Is writing easy?

Twice this week already, I've heard messages along the lines of "Just because it's not easy doesn't mean it's not God's plan for you." (First our pastor's sermon on Paul getting shipwrecked at Acts 27 and then the Children's Church message I have to teach next week on Deborah and Barak in Judges 4.)

Maggie and I had an outline we worked a couple weeks on...if you've been reading here you probably understand that I'm not the biggest fan of outlines in general (though I know they can be a necessary evil, especially when writing a series). But anyway, this outline was pretty good. Then today while working on Chapter 3, Maggie came up with a detour.

A much better detour.

A detour that involved some changes to the outline.

In real life, God doesn't usually see fit to show us His long-term plan. Instead, we get little pieces and have to learn to trust Him enough to go one step at a time.

I wonder if these random changes to an outline are in part God showing us that we need to trust Him.

(Given my wandering tendencies though, I still don't think Maggie and I should try writing a book together without any outline. Though I am sure we are going to deviate from it...we always do!)

Musing about Fiction - WHERE

So Blogger saved this as a draft and published the next entry early. I forgot I need to check to make sure every single entry is set to publish properly...sorry about that.

Anyway...I've been musing about fiction (Who, What, Where, When, Why, How). Here are a few thoughts on "Where."

Where do you set your novel? Settings aren't really my strong suit--or at least not physical settings. I'm not so interested in the physical world as much as the realm of ideas, so I don't always do the best job of describing places. When Maggie and I are playing around while writing, it can cause problems because I failed to describe a scene so she "saw" it differently! I need to work on "seeing" the world and painting it for others.

"Where" can bleed over onto genre. I've heard it said that if you can tell your story WITHOUT using magic, it shouldn't be fantasy. (I think "The Healer and the Pirate" passes that test, even though it's really a rather light fantasy.) I guess the reasoning is that if fantastical elements aren't an integral part of the story, it shouldn't be fantasy. As a reader, I don't know if I subscribe to that notion, but I imagine most serious fantasy readers do.

One aspect of "where" that I DO find fascinating (and that I might have some talent for?) is history. What kind of technology did people use to get around? How did people think? How did people talk? Dialogue can often establish setting as well as character. If a male lead is calling people "darlin'," you might just have a Western setting.

Unfortunately, with Google always available, it's very, very, VERY easy to tumble down rabbit holes when trying to find out, say, what kind of cookie my historic character may have consumed. Even when critiquing others' work, I get caught up Googling to see if something existed.

One of my favorite sources for words is the Online Etymology Dictionary. You can use it to see if your word would have been used back in the day. Now, granted, if you're writing something taking place in the Middle Ages, you can't use a lot of the words that were used then (or the reader won't understand). And you're going to have to use a lot of modern words. But if a word just "sounds" wrong to you OR your critiquer, this can be a good source. It may also remind you not to have your 1920s characters skateboard!

One thing that drives me crazy in historicals is when major characters have names that aren't accurate for the era. A great place to check American names is the Social Security website, of all places. You can check what the popular names were when your characters were BORN.

One particular problematic example I can think of is the American Girl book series, and specifically, the most popular girl, Samantha. Samantha was meant to be the quintessential wealthy 1900s orphan, and the books inspired probably tens of thousands of girls to enjoy history. (I was more obsessed with Kirsten, thanks to Laura Ingalls Wilder.)

But Samantha's name? Not so accurate; in 1895 (the year the character was born), 16 girls listed had that name. Now, the database isn't comprehensive this early, but the top female name, Mary, had over 13,000 girls given that name that year.

Now, on a fictional level, the name "Samantha" actually works; it SOUNDS old-timey. It's just not statistically very likely. Obviously authors want to come up with interesting and memorable names for their characters, but I'd still try to stick to something probable...or if not, something that sounds right. Your heroine born in 1895 would be much more likely to be named Letha, Pearlie, Elsa, or Birdie than Ashley, Madison, Addison, or Avery. (Though all of those were listed as rare boy names for that year!)

Three Writing Tips from Back to the Future

Quite some time ago, I watched the Back to the Future trilogy on DVD, and as usual, I watched/listened to all the bonus features. Each disc has a "commentary" (really a question/answer session) by Robert Zemeckis and Bob Gale. There were a few things I learned about how the film was written that I think can apply to writing novels.

