right. If you’re going to write about a Revolutionary War hero, get your history right. If you’re going to write about garbagemen, get the description of their labor right. All of this information can be obtained by research and in some cases living the life yourself. Observation also can suffice. Get these facts wrong, though, and your story will come off as hack work.

What the maxim also really means – in part – is ensure “real life” is part of your story. A real space hero isn’t perfect but possesses foibles and inner fears, just as any human does. The Roman soldier out on the frontier likely misses his home and family just as do today’s infantryman stationed in Afghanistan. These details about “real life” must be part of the story so that your reader can identify with the characters.

“Real life” can be expressed in a number of ways; emotions, sensory details, habits, and motivations perhaps rank as the common methods. The student of ancient Athens will be bored listening to his teacher lecture just as today’s student often are. The caveman appreciates the warmth of the sun on his cheek as much as does the modern man who deplanes. The future colonist of a far-flung world taps his feet when he’s tired of waiting, just as 21st century Earthlings do. Jealousy over a woman can rend the relationship of two brothers in the time of David just as certainly as it would today.

When told to “write what you know” then, teachers and editors really are telling you to add the emotions, motivations, sensory details, habits and more that you know readers will recognize as “real” and to get your basic facts right.

So, what do you know? Go write it into your story.

Need an editor? Having your book, business document or academic paper proofread or edited before submitting it can prove invaluable. In an economic climate where you face heavy competition, your writing needs a second eye to give you the edge. I can provide that second eye.

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Increase sales by publishing title as an audio book

Often new authors just think about getting their books into paperback and ebook. But potential purchasers of your book don’t just read words on a page or screen; they also enjoy books by listening to them. With the explosion of listening devices that connect to the Internet – from iPads and Kindle tablets to iPods and Mp3 players, not to mention cellphones – potential readers today can listen to your book while on their way to work, while running errands, or while waiting for others.

Audio books are a largely unexploited market for authors. Though more than 100,000 books were published last year as either paperbacks or ebooks, fewer than 5000 of them also were published as audio books. That means there are far fewer audio book listeners to sift through, increasing the chances they’ll select your book over a competitor’s.

Creating an audio book is easier than you might think. Amazon.com, for example, recently created ACX (Audiobook Creation Exchange), a division that converts published titles into audio books (ACX is the equivalent of CreateSpace to paperbacks and Kindle DP to ebooks). They match your book to professional narrators (called producers) who will read your title and then distribute the audio book via Amazon.com, iTunes and Audible (a subsidiary of Amazon.com).

Of course, all of this comes with an expense – unlike CreateSpace or Kindle DP, where you create and market your book for free…that is, unless you’re willing to let Audible be your only distributor (in which case you share royalties). There’s also a 3-8 week wait for audio book production; it’s hardly “instant” as is publishing an ebook.

Need an editor? Having your book, business document or academic paper proofread or edited before submitting it can prove invaluable. In an economic climate where you face heavy competition, your writing needs a second eye to give you the edge. I can provide that second eye.

 

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How to create page breaks in your ebook

When creating an ebook that you’re self-publishing, you want it to appear as professional as possible. Appearance, of course, certainly is no substitute for content. Still, a good, reader-friendly layout can make the ebook easier to follow.

One way to accomplish that is to include “page breaks” in the text so that different sections and parts of the book start on a new ebook page. For example, the title page should be on its own, as should the half-title page, dedication and acknowledgements. The table of contents and each new chapter, as well as any appendixes and the index all ought to start at the top of a new page just as they would in a paperback. The alternative is to have these different sections all run together so that they start in the middle of or even at the bottom of a page.

If formatting your ebook in Microsoft Word, these page breaks are easy to create. After the last word that you want to appear on a page, hit ENTER twice. In the ribbon at the top of your document, tap PAGE LAYOUT. Then on the right side of the page’s ribbon, tap BREAKS. A pulldown menu will appear; on it, select NEXT PAGE. A rule with the words “Section Break” should appear on your Word document. In addition, all of the text that will appear on the next page of your ebook will be pushed down to the next page of your Word document.

When you upload your ebook, these different sections now will appear on a new ebook page.

Need an editor? Having your book, business document or academic paper proofread or edited before submitting it can prove invaluable. In an economic climate where you face heavy competition, your writing needs a second eye to give you the edge. I can provide that second eye.

 

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Get it right every time: All ways vs. always

Believe it or not, some writers don’t always use all ways correctly. Fortunately, there these two different words are easy to keep separate.

All ways refers to all possible routes or methods: Police had all ways out of the building covered.

Always means every time: She always got A’s on her tests.

Now that we’ve explained the difference, you’ll always get these two words right!

