Writing Linearly from an Outline June 9, 2008
Posted by fanaticalpupil in : Writing , add a commentFortuitous and coincidental that I came across this post at SF Novelists just after I was thinking about my own writing style (ed. note: “just” being two months ago when I started this post), and how I seem to prefer writing from a detailed outline. I’m an Outliner. Granted, I’ve probably only written enough words to make up one novel if they were all put together (that would be a pretty awesome novel), but I am finding that it is definitely easier for me to get the words out when I have an outline of at least the major scenes of the story.
I know this because I essentially have four Works-In-Progress, and the two of them for which I’ve written the most have the whole story outlined with most of the major events present as well (many of the smaller individual scenes are on the outline too). The two other Works are ones that I’m just as interested in writing (on a macro level), but after about half way through the story, I have very little idea of where they go. Clearly I am not one of those writers who can just sit down, start writing, and let the characters dictate the plot.
Does that mean that the two outlined stories are not character-driven? I certainly hope not. While the whole thing is laid out, the events that take place are still driven by the characters. The set up for the plot for both of them was created by something out of the characters’ control, but that Deus Ex Machina only exists outside of what takes place in the book itself.
Now, as for the question of writing Linearly vs. Splatter Writing, I’m more inclined toward the former. I think it’s something that follows from the Outlining. I’ve found a couple times that I’ve written a scene out of order just because I wasn’t feeling the next scene that was due up in the Linear Order. But, so far, most of the scenes I’ve written have been the ones that come after the last one I wrote.
Really? June 8, 2008
Posted by fanaticalpupil in : Really? , add a commentBeat 1732: A resident reported that on the 3700 block of St. Louis there is a parked car in the alley that has been sitting there for two years.
Really? Do the people over on St. Louis have such monstrously wide alleys that they don’t mind having a car parked in them for a year or two? I know my alley is certainly not wide enough that it wouldn’t start to bother me after, I don’t know, a year, maybe?
Another Books Read meme June 7, 2008
Posted by fanaticalpupil in : Writing , 3 commentsHere’s another books read member from pi90katana (found via my Neal Stephenson Google Alert):
Update: Oops… I accidentally published this without actually doing it… Here’s how it’s going to go: Bold for books I’d recommend, and underline for ones I’ve read but wouldn’t recommend…
Fantasy Book Meme
Lord Of the Rings Trilogy - J R R Tolkien
The Hobbit - J R R Tolkien
Harry Potter Series - J K Rowling
Wheel of Time Series - Robert Jordan
The Lion, the Witch & the Wardrobe - C S Lewis
A Song of Ice & Fire - George R R Martin (Not the whole series, but the first book was good)
The Belgariad Series - David Eddings (First book is sitting on my shelf)
Wizard’s First Rule - Terry Goodkind
Magician - Raymond E Feist
His Dark Materials Trilogy - Philip Pullman
The Sword of Shannara - Terry Brooks
A Wizard of Earthsea - Ursula K Le Guin
Eragon - Christopher Paolini
The Farseer Trilogy - Robin Hobb
The Dark Tower Series - Stephen King (I’ve actually only read the second book, but I have the first now, and will start it soon)
Dark Elf Trilogy - R A Salvatore
A Wrinkle In Time - Madeleine L’Engle
Watership Down - Richard Adams
American Gods - Neil Gaiman
Animal Farm - George Orwell
The Princess Bride - William Goldman
The Colour of Magic - Terry Pratchett
Alice’s Adventures In Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
The Mists Of Avalon - Marion Zimmer Bradley (I tried to read this one a while back)
Dragonlance Chronicles - Weis & Hickman
Good Omens - Gaiman & Pratchett
Thomas Covenant - The Unbeliever - Stephen Donaldson
Redwall - Brian Jacques
Interview With the Vampire - Anne Rice
The Chronicles of Amber - Roger Zelazny (Want to read this one at some point)
Artemis Fowl - Eoin Colfer
The Lord Of the Flies - William Golding
Neverwhere - Neil Gaiman
Charlie & the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
Dracula - Bram Stoker
Memory, Sorrow & Thorn Series - Tad Williams
Sabriel - Garth Nix
Dragonflight - Anne McCaffrey
The Once & Future King - T H White
Ella Enchanted - Gail Carson Levine
On a Pale Horse - Piers Anthony
The Five People You Meet in Heaven - Mitch Albom
Alanna: The First Adventure - Tamora Pierce
A Clockwork Orange - Anthony Burgess
The Time Traveler’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
Outlander - Dianna Gabaldon
Frankenstein - Mary Shelley
The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
Left Behind - LaHaye & Jenkins
Beowulf - Unknown Author
Twilight - Stephenie Meyer
Life of Pi - Yann Martel
The Screwtape Letters - C S Lewis
The Alchemist - Paulo Coelho
One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
The Neverending Story - Michael Ende
Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell - Susanna Clarke (Sitting on my shelf)
The Chronicles of Prydain - Lloyd Alexander
Ishmael - Daniel Quinn
The Historian - Elizabeth Kostova
The Phantom Tollbooth - Norton Juster
The Odyssey - Homer
Guilty Pleasures - Laurell K Hamilton
Mort - Terry Pratchett
Sophie’s World - Jostein Gaarder
Watchmen - Moore & Gibbons
The Little Prince - Antoine de Saint-Exupery
Tigana - Guy Gavriel Kay
The Picture of Dorian Gray - Oscar Wilde
Gardens of the Moon - Steven Erikson
Perdido Street Station - China Mieville
Kushiel’s Dart - Jacqueline Carey
Batman - The Dark Knight Returns - Frank Miller
Jonathan Livingston Seagull - Richard Bach
The Silmarillion - J R R Tolkien
Perfume - Patrick Suskind
Dealing With Dragons - Patricia C Wrede
The Metamorphosis - Franz Kafka
The Master and Margarita - Mikhail Bulgakov
The Malloreon - David Eddings
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay - Michael Chabon
Magic’s Pawn - Mercedes Lackey
I Am Legend - Richard Matheson
The Eyre Affair - Jasper Fforde
The Last Unicorn - Peter S Beagle
Inkheart - Cornelia Funke
The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle - Haruki Murakami
Lamb - Christopher Moore
Something Wicked This Way Comes - Ray Bradbury
Death Gate Cycle - Weis & Hickman
Book of the New Sun - Gene Wolfe
Inferno - Dante Alighieri
The Haunting of Hill House - Shirley Jackson
Howl’s Moving Castle - Diana Wynne Jones
The Blue Sword - Robin McKinley
The Amulet of Samarkan - Jonathan Stroud
Daughter of the Blood - Anne Bishop
Beauty - Robin McKinley
A Midsummer Night’s Dream - William Shakespeare
The Dark Is Rising - Susan Cooper
Sci-Fi Meme
Fahrenheit 451 - Ray Bradbury **
1984 - George Orwell
I Am Legend - Richard Matheson
Cat’s Cradle - Kurt Vonnegut
Snow Crash - Neal Stephenson
Ender’s Game - Orson Scott
Speaker for the Dead - Orson Scott Card
The Handmaid’s Tale: A Novel - Margaret Atwood I
Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions - Edwin A. Abbott
Cryptonomicon - Neal Stephenson
The Player of Games - Iain M. Banks
A Clockwork Orange - Anthony Burgess
Hyperion - Dan Simmons
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? - Philip K. Dick
Lucifer’s Hammer - Larry Niven
Dune - Frank Herbert
Childhood’s End - Arthur C. Clarke
Flowers for Algernon - Daniel Keyes
Shadow & Claw: The First Half of ‘The Book of the New Sun’ - Gene Wolfe
Foundation (Foundation Novels) - Isaac Asimov
The Sirens of Titan - Kurt Vonnegut
Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
The Forever War - Joe Haldeman
Jurassic Park - Michael Crichton
The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress - Robert A. Heinlein
Starship Troopers - Robert A. Heinlein
Out of the Silent Planet - C.S.Lewis
Xenocide - Orson Scott Card
The Andromeda Strain - Michael Crichton
A Fire Upon The Deep - Vernor Vinge
Red Mars - Kim Stanley Robinson
Caves of Steel - Isaac Asimov
Frankenstein - Mary Shelley
The Martian Chronicles - Ray Bradbury
Revelation Space - Alastair Reynolds
Rendezvous with Rama - Arthur C. Clarke
The Mote in God’s Eye - Larry Niven
Valis - Philip K. Dick
Time Enough for Love - Robert A. Heinlein
The Man in the High Castle - Philip K. Dick
The Stars My Destination - Alfred Bester
The Diamond Age: Or, a Young Lady’s Illustrated Primer - Neal Stephenson
A Deepness in the Sky - Vernor Vinge
A Wrinkle in Time - Madeleine L’Engle
Doomsday Book - Connie Willis
Neuromancer - William Gibson
Stranger in a Strange Land - Robert A. Heinlein
Ringworld - Larry Niven
The Cyberiad - Stanislaw Lem
2001: A Space Odyssey - Arthur C. Clarke
A Canticle for Leibowitz - Walter M. Miller Jr. (Sitting on my shelf)
Slaughterhouse-Five - Kurt Vonnegut
The Dispossessed - Ursula K. Le Guin
Lord of Light - Roger Zelazny
Startide Rising - David Brin
The Reality Dysfunction Part I: Emergence - Peter F. Hamilton
I, Robot - Isaac Asimov
The Incredible Shrinking Man - Richard Matheson
Gray Lensman - Edward E. Smith
The Day of the Triffids - John Wyndham
Ubik - Philip K. Dick
Contact - Carl Sagan
The Postman - David Brin
To Your Scattered Bodies Go - Philip Jose Farmer
The Fountains of Paradise - Arthur C. Clarke
His Master’s Voice - Stanislaw Lem
Journey to the Centre of the Earth - Jules Verne
The Left Hand of Darkness - Ursula K. LeGuin
Eon - Greg Bear
A Stainless Steel Trio - Harry Harrison
The Invisible Man - H.G. Wells
The Uplift War - David Brin
Burning Chrome - William Gibson
Ilium - Dan Simmons
Solaris - Stanislaw Lem
The Demolished Man - Alfred Bester
The Door into Summer - Robert A. Heinlein
Way Station - Clifford D. Simak
Fiasco - Stanislaw Lem
The City and the Stars and the Sands of Mars - Arthur C. Clarke
The Gods Themselves - Isaac Asimov
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea - Jules Verne
Use of Weapons - Iain M. Banks
City - Clifford D. Simak
More Than Human - Theodore Sturgeon
A Princess of Mars - Edgar Rice Burroughs
Gateway - Frederik Pohl
The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch - Philip K. Dick
Ender’s Shadow - Orson Scott Card
A Scanner Darkly - Philip K. Dick
Citizen of the Galaxy - Robert A. Heinlein
The Lathe of Heaven: A Novel - Ursula K. Le Guin
Puppet Masters - Robert A. Heinlein
The War of the Worlds - H. G. Wells
The Time Machine - H. G. Wells
A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court - Mark Twain
Blood Music - Greg Bear
Have Space Suit, Will Travel - Robert A. Heinlein
The Chrysalids - David Harrower
Hardcover vs. Paperback June 6, 2008
Posted by fanaticalpupil in : Writing , 1 comment so farAs I read/listen/learn more about the so-called publishing industry, I read/hear more about authors getting deals for hardcover books vs. for mass market paperback books. It is clear that the hardcover deals are more of a crown jewel and sign of success, and I certainly understand that. But I’m with my friend archphoenix on this one.
According to Tobias Buckell’s unscientific Advance survey:
Hardcover advances had a median of $5000
Paperback advances had a median of $5000
It brings up a question in my mind, which I probably won’t have to worry about for a while, but here it is anyway: how does Hardcover vs. Paperback play in book deal negotiations? I’m guessing that publishers prefer hardcover deals because they can make more money selling less books, but if I’d rather have my book published in paperback because I don’t like hardcover, is there any leverage there in negotiations, or do I just let the publisher tell me which one is better (presuming they know more than I do about the market)?
In addition, if anyone reading this blog wants to comment, which one do you prefer? Paperback or hardcover?
Two Months Per Book June 5, 2008
Posted by fanaticalpupil in : Writing , add a commentFantasy Debut has an interview with Jennifer Rardin, in which she talks about writing a book every two months so that people can become fans of her work that much faster. It sounds like a great idea to me from a marketing perspective, and if you can make it happen, hey, then make it happen.
So, how does a novelist go about having her first three novels published every two months? Did you have all three books written when you sold the first one? Or are you undead, allowing you to write around the clock?
Har! I often think what a lousy vampire I’d make with my passion for open spaces (shut me in a casket for the day, are you nuts?) and my love of sunlight. If there is such a thing as reincarnation, I probably worshiped Ra at some point along my journey.
But with the deadlines imposed on me by the publishing schedule you mentioned, I spent plenty of days inside looking out, wishing I could go play when instead I had to work. Pretty much nonstop. Because I only had the first book, Once Bitten, Twice Shy, finished when my agent sold it and two more as yet untitled (and unplotted!) novels to my editor at Orbit. Yeah, so lots of evenings and weekends, a very intense workload I have only now, with the completion of book five of the series, been able to drop. My next books will be written on a much saner, nine-month timeline.
However, we didn’t tackle such a big project without good reason. New, unknown writers like me have a tough time selling books when they only come out on an annual basis. This way, readers could almost immediately grab the first three in the series and hopefully figure out, sooner rather than later, that this Rardin chick had a way with words.
I always like to think that if I worked on writing full-time then I’d be able to turn out books at that kind of pace. Right now, though, I enjoy my day job enough that I don’t really want to quit (though I do sometimes wish I could turn down the stress level, even though most of the time it’s just me freaking out about deadlines that are much softer than I always think they are). I’m hoping that if I keep writing (or, practicing writing) at the “hobby” level until the house is paid off, then I’ll have put in enough time to where I’ll be able to generate a “part-time job” amount of income from my writing. In today’s dollars, I’d estimate that amounts to A “Meh” Deal on John Scalzi’s Real World Book Deal scale.
BookMooch Quality June 4, 2008
Posted by fanaticalpupil in : Books, Writing , 2 commentsI’ve been stocking my to-read pile with books from BookMooch.
<tangent> I know (on some level) I should be purchasing books new, but most of the books are from authors I’ve never read, so I figure I can read the first book for free and decide if I want to continue on. Of course, right now, I may not get to continue on with any of them since I’m not exactly the world’s fastest reader, and I’ve mooched 18 books since joining the site last year (the site keeps track for me). </tangent>
The real point of the post is that I wanted to comment on the incredibly high quality of the books I’ve received “used” from other people. Yes, I have had a couple that were near falling apart, but those are completely overtaken by the number I’ve received which are in practically new condition. Maybe people got them as presents they didn’t really want… Or maybe a lot of people are just really easy on their books. I am certainly not one of those people. Since I’m a slow reader, I have to carry a book around with me pretty much everywhere I go (good thing I’m stylish enough to rock the manbag), so they get pretty thrashed.
That’s all. Just wanted to give a shout out to a very well designed (on each level of the MVC) site. Thanks BookMooch!
Word Count Wednesday 6/4
Posted by fanaticalpupil in : Writing , add a commentAnother disgraceful week in the world of word counts. But at least the average is greater than 0. And the way I like to think about it: If I write 100 words per day, I’ll have 36,500 words after a year. It’s not enough for a novel, but - once again - it’s greater than 0.
5/29: 0
5/30: 191
5/31: 0
6/1: 510
6/2: 0
6/3: 0
6/4: 0
Mark Terry on Independent Presses June 2, 2008
Posted by fanaticalpupil in : Writing , add a commentI like Mark Terry because he keeps it real on his blog. In this post about indie presses versus big publishers he basically says it’s not worth it to go with the indies.
It comes down to this: if the goal is just to get published, then small presses are certainly a potential avenue. If you’re looking at a fiction writing career, where you actually make real money and might be able to live off it, then small presses are something of a long shot.
I find that incredibly honest advice coming from someone in the industry. I’m not sure how the indie presses that may be looking at his new work will feel, but maybe he’s decided he doesn’t care and at this point, he’s going big or going home.