We went absent last week, sorry. Various real world events intervened in unavoidable and unforeseeable ways. As they do. Speaking of which, I’m on my own at Inflatable towers for a while. I’m (that’s me, Matt, hi) actively considering a shift away from a weekly round up to favour more original posts. That’s because the round up is very time and labour intensive so it eats up resources that could be used for other material. Watch this space and let me know if you have an opinion.
I’m late this week, in part because I went to Yorkshire and took a photograph of a log with my iPhone.
It happens that I have finally got round to working my way through Writing the Break Out Novel, so I was interested to see a guest post by Donald Maass at Writer Unboxed with some nice tips on deepening your protagonist’s character.
Then, inevitably, I came across a whole bunch of character related posts, including Roz Morris at Nail Your Novel on giving your main character a breakWordplay on writing characters’ thoughts and Terrell Mimms on the the shapeshifter archetype.
Charlie Jane Anders at the now-horribly-designed io9 linked to an Alistair Reynolds interview in Locus in which he denied he writes hard SF. Speaking as someone who skims the science in SF, I wouldn’t know. As long as the magic is consistent, I’m happy to accept that the Zebmab Meebop dark matter tunnel allows faster than light travel.
On the subject of internal consistency, Janice Hardy at The (indispensable) Other Side of the Story wrote about the rules of magic. She argued that it’s the limits and costs to magic and not its empowering aspects that make a story compelling. This also applies, of course, to any super technology which is functionally indistinguishable from magic.
It was short story week at The Other Side of the Story (useful for me as I enter yet another month’s work on The Story From Hell). The blog hosted some great articles on the craft including a piece by Aliette de Bodard on plotting, and Lydia Sharp on marketing short stories
Incidentally, Write it Sideways compiled a list of short story resources this week.
Guest posting at The Other Side of the Story (part of that short story week actually) Juliette Wade wrote about world building in short stories. Then Chuck Wendig came along and lowered the tone by instisting that worldbuilding is a kind of masturbation. OK, let’s steady ourselves with a sober piece from the Advanced Fiction Writing Blog on incorporating storyworld information into your novel.
Did I mention my story is taking forever? James Scott Bell at The Kill Zone thinks that I and others like me should be a little less precious and write more, faster .
It was a good week for general writing advice. At Magical words Edmund Schubert offered five writing mantras, and at There Are No Rules Rafael Yglesias breathed new life into those cliches items of advice about writing such as know your audience, and always have duct tape and disposable gloves handy. I made one of those up. At the LA Times Blog, author Janet Fitch suggested ten rules for writers. In writing about scenes she says make something happen. Sounds obvious, but I wish more writers took it to heart.
Chris Cleave, author of Little Bee, wrote entertainingly in the Guardian books blog about a lunch at which authors met some of the most successful book bloggers. Chris was both dreading and hoping for a meeting with his blogging nemesis, someone who wrote a review so dreadful it clearly still stalks his soul. The nemesis in question did not attend, fortunately or otherwise.
The British literary establishment tend to be a little sniffy about teaching creative writing. Robert McCrum fell short of outright dismissal in the Guardian, but suggested that you can get everything you need from novels. Well that will save me some money, thanks!
Robert McCrum also wrote at the Guardian this week about writers and revolution.
While we’re being luke-warm about teaching for writers, Edan Lepucki posted a list of writing books she doesn’t hate at The Millions.
Justine Musk at Tribal Writer considered whether writers should blog? Not necessarily, she says, but if you do so, then be excellent. Sounds like a plan.
Perhaps I should start by being more likeable. Here’s some advice I could take. You might not know it but I’m a shy kinda guy. Too often that comes across as diffidence, I’m afraid. Kristen Lamb wrote about internet likeability this week, so I’m working on it. In the meantime, if I snarl and make shooty gestures at you with my fingers, it’s just my way. I’m sensitive, OK?
Got a killer premise? Well, you know that someone out there is about to announce something that kills it stone dead, don’t you? At Go Into The Story, Scott Myers quotes a writer who just had that happen.
Natalie Whipple has been wrestling with jealousy this week. She also used a sample query to illustrate narrative arc – in particular Inciting incident, rising action, climax and denouement
Alexandra Sokoloff wrote about first chapters. My favourite takeaway? NEVER MIND THE FUCKING BACKSTORY!!!!! Indeed.
This post, by Steven Harper Piziks, at The Book View Cafe Blog deserves including for its title alone: Writing Nowadays – Lesbian Vampires on Star Trek. The piece also happens to provide some nice advice about balancing your more esoteric writing urges with the kind of work that publishers can sell, and readers will buy.
Don’t forget.. be excellent, enjoy your worldbuilding, and NEVER MIND THE FUCKING BACKSTORY.