1) If inspiration strikes, run with it. Bob Gale said he was inspired when looking through his father's yearbook, and he noticed his father was class president. Gale wasn't at all friends with his own class president, and he wondered if he would've even been friends with his father if he went to high school with him. (see http://backtothefuture.wikia.com/wiki/Recurring_gags) Obviously the final story really has very little to do with that little snippet, but it seems like some of the most popular stories originate with a simple idea or image. (And most popular stories can be summed up in a sentence or two. Which is hard for someone like me who comes up with complex ideas...)

2) Use cause and effect to build your story. The commentary discussed cause and effect in a simple way I was able to grasp. Basically, they wrote index cards of each scene, and then put them up. They used this to show them what other scenes to add from there. For instance, they knew they wanted Marty to introduce rock and roll to 1955. That meant they had to have an earlier scene in the 1980s to show that he could play guitar, so there's another card. Frankly they made it sound really easy, though I find it really hard to pull off in real life.

I don't know that Scribe Meets World's screenwriting post on the structure of Back to the Future was written in response to the commentary or not, but it seems to have some good stuff.

3) Embrace restrictions; they can actually help you write a better story. If you know much about the history of Back to the Future, you know the original climax was going to be at a nuclear testing site (!!!). This involved more setup in the introduction (to establish when and where the nuclear tests were happening and how they worked) and required the characters to travel some distance prior to the climax. The main reason they had to change it, however, was because they had to cut some money out of the film budget!

In the end, moving the climax to the clock tower in Hill Valley made the film infinitely stronger. I think sometimes when you're faced with restrictions--whether it's Nanowrimo, the restrictions of various Christian or secular publishers, or perhaps even facing feedback from critique partners or editors--sometimes these limitations can lead you to greater ideas.

Of course, I tend towards making too many changes and having too many ideas. If I had been writing the movie, I likely would have come up with several even less plausible ideas and perhaps never even realized the clock tower idea (had I had it) was the golden one!

Summer Cleaning

So I haven't been doing much independent writing lately (except Maggie and I finally have a good start on the sequel to The Healer and the Pirate! the first book is being critiqued right now).

Mainly, when I'm at home I'd rather be reading or blogging than writing. And there's also so much that needs done! I spent a surprising amount of time 4th of July weekend actually cleaning! If you know me, you know I'd generally pretty much rather do anything than cleaning. So the fact that I got pretty much all of my laundry done last weekend....wow. Sometimes you just want to "goof off" from what you're supposed to do. Even if what you're supposed to do (writing) is more fun!

But I'm trying to get going again. Starting with a new project (I couldn't bring back my passion for a project I started over 10 years ago...go figure).

What makes you procrastinate?

Passion and Scheduling

I don't know what kind of person you are, but I get an idea and it's exciting and interesting, but then after the novelty wears off, I have to force myself on. Lately it seems like the novelty is wearing off too quick....

I had to make up some time at work this week so my lunches are short this week. My 30 minute writing time has been gutted so I've been having trouble doing much!

But at least Maggie and I are working on the sequel to "The Healer and the Pirate"!

Just look around shivering

So if you're a regular reader and you're not following me on Facebook...well first, why not?

And second, you may have missed the announcement that Maggie Phillippi and I finally finished our second round of edits to "The Healer and the Pirate"!

One thing we noticed when going through is that we had quite a few words that we used more often than we should have.

Here are all the ones we noticed in this last round of editing, in one convenient sentence.

Soon, Nessa blinked, gazed around, almost shivered against the cold, and just looked about, staring forward toward Aridin's whole back.

Maggie pointed out "just" should probably be there at least three times! (And in fairness, "back" was really meant as the direction "back," not the part of the body. But it's really hard to write a sentence with so few nouns.)

Most of these words are OK in moderation, and in fact most are necessary at least sometimes. But when we used them, many of them could be removed with no ill consequences. Editing is good.

Do you have any words you overuse, in writing or in person? (In real life, one of mine is probably "Oh, goodness.")

New design!

Thanks to Maggie Phillippi for my new blog design! She made the previous design, too, which was just what I wanted at that time. But as time went on and my blog got a (admittedly slight) focus, I felt like it was maybe a little stuffy. So here we go. COLORS!!!!!

Thank you Maggie!

Eeeeeeeee (or, juryrigging Macbook keyboard for those who are fiscally conservative with their own funds)

My 2.5/40 is going OK. Enthusiasm is waning but I'm still being more productive than I was before I started. (And my writing partner Maggie has been a SUPERSTAR the last couple weeks in working on The Healer and the Pirate!) As of Tuesday night I'm 5.5 hours ahead (need 60; at 65.5). I'll be surprised if I don't "spend" that difference during this holiday weekend, though. 16 days to go!

Onward!

This is NOT computer repair advice; at best it is going to let you eke a little more time out of your Jurassic MacBook. Perform any of this at your own risk.

So I ordered my 1st generation MacBook right about the time they came out in May 2006. (That means it's about my laptop's 5th birthday. Happy birthday, MacBook!) It's served me fairly well through most of that time. Aside from the initial outlay, expenses have been low. Out of pocket, I've had to replace the battery twice, and I bought a replacement key for the keyboard for something around $5. I've had numerous FREE repairs from the Apple Store, in and out of warranty--1-2 top keyboard/wrist rest/casing replacements, 2 new hard drives, and a new power plug. I always feel like I'm not cool enough to even go into the Apple Store. I don't know if it's because my laptop is a very early MacBook or if they have something in their databases saying I'm going to be famous someday (cough) but until the last battery replacement, they've taken pretty good care of me.

But my computer is getting old and tired. There are numerous cosmetic issues now, including cracks (one of which is now covered by Scotch tape). Personally, I am more concerned that when I jostle it the wrong way or press way too hard on a key, it randomly restarts. (That may be fixable by opening it up and making sure everything is seated properly--but getting inside could also be the thing that knocks aside something delicate and kills it for good. So I'm putting up with that "quirk" for now.)

Just as annoying as the restarts, the keyboard is starting to go. (I'd like to say that as a writer, I'm proud of that. But honestly, it was probably more chatting and Facebook than actual writing that did it.)

The keyboard issues started, unsurprisingly, with the "e" key, in July 2010 or earlier. It got to the point where it missed probably every fifth time I typed an "e." Not wanting to buy a new (expensive!) keyboard assembly, I figured I was looking at hooking up an external keyboard forever anyway. With nothing to lose, I popped off the key to investigate.



(It's very easy to pop off a key on the EARLY Macbooks, at least; I can't speak for later ones. Just pick a corner and gently pry. If that corner doesn't work, try another corner. I don't know if I'd try it on the oversized keys like tab, shift, space bar, etc.)

Anyway, beneath the key, there's a kind of inverted silicon (?) cup. I've heard it called a "nipple," and it does look like the nipple on a baby bottle. When you depress the key, the top of the cup touches the metal (?) connectors beneath it, causing a key strike. Fascinating, huh?

But as the keys get worn out, the cups start to break down, which prevents the top of the cup from touching the connector when pressed.

I'll start with the easy fix.

I've got a key now ("t") where the cup is permanently depressed/probably cracked most the way around the top. That caused the key to be permanently depressed, which felt "mushy" and if I recall correctly, prevented quite a few keystrokes from registering. This little trick actually seems to have fixed that problem outright.

1) Remove key.
2) Cut out a small circle of thin cardboard/thin plastic/etc. (I used an old insurance card, somewhat thinner than a credit card.)
3) Affix the circle to the underside of the key with double-stick tape.
4) Pop key back on and test.


Cleaning gunk out of key before replacement is optional.

Hopefully, the key will be elevated so that it's closer to flush with the other keys. My "t" key is now actually a bit taller than its neighbors "r" and "y", but I haven't noticed any problems since the fix. So if your key is depressed, this is a quick and non-intrusive fix--you can very easily undo it. Absolute WORST case I can think of is if you somehow broke your key and/or the hinge, you could buy a replacement on eBay for a few bucks.

But again, this is just informational, not advice on how to fix your computer. ::shifty eyes::

Unfortunately, on my "e" key, the cup was basically detached. Recall how the cup works--the silicon/etc. has to touch the metal beneath to trigger a keystroke. So if the cup is nearly or fully open at the top, when your key presses down, there will be no result at all.

This is NOT what you want the "cup" to look like.



