A Lot to Do About Nothing

Song Playing: Cosmic Love by Florence and the Machines (on repeat one)

If you've never heard of Florence and the Machines, I suggest you check her out. Oh my goodness, her entire CD (named "Lungs") just gives me oodles of inspiration. I just love how powerful Florence's voice is, without being harsh. Listening to "Cosmic Love" brings to mind rocky coastlines and cold beaches.

Here's the Youtube link in case you're feeling lazy and : Cosmic Love

Anyway, on to more relevant topics. Or semi-relevant.

I was productive yesterday. I worked on some worldbuilding and plot building for my WIP, I went shopping with my mother, twin brother, and his wife. We did the wander around Barnes and Noble and eat lunch thing, which is always good times. Afterward I watched the new Star Trek movie with my parents. I know, that movie's been out forever now. Remember how we talked about time? And how I prioritize my writing just under the Day Job and my family? Yeah, that means I am usually way behind on movies, unless it's something I rabidly want to see.

I must say, the new Star Trek movie was an interesting reboot of the franchise, especially since I had to explain the concept of "reboot" to my mother. She was irritated they changed so much of what was canon in the original series. There was a vaguely confusing time travel plot, which I content was there just so they could shoehorn Leonard Nimoy into the movie to play Old Spock. I had heard fans complaining about the lens flare in the movie, and while I do like the quality it gave the movie, I agree it was a little much. There were several scenes where I couldn't see anything clearly because of the flare, or the glare from the flare (I'm a poet and I didn't know it) actually hurt my eyes. Not a deal breaker, but certainly annoying.


I also watched "Inglourious Basterds" which was much better than I feared. I am hot and cold with Tarantino films. Some of them are so bloody and violent I have a hard time following the plot, but this film seemed like a good balance between plot and Tarantino's trademark bloody scenes.

The dialogue is excellent, and I really enjoyed how the movie was broken up into little short stories that tied everything together. It was an interesting way to bring so much plot lines together. I was most impressed with his use of suspense in this movie. It's not your average sort of "girl walks down shadowy hallway" suspense, but more focused on characters hiding secrets. In one scene, a German SS officer Hans Landa is talking to an woman, who we know to be an escaped Jewish woman. Landa was there when she escaped, but didn't really see her face, so we're left wondering if he knows who she is, and if he's going to attack her or what. All over some coffee and strudel.

It was also fun to watch with my father, who HATES subtitles with a passion. And for those of you who have seen "Inglorious Basterds" the movie is more subtitles than English. The characters go between French, German, and English. Dad can't read subtitles as quickly as I can, so I wound up reading 3/4's of the movie out loud to him. I even tried to do different voices, and put inflection in my voice during long conversations between characters.

The reason why I brought the movie up, other than the fact that I wanted to talk about it, is there was a really cool bit of culture in "Inglorious Basterds". It was such a subtle thing, but it made the difference between a German officer recognizing a British Officer posing as a German.

The British Officer ordered three drinks, and held up three fingers: his pointer, middle, and ring finger, using his thumb to hold his pinky down. Like how we all do it, right? If I told you I was holding up three fingers, that's probably what you would imagine me doing.


But that simple gesture blew the British Officer's cover, and wound up getting the lot of them killed. Why?


Because in Germany (according to the movie, I have no idea if this is true or not. I will have to ask my friend Lena**) they hold up their thumb, pointer finger, and middle finger to indicate the number three.


When we write, we chose which details of our world gets let in, and which do not. I think fantasy tends to lend towards the end of over-description because we think since it's not a real world, we need to make sure people can see what we're describing.


It's important for your reader to picture your setting, but equally so for fantasy and non-fantasy alike. I have never been to Colorado; consequently, the author describing the setting as "Colorado in the spring" does nothing for me.


But if the author gives me some specific details to the setting, maybe the clear mountain air, the crisp, clean atmosphere, and jagged mountain peaks in the distance, suddenly I am there. It's no different if this place exists solely in your imagination or not. I believe description and sense of place comes out better in the small details, like how a people indicate the number three with their hands, than three hundred pages of beautifully wrought prose.


What about you? What are some ways you attempt to get the culture and setting across in your work without stopping the story?


*thank you wikicommons for the pretty pictures.

**I have asked Lena, and she says yes, it's true. They start counting on their thumbs. Cool!

Critical Writing Skills: Time is on My Side

Quote: "Hear the ticking of the clock...the sound of life itself." Kamelot, The Human Stain

Song Playing: Time by the Rolling Stones (surely you saw that coming)

Despite my connotations with "Time" to the movie Fallen (great movie by the way, held up really well even after the Digital Age), I think it's quite fitting for today's post.

People complain about not having enough time. Time is one of the those non-renewable commodities; once it's gone, you're not getting it back. You can make more money, you can get healthy, but you can never get back time you feel you have wasted. The best you can do is learn from the experience and move on.


Almost as bad as that, there are many, many distractions out there to steal your time away. In today's age it's virtually impossible to avoid all distractions.


That's why one of the most important habits you can ever develop as a writer is to protect your time.


Learning how to improve your writing, learning the market, learning where the dictionary is are all important skills as a writer, but if you forever let other things get in the way of writing, you will never be a writer. Forget about publishing. You can't wait until you "have the time" to write, because that's like waiting for tomorrow to arrive. You have to make time. You have to squeeze time out of your day, like blood from a stone.


When I tell people that I am a writer, a good 50% of them tell me they've always wanted to write a book, but they've never gotten around to it. That makes me sad. It occurs to me that if they really really wanted to write, they would make the time, but still think there's a misconception that writers just sit down to write, and the rest of the world will arrange itself around you.


It won't. You have to fight for your time, however short or long it might be, and protect it like a mother bear protects her cubs (how many metaphors can I cram into this post? Let's see...). Even if you can only squeeze ten minutes out of your day, that is still 70 minutes in a week. You could write a novel in a year with that sort of time.


But only if you are consciously aware of how you're spending your time. I became a much happier person the day I started consciously using my time. If I sit down to vegetate for a half hour, I know that's exactly what I am doing. I no longer feel guilty when I sit down to relax, because I know how I am spending my time. Before, time would just slip away from me, and I wondered where it went.


Now I budget my time like I budget my money (there's another one), and I feel more relaxed for it. I know I have time to do what's important to me. Life events will snatch up your time if you let it, so be wary of time wasters.


I am not advocating that you lock yourself away in a hole and ignore your loved ones. You need to make time for other things in your life that's important to you (friends and family should probably figure on that list somewhere...they get cranky if you ignore them for some reason). I am suggesting you take a good look at where all your time goes, and then try to rearrange your day so you have time for what you want to do.


You might have to make sacrifices. Most writers aren't avid TV watchers not because we're pompous elitists, but simply because we don't have the time. There are a few TV shows I watch on a regular basis, because I enjoy them and sometimes I need to relax my brain, but I haven't just channel surfed in years, simply because I don't really enjoy TV and it's very time consuming. I'd rather be writing. Also, I have those shows on DVD so I can watch them on MY time, not on the TV's time.


Here's my suggestion for making the most of your time:

1. Make a list of all your activities. All of them. Include hanging out with friends, watching TV, everything you do for fun.

2. Make a list of all your chores. Include everything you have to do to keep the power on and food on the table. Cleaning, paying bills, etc.

3. Now, keep track of what you do for a few days, and how much time you spend doing them. Did you waste three hours watching TV shows you really didn't enjoy just because the couch is where your butt landed? Keep track of that.

4. Now, merge your activities and chores list. Keep things flexible, and don't plan your day too tightly, as that is a recipe for failure (been there, done that). Make your list according to what is the most important to you. For me, time with my husband and friends, writing and reading are the most important activities to me. So I make sure I have time to do that, and if something less important to me falls by the wayside (like keeping up with a TV show or the current movies), it's not a big deal to me. I am so behind on movies it's not even funny, but that's because I'd rather be writing. And I don't often have time for both.


You might notice gaps of time you're not using as well as you could in your time tables. Consider combining tasks. Do you have to have a cup of coffee to wake up in the morning? Why not read emails during that coffee time?


I won't say you'll have plenty of time for everything you want after you keep track of your time, but you will know where your time goes, and be able to take advantage of unexpected opportunities.


