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Tuesday, December 7th, 2010 
Quoting myself from last year:
Additional Pearl Harbor Information: Monday, December 6th, 2010
Every once in a while when things seem to get out of hand, I decide I need to be more organized. The fact is: I am really organized. I’m just trying to do too much. I don’t have enough hours in the day to fit everything in. (Whenever anyone asks me, “What do you want for ___ — fill in the blank: Christmas, Birthday, Other Special Event — I always answer “more time.”) With the holidays approaching, I’ve reached crunch time again and I feel like everything is going to pieces (even if it’s not). So, I’m back in organization mode (and a bit of procrastinating, too…funny how those seem to go hand-in-hand.) A while back I tried a “personal wiki” to get things organized, and I loaded one again tonight. I’m using the “GTD Plus” wiki which I can run on a thumb drive. It’s going to take some configuring to make it work, but it does have more going for it than the first version. I’ve got some novel edits to finish (and then send off to prospective agents), I’ve got a short story to finish for a contest, and another to finish just because it needs to be done, and I’ve got “shared world” manuals to read so that I can submit some stories for that… ….and oh, there’s the cookie baking, and the gift shopping, and the wrapping, and house cleaning… Well, you get the idea. So,how do you get it all done? What can I do to squeeze more time out of a day? How can I automate things to get more done? Sunday, December 5th, 2010
If you purchase an electronic copy of Blood Soup from my publisher, you can save 25%. Use coupon code 19BloodSoup#72 in the shopping cart. I’ll sweeten the deal: if you purchase a copy of Blood Soup, I’ll email you an electronic copy The Dragon’s Clause. Just send me a copy of the receipt. (I’ll honor this for folks who’ve bought Blood Soup any time this year.) Happy Holidays! Friday, December 3rd, 2010
Have you heard this really old joke? “Last night I went to a fight, and a hockey game broke out.” It never gets old. Let’s talk about fight scenes. A fight scene should be exciting, fast-paced, and pack an emotional punch. You need to put the reader into the middle of the scene and enable him to feel each landed blow. You’ve got to be descriptive enough to paint the picture for the reader, but not so descriptive that you slow down the scene. And you’ve got to accomplish this without falling into the trap of describing punch for punch, kick for kick and finger-poke for hair pull. So how do you do it? Keep the scene in the point of view of the main character. Describe things through his eyes. Show that your character is engaged in the fight, but is also aware of his surroundings. What follows is an example from one of my works-in-progress. In this scene, Karis and his priestess companions are ambushed by a group of sentient, demon-hounds called ahventhí . Out of context, the description of Karis’s two last arrows sounds clunky, but it’s important for the rest of the story to note that he has none left. Still, I think you get the idea here:
Note the use of a brief sentence to get the scene started: “The ahventhí charged the woman.” This clipped rhythm is used elsewhere to keep the momentum: “It misfired, …”, “It struck the cur in the spine…” This continues as Karis dispatches the final beast with his sword. Together, these brief snippets seem like the choreographed movements of a dance: They did this, the arrow did that, Karis did this…” which is exactly what we don’t want to write. But here, these clipped, mechanical statements are temporized with brief description. Also, strong action verbs are substituted for weak ones: charged, attacked, launched, clouted, paralyzed. What’s missing is how Karis is feeling. We can get to that as the scene is wrapped up:
Even later we get to Karis’ thoughts: when he has time to recall the fight, examine what happened, figure out how he got ambushed. This could happen as he’s searching for the fleeing women, or even later in the chapter as a reflection. Here’s Your Prompt: Your turn! Write a fight scene. It can be men fighting men, or women fighting women (or a combination there of) or, as above, man or woman against beast. Keep it simple this time and limit the players to two or three at most. Use tight sentences, action verbs and keep the description to a minimum. Post your scenes in the comments below. I’d love to see what you’ve written. Thursday, December 2nd, 2010 I’m a little late posting this, but things (as usual) have been a bit crazy around here. I just wanted to mention to folks that if you get the opportunity to attend the Darkover convention in Timonium, MD…you really should. I had a FABULOUS (!) time this past weekend. I met lots of really nice people (had some great conversations), shopped carefully at the dealer’s location (only had one book #fail – w00t!) and sat in on some fascinating panels. I was also a speaker on two very different panels:
The dealers were various, and I was sorely tempted buy a lot of nifty stuff. I did some salivating over some beautiful glass knitting needles at one table and a stocking full of gaming dice at another. The needles were pretty, and apparently sturdy, but I do take my knitting everywhere now it seems…so having glass needles, no matter how hearty, seems like folly. And the dice, well… can you ever have too many dice? Um….yeah. Although, had there been single sets, I probably could have been persuaded to part with some cash. There was also leather, lots of leather, which I admired from afar. I knew if I got within smelling distance of any of those lovely items — especially the wearables — I’d be taking something home. Alas. All in all… a very good time. If you attended my session on how to get pub’ed and you want my full notes from the seminar, please drop me a line and I’ll send you my PowerPoint presentation as a PDF. I’ll be happy to share. (There is lots of stuff there we didn’t have time to cover.) Also: if you have any more questions, don’t hesitate to ask…send me a note or hit me up on Twitter. Saturday, November 27th, 2010
(It makes me realize even more that there is *never* enough time. What I wouldn’t give for a little space-time anomaly to give myself a few extra days to socialize.) This is my first year at Darkover, and I vow I’ll be back. I wish I’d known of it sooner. So, why do I want to talk about rejection? Yesterday I presented my “How to Submit Short Fiction for Publication” seminar during the convention. I was prepared with handouts and book props, knowing that I wouldn’t have the projector screen and access to the internet I usually do for demos. I talked briefly about where to find markets and encouraged folks to look at submission guidelines when sending in work, and then I asked attendees if they had questions. I wanted to make sure that I answered all the questions people had, rather than stick with my prescribed script in the short time allotted. But that meant we didn’t cover some items from my presentation in depth…one of which is rejection. And I believe that if you talk about submitting work for publication, you should also talk about rejection. The two go hand-in-hand. So, for those who attended yesterday (Thank you for coming!) here’s my take on rejection…just some things to keep in mind. If you submit work to be published, you will be rejected. The first few rejections sting, especially when an editor points out a perceived flaw in the work. The trick is not to take it personally. There are a lot of factors that play into rejection besides the quality of the work:
Two more reasons not to take it personally:
Sometimes there’s a silver lining to receiving a rejection: you’ll receive comments from the editor stating why he rejected the piece. Be joyful! Comments from editors are rare. The fact that an editor took the time to jot down a few sentences about your work means the writing is good. Evaluate whether the comments jive with your vision of the story. If they do, make the changes and send the story back out. If they don’t, send the story as-is to your next market of choice. If you receive a standard, “form” rejection, send it out immediately to the next market on your list. Keep writing. A day of writing prose is better than not writing at all. And keep submitting your work. Persistence pays off. Continuing to send a story out should eventually result in publication. What should you do with your rejections? Some people burn them, other file them, Steven King pounded a nail into a wall and hung his rejections on it until the weight of them pulled it down. I get more electronic rejections than paper these days, so the nail trick isn’t an option (without effort) so I log them into a spreadsheet. After the first 100 rejections, I bought my critique group a round of coffee (we meet at the local donut shop) and again for each 50 rejections thereafter. Getting a rejection still isn’t easy, or fun…but looking forward to coffee with my friends isn’t such a bad thing. Friday, November 26th, 2010 Good Morning! You’ve opened the newspaper today to see your picture splashed across the front page with the headline,” ___________________.” What does it say? Is the picture only of you? Or, is there someone with you? If so, who is it? What did you do? Here’s Your Prompt: Write the news story about you. Make it exciting. Write the story in journalistic style, referred to as “inverted pyramid.” In inverted pyramid writing, the most important facts are made known in the first paragraph, and detail gets less and less important as the story progresses. (This is so that if the newspaper runs out of room, they can cut off the bottom of the story without having to re-edit.) So, in the first paragraph, answer the questions: who, what, where, and when? Don’t “editorialize” this lead paragraph, that is: don’t make your opinion known. You don’t want to slant the story! Include only the facts. You can add a quote or two in this first section. Make sure these quotes pertain directly to the story: perhaps an eyewitness account or two of what happened. What did those people see? The questions “How?” and “Why?” can be answered in the middle of the story. They will add additional detail. Make certain that you have quotes from differing points of view: some from people who agree with the story, some from people who don’t. (This is called “fair and balanced” reporting.) One last thing, journalistic stories are measured in column inches and contain 20-30 words. Your assignment: write 20 inches. When you’re done, send it to me! I’d love to read about you. 