The fix I found for an "open cup" is kind of hit or miss. I would only use this if the "t" repair above is unsuccessful.

1) Remove key.
2) Cut a small piece (no more than a few millimeters long) from a clear hair elastic band. Using a toothpick or other thin implement, tuck that little piece into the open cup. (I believe I used Scunci clear elastic bands like these. I have not tried regular rubber bands.)
3) If you haven't already, cut out a small circle of cardboard/thin plastic/etc. as above. Again, if you haven't, affix the circle to the underside of the key with double-stick tape as above.
4) Pop key back on and test.
5) If the key still doesn't register correctly, remove key and rearrange the elastic band in the cup. Repeat steps 4 and 5 until the key works adequately.


This is the open cup with some clear elastic in it (and also the broken top of the cup thrown in, I believe).

This is not a 100% fix by any means. But it brought my "e" key up from "intolerable" to merely "annoying." On a good day I'm not even sure if my typos are the fault of the keyboard or my fingers!

Maybe once a month, the "e" key starts missing a lot because the elastic band inside has drifted. (I actually realized I had that problem when I started the blog today. I don't remember the last time it happened.) To fix the problem, I have to pop off the key and move the elastic around until it's in a good spot. It took 2 or 3 tries this last time. But aside from quick adjustments, my "temporary fix" has been keeping my laptop on life support since at least July 2010.

(The VERY best fix, in theory, would be to replace the broken silicon cup altogether. You can order replacements online. Unfortunately, the instructions I read said to use superglue to affix them. The sensor area is UNDER the hollow silicon cup, so there would be little margin for error. Given that a slip could be the difference between a laptop with an iffy "e" key and a laptop with a dead "e" key, or worse, I'm sticking with the temp fix.)

Yes, I AM saving up for a new computer. 5 years is a pretty good lifespan for a laptop, and this one's got some serious problems. But being cheap fiscally conservative with my own funds, I'm still trying to get a bit more use out of it before it dies.

So anyway, if you notice any missing "e"s in my blog, now you know where they went.

Writing Wednesday - Progress Report

Taking a break from the Tucson Festival of Books reports this week, but I should have a lot more notes in the next few Wednesdays.

I found this blog post on Seekerville very interesting; it's about "Rewards Per Page." The idea is to write a book with something on every page to "reward" your reader--a joke, a fact, a fun interaction. The idea is a good one for people (like myself) who write with a goal of entertaining. At the very least, it served as a reminder to write what you'd love to read, and don't be afraid to tweak the story or even do something that might seem gratuitous (random kidnapping, anyone?), if you (and the readers) will find it compelling.

As to my writing progress, I'm working on finishing my 25-paragraph outline. Lately I think God's given me more of a passion for the work, which is exciting. I spent two hours planning Monday...considering I work full-time, that's not bad.

Though my outline wasn't at all as polished as I would have liked, I ran the first five paragraphs or so past my sometimes-co-author Maggie, who has an absolutely brilliant mind for finding inconsistencies and noting what just plain doesn't make sense. Her prodding questions made me rethink my introduction (paragraph 1 of 25), which I will now consolidate into fewer scenes, which should greatly strengthen the story. (Come on. Why does the lead need to start sobbing in a bathroom stall, anyway?)

Maggie has also shown me I'm going to need to figure out some big-picture stuff--since I'm more of an "idea" person, those specifics can really trip me up. Her advice is always invaluable and I have a lot of editing/thinking/working ahead of me! With her help on the big picture, this may very well turn out to be my strongest novel yet.

I think every writer could use a Maggie. Do you have one?

Collaborative Writing - The Long Awaited Part 2

So updates on my own writing...I had a vague hope of finishing Flight from Endwood before the new year. That didn't happen, but now I'm cheering for the end of January. So I am buckling down and trying! I'd love to start a new collaborative project, too, but we'll see....

Speaking of collaboration! So a few weeks ago I said I'd share some things I heard at a panel on collaborative writing. Never mind the timeline I said I'd get that information out to you. Here it is now!

In November 2010 at the (secular) Tuscon Sci-fi/Fantasy/Horror convention, there was a panel on co-authoring with Michelle M. Welch, John Vornholt, and Jeff Mariotte. Some collaborated while under contract; I'm not sure any of them necessarily wrote a novel with someone quite how we did, without even having it sold yet. (Note that these writers are not necessarily--I'd go so far as to say not likely--Christians, but that doesn't mean they don't know some good techniques.)

