Insecure Writer's Support Group: Blogging Buddies

 

Welcome to another month with the Insecure Writer's Support Group, where we share our writing struggles and triumphs. Learn more about the IWSG on their website, Facebook page, and Twitter feed.

Our "hosts with the posts" this month are Louise-Fundy Blue, Jennifer Lane, Mary Aalgaard, Patsy Collins, and Nancy Gideon.

Our question this month relates to blogging: Blogging is often more than just sharing stories. It's often the start of special friendships and relationships. Have you made any friends through the blogosphere?

I started blogging to stay in touch with my college friends, but it's helped me make more friends. I've been fortunate to be part of at least three blogging groups besides the IWSG. They include a "blog chain" of writers who would take turns discussing a subject and link to other bloggers in the chain; a "blog ring of power" (BRoP) that interviewed writers (with each blogger posting a different part of the interview); and a group of independent writers who put out a magazine on Amazon called Indie Writers Monthly. I don't think I've met any of these bloggers in person, but I still connect with some of them through Facebook. (Ironically, I just realized I haven't checked any of their blogs in ages, but I spend much less time blogging than I used to myself.) I might also attend a virtual birthday party for one of my blogging buddies from the Blog Ring of Power this week. The Atlantic posted an article this week about the importance of casual friends in our lives. Hopefully we will remember that long after the pandemic is over. (And yes, I should make more of an effort to visit other IWSG members' blogs, but between being all day in the office at work and spending time playing board games with my husband in the evenings, I tend not to have a lot of free time on Wednesday. I should still make it a goal to read more blogs, though.)

How much do you interact with other bloggers? Are you friends with any of them? Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments.

 

Back on the Blog Chain: Spelling/Grammar Pet Peeves

For December's round of the Blog Chain, Demitria asked us the following question:

What are your writing/grammar/spelling pet peeves? What are some writing/grammar/spelling mistakes that you have a mental block about or can't seem to shake?

Given that I used to be a copyeditor for a small town newspaper, I can be obsessive about spelling and grammar. If I have a pet peeve, it would be using a homonym of the word that the writer really wants. One common error I see online frequently is using "phase" for "faze." I remember one book in which the heroine used a "bo" instead of a "bow." Mistakes like that illustrate why it's important to have a person copyedit a story instead of relying on spellcheck.

As for my own mistakes, I would say my biggest problem would be spelling mistakes as I type, but I can't think of specific examples right now.

What are your pet peeves when it comes to grammar or spelling? Please list them below, or feel free to write your own blog post about them and link to it in the comments.

Back on the Blog Chain: Paul's Greatest Blessing/Gift

The blog chain is undergoing a bit of restructuring. Instead of two chains per month, with each person posting on a set day, we're going down to a monthly topic that bloggers can discuss on their own schedule. I plan to post on the first Wednesday of each month. Also, anyone who is interested in the topic is welcome to discuss it on their own blog and link to it in the comments. Eventually we will set up a Facebook group for the blog chain; once that's ready, I hope you'll stop by and join it.

Anyway, Katrina proposed the following topic for this month:

In your latest book or work-in-progress, what is your main character's greatest blessing? Is it a person, an item, or a talent? Or something else? Where did this blessing come from, and how does your MC use it to conquer the villain or solve the problem in your book?

Paul Harrison in Twinned Universes has many gifts. He comes from a famous, rich family. He's smart, good-looking, and a talented actor. He also has a special "quantum quirk" which I won't describe here because I want people to read the book. However, his greatest blessings or gifts (his parents are non-religious) are his close relationships with his sister Cassandra and their friends Scott and Yvonne. All four of them spent most of their childhood on the spaceship Sagan, leaving it only when it returns to the 21st century Earth each year. While other families do travel briefly on the Sagan, Paul doesn't form any long-term friendships with those children. He spends most of his time with Scott, Yvonne, and Cass, studying, playing, and hanging out with each other. Although each member of the group has a different personality and different goals, they've learned to get along with each other and reconcile after arguments--a necessity if you're stuck with the same group of people for an extended period. In some ways, they are all closer to each other than they are to their parents. So when Paul loses his mother at the start of Twinned Universes and get pulled into additional crises, he naturally turns to his friends for help. Since he faces problems in two universes, he needs Scott's skill with computers, Yvonne's faith and knowledge of psychiatry, and Cass's insight to survive, let alone achieve his goals. They also provide the emotional support he needs to cope with the changes in his identity. Like Ringo, Paul gets by with a little help from his friends:



What would your characters consider their greatest blessings? Please share in the comments or link to your own posts on this topic.

