Adam Heine's Blog, page 45
March 4, 2011
How to Use Proper Nouns in a Query
A lot of authors (myself included) love to tell you the names of everything and everyone in our stories. The people and places in it matter to us. I mean, when I talk about my wife and kids, it means so much more to me to use their names. I want them to mean the same to you.
But to you, they're nobody--just names. It's a common problem in query letters, where the author figures giving you a name for everything counts as "being specific." But it's not specific. It's actually confusing. Take t...
But to you, they're nobody--just names. It's a common problem in query letters, where the author figures giving you a name for everything counts as "being specific." But it's not specific. It's actually confusing. Take t...
March 2, 2011
The Pillar of Skulls
(Remix)Near the gate between the first and second layers of Hell, there lies a grotesque monument of the damned. It towers over a mile high, howling and writhing with eternal torment--a terror to match any other in the Nine Hells.
It is the Pillar of Skulls, and it seethes with the frustration and hatred of a billion souls, moaning and wailing in endless, hopeless agony.
But it is also the greatest store of knowledge in all planes of existence. Among the Pillar's eternal prisoners lie gre...
February 28, 2011
What to Do When the Critics Disagree
One of the more common questions from my post on when your critics are right was what to do when the critics disagree. When one person says your sad ending should be happy, but another says it's not sad enough, who's right?
A little background: Air Pirates is written with two POVs--the main storyline in Hagai's perspective and backstory told in Sam's past. I've gotten all kinds of comments on this.
(For the record, ALL of my beta readers are awesome people who get it. Not a single jerk has ...
A little background: Air Pirates is written with two POVs--the main storyline in Hagai's perspective and backstory told in Sam's past. I've gotten all kinds of comments on this.
(For the record, ALL of my beta readers are awesome people who get it. Not a single jerk has ...
February 25, 2011
10 Ways to Tell a Critic Doesn't Get It
On Monday, I said your critics are usually right. But there are times when you get someone who just doesn't get it. How can you tell the difference? Here are some guidelines.
They get your characters' names wrong. Repeatedly.
They hate your favorite part. Not some clever bit of dialog, but the part where the whole story's about an ex-smuggler who works for an assassin and hopes to find his daughter before his boss does. THAT part.
You write a story where evil isn't all black and white, with...
They get your characters' names wrong. Repeatedly.
They hate your favorite part. Not some clever bit of dialog, but the part where the whole story's about an ex-smuggler who works for an assassin and hopes to find his daughter before his boss does. THAT part.
You write a story where evil isn't all black and white, with...
February 23, 2011
The Kitchen-Sink Story VS. The Rule of Cool
The Kitchen-Sink Story: A story overwhelmed by the inclusion of any and every new idea that occurs to the author in the process of writing it.-- Turkey City Lexicon
The Rule of Cool: Most readers are willing to suspend their disbelief for something that is totally awesome.-- TV Tropes (intentionally unlinked because I care about you)
Yesterday I posted this on Twitter and Facebook:
Most of the responses were combinations. Steampunk ninjas. Jumper elves. The most common response, though, wa...
The Rule of Cool: Most readers are willing to suspend their disbelief for something that is totally awesome.-- TV Tropes (intentionally unlinked because I care about you)
Yesterday I posted this on Twitter and Facebook:
Most of the responses were combinations. Steampunk ninjas. Jumper elves. The most common response, though, wa...
February 21, 2011
When Your Critics are Right
"Originally we tried to find a publisher, but each had their reason why THE SHACK was not a book they wanted, or they asked for substantive changes that we felt diminished the story." -- William P. Young, author of THE SHACK
When I first read the above quote, I laughed a little. I'd just finished reading THE SHACK, and while a lot of the ideas in it are frigging fantastic, the story and the prose grated on me the whole way through. I don't know what "substantive changes" were suggested, but ...
When I first read the above quote, I laughed a little. I'd just finished reading THE SHACK, and while a lot of the ideas in it are frigging fantastic, the story and the prose grated on me the whole way through. I don't know what "substantive changes" were suggested, but ...
February 18, 2011
Blog Growth
I want to take a look at how a blog grows, what does and does not affect it, what you can do to...
Okay, that's a lie. I just want to geek out about statistics.
This blog has been running since May 2008. Other than the spikes, you can see that it has had a pretty steady growth. Let's take a look at the spikes, the dips, and things I think should've affected this growth but didn't.
THE SPIKES
Both spikes were a direct result of someone linking to a post (this one in Oct 2009 and this one a...
Okay, that's a lie. I just want to geek out about statistics.
This blog has been running since May 2008. Other than the spikes, you can see that it has had a pretty steady growth. Let's take a look at the spikes, the dips, and things I think should've affected this growth but didn't.
THE SPIKES
Both spikes were a direct result of someone linking to a post (this one in Oct 2009 and this one a...
February 16, 2011
A Simple Fix: -ing Verbs
I love Dr. Seuss, but there's one of his books I always edit as I read. Bartholomew and the Oobleck just has an overabundance of passive -ing verbs. Example:
With an angry roar, the oobleck was suddenly hitting the palace harder. It was battering and spattering against the walls as big as greenish buckets full of gooey asparagus soup!
Like a sinking sailboat, the whole palace was springing leaks. The oobleck was ripping the windows right off their hinges.
It was...
February 14, 2011
Never Tell Me the Odds
Three years ago, I thought all you needed to get published was a half-decent book.
Most of you are laughing now.
The thing is if I knew, when I started writing Travelers, that it would take eight years and three novels to get to the place where agents said, "I like your writing, but...", I think I would've given up from the start. I'm glad I didn't know how hard this road would be when I started it.
But there are a few things I wish I had known, and I'll share these with you:
Critiquing...
Most of you are laughing now.
The thing is if I knew, when I started writing Travelers, that it would take eight years and three novels to get to the place where agents said, "I like your writing, but...", I think I would've given up from the start. I'm glad I didn't know how hard this road would be when I started it.
But there are a few things I wish I had known, and I'll share these with you:
Critiquing...
February 11, 2011
What's DRM Good For?
Wednesday's post garnered some very awesome comments, making good points for both sides: paper and e-books. A couple of them got me thinking about DRM, and what makes it bad or good. That's what we're talking about today.First, a definition. DRM stands for Digital Rights Management. Once upon a time, media was produced as physical objects. You had to have a printing press or a recording studio or a pinball parts factory to copy your favorite book/song/game for your friends. Today, software,...
