With NaNoWriMo just finished and a mountain of catch up still under way, the round up has been a little squeezed. Still, here’s a short check in on some of the posts that caught my eye over the last week or so. I take in a TV time traveler who’s being novelized by a literary heavyweight. A stoners’ cat. I consider what we can learn from bad TV. Then I get serious and turn to the blogs for advice on my ailing manuscript.
Let’s kick off with some cult news. Michael Moorcock is writing a Dr Who novel. Moorcock is known both for his SF and literary fiction, but not yet for his TV franchise work. It seems fandom can claim even the greatest of us.
Fat Freddy’s Cat is back. Actually the cynical moggy, who snuck around the edges of the Fabulous Freak Brothers strip, is newly anthologized, but don’t let that stop you from rushing out. It’s the season for giving.
Although the SF Blog io9 has good coverage of books and writing, it was a TV show analysis that grabbed me last week. Graeme McMillan suggested some reasons for what he regards as the failure of Flash Forward. What can we learn from failure? According to McMillan, we might remember to make our characters more than formulaic cut outs. We could develop strong themes and coherence in our plots. And could do our utmost to make our readers care what happens next and to whom. Seems like a plan.
Also at io9, an experiment of sorts: The New Real is an exercise in what they’re calling live writing. It seems to be a kind of writing improv, with readers chipping in with suggestions that shape the direction of the story. I have to say, I’m a little sceptical. Let’s see how it pans out though
At the Literary Lab, Scott Bailey wrote about techniques for scene transitions. If you’ve ever written a scene in which you drive someone across town just to get to its real purpose, you’ll want to check it out.
Over at Dirty White Candy Roz Morris came up with a blinder for improving necessary but tedious scenes. She suggests you play a game with your characters – pick two emotions, have one the starting emotion, and the second the ending emotion. Now navigate your characters between those two poles throughout the scene. The point here, is that you introduce a real journey into your scene. It’s no longer just plumbing for your story.
With NaNoWriMo done, Alexandra Sokoloff has a reminder. If you’ve reached THE END then take a break. Otherwise FINISH. Good advice for me. I made my 50k and I haven’t reached end of the beginning. Time to refocus and make a plan. I’m going to finish this first draft before it finishes me.
John Robert Marlowe at the Self Editing Blog provided a clue as to why my word count hasn’t been advancing my story. He posted a nice piece on overdescribing.
With Christmas hoving into view (not to mention Vegas, baby, Vegas) my resolve might be fading just a little. Perhaps I need some advice on how to keep going. A second tip of the hat to Scott G F Bailey of the Literary Lab who posted on procrastination and getting the next word down.
Ok. Time to get back to work. Might just have a beer first, though.