Need an editor? Having your book, business document or academic paper proofread or edited before submitting it can prove invaluable. In an economic climate where you face heavy competition, your writing needs a second eye to give you the edge. I can provide that second eye.

 

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Include clever in-jokes by tuckerizing

One way of rewarding the careful reader is by tuckerizing. This involves naming secondary characters or offstage icons after people or objects many readers would recognize as a sort of in-joke.

For example, in Larry Niven’s and David Gerrold’s novel “The Flying Sorcerers,” all of the gods are name after famous science fiction personalities, such as H.G. Wells and Gene Roddenberry (the creator of “Star Trek”).

The term is named after Wilson Tucker, a prominent science fiction critic and fan perhaps best known for coining the term “space opera.” He often used names of his friends in his science fiction stories, the source of the term tuckerizing.

Successful tuckerizing requires being unobtrusive. The name never should stand in the way of the story and its dramatic tension. To that end, Niven and Gerrold altered the spelling of their gods so that H. G. Wells was “Ouells” and Roddenberry was “Rotn’bair.”

Need an editor? Having your book, business document or academic paper proofread or edited before submitting it can prove invaluable. In an economic climate where you face heavy competition, your writing needs a second eye to give you the edge. I can provide that second eye.

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How to construct a scene in a story

All stories are constructed of smaller parts, known as scenes, in which the main character attempts to resolve a primary, central problem. This overarching problem is what set the story in motion, and the main character’s resolution of it essentially marks the tale’s end.

In each scene, the main character must address a different aspect of this central problem on his way to resolving it. This might involve attempting a solution (which must fail unless the scene is the story’s climax), learning specific skills to help him resolve the problem, doing detective work to find out who he must be stopped so the problem can be resolved, and so on.

In a sense, each scene is a mini-story with an opening, rising action (steps the main character takes to overcome the scene’s central problem), a decisive action in which the main character enacts his plan, and ultimately an ending, which shows the main character succeeding, realizing he’s failed, or recognizing that he must move on to the next step in addressing the overarching problem. When constructing a scene, you then should treat it as a mini-story that is part of a larger piece.

As writing a scene, ask yourself these useful questions:
g What problem is our main character attempting to resolve within the scene? This problem should relate to resolving the story’s central problem.
g What obstacles does the main character face as resolving the scene-specific problem? Answering this question will help shape how the scene unfolds.
g What do you want to reveal about your main character and other characters within the scene? This should tie into the development of the main character through the entire story.
g What is the scene’s setting? Is should be interesting yet fit into the overall story’s plot. 
g How many characters will be in the scene? Make sure the majority of them are minor characters. If you don’t, some of the major characters will seem flat or you’ll have to focus on developing a lot of characters, which can be difficult for readers to follow not to mention result in a convoluted plot. 
g How long should the scene be? It does not need to be exactly the same length as all of the other scenes, but it should not dominate the story or be underwritten either. 
g Does the scene make the situation direr for the main character? Scenes should build in intensity and seriousness toward the story’s climax. 
g How does it move the story to the next scene? Information the main character learns in the scene or how the solution to the scene-specific problem plays out should point to the need for another problem to be resolved, which will be addressed in the next scene.

Need an editor? Having your book, business document or academic paper proofread or edited before submitting it can prove invaluable. In an economic climate where you face heavy competition, your writing needs a second eye to give you the edge. I can provide that second eye.

 

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Five Great Quotations about Plot

“Make everybody fall out of the plane first, and then explain who they were and why they were in the plane to begin with.” –Nancy Ann Dibble

“If you start with a bang, you won’t end with a whimper.” – T.S. Eliot

“In nearly all good fiction, the basic - all but inescapable – plot form is this: A central character wants something, goes after it despite opposition (perhaps including his own doubts), and so arrives at a win, lose, or draw.” – John Gardner

“Don’t mistake a good setup for a satisfying conclusion – many beginning writers end their stories when the real story is just ready to begin.” – Stanley Schmidt

“I guarantee you that no modern story scheme, even plotlessness, will give a reader genuine satisfaction, unless one of those old-fashioned plots is smuggled in somewhere…When I used to teach creative writing, I would tell students to make their characters want something, even if it's only a glass of water. Characters paralyzed by the meaningless of modern life still have to drink water from time to time. One of my students wrote a story about a nun who got a piece of dental floss stuck between her lower left molars, and who couldn't get it out all day long. I thought that was wonderful. The story dealt with issues a lot more important than dental floss, but what kept readers going was anxiety about when the dental floss would finally be removed. Nobody could read that story without fishing around in his mouth with a finger.” – Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.

Need an editor? Having your book, business document or academic paper proofread or edited before submitting it can prove invaluable. In an economic climate where you face heavy competition, your writing needs a second eye to give you the edge. I can provide that second eye.

 

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