Thursday, November 25th, 2010 Happy Thanksgiving! I hope everyone (including those not celebrating) has a terrific day. I plan to eat, socialize with family I haven’t seen in a while, take some photos, knit and talk genealogy. No writing. I just decided that. Today, I’m having a day off. Tomorrow I’ll write and finish prepping for Darkover. If you’re going to Darkover, drop me a line. I’d love to meet you. Stay warm! It turned really cold here yesterday, finally moving the weather toward winter. This morning it’s raining. (And I’m thankful we’re not getting the sleet the weather people called for. I’ll be on the road with all the other crazies. We don’t need the chance of an accident when there’s all that turkey to consume!) Gobble! Gobble! Tuesday, November 23rd, 2010
Shakespeare. Romeo and Juliet. I learned this quote before I even knew who Shakespeare was. I found it in a scholastic book of superstitions that I’d purchased in grade school. I read the quote, loved it, and committed it to memory, because even back then, I was fascinated by the moon. There’s just something about that shiny spot in the sky that catches my fancy – so much so, that it lives in my writing, usually without any conscious effort on my part. What lives in your writing? What fascinates you so much that it’s become a part of your writer’s tool kit? Friday, November 19th, 2010
If you’re like me, you amplify those situations in your mind…giving voice and thoughts and mannerisms to your opponent, deciding what they will say, and how you will respond, building and building the encounter until it’s blown out of proportion… This happened to me just last week. (And it was so anticlimactic when I got my way right out the starting gate and didn’t need to list all the reasons why I needed to do a certain something or use all the arguments against what I thought were going to be the obstacles in my way…) Sigh. And I was so raring to go. You’ve had moments like that, right? Well, don’t let these thoughts go to waste! They make excellent fodder for writing. Here’s Your Prompt: Think of a situation in which you have to confront someone and 1) ask for something you’re certain you’re not going to get, or 2) tell someone something you really don’t want to say because it will make them __________ (angry, sad, jealous, etc. You fill in the blank). If you can’t think of a real-life situation, make one up. Step 1: Just write the dialogue. How do you start off? Do you come right to the point and ask for something, or do you build up to the pitch? Do you try to be tactful and save someone’s hurt feelings? Or, do you give it to them straight knowing you’re going to get blasted with anger, but at least it will be over with quickly? Write from the beginning all the way to the last word of the conversation or argument. Step 2: Go back to the beginning and 1) set the scene, and 2) add the action. Are you standing or sitting? Perhaps only one of you is standing. Who screams her words? Who cries and wrings his hands? Is it day or night, outside or inside, close to a holiday or an important (to you or your opponent) event? Step 3: Once more, go to the beginning and start adding little details to give the scene some flavor: who’s wearing a red sweater and black loafers? Who’s long hair gets in the way? What kind of dog barked? Can you hear the sound of rain, a horn blowing, or a voice singing off key in the distance? Finally: consider how this scene could be included in a story. Is it one of many arguments that two people have during the course of a novel? If so, think of other things these two can argue about, how could you build the plot around the theme of the argument/conversation? Or, could this be the culminating point of a short story? The highpoint? What events could have led up to this “blowout”? How could it be wrapped up? |
I’m trying to get organized.
Here’s a coupon! 
This is a great photo, captured during the 11/27/2010 NHL game between the Blackhawks and the Kings. I love hockey….always a good fight.
I’ve spent the last two days at 
“Oh, swear not by the moon, the inconstant moon,
You’re dreading it: your review with your boss, a conversation with a best friend, or a conference with your teacher about your grades.