A couple reasons for collaboration might be to have fun with a friend, and sometimes utilize different points of expertise. Overall, as I may have already mentioned, the goal of collaboration is for the finished product to be better than you could do yourself.

Random points they offered:

*Get a detailed outline first so that you know where it's going (this is beyond important if you're collaborating with one person writing some chapters and some people writing other chapters, etc.)

*Collaboration is very good for comedy--if you find something funny, someone else may not find it funny. But if TWO people think something is funny, then maybe other people will find it funny too!

*Distance is no longer an issue in collaboration, as it comes down to words on a page. You used to have to mail floppy disks (!) back in forth, but now you can collaborate in essentially, or even literally, real-time (see Google Docs etc.).

*Collaborating can be easier with a tight deadline (I think the logic there was that with a tight deadline, you both have to work, and you won't quibble about the small stuff).

*If an argument arises between the authors, try just scrapping the scene and writing something else.

*MAKE SURE WHOEVER SENDS TO THE EDITOR SENDS THE RIGHT VERSION! (One of the panelists had been working on a collaboration and the partner who sent the final copy out sent a previous draft. Since I can see myself doing that, I thought that was a good thing to note.)

They vaguely mentioned you need to agree who gets the final draft, etc., which I already knew from reading up on collaboration before we started.

And that...was about it. I thought I had more info, but sometimes short and sweet is best!

Collaboration

Ecclesiastes 4:9-10 (New International Version, ©2010)

9 Two are better than one,
because they have a good return for their labor:
10 If either of them falls down,
one can help the other up.
But pity anyone who falls
and has no one to help them up.

So overall I'm a big fan of collaboration for writing, though it can be challenging, and it doesn't always work well.

You could argue that almost all great books are a collaboration of some sort, as pretty much every writer needs an editor. And if you're writing to be published, your best bet very well may be to find at least one or two people to critique it--or at the VERY least, to have a couple people look it over and point out your glaring inconsistencies and errors. In the old days, editors used to do all those kind of things for you (in fact, at the Tucson Festival of Books this year, I heard an "old-school" editor from I believe what used to be Tor Books say he did substantial work for his authors). But nowadays, I've heard most publishers expect books to be polished when they receive them.

As to how many critique partners you need, where to find them, etc., that's a matter of debate, so we'll avoid that for now.

The point is, when you work with someone else, the end product should be stronger (or if not, then it should be done faster, at least). If it's not, you shouldn't be working with that person.

But when most people think of collaboration when it comes to writing, I think they imagine writing with a partner.

I wrote a novel with a writing partner, Maggie Phillippi (tentative title The Kinyn Chronicles: The Healer and the Pirate). There are some challenges, but collaberating was overall a great thing. We wrote together, primarily in real-time using a free online word processor. The only truly painful part there is trying to bring it back into Word format, and acceptable manuscript format, now that we're done with it--ugh!

Some people have one partner write one character's point of view and the other write the other character's point of view. (In most novels, each scene should be filtered through a specific character's viewpoint. The exception is omniscient POV, which frankly I can't pull off.) I'd say you'd need an outline to pull that off. (Outlines are probably always useful in writing, but so far I haven't been terribly successful using them.)

How we wrote, I tended to write one character's dialogue/reactions more, and Maggie tended to write another character a little more--but we each wrote as we went, and that worked for us. We wrote a whole draft from a story we already had more or less in mind. Then we did substantial edits (arguably a rewrite), and now we're going through getting it critiqued.

Some common challenges I've heard are common to collaboration:
*How is the work split?
*How is the money split?
*Whose name comes first?
*Who gets the last "edit" (the last word when the story goes to the editor)?
*If one of you tires of the project, what happens?

I've read that it's best to get SOME sort of contract signed between the two of you, just in case the worst should happen and you have a falling-out (or God forbid, one of you dies!). Ideally some sort of contract, of course; that little piece of paper probably won't do much good if you have a serious falling-out.

For more ideas, see http://www.writing-world.com/rights/collaboration.shtml

I've been to a couple different panels with authors on collaboration, so I should have some more notes from them next Monday. EDIT: Here's the link!