A.C. Crispin's Blog, page 4

My Dragon*Con Schedule

Title: Ann Crispin -Advanced Novel Marketing Workshop

Description: How To Locate And Secure A Reputable Literary Agent.

Time: Thu 09:00 am Location: University – Hyatt (Length: 10 Hours)

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Title: Ann Crispin – Advanced Fiction Writing Workshop

Description: Successfully Integrating Character & Plot In Your Stories

Time: Fri 09:00 am Location: University – Hyatt (Length: 10 Hours)

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Title: Reading: A.C. Crispin

Time: Sat 01:00 pm Location: University – Hyatt (Length: 1 Hour)

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Title: Dragon*Autographs

Time: Sat 04:00 pm Location: M301 – M304 – Marriott (Length: 1 Hour)

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Title: Shared Worlds

Description: Is there a World You'd like to "Play" in? How do you go about getting an invitation to write in a shared world?

Time: Sun 10:00 am Location: Manila / Singapore / Hong Kong – Hyatt (Length: 1 Hour)

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Title: Brigands and Buccaneers: Myth and Reality of Pirates

Description: Pieces of Eight? Walking the plank? Exactly why is the rum gone? Hear about true democracy on the high seas from the Golden Age to the present day.

Time: Sun 04:00 pm Location: International C – Westin (Length: 1 Hour)

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Title: Ask the Authors

Description: Have a burning question for your favorite authors? They'll be here to talk to you!

Time: Sun 05:30 pm Location: A706 – Marriott (Length: 1 Hour)

Basic Writing Tip # 22: A Short Course in Worldcon Etiquette for Aspiring Writers

Basic WritingTip#22: DO NOT schlep manuscripts to Worldcon in the hope an agent or editor will want to take them off your hands and read them, then make you an offer of representation or want to acquire the book before climbing on the plane to go back to NYC. The only result from wandering around a Worldcon with a briefcase full of manuscripts is that your arms will get tired.

Instead, memorize a good, vivid "sound byte" about your novel (it's sometimes called an "elevator pitch") and bring nice, professional looking business cards instead. Don't follow editors or agents into bathrooms, or stalk them at meals, but talk to them after panels. If, after hearing your brief pitch, they give you a business card and say, "Send me your book," don't lose the card and be sure to follow through!

Don't wear your oldest, ripped up Dr. Who or Star Trek teeshirt to panels where editors or agents you might want to approach are appearing to discuss publishing. Think "business casual."

Also…don't approach pro writers and ask them to read your novel, critique it, or introduce you to their publisher or agent. This is considered extremely tacky.

Try to relax and enjoy yourself. Worldcons are all about fun, though it's great if you can also manage to network!

Good luck!

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Great Horned Owl Update: Sad News…

I learned this morning that the Great Horned Owl has died a few days after she was rescued. They did all they could to save her, and no doubt made her more comfortable, but the acid burns in her gullet and windpipe were just too far down and too extensive to heal. At least the wildlife rescue folks made her more comfortable, and she died in her sleep…

Still, I am sad. Magnificent creature…but thank goodness they are not endangered.

-Ann

My Schedule for Renovation, the 69th World Science Fiction Convention

RENOVATION SCHEDULE: A.C. Crispin

Wed 13:00 – 14:00, Tourists: Creating Characters and Stories in an Existing World (Panel), A01+6 (RSCC)

Writers discuss working within the confines of an already existing world. They'll discuss how they create something unique and original within the space of something already established and loved.

Panelists: Paul Cornell (M), Melinda M. Snodgrass, Brandon Sanderson, A. C. Crispin, Dean Wesley Smith

Thursday 13:00 – 14:00, Autographing at SFWA Dealer's Table – Dealer's Room, Hall 2, RSCC

A.C. Crispin

Thu 16:00 – 17:00, Arrrggh! Tall Tales versus History in Pirate Research (Panel), A03 (RSCC)

Pirate fiction is a popular sub-genre. While grounded in history, research about pirates can be tricky. Records are erratic and often exaggerated. What are some of the more reliable resources? And what about when the truth about pirates is stranger than its fiction?

Carrie Vaughn (M, Darlene Marshall, Tim Powers, John G. Hemry, A.C. Crispin

Fri 10:00 – 11:00, New Pro Orientation – Understanding Publishing (Panel), D04 (RSCC)

Writers will tell you what to expect when dealing with publishers and why contracts are your friends.

