The Glade

Voice and what a character loves

2013-06-16T23:25:30Z

I've been contemplating my boy MC's voice and thinking about ways to strengthen it. Someone I read said we know a lot about a character when we know what they love. My girl MC loves the forest and that love drives her. It also shows in every word she speaks.

I think I can draw out the boy's voice more if I make it clear what he loves, which is the country he serves and the ideal of justice which a good ruler can and should bring to a land. Those things are connected for him, and much of his anger comes from seeing justice blocked.

I can work with that.

Stakes

2013-06-15T19:24:58Z

I'm still reading Yancey's 5th WAVE. I was fretting that my story's stakes were much lower than those in this book, but then I realized that since this book is about invading aliens who aim to wipe out the human race, pretty much all other stakes would be lower.

Reading and writing

2013-06-13T19:36:18Z

I'm reading Rick Yancey's Fifth Wave and listening to Dona Leon's Drawing Conclusions. Yancey's story is semi-familiar because it's yet another YA dystopia, but the voice is very strong. Yancey won the Prinz Award a few years back, so he's a good writer. Leon's language is sometimes awkward but her recurring character (Brunetti) and Venice setting are so appealingly rendered that it's a comfort to listen to. Different appeals from different books, I guess.

I'm reading my WIP through out loud since my ear is better than my eye at catching awkward language. I can't do it for very long because, for reasons I don't understand, reading aloud gives me a headache.

Hobbit 2 Trailer

2013-06-12T11:33:37Z

Revising

2013-06-07T21:16:18Z

A few days ago, I said I was going to pull out my girl MC's chapters and work them through apart from the boy's. I've been doing that this week, and I was surprised by how much it changed my writing session. When I write (as when I read), I'm very driven by the plot. Characters determine whether I love a book, but plot is what keeps the book moving forward for me. Looking at these chapters on their own shifted my focus from the ongoing plot to the moment in front of me. It made me focus more on the girl's feelings and relationships. I thought more about whether it all rang true. I didn't expect that.

Challenges in writing genre fic

2013-06-05T19:54:31Z

I'm reading The Elegance of the Hedgehog and admiring it quite a lot, which is interesting because I just set aside a YA dystopian novel that used more or less the same narrative structure. Both books have two first person narrators, and both use two different type faces. I was scornful of that in the dystopia because I thought if you had sufficiently distinct character voices, you wouldn't need the two fonts. So why am I not scornful of it in Hedgehog?

For one thing, the voices in the dystopia were weak, and those in Hedgehog are much stronger. But also Hedgehog is a much more original story. The dystopia writer was struggling to stand out in a sea of similar books and, perhaps unfairly, that counted against her. If she'd written this book before I saw any others in this genre, written it before Hunger Games, I'd have been more impressed. As it was, it was entirely unsurprising.

I think this is a problem for genre writers in general. I write more traditional fantasy, and lord knows, there are a ton of them out there, which make my books seem less original too. And yet, readers crave the repetitions sometimes. Dystopias are thick on the shelves because they sell.

The joys of home ownership

2013-06-04T15:52:54Z

The contractor is here to jackhammer up my basement floor and fix the tiling that should be draining water away. Bye, money! You were great while I had you.

George R. R. Martin has nerve

2013-06-03T11:38:43Z

Last night was the Red Wedding on Game of Thrones. Some folks on twitter are upset:

https://twitter.com/RedWeddingTears

But here's a classy gift for those fixated on the Iron Throne:

http://www.etsy.com/listing/104356743/sword-throne-toilet-decal

Description of clothes

2013-06-01T19:03:03Z

I'm reading LynnDee Walker's Front Page Fatality, a mystery with a newspaper reporter hunting down the criminal. It's a fun book, and I'm enjoying it. I was just noticing today how well Walker describes things like clothes. Her MC is meeting her friend for dinner and had to wait for the friend to close up shop at work. As she waits, we get:

I admired the flowing simplicity of the wine-colored linen dress she wore. Like most of her wardrobe, it was well suited to her true passion: Jenna was a great book-buyer, but she was a better artist.

I just quit reading a book that would stop for a paragraph to say something like "She wore a blue silk blouse and dark skirt. Silver earrings complimented her grey eyes." And on and on. Walker does it much more gracefully by letting her POV character's attitude inflect the description. The description doesn't stop the story.

Reading and writing

2013-05-30T00:33:08Z

I'm still revising. I have two POV characters. The boy's thread seems fine, though I might have to add a scene for him at the end to show what he's taken home from his experience. The girl's thread is increasingly in chaos since I've been upping the magic in her story. Once I'm done, I'll print it all out and pull out just her chapters to work through again. It'll be better in the end, but in the meantime, I have to avert my eyes from the mess I'm making.

I'm listening to Shapiro's Art Forger in the car. It's about an artist who's been blackballed for some reason and while she keeps painting, she earns most of her income from painting copies of masterpieces for a company that sells them (as copies) for a lot of money. Apparently there's a market for such things. Anyway, someone asks her to forge a copy of one of the paintings stolen from the Gardner Museum and things go on from there. I've been noticing how the details about art and painting add to my enjoyment of the plot and characterization, rather in the way I hope the magic I'm incorporating in my WIP will add to a reader's enjoyment.

What counts as propaganda?

2013-05-28T13:15:55Z

I'm rereading Cashore's Fire. When I like a book enough to reread, I'm always curious why others don't, so yesterday I checked the one-star reviews on Goodreads. This book has almost 59K ratings there, a sign it was a smash success, but it still left some readers unhappy. Not all books are for all readers.

A lot of the unhappy readers object to the way Cashore's female MCs often choose not to marry and/or have children. One reviewer was angry as the "propaganda." Perhaps because I just got back from WisCn, that made me blink. If most books show a woman marrying and having babies, is that propaganda?

The curious thing is that I know plenty of people who've chosen to live together but not marry and more who've decided not to have kids. IOW, those choices are more common in life than in fiction. I thought that was odd once I realized it.

The other thing people object to is that larger parts of the book are about the MC's interior life rather than action. I like an action plot, but I love how alive this character feels to me because I see into her head.

So again, I guess, not all books are for all readers.

Wiscon

2013-05-25T17:26:43Z

I'm at WisCon, having a good time though I miss meckinock. Mr daw agreed to come and he seems to doing fine though he refused to have his tarot read or partipate in the clothing exchange. He's been to two panels run by real scientists, while I went to one on strong female characters, which apparently continues to be a vexed topic.

We're skipping out this afternoon to see Star Trek. Someone on a panel started to talk about it this morning until everyone shouted her down about not spoiling.

The hotel offered to upgrade us to a fancy floor for not much money and we agreed since that would give us free parking, free breakfast, free cocktails and appetizers, and free dessert and coffee. Mr daw likes free things.

Amazon deals with Alloy Entertainment to sell fanfic

2013-05-23T20:22:06Z

My agent sent me this yesterday. It's all over various writer blogs with skepticism galore.

____

With Kindle Worlds, Amazon Turns Fan Fiction Into A Business
A little more than a year ago, EL James spun what originally began life as
Twilight fan fiction into one of the most successful book series ever. Now
Amazon.com is tapping into the energetic world of fan fiction with the first
broad, legally licensed, commercial model. Wednesday morning the company
announced Kindle Worlds, a new digital publishing program that allows
writers to upload and sell fan fiction based on well-known entertainment
properties with characters that inspire fans. The initial properties all
come from Alloy Entertainment -- PRETTY LITTLE LIARS, GOSSIP GIRL, and THE
VAMPIRE DIARIES -- and Amazon "plans to announce more licenses soon." The
company says it "is engaged with additional rights holders from different
areas of entertainment-books, games, TV, movies and music-and looks forward
to announcing future deals soon." To prospective licensees, Amazon bills the
venture as "an entirely new way to monetize valuable franchises" as well as
to "more deeply engage with existing fans, while also reaching new
audiences." Licensors get to impose "content guidelines" that participating
writers must follow.

Amazon will launch the program in June with over 50 works commissioned from
such authors including Barbara Freethy, Colleen Thompson, and John Everson.
At that point, they will open Kindle Worlds up to self-service participation
by anyone interested. The basic proposition is described for writers here.

Authors will earn a standard Kindle royalty of 35 percent of net (with
Amazon setting prices, likely ranging from 99 cents and $3.99, as set by
Amazon) while the original intellectual property owners will earn an
unspecified royalty (when we asked for specifics, an Amazon spokesperson
said "we don't disclose the terms of our business relationships.) In
addition, Amazon Publishing will experiment with selling fan-fiction short
stories (between 5000-1000 words), for which they will pay authors a 20
percent net royalty.

According to the Kindle Worlds terms of service, Amazon Publishing will
acquire all rights to new stories, including global publication rights, for
the term of copyright. While the author owns " the copyright to the
original, copyrightable elements (such as characters, scenes, and events)
that you create and include in your work," Amazon Publishing "will acquire
all rights to your new stories, including global publication rights, for the
term of copyright."

Amazon will not allow any graphic sexual content or what the company deems
to be offensive content ("including but not limited to racial slurs,
excessively graphic or violent material, or excessive use of foul
language"), excessive use of brands, or crossover from one licensed World to
a secondary World, licensed or otherwise. Further, because Amazon has gone
out of its way to procure legal licenses for specific intellectual
properties, they say they "take violations of laws and proprietary rights
very seriously" and thus it's the authors' responsibility "to ensure that
their content doesn't violate laws or copyright, trademark, privacy,
publicity, or other rights."

Most fan fiction is currently published and read for free. For writers it
provides a legal path to commercialization though it remains to be seen the
extent to which the community will consistently pay to read anything but the
most popular creations. And for the potential breakout successes like the
next EL James, it poses an interesting challenge/dilemma.

In a statement Amazon Publishing director of business development and Kindle
Worlds publisher Philip Patrick said: "At Kindle, we're not only inventing
on the hardware and software side of the business, we're inventing new ways
to create books. Our goal with Kindle Worlds is to create a home for authors
to build on the Worlds we license, and give readers more stories from the
Worlds they enjoy. We look forward to announcing additional World licensing
deals in the coming weeks." Alloy President Leslie Morgenstein added: "Our
books have generated a massive amount of fan fiction, and we see this as an
evolution in publishing and a valuable way of broadening our brands and
engaging fans. When working with Amazon Publishing on this scale, we know
we're in good hands and everyone will benefit."

Writing

2013-05-22T12:37:20Z

Interesting post by Justine Larbalestier on being a full time writer for 10 years:

http://justinelarbalestier.com/blog/2013/04/01/ten-years-of-writing-ya-novels-for-a-living/

I'm revising my WIP, trying to enhance the world building. I used to enjoy revising more than drafting because drafting stressed me out. I wasn't sure I could get a whole book down on the page. With this book and the previous one, though, I've really loved the draft stage and found the revision one less interesting. I don't know if that's a sign I was more confident while drafting or what.

For my librarian friends

2013-05-21T18:56:37Z

http://librarianheygirl.tumblr.com/

Reading

2013-05-14T20:22:23Z

I've thrown aside the last two books I tried to read but finally found one I liked, David Levithan's EVERY DAY. The premise is that this kid wakes up in a different body every day--male, female, straight, gay, rich, poor, white, asian, etc. The story line is him trying to anchor himself into one identity because he's fallen in love with a girl. I know that sounds strange but it's so well written and the voice is really compelling.

For cat owners

2013-05-12T21:22:20Z

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/political-animal-a/2013_05/morning_video_3044685.php

POV with attitude

2013-05-11T19:44:38Z

I loved Code Name Verity so I picked up another WWII woman spy book and it's driving me crazy.

Here's the thing. I can enjoy different POVs. First, close third, omniscient. They can all speak to me.

What doesn't speak is a POV with no "attitude." Even a hard-boiled detective novel done in omnicient can have a world-weary attitude inherent in the way things are presented. This thing is neutral. The buildings are described because a character goes there, but the description isn't inflected in any way by the POV. And there's a ton of telling. You don't need to tell me a guy has a small office that he shares with another guy if that second guy is going to speak up a few paragraphs down.

Gendered cover art

2013-05-08T11:38:01Z

Fascinating post by Maureen Johnson on covers for male vs female authors. She asked her twitter readers to imagine a book had been written by someone of the opposite gender and design the cover. These are only too plausible.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/07/coverflip-maureen-johnson_n_3231935.html#slide=2421749

Most awesome car commercial ever

2013-05-07T19:53:35Z

In honor the new Star Trek opening next week, we have old Spock vs new Spock. Includes Nimoy doing a bit of his Bilbo Baggins song!

http://io9.com/old-spock-battles-new-spock-in-the-greatest-car-commerc-493836696

One effect of reading novels

2013-05-04T15:17:43Z

I'm reading Rosalind Wiseman's Queen Bees and Wannabees, the book that inspired Tina Fey's "Mean Girls." One of the things Wiseman is most interested in is helping parents help their daughters to make good moral judgments and become strong people. She offers advice not just for the parents of the girl being picked on, but also for the parent of the girl who's the Queen Bee.

As I read, I tried to remember myself at that age and to guess at what shaped my moral judgments. One important element was the novels I'd read. Novels allow a reader to imagine what it's like to be someone else, to slip into someone else's skin and see what it feels like to be unjustly accused, or frightened, or lonely. I think that helps build empathy.

Revision

2013-05-03T19:43:09Z

I'm revising my current book, something I always enjoy because I can see the book getting better. I have fewer changes to make than usual, probably because this book has had a long genesis and has been revised a great deal along the way.

I first started trying to write this story 3 or 4 years ago as a first-person story from the boy MC's POV. I got about 40K words into it before I decided it had gone irretrievably wrong and set it aside to write something else. But before that, I drastically changed where the book started, deleting a couple of chapters.

Then last summer, I reread what I had and decided I still like the MC and his voice. So I decided to try again. This time, I changed the boy's POV to third, added the girl's POV, and alternated the two, and that made a huge difference. Having that second POV generated difference between them. They saw the world and its problems quite differently and I hope the reader sympathized with both, and thus felt tense because they couldn't both get exactly what they wanted.

A couple of months ago, I decided the first chapter (the boy's intro) was boring, so I flipped it with chapter 2 (the girl's intro) and cut some low tension material I was sad to lose. But I liked the results a lot.

Now I'm working over the rest and finding that the draggiest part is the second quarter, which is very common for me. I have the story rolling but the end not yet in sight and the tension can drop. So I'm trying to set that right.

I like this book. But then, I always like them.

ETA: I forgot to mention one thing I'm scared of with this revision. I'm working from a printout on scrap paper. The pages are numbered, of course. The back side has earlier drafts of this book on it, pages also numbered. If I ever drop the folder, finding the right pages in the right order will be exciting.

The Winter of Our Discontent

2013-05-02T20:35:43Z

It's snowing. I can't tell you how depressing that it.

Reading

2013-04-26T13:33:46Z

While we were gone, I read Eleanor Brown's The Weird Sisters, which I liked a lot. It's about three sisters who all come home to their parents' house when their mother is battling breast cancer. Their father is a Shakespeare scholar and they communicate much of the time by Shakespearean quotes. They're also obsessive readers, which I approve of. :-)

I'm listening to Hilary Mantel's Bring Up the Bodies and enjoying it too. She does such fascinating historical detail and reveals the complexity of Cromwell's character so well.

My friend Sarah Prineas has a new MG book out this week: Summerkin. On Tuesday (the day all books come out), I looked at B&N but I was too early and it wasn't on the shelf yet, so I'm going this morning to pick it up. Sarah's writing is lush and lovely.

I'm having trouble finding YA I enjoy these days. I like fantasy, but vampires and werewolves and zombies leave me cold. And I'm not usually big on contemporary settings for fantasy since, for me, they make it harder to suspend my disbelief. I did like Maggie Stiefvater's Scorpio Races and Raven Boys, both of which I recently read.

I have a finished draft of my new book, and next week I'll start revising. I enjoyed writing this one. I felt like Glorfindel all the way through the process: fearless and full of joy.

ETA: Depressing quote overheard at B&N today: "Oh look, Joyce. Marie Osmond's new book is out."

Pics of southern France, batch 2

2013-04-23T20:04:54Z

We went to a lovely town called Vienne, which has first century temple to Augustus and Livia.

If you go up on the heights and look down, you see the river in the distance and in the foreground a Roman theater and then a hollow grassy area that's also a theater that hasn't been excavated yet.

In the other direction, the ruins a fortress are on the hillside.

This, I think, is Avignon. By this time, we were sailing and docking right next to these towns built on the river.

Avignon is most famous as the place where the popes lived in the 14th century. We went to the papal palace but I don't seem to have good pics.

This is in Arles, which as an ampitheater. You're looking along one of the entryways.

Here's the floor. This place is used for bullfights now.

Arles is also where Van Gogh went to paint. This is the courtyard of a hospital where he was treated for the ear incident.