Sable Aradia's Blog, page 50

Book Review: No Plot, No Problem by Chris Baty (Revised/Expanded)

No Plot? No Problem! Revised and Expanded Edition: A Low-stress, High-velocity Guide to Writing a Novel in 30 Days by Chris Baty

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This book is an excellent guide for anyone who does National Novel Writing Month and anyone who ever wanted to write a book but had no idea where to begin. And I think most of the negative reviews on this site are sour grapes from people who have spent the past 15 years trying to write the Great American Novel and just can’t believe it could be this simple. They’re like Brian on The Family Guy reading Stewie’s novel.

All first drafts are crap. Of course. Baty says as much, frequently. But a crappy first draft you’ve finished is a hell of a lot better than a brilliant one you haven’t, isn’t it? Baty draws upon this nutty idea he had that exploded, and years of practice since, to tell you all about what works and what doesn’t. He has asked for input from other experienced WriMos (people who do National Novel Writing Month) to offer advice, tips and encouragement in this edition. Some of those people are award-winning authors and international bestsellers. True story.

In case you’re late to the party, Baty is the founder of National Novel Writing Month. The challenge: to write a 50,000 word novel in a single month!

Yes it can be done. I am here to tell you I have tried it seven times and have succeeded on all but one.

I’m an enthusiast, I confess. I had wanted to write a book for years, but couldn’t see how to make it fit into my schedule. I did my first NaNo in 2010. This gave me the discipline and skillset I needed. If you need proof, feel free to check out my author profile Sable Aradia here on Goodreads. Some of these books are traditionally published and some are self-published, but they’re all mine and I did them all.

Here’s the instruction manual as to how.

I won this book at my regional kick-off event for NaNoWriMo this year, so there was a lot in this book I didn’t need because I’ve already found it out on my own. And there was a lot that was still very useful to me, even as a seven-year NaNo veteran. Hence my recommendations.

Why not a five star rating if I’m so enthusiastic? Well, for one thing, I think Baty can be a little blind to his privilege. He’s a Silicone Valley white guy. I doubt he’s ever written in a one-room flat with no heat (I have). The closest he’s probably come was his college dorm, and he knew that was going to end sometime (when you don’t, it’s a lot more stress). Sometimes he makes it sound toooo easy. It’s not easy. It’s a marathon. Marathons require preparation and often, training.

But his reckless sense of adventure is infectious, and that’s what I think you need to succeed at NaNo. Which means you’ll have taken the first step when you’re done. But that first step, I think, is the hardest.

It’s not going to work for everyone. James Patterson, who spends most of his effort on his outline, would not be able to stand working this way and would tell you that you’ll fail if you try. But he’s wrong. I didn’t fail. And I’m one of thousands.

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Happy Solstice!

Blessed Solstice to all of you who choose to celebrate, and may the next year bring you all the joy of your heart!

If you want to listen to some Yule music that my friends and I made, here you go!

Otherwise, enjoy this clip of the Harry Potter Yule Ball music:

New Release in the Wyrd West Chronicles!

Just a gentle reminder that the next installment in the Wyrd West Chronicles, The Reaping, is coming out tomorrow.  You might be interested to know this one is not a novelette, but a full-length novella!  Today is your last chance to pre-order and your last chance to take advantage of my Wyrd West sale!  You can get The Reaping here and the whole series here!

Book Review: Wizard and Glass by Stephen King

Wizard and Glass by Stephen King

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Read for the Second Best Reading Challenge, the Apocalypse Now! Reading Challenge, the Author! Author! Reading Challenge, the High Fantasy Reading Challenge, the Need to Reread Challenge,, and the Read the Sequel Challenge.

This novel was nominated for the Locus Award, which qualifies it for the Second Best Challenge.

This is my favourite novel in one of my favourite series. This is the one that gives it all focus, the one that tells us where Roland’s quest began and why he fights; the one that turns him from a cliche into a living, breathing human being who is driven to extraordinary effort by extraordinary circumstance.

Balancing a brilliant tightrope between post-apocalyptic Western and epic fantasy romance, it’s the story within the story that’s important. What happens in the present is almost insignificant. Although, it neatly establishes that clearly, the Dark Tower mythos is a thread that ties all of King’s work together. The idea that there are cracks in reality that defy explanation in this universe, but that doesn’t mean that it doesn’t make sense in another universe, is the glue that binds it all.

Every now and then I hear a song and I wonder if this was part of the soundtrack King had playing in his head while he was writing it. I won’t tell you what they are because they would spoil the story. But if you hear them after you’ve read it, I’m sure you’ll wonder too.

If you like Westerns, fantasy, apocalyptica, gothic romance, or supernatural horror, give this one a try. I don’t think you have to read the rest of the story to understand it either.

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Creating Fantasy Names

By Randy Ellefson

Depending on your ability, creating names for people, places, and beings in fantasy books can either be fun or a pain.  I’ve been doing this for three decades and will provide some tricks and thoughts to help.

KISS

[image error]KISS doesn’t really stand for “keep it simple, stupid”, but it’s a good principle to follow when building your own world and inventing names.  Unpronounceable names or ones with a billion syllables are not great.  As a general rule, the fewer syllables, the better, because many people have trouble pronouncing even slightly unusual Earth names if they haven’t heard them before – I can’t tell you how many people first try to pronounce my last name, Ellefson, as “Ell-ef-a-sore” instead of saying it like the letters “L”, “F”, and then “son”. Sometimes they blatantly stumble, trying 2-3 times before I say it for them, at which point they’re clearly relieved and emphatically say , “Thank you!” Imagine how they’ll do with crazy fantasy names.

Read the full article at

Book Review: The Waste Lands by Stephen King

The Waste Lands by Stephen King

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Read for the Second Best Reading Challenge; the Apocalypse Now! Reading Challenge; the Author! Author! Reading Challenge; the Need to Reread Challenge; and the Read the Sequel Reading Challenge.

This book was a nominee for the Stoker Award, which qualifies it for the Second Best Challenge.

I have re-read this book several times. Every time I do, I catch something I didn’t catch previously. This is an on-the-edge-of-your-seat adventure that defies its volume (and it’s a big one, don’t doubt that!) The surreal weirdness of this story contrasts brilliantly with its gritty realism. I think this is the one where people finally figured out that Stephen King wasn’t screwing around with this series, and started actually taking it, and him as a writer, seriously.

The story is about equal parts hope and horror, and the characters are amazing. Susannah Dean is often forgotten when people think of Strong Female Characters, but she is one. It’s probably because King doesn’t have a reputation for writing the greatest women, and if you’d gotten to know Detta and Odetta from the previous novel, you would think what awful cliches they both were. But that’s because they were damaged. Susannah is tough as nails and sharp as a tack.

In a re-read at age 42, it seems to me an homage to a lot of classic sci-fi and fantasy tropes, repackaged in an original way, which is cool.

I think it’s impossible to explain why I love this book without totally ruining the plot of this and the rest of the series for you, so I’m not going to. I will say that if you like post-apocalyptic fiction, or classic horror, or epic fantasy, or Kurt Vonnegut Jr. but you’d really like his protagonists to punch the a$$hole torturing him in the face once in a while, I’m sure you’ll love it too.

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Starving Artist, A Writer’s Fate?

s a gibson

I confess, I occasionally fantasize about writing a book which completely panders to an audience just for fame and money. However, will the Faustian bargain result in having to discard my personal pleasure in storytelling, can I have it both ways. We all know of big best selling books we consider crap and are perhaps a bit jealous. I jokingly threaten my family about “doing it” one day.

Well, upon reflection, there have been some wonderful and noted authors who began by writing ‘junk.’ Raymond Chandler and John O’hara come to mind. Even Jacqueline Susan and Harold Robbins, while not exactly respected, are acknowledged for writing some of the best guilty pleasures around.

I want to discuss the conflict between struggling as a starving artist and selling out. We writers who strive to be full-time authors must make decisions each day about how to develop our art and market our…

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A Small List of Large Characters: Fat Representation in SFF

Just to note: size representation is a big deal to me. I am an ex-anorexic/bulimic.  Thank you to Ms. Jackson for this great article.  Please share any good fat characters you can in the comments on the article, where people will read it!  Image above is fan art for Miles and his somewhat-larger brother, Mark Vorkosigan, from one of my favourite space opera series, the Vorkosigan Saga, by Lois McMaster Bujold.

By Jessi Cole Jackson

Before delving in, I want to recognize that for many (myself included) fat is a loaded term, with years of abuse attached to it. I use it because it’s not twee or gendered and it does not reduce identity to a specific set of numbers. Also because I want to take it back from bigots and bullies.

As a child, I never saw myself in books. Yes, there were plenty with nerdy, bookish girls, but these were not my primary self-identifier. I was a fat girl first and foremost, and fat girls didn’t exist in the stories I read.

Except one.

Read the full article at SFWA.org.

Your Pencil Lead Might Be a Source of Effectively Limitless Energy

By Mike McRae

By all measures, graphene shouldn’t exist. The fact it does comes down to a neat loophole in physics that sees an impossible 2D sheet of atoms act like a solid 3D material.

New research has delved into graphene’s rippling, discovering a physical phenomenon on an atomic scale that could be exploited as a way to produce a virtually limitless supply of clean energy.

The team of physicists led by researchers from the University of Arkansas didn’t set out to discover a radical new way to power electronic devices.

Their aim was far more humble – to simply watch how graphene shakes.

Read the full article at Futurism.com.

Show Don’t Tell

By Mandy Wallace

So I’m working on this short story I started for some Glimmer Train contest or other. But it grew like a weed all unwieldy, and now it’s burst through its word count limit and its deadline. And I wish that was this story’s biggest problem.

Its biggest problem is that I’m still struggling to balance ye old show versus tell rule, and it’s got me so micro focused on each passing second and every minor character thought and gesture and useless detail of the environment that it’s all just TOO MUCH INFORMATION!

As much as I thought you and I solved this show, don’t tell rule once before, it’s turned out to be a tougher trick to master. But we both know that learning a lesson doesn’t always work in real life the way it does in stories (i.e. one and done). That’s why I’m so excited to share the formula that finally balances all the confusing show, don’t tell info out there.

Read the full article at Mandy Wallace’s blog Write or Die.