John Berlyne (M), Lucienne Diver), Sandra Tayler, A. C. Crispin, Brent Weeks

Fri 12:00 – 13:00, Autographing: Fri 12:00 (Autographing), Hall 2

Autographs (RSCC)

Katy Stauber, Ian Tregillis, Eileen Gunn, Michael Capobianco, Scott Edelman, A. C. Crispin, Dean Wesley Smith, Kristin Kathryn Rusch

Fri 16:00 – 17:00, Reboots of TV & Movie Series (Panel), A16

(RSCC)

V_. _Star Trek_. _Battlestar Galactica…Every show or series of note seems to have undergone a reboot. Have they been successful? Does a new origin story really help or is it just a gimmick to draw in new audiences?

Gregory A. Wilson (M), Kevin R. Grazier, Lawrence Person, A C. Crispin, Lynne M. Thomas

Sat 10:00 – 11:00, Writer Beware (Panel), A05 (RSCC)

A joint service of SFWA and MWA, Writer Beware tracks, exposes, and raises awareness of the prevalence of fraud and other questionable activities in and around the publishing industry.

Brenda W. Clough (M), A. C. Crispin, Jim Fiscus

Sat 12:00 – 13:00, What are Today's Heinlein Juveniles? (Panel), A09 (RSCC)

Many of the fans who began reading SF in the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s did so by devouring the young adult novels of Robert Heinlein and Andre Norton. Which SF books today are pulling in young readers?

Priscilla Olson (M, Katy Stauber ,Steven Gould, Allen M. Steele, A. C. Crispin

Sun 11:00 – 11:30, Reading: A. C. Crispin (Reading), A15 (RSCC)

A. C. Crispin

Sun 12:00 – 13:00, Fashion Design for Memorable Pirates (Panel), A17 (RSCC)

One of the things that makes Jack Sparrow a particularly memorable pirate was his fashion sense. What are the essential elements of a good pirate costume? How to think beyond ruffled shirts and tri-corner hats.

Darlene Marshall (M), Karen Dick), A. Sheriff, A. C. Crispin

How to Satisfy Your Reader without Being Predictable

BACKGROUND AND APOLOGY…

I regret that it's taken me so long to get this blog post to you. That's a lesson to me not to make specific promises on the internet!

The day after I promised you that post, I came down with the first "summer bug" that I've gotten in close to a decade, and was quite sick (in bed, barely eating, sick) for a week. I'll spare you the grim details. That bug, combined with the first heat wave we'd gotten this summer, just exhausted me. Even after I could get up and around, and eat regular food again, I was just tired out. Having a fever for days can really wipe an adult out!

I think part of my tiredness came from all the traveling and work I'd been doing to promote Pirates of the Caribbean: The Price of Freedom. After all, I went on a book tour, and in less than a week, I'd traveled to four cities, attending scheduled autographed sessions and chatting with my readers and signing their books, then climbing back on a plane or train. Signing about 500 books in just a week tires one out! At BEA in NYC, I autographed at least 150 books in ONE HOUR. That's a personal record!

I've also been working hard at promoting the book online, and had the satisfaction of seeing The Price of Freedom consistently in the "top 100 selling" books in the "historical fantasy" and "media tie-in" categories on Amazon.com. Sales so far are making me cautiously optimistic. The hardcover sales we've been able to track are increasing a bit with each reporting period, as readers discover the book, and that's very gratifying. If you're one of my readers who bought the book, thank you, and I hope you enjoyed it!

(And remember…there are still custom bookplates available for The Price of Freedom. Just send me a stamped, self-addressed envelope to get yours, to Ann Crispin/P.O. Box 827/Bryantown, MD 20617-0827. It's fun to go by the box and see the envelopes waiting for me there. I even got a request from Shanghai, China! How cool is that?)

This blog post is quite long. I considered splitting it, but I think instead I'll keep it as one post. It took about five or six hours to write it, and I'm pretty pleased with it…so pleased I'm going to add it to my growing list of writing essays on my website.

So…now you have my apology for the delay, along with a bit of "catch up" as to how things have been going. Let's get started with the writing post, shall we?

AVOIDING PREDICTABILTY WHILE SATISFYING THE READER…

How many times have you tuned into a murder mystery television show, such as "Murder, She Wrote" and within the first 10 minutes, been able to ID whodunit…sometimes even before the murder occurs? I bet a lot of you are like me – you can spot the murderer right from the beginning, and your only interest in the show from then on is in watching how Jessica Fletcher figures out his/her identity.