Back on the Blog Chain: You Say It's Your Birthday....

This round of the Blog Chain is in honor of Christine, who is celebrating her birthday. (I think it was yesterday, actually.) I hope you had a happy birthday, Christine! Here's her topic:

Today is my Birthday. To celebrate, I want to hear about one of your character's favorite birthday memories.

Wait, we're supposed to give them happy memories? I'm doing this all wrong. And I obviously can't use Paul from Twinned Universes. At his fifth birthday party, Yvonne, daughter of his parents' lab mates, threw vanilla ice cream in his face when he said she had to marry him because there was no one else their age on the spaceship where they lived. Ever since then, poor Paul hates vanilla and is determined to get Yvonne to love him back.

A better example comes from Day of All Seasons, the working title for one of my Season Avatar books. I will probably publish it as Chaos Season once it's ready. This fantasy series focuses on Season Avatars, magicians who serve the Four Gods of the Seasons. Each magician is born on a solstice or equinox, which are also religious festivals. This particular scene is set on the spring equinox, Gwen's birthday. Here she is receiving a present from the other three Season Avatars from her year:


“Wait, Gwen.” Jenna held up a hand, then turned slightly to Ysabel and Kay, raising an eyebrow. They nodded slightly. Jenna turned to look at Gwen with clear, grass-green eyes. “All Seasons isn’t comin’ tomorrow. You have time to celebrate your birthday with us first, don’t you?”
    Gwen laughed ruefully. “I almost forgot about it.”
    “Oh, we wouldn’t let you forget.” A wicked gleam appeared in Jenna’s eyes. “Today’s the day you officially become older than us, after all.”
    “Don’t start anything, Jenna,” Kay said. “Who’s going to give it to her?”
    “Bel can do it,” Jenna answered. She waved Gwen to sit down again. “Close your eyes.”
    Bemused, Gwen did as she was told. She heard Ysabel leave the sitting room, then return to stand behind Gwen. Jenna’s skirts swished as she joined Ysabel. “I’ll hold her hair out of the way.”
    “What are you doing?” Gwen asked.
    They didn’t answer. Instead, Jenna lifted her hair up, and Ysabel reached around her neck. Cold metal fell next to Gwen’s skin. “There,” Ysabel said. “You can look now.”
    Gwen opened her eyes and looked down. She nearly whistled in astonishment. “My family crest! I didn’t think I’d get it back so quickly.”
    “Lathtin says he’s sorry he had to break the old chain, but it was the only way we could think of to take your pendant without making you suspicious.”
    “But why give me something I already had –” Gwen reached up to fondle her family crest and touched what felt like a knot in the chain. She looked down at it. “What’s this?”
    “We had that made for you,” Kay told her, offering her a mirror. “Look.”
    Gwen examined the chain. It wasn’t one long chain, but a series of short ones linked together by gold letters. “Our initials!”
    “It was my idea,” Kay said. “I thought you’d like to have something showing how the four of us are linked.”
    “I thought maybe we should use the symbols of our seasons,” Jenna said, “but it was a little more difficult.”
    “When did you have this made?”
    “The Sola Fall made all the arrangements for us,” Ysabel said.
    “Even so, it comes from the three of you, my three sisters in magic,” Gwen said. “Thank you. Thank all of you so much.” She wanted to thank them for understanding her, for encouraging her good qualities and accepting her in spite of her worst traits — but her voice was too thick to escape her throat. So she hugged all three of them, letting the link convey her feelings.


I'm not sure yet if this scene will appear in the final book. I wrote Day of All Seasons ages ago, when I was first learning to write fiction, so it needs lot of revising before I publish it.

For more birthday celebrations, please start with Kate's post and then visit Christine's blog tomorrow.