What about you? What measures have you taken to make sure you have time for writing?

Monday Update--Sucess!

Song Playing: Lux Aeterna, aka Requiem for a Dream

Ever notice how no matter what you’re doing, if “Lux Aeterna” is playing in the background, it seems epic? Making the bed, brushing your teeth…all of these mundane tasks can be made way more interesting with a stereo set on “Loud” and that song playing in the background.

But spicing up mundane chores isn’t what I wanted to talk about today. That’s just an added bonus. No, no, you don’t have to thank me, I am here to help.

I wanted to tell you the excellent news.

Remember how I was complaining last week that every time I tried to work on the plot of my current WIP I hit a dead end? No matter which angel or character I looked at my plot from, I still had gaping plot holes large enough to drive a semi truck through.

Some of you kind souls might be wondering why this was such a concern for me. After all, plenty of writers start writing a book with barely more than a wish and a prayer, and they come out the other end just fine.

Not so for me. Not so at all. Every. Single. Time. I sit down to write a book by the seat of my pants, or mostly by the seat of my pants, it fails horribly. You know all those plot holes, holes some writers tell themselves will work out as they are writing? Yeah, they just get bigger for me. I can’t plan everything out because that kills the novel, but I need to have a few landmarks or stepping stones to traverse across the treacherous path of novel writing.

So I stepped back, and started working on my setting. Much of the plot centers on the mistakes of the past exploding into the present, so it’s no wonder I was having issues with the plot. I needed to know more about the mistakes of the past before I could figure out how they affected the characters in the present.

This approach is paying off in spades. I am still working on the setting, but now I am sort of going back and forth between setting and plot. I find novel writing is much like cooking a multiple course meal at the same time. You’re not just working on the setting, and then characters, and then the plot, and voila, you’re done. It’s more like working on the setting here, and some characters there, and then a little bit of the plot, and then back to the setting, and over to the characters, and so on.

So, my progress report for today is one of success. The novel is moving steadily along, and even though I still need to do some major research into the technology aspects of the novel, I am making some definite progress.

How are you guys coming along on your novels? Did you ever have a major roadblock dissolve almost overnight? Pretty cool, huh.

Funny Apocalypse

While surfing the web and trying to find the answers to my technology questions, I came across this website: Survive the Apocalypse, and found it quite hilarious.

It didn't really answer my question of how much power a generator needs to produce to run a small city, but it did make me laugh, and there's some interesting tips. I especially enjoy the "Escape from..." series that the blog owner does, where people email him for escape routes and he talks about the best way to escape from their particular city.

Happy Sunday!

Keeping a Series Bible

Yesterday while working on the plot for my WIP I realized I didn't know enough about the setting. 

I've run into a few snags along the way with this WIP, but I kept trying to press forward. Over building a book before you write it can be problematic. You're tempted to keep everything you're built, even if the book veers off into uncharted territory, and it can be a really great way to procrastinate actually writing the book.

So this time around, my intent was to go very lean with the worldbuilding, only stuff I absolutely need to know to make my story work. But as I am getting to plot events, I keep running into walls. I am having a huge issue figuring out where the planet would be technologically speaking. Prior to a massive series of wars, the planet was slightly more technologically advanced than we are on Earth. 

After a couple hundred years of ongoing war and plague that culminated in an event tantamount to an apocalypse, civilization is scraping by. I just can't figure out if they would still have electricity and indoor plumbing, and whether or not they would have lots of fuel leftover, or none at all.

People that I have talked to seem to think contradictory things as well. Some people think all the fuel would be rare, since there is hardly anyone around to produce and refine it. Other people think there would be tons of it laying around, since there are far fewer people using the fuel.

After trying to tackle this, and other setting-related plot problems, I broke out the big guns. I made my series bible. I took a binder, and put some tabbed dividers into it. I set up tabs for characters and plot in the front, and tabs for the culture in the back. 

Sometimes I just work better when I have something I can see and touch. Now that I have made my series bible, I will go through the sections of culture I need to develop. I figure if I know more about the past, more about the cultures before they crumbled away, I can make better decisions about what technology they still have and what new innovations the people have made after the apocalypse. 

What is a series bible, you might be wondering at this point. Basically, it's a binder or a notebook, or a file, where you keep all your notes on a book series. My WIP is the first book in a series, so I figured I would just make it now, instead of having to comb through my WIP for the right information. A well kept series bible will save you time when you're trying to remember the name of your character's third aunt you mentioned in passing in the third book. It's a way to organize all the information you need to make your books run.  


Some authors swear by them, and some don't bother. I plan to use my series bible as a reference for the culture as well, so I think I will get a lot of use out of mine. 


I printed up an index, and made notes about my filing system (cribbed from Holly Lisle's Create a Culture Book) so I would always know where to file the information as I was creating it. Keeping a consistent filing system allows me to add stuff to this for the rest of my life, and I will always know where to find a bit of information.

Series Bible: Name of Your Series

Filing Code:

Mark in upper right hand corner:

Number or Letter: Category

Lower case letter: information type

Page number

Example: A POV character's bio would be filed as 1/a/1

A major, but non-POV, character’s bio would be filed as 1/b/1

INDEX

I. Book Information:

1. Characters

a. Point of View Character

b. Secondary Characters

c. Minor Characters 

2. Plot 

a. Theme

b. Genre

c. Calendar

d. Life Events

e. Ongoing Conflicts

f. Reoccurring Places

g. Inventions/Special Powers

h. Rules of Law

II. Worldbuilding Information:

A. Home Life

a. Basic Information

b. Arts and Artifacts

c. Cultural Library (books, scrolls, oral history)

d. Music and Dance

e. Housing and Architecture

f. Science and Magic

g. Other

B. Community

a. Basic Information

b. Arts and Artifacts

c. Cultural Library (books, scrolls, oral history)

d. Music and Dance

e. Housing and Architecture

f. Science and Magic

g. Other

C. Religion

a. Basic Information

b. Arts and Artifacts

c. Cultural Library (books, scrolls, oral history)

d. Music and Dance

e. Housing and Architecture

f. Science and Magic

g. Other

D. Government

a. Basic Information

b. Arts and Artifacts

c. Cultural Library (books, scrolls, oral history)

d. Music and Dance

e. Housing and Architecture

f. Science and Magic

g. Other

E. Language

Basic Information

Phonology

Word Pool

Grammar

Names

Some of you might be thinking I am crazy to go to all that trouble at the moment. In reality, it was no trouble at all to print this out, and I will simply file the information away as I develop it. You don't have to fill each section out either. For my WIP, I am not planning on doing too much with the Religion and Home Life sections, but focusing my efforts on the Community and Government sections, since that's what my book deals with.

You could also modify this series bible, and use it for a stand alone book. Folders like this when it comes time to edit and revise and you're not sure where to put all your hand written notes on editing.  

The idea isn't that you now have all these sections you have to fill out, but simply a cohesive filing system.  For example, under the Plot section, there's a divider for Reoccurring Places. I don't know what those places are yet, I haven't written the book! But during revision, I might notice they hang out at the Drunken Cowboy Saloon an awful lot, so I might create a page with some quick details about the lay out of the place, the names of the wait staff, and anything I might do the saloon.

If my main character accidentally sets fire to the saloon during the course of the first book, I think it would come up if they frequent the saloon in the next book. A statement from the bartender in the vein of "Please don't set half the saloon on fire this time, okay?" can add extra realism to the readers who have been reading along with the series. 

With so many tiny details to keep track of while writing a book, keeping a book or series bible can be a life saver. 

Have any of you ever kept a series bible? How did that work out for you? Where they any sections that you had, that I don't?

The Writing Seminar Part 1

Wow! That was an amazing experience, even if I am now exhausted. I haven't been this tired in years. It's the mental sort of tired where your brain feels like silly putty, and it takes you an extra three seconds to respond to what people are saying to you.

I fluctuated yesterday between rambling on and on about the classes I took at my writing seminar to my hapless family and staring into space processing everything.

I had hoped to post pictures from Dragon*Con (the place where the seminar was held) but my computer is so old (how old is it? You all yell) that I don't have the proper port for my memory card in my camera. So I have to snitch my dad's lap top soon, and upload my pictures, and then transfer them to a flash drive, and...you get the picture. But stay tuned for pictures, because among others, there was a shockingly good cosplay of a drow priestess. 

I also took 23 pages of notes. There were 14 classes total, an hour each, with a half hour in between, and lasting Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. I will be blogging about some of the really cool bits of information I received, but first I have to actually sift through my notes (hence the Part 1 of this post's title).

The information I received from the two authors who gave the seminar--Michael Stackpole and Aaron Allston--was amazing. Even when they went over something I already knew about, they explained it in such a way that I gained new insight and understanding on the topic. I've been to writing classes before, but taking a class from a published author, one who actually knows how the real world works, made a huge difference.


If you get a chance to take a seminar by one of these guys, I would heartily recommend it. Michale Stackpole also has some short books on writing on his website Stormwolf.com up for sale, that I have bought and also heartily recommend. 


If you are despairing that you'll never be able to go to a writing seminar because of time or money, then despair not! I am taking a writing class online by a well known published author, Holly Lisle, that has also been invaluable to my progress as a writer. The aspect I really enjoy about Holly's class is it's very easily adapted. If you already know how your writing style works, this class is very easy to shift and fold into other styles. Here is the link describing the class in case you're interested: How to Think Sideways. Scroll through the testimonials to read about what exactly you're getting in the class.


Both Holly's class and the seminar I just took taught me ways to write, not how that author in particular writes. It's a very subtle distinction, but it makes a huge difference. When an author teaches you *their* method of writing, you are left taking one or two pieces of what they are doing. When an author can break down the writing process and show you the nuts and bolts of writing, that's entirely different. You see why they are doing something a certain way, and you can adjust to your own methods accordingly. 


In both the writing class and the seminar, I was learning from working writers. Writers who make their living...well, writing. The next time you look at taking a writing class, make sure to look into the author give the class. I am not saying that you should never take a class from someone who isn't a professional writer, but I think it's important that you realize there's a difference.


But ultimately, you all need to figure out what's best for you. I decided that writing classes and seminars were the next logical step for my writing career. You might decide differently. We're all working towards the same thing, but we might get there using a different path.


What do you think has helped you improve most as a writer? Was it a seminar or lecture? Reading every book your hands touched? Why do you think it helped you so much?

Ways to Effectively Use Constructed Languages in Fiction

*due to some confusion, I have edited this post to only include constructed languages. So if you saw this yesterday, you're not going crazy, I am.

Using a constructed language in fantasy and science fiction can add richness and depth to your plot. It could also add a colossal headache for your reader if you don't use your constructed words with care. In addition, some readers don't like fake words in fiction, just as some people can't stand books written in first person, so remember that you can't win them all.

For those of us who do appropriate judicious use of foreign words, here are some tips:

1) The conlang is used without any explanation at all, and you're supposed to infer from the context.

It's the most efficient use of a conword if you can sneak it in without any explanation, and the reader can infer what it means through the context.

Readers actually do this all the time. Most people have a decent vocabulary, but they still might encounter a real word in a book they don't know the meaning of. Rather than looking it up in the dictionary, the reader just figures out what it means in the context of the sentence.

The problem with this method is you can only do this with a word with a relatively simple meaning, and if you go too far and bombard the reader with a game of "figure this word out", they will get tired and put the book down.

Example:

“Derek turned around and nearly walked into the sojetha of the local tribe. ‘Excuse me! Sorry, sorry, hann ma, hann ma,’ Derek stammered. The surrounding members of the tribe didn’t look happy.”

a) I put the conwords in italics, so the reader has an easier time of picking the conwords from the real ones. If you decide to go this route, just remember to do it through out the rest of the novel.

b) 'Sojetha' means something very close to ‘chief’, which you may have inferred from the reaction of Derek and the other tribe members. For my purposes, it’s not really important that you know that “king and spiritual leader of his people” is the exact meaning of ‘sojetha’. This is a decision you should make for each conword you use. If it’s not super duper important that the readers understand the distinction, then you can leave it as is.

c) I snuck a conlang phrase in Derek’s speech, which you might have already guessed is an apology in their own language. You don’t have to do this, but I think if it’s believable, and you don’t over use it, you can do this to add some flavor. It works because Derek apologized in English, and then almost as afterthought, apologized in their own language. Your readers probably won’t analyze like that, but they will pick up on the nuances. Using some of the conlang depends upon whether Derek would actually know their language or not…but wouldn’t it be really funny if Derek thought he was using the appropriate apology, but in fact just grievously insulted the sojetha of the tribe by using the slang apology instead of the formal apology that is befitting a man of his station? :D Ahh, the many fun ways you can use your culture for conflict….

2) The conword is used, followed by a quick explanation, and then you move on. Further explanation of the foreign concept is explained as the book needs it.

There are some conwords you might want to use to convey concepts you can't convey as well in English or whatever language you’re writing in, but their meanings are either really complex, and or important for the reader to grasp.

Example:

Let's say that concept of a "sojetha" as not just the leader of the tribe, but their spiritual leader as well, was really important to my book. Maybe the sojetha's extra responsibilities of being his people's shaman was an important plot point. So I wanted to explain a little bit of this foreign word the first time I introduce it, and build on the explanation as the plot calls for it.

I could rewrite the sentence this ways in order to reflect this importance:

“Derek turned around and nearly walked into the sojetha of the local tribe. ‘Excuse me! Sorry, sorry, hann ma, hann ma,’ Derek stammered. The surrounding members of the tribe didn’t look happy that Derek stepped on their shaman and king's right foot.”

You can give the reader a tiny explanation, just enough for them to form an image, and buy yourself some time for further explanation later, should you need to do so.

3) The word is used without explanation, and you don't really need one.

Depending on how crazy you get with the foreign language, you could have all foreign character and place names.

Example:

Your characters names are Dalla, Ceje, and Lleves.

They live in the town of Faethan, and drive to work on Jyth Street.

Notice how I used the English words of “town” and “street” to give you some context clues of where to attach the names. You could also know what these foreign words mean in your language, and name other similar items appropriately.

Let’s say “jyth” means “brave”. You could name the military barracks “Fort Jythstan”, which literally means ‘brave people’. Maybe Jyth Street is named such because there’s a war museum there.

You wouldn't ever have to tell the readers that "jyth" means brave, but it can give your world some really cool internal consistency. The reader might not know that "jyth" means "brave" but if the word appears in connection with the military and honor, the readers will start to associate it with those things, even if they don’t know the exact meaning.

This method works best if you're absolutely crazy about making up constructed languages like I am. You don't have to put a lot of effort into a conlang in order to get something that you can use with confidence in your book.

You can get as in-depth or as light as you want and still have a good conlang. I have half a dozen conlangs in various stages of building. Like anything else, you don't want to go crazy with the conlang, so I only build what I need or want from it.

I use one or all of these methods in a book, depending on what I need. I try to use English words when English words will do, but I also try to give the feeling that this is a real world, so I pick my foreign words carefully. I don't say "hega" when magic will do, but I will say "sojetha" to describe the special position in the elvish government if it's different enough from "king".

Speaking of elves, I do the same thing for fantasy races. I call my elves "elves", and gnomes "gnomes", but if I've made up a race, I'll call them by their made up name. I try to give the reader as many things they can understand and relate to as possible.

4) My one deadly sin for conlangs

Making up a word on the spot, just to make things look foreign. I know a lot of authors do this, and I am not trying to call them out, but this drives me crazy. I'd rather see the word in English if the author isn't going to use a conlang effectively. Making a word up on the spot just to make things look foreign usually shows in the book, and I think it has the opposite effect intended.

Obviously we're all making up word on the spot, but I try to have some sort of internal consistency with the language, even if I am not going so far as to develop the grammar of the language.

To me, this is just as bad as making up your magic system on the spot, without any sort of internal consistency.

Example:

"Sarah walked down the T’Reyutighj street, and into the Fg''ityufittt House. She sat down and drank some daimyu tea."

It's not that your conlang can't be brutal with consonants, but a language like that will have a certain look, and it gets obvious as the book goes on that the words are being made up on the spot. It’s also a good example of over-using conwords for no reason.

So there you have it...some tips on smoothing over your constructed language use. I hope you guys have an easier time tackling this thorny subject.

What about you? How do you approach constructed languages in your novels?