That's because "Murder, She Wrote" is predictable.

While I'm sure some viewers never guessed who the murderer is, and are genuinely surprised when Jessica Fletcher accuses the guilty party, I'll bet most writers spot him/her early on. If you have a storytelling mind, it's easy to do. It's easy to spot such a predictable outcome – which is why you really want to avoid being this transparent in your own writing. On the other hand, you know you have to provide the reader with enough information and clues so you don't just drop the resolution to your conflict on the reader at the end of the story totally unheralded. If solutions to problems and resolutions to dilemmas come out of left field, readers feel, rightfully, cheated. It's like watching Bobby Ewing step out of the shower. (Does anyone remember that "great" moment in network television? Clumsy, contrived, and extremely annoying to the fans doesn't even begin to cover it!)

Before we get to some practical suggestions on ways to avoid predictability, let's discuss "satisfying the reader." We're talking about genre novels. Literary novels aren't written to fulfill the same expectations as genre novels. In literary novels, you do have endings where everyone winds up dead, or miserable, or failing utterly. Not always, but sometimes.

In a genre novel, it's easy to avoid predictability if you have your protagonist lose and die a horrible death at the end of the story. Or to have your protagonist give up and let the antagonist be victorious in order to save his own life. But think about what that would be like for, say, a romantic suspense novel. The heroine finds her soul-mate tied up by the bad guys and being tortured. He sees her. She sees him. Then, panic-stricken, she turns around and runs out into the night, leaving him to his horrible fate, and lives the rest of her life alone and embittered.

An ending like this is not at all satisfying to the reader…but it's sure not predictable. And, for the sub-genre of romantic suspense, it's probably not saleable, either. And if we're talking a mystery novel, it would certainly not be predictable to have Hercule Poirot or V.I. Warshawski announce, "Okay, I give up. I don't know whodunit, and the killer will probably kill again, and I don't care. I'm going on vacation." Not predictable, but not satisfying, and probably not a novel you can easily sell.

Readers buy romance novels to watch the heroine wind up with her soul-mate. They buy mystery novels so they can track the clues and watch the detective solve the crime.

Romances and mystery novels are genre novels. Readers buy genre books because they have a certain element of predictability built into them. The heroine winds up with her guy, the detective figures out whodunit. The reader wants to go along for the ride to see exactly how it all happens.

Would you have enjoyed The Lord of the Rings trilogy as much if the One Ring had triumphed, Frodo had become a minion of Sauron's, and all of Middle Earth had been turned into Mordor?

Okay, so now we've established that simply doing a totally unexpected thing in a genre novel is not the best way to avoid predictability, because that may well make the reader dissatisfied with the story.

It's true that sometimes genre novels do end on a sad or poignant note. Science fiction and fantasy is considered a genre, and sometimes the protagonist does die. (Heck, I've killed off a protag or two myself.) When the writer does this at the end of a book, however, generally the protagonist sacrifices his or her or its life to achieve some kind of victory over evil, or the antagonist. When the reader closes the last page, he or she is sad, but satisfied, because the protagonist succeeded, even at the cost of his, her, or its life. This also happens at the end of spy novels, or thrillers…sometimes.

Editors tell me that books with happy endings sell better than books with sad endings. Personally, I often try for something along the lines of bittersweet, because it seems more realistic than having the protagonist achieve total victory. I'd call the ending of The Return of the King bittersweet, wouldn't you?

(And then there's A Song of Ice and Fire – which breaks all the "rules." If you can write as well as George R.R. Martin, you can break them as you choose. And I have NO idea why you're reading this essay!)

Okay, so I'm going to presume we're all on the same wavelength here, and we understand the concept of "satisfying the reader." So how do we avoid writing "predictable" stories?

The best way I know to do this is by the rejecting the easiest solution, and effectively foreshadowing what happens.

Let's use the ending of The Return of the King as an example again. J.R.R. Tolkien couldhave had Frodo march (or crawl) through that crevasse in Mount Doom, pull the One Ring off his neck, and chuck it into the flaming lava below. Since that was the stated intent of Frodo and Sam's long, arduous, miserable quest through Middle Earth and horrible Mordor, that would have created an end that was reasonably satisfying – but it would have been predictable. They did what they'd come there to do, ho hum, okay, good story, but not remarkable.

But instead, Tolkien was clever. He had Frodo FAIL.

Frodo succumbs to the power of the One Ring. He puts it on and is going to head back out into Mordor, presumably to sink into total evil and ally himself with Sauron. Middle Earth would be doomed if he'd actually done this. This is NOT predictable.

And yet the One Ring gets tossed into the lava anyway, despite Frodo's best efforts to make away with it. Tolkien rejected the easy solution, and chose Gollum, all unknowing and unwilling, to be the savior of Middle Earth.

Not predictable!

And yet…both Frodo's failure, and Gollum's actions, were so well foreshadowed that we, the readers, accept these actions on Frodo's and Gollum's part. We know that the One Ring is a deadly seducer. We hope Frodo won't succumb to it, yet we believe it when he does. And we have watched Gollum's growing obsession and madness for hundreds of pages. We, the readers, have no difficulty in believing that Gollum would attack Frodo on the brink of the chasm and try to get the ring, using any means at his disposal…including his sharp, raw-fish-eating teeth.

When you write a subplot into a book, such as Gollum's subplot, it must have a major impact on the climax of the book. Both Gollum's subplot and Aragorn's subplot (learning to accept that his fate was to become King Elessar Telcontar, High King of Gondor, etc., and thus rallying and leading the armies of Middle Earth to the Gates of Mordor in order to distract Sauron from discovering Frodo and Sam), majorly influence the climax of The Return of the King.

Some writers can write stories without plotting them out in advance. Somehow, instinctively, subconsciously, they foreshadow and reject the easy solution. Two such writers I've known were Roger Zelazny and Andre Norton. I have no idea how they managed to do this…but they did.

Personally, I have to plot out a story, and consciously figure out all this stuff before I can write it.

You should do whatever works best for you.

I hope this has been helpful. Feedback?

-Ann C. Crispin

Great Horned Owl Update

I just called the wildlife rescue folks about our rescued owl. It seems she is a female, and my geek side wants to name her "Hedwig." Do y'all have any other suggestions for a female Great Horned Owl?

When I stood not far away from her yesterday, I noticed that her throat was moving up and down as though she were having trouble swallowing. The wildlife rescue and rehabilitation gent, Ron, told me that she had apparently had the bad judgment to attack a skunk. In addition to biting her talon (it was bleeding when they captured her) the skunk sprayed its spray right into her open beak, and that acidic spray went right down her throat! That's why she was acting as though she couldn't swallow.

Ron said that they have flushed her throat and esophagus out twice, and put her on an anti-inflammatory med and antibiotics. Ms. Owl threw up her dinner last night, but kept her breakfast down.

Ron says he thinks they'll be able to release her back into our woods late one afternoon before I go to Reno for Renovation on the 17th of August.

So…our owl is receiving good care, and is on the mend! Owls are supposedly quite smart. Bet she won't tangle with any skunks again!

Oh, and additional wildlife update…

Just now we looked out the back door, and lo and behold there were three deer right in the backyard, eating the vines that have grown up over the horse fence. A young stag with velvet on his short antlers, mommy deer, and Bambi, still with spots.

They're really cute, but they'd better stay away from my roses! (Which are now barricaded in with Irish Spring soap, btw.)

More updates as I receive them!

-Ann

The Great Horned Owl Rescue

Photo by Brendan Lally

Some of you may have already read Michael's account of the Great Horned Owl rescue on Facebook.

But I had a part in it too, so here's my account!

Yesterday, when I got home after grocery shopping, Michael took me over to the side of the house, pointed down toward the creek, and handed me binoculars. There, sitting on an outcrop of wood, was a motionless Great Horned Owl. Amazing critter! But I was disturbed when he said it had been sitting there all day. I resolved that if it was still there today, I'd make some calls, because that didn't seem natural.

Sure enough, this morning, there was the owl, still in the same spot. I called my friend Kathy, who used to work with avians at Patuxent Wildlife Research Center, and she gave me some ideas where to look for wildlife rescue folks. So, after half an hour or so on the phone and internet, I spoke to a man named Ron. Ron said, "Well, sometimes they catch something big, then they stay put, eating, for a while, guarding their prey. Approach the owl and see what it does."

Approach? MOI? Gulp! They are fierce looking critters!

I was due at the Doctor's office for a checkup, so I had to leave. Michael kept in touch though, telling me how the rescue folks arrived (in a Honda Element!) and captured the owl (which they said was injured) in a net. They then popped the owl into a pussycat carrier, (heh!) and departed, after prevailing upon Michael for some hamburger to feed the turtle.

The rescue folks said they'll X ray the owl to see the extent of its injuries and if they can nurse it back to health, they will come back here, to its territory, to release it. I hope I can be there that day to see it!

And that was the Great Horned Owl rescue!

Integrating Plot, Subplot, and Characterization in Novels

I know I promised you a long blog post on "Avoiding Predictability While Satisfying the Reader." Unfortunately, I came down sick for a week the day after I promised to post it. Wiped me out for a few weeks. But I'm back to writing now, including working on that blog post. So…it's coming. The draft is already a bit over a thousand words long.

In the meantime, I thought the following post, taken from one I made on Facebook in response to some questions readers had about The Price of Freedom, might be of interest to writers.

Attn: Aspiring writers. Interested in how experienced novelist juggle character motivation, plot, and other factors in creating dramatic tension in a book? I just wrote a post over on the Walt Disney World Radio FB site where their book club is reading The Price of Freedom. A couple of the readers asked why I wrote Jack and Teague's relationship the way I did. I wrote a fairly lengthy response, which illustrates how writers keep multiple plot and characterization "balls" in the air, as they create stories, so I'm going to copy the post over here. It helps if you've read The Price of Freedom (and if you haven't, why not? ), but I think it makes sense even if you haven't. Here's what I wrote:

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Okay, in the question of Jack and Teague's obviously strained relationship: I had multiple and varied reasons for writing it the way I did in The Price of Freedom. Here they are:

1. Film canon: at the time I wrote my book, "On Stranger Tides" was a distant dream. All I had to go on about Jack and Teague's relationship was what we saw of the two of them in "At World's End." In that scene, we saw a ruthless Teague who had just shot a man dead for questioning The Code, and Jack was plainly wary of him…backing away from him, obviously nervous, and unnaturally (for Jack) quiet. When Teague addressed Jack, he said, "You're in my way, boy." Hardly a friendly greeting!

2. Jack and Beckett subplot and characterization arc: I wanted to compare and contrast Cutler Beckett and Jack Sparrow to show their relationship, in preparation for the climax, which is the famous "Mark" they left on each other. (In Jack's case it's physical, the brand, in Beckett's case it's psychological…Jack more or less broke his heart. ) I decided that both men needed reasons to be exiled from where they'd grown up and from those who raised them. So I gave both Jack and Beckett major Father Issues.

3. Plot: I needed Jack to be scared of Teague, and for good reason, so he would have more motivation to leave the world of Shipwreck Cove behind in his attempt to "go straight." If Jack hadn't been that scared of Teague's vengeance, knowing the Keeper of the Code's devotion to enforcing The Code, he might not have found the courage to exile himself from everything he'd known his entire life.

4. Characterization: Most young people rebel to some extent. I thought to myself, "how would a pirate's son rebel?" Well, by attempting to become law-abiding. Unconsciously, in addition to all the practical reasons Jack had to leave piracy behind in becoming an honest merchant seaman, he also did it because he knew it would majorly piss Teague off if the Keeper of the Code ever found out about what his son had done. Jack's unconscious way of "flipping the bird" at his overbearing father/captain.

And there you have it, mates. Savvy?

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No blog post today….

I'm sorry, folks, I am not feeling at all well today. I'll make the blog post as soon as I can, you have my word.

I hope those two articles I mentioned re: "believable characters" and "query letters" have been helpful.

-Ann C. Crispin

AND DA WINNAH IS…AVOIDING PREDICTABILITY!

Okay, folks, the topic "How to satisfy the reader while avoiding being predictable" has won the vote by a landslide. It received 12 votes. I'll start writing it today, and probably finish it up tomorrow, then post it.

Are you one of the folks who voted for "query letters" or "creating believable characters?" Do not despair. There are comprehensive articles RIGHT ON MY WEBSITE that address both of those topics. Bet you didn't know that, did you?

Here is the link to the two essays on "Creating Believable Characters" and "Notes on Finding a (Real) Literary Agent," a soup to nuts article that includes several pages on how to write query letters that will get an agent to request your material.

http://www.accrispin.com/essays.htm

After you've read the essays, feel free to ask questions about what you've read, here on the blog. I'll be happy to answer them.

There are also some articles on query letters on www.agentquery.com. And for many useful threads on both of these topics, plus many other subjects of interest to aspiring and experienced writers, check out the articles and posts at www.absolutewrite.com.

Thanks so much for voting, and I'm off to work on the article you've chosen!

-Ann C. Crispin