Back on the Blog Chain: Trouble with Titles

Alyson's question for us this round is about more than just trouble with titles, but I couldn't resist the alliteration. After all, alliteration can give titles more of a punch. Here's her complete question:

How do you come up with titles for your work? Does it just come to you or do you spend hours stressing about it? Do you use silly working titles? What have you read recently with a great title? An awful title?

I usually look for titles within my stories, and the titles come to me in their time. I like to find an unusual phrase or something intriguing that's strongly relevant to the plot. I don't use a silly or placeholder title, but sometimes I wind up changing the title if I think it doesn't work or if it's too similar to another title. For example, the original title of Lyon's Legacy was Move Over Ms. L., the title of a John Lennon song, but I decided to change the title when I removed Lennon's lyrics. Twinned Universes was originally called Thine Own Self from Hamlet, then I changed it to Across Two Universes to better fit the genre. Then, when Beth Revis's Across the Universe came out, I changed the title of my book to Twinned Universes. (Ironically, her book is named after a Beatles song, but I guess there's less chance of confusion there.) However, one of my short stories, "The Book of Beasts," turns out to have a common title. I guess I need to search for a title on Amazon or Google to see if it's been used before settling on it. While titles can't be copyrighted, they should be unique enough to be searchable.

One thing I forgot to mention earlier--with series, sometimes it's nice to find a way to tie all the books in a series together. I don't do that with the Catalyst Chronicles series, but all the titles I have so far planned for the Season Avatars series will have the word "Season" in them.

As for good or bad titles, I've recently read stories such as There's Only One Quantum, "Corporate Zombie," and "2BR02B." Those are pretty memorable, but sometimes when I'm reading a book on my Kindle, I can't remember the title of the book because I don't see it. This happened to me with Ripped and Other Adventures. Actually, I did remember the first word in the title was "Ripped," but I had trouble finding the title on Goodreads when I searched for that word.

For more about titles, check out Kate's post and see what Christine will say tomorrow.

Back on the Blog Chain: Not Finishing What You...

It's my turn to pick the topic for this round of the blog chain. Naturally, I have to make it a tough one:

Is there a writing project you've failed to finish? If so, why? Are you planning to return to it at some point? Alternatively, describe a book you started to read but didn't finish and why you didn't finish. You don't have to name the book.

I have a slew of partial short stories that I've abandoned, at least for now. Some of them are several years old, while others are more recent. Probably my biggest reason for abandoning them is plot--or rather, not knowing how to resolve the plot. Some of these stories no longer interest me, but there are a couple that I would like to finish and publish. There's always the possibility that I may take the story idea and rework it into something else, the way I transformed an old short story called "Antidote for a Family Feud" into "Letters to Psyche."

I have to admit I do have some abandoned novels as well. One of them is the final volume in the Season Avatars series. I wrote the first two books when I was trying to traditionally publish them, but I dropped the series when I failed to get anywhere with it and became interested in what's now the Catalyst Chronicles series. Now that I can independently publish the Season Avatars series, I've regained my interest in it. However, since I'm starting with a brand new prequel, and since I've made several changes to the world, I'm going to have to revise what's already been written anyway. So perhaps it wasn't so terrible of me to leave that first draft unfinished. Also unfinished is a NaNoWriMo project I started a few years ago about a pair of shapeshifting sisters. I've discovered NaNoWriMo, although fun, doesn't really work well for me in terms of finishing a story, not just putting 50,000 words down. Again, maybe someday in the future, when I've cleared some of my current projects from my brain, I can return to that story. While there's life, there's hope, right? And hopefully I'll have fewer abandoned projects as my writing career continues.

To follow the rest of the chain, check out what Kate said yesterday, then visit Christine's blog tomorrow.

Back on the Blog Chain: Books and Movies

For this round, Michelle picked the topic:

What is your favorite book-to-movie adaptation? Why? What's your least favorite and why?

I've mentioned before on this blog that I don't watch movies much any more; there are so many other things I need to do. The last time I saw a movie in the theater was before I became pregnant, and even at home I don't watch movies. (Usually my husband and son do most of the TV watching in our house.) My memory for the relative few book-to-movie adaptations I have seen is therefore a bit rusty. For favorite, I would put The Lord of the Rings for the scenery. Least favorite--I really don't have one. While I'm sure there are movies out there that differ significantly from the book, I can't recall one that I've seen and disliked. Maybe I'm just repressing the memory. ;)

Readers, could you please help me out by telling us your favorite and least favorite book-to-movie adaptations? And please check out Kate's post before mine and Christine's tomorrow. I'm sure both of them will have more to say on this topic.

Back on the Blog Chain: Theme, Theme, Theme...

Kate has an interesting topic for us this round:

This I believe. Do you find yourself repeating certain themes in your writing? Can readers glean what you believe in or some of your life philosophies from reading your work?

Here's a theme song for this blog chain about belief and themes:

 

I do repeat certain themes in my writing; in fact, these themes inspired me to come up with my tagline: "A sense of wonder, a sense of fellowship." As a science fiction/fantasy writer, I strive to take my readers to different worlds or to make them see this world in new ways ("The Book of Beasts") As a science geek, I promote the power of the scientific method and the wonder that science can inspire (Lyon's Legacy). As a Beatles fan, I believe that a small group of people, if they're committed to each other, can be greater than the sum of the parts (Twinned Universes and the still-in-progress Season Avatars series). And as a short Taurus, I believe that stubbornness is a desirable trait in a protagonist--I won't bother listing examples for this one!

 Check out what Christine has to say about this topic tomorrow.

Back on the Blog Chain: How Do You Spend Your Summer?

After a late start, Christine came up with a topic for this round of the blog chain:

How do you spend your summer? Catching up on writing projects, taking time off of writing? Getting inspired? Inquiring minds want to know.

Well, I'm definitely not taking a break from writing. I have several projects in the works, but the one I'm focusing on now is a prequel to my upcoming fantasy series. (I've discussed it here before as the Season Lords series, but I'm now leaning toward Season Avatars as the series name.) It's a novella that sets up the countries of Challen and Selath, where the series takes place. With luck, the muse, and lots of writing time, I'll have the first draft done by the end of the month. (Unless, of course, I just jinxed myself.) I'm making progress with Catalyst in the Crucible as well, though I still need to work out some issues. Plus there are several other short stories I want to work on too, though I don't know if I'll meet my original goal of publishing six new stories this year.

As much as I might like to, I don't spend all summer parked in front of my laptop. It seems we have something to do every weekend: birthday parties for my son's friends, weddings, other parties and showers, and even my high school reunion next month. (My husband skipped his.) My husband and I had not just one, but two date nights last month. (We attended a Sting concert and Second City at the Opera.) Last weekend, the three of us drove up to Madison, Wisconsin for a much-needed mini-vacation. We have more trips planned to museums and Tall Ships in Chicago in the next few weeks. No wonder I wound up writing in the car on the way to Madison; how else will I get it all done?

Summer's lease will have all too short a date with everything going on. I hope you enjoy your own summer. And be warned: if there's no topic pre-selected for the next Blog Chain, I'm going to pick my own.

Talk About It Tuesday

Normally, on the third Tuesday of the month (hard to believe it's already mid-July, isn't it?), I discuss the latest Blog Chain topic. However, as of 9:20 CDT on Monday, no topic has been posted. Apparently our topic picker (I don't want to feel like I'm putting her on the spot) either forgot about it or got too busy. If we do get a topic, I may have to wait until Thursday to discuss it.

Anyway, since I have an open spot on the blog, let's see if there are any writing/publishing topics people want to discuss. Want to talk about Random Penguin Publishing, or JK Rowling's newest book? Do you have questions about self-publishing or writing craft? Please post them below, and I'll answer your comments as my schedule permits.

Back on the Blog Chain: Reading without Guilt

For this round of the Blog Chain, Demitria asks us:

What are your guilty pleasure books/genres?

to which I plead Not Guilty, by reason of I Feel No Guilt For Reading.
 
(Unless I'm accused of reading too much--but that's another issue.)

Sing it for me, George!



Guilt implies that there are some books not worth reading--or books that are bad to read. Admittedly, books are going to differ in quality. Some might be very strong in some areas, such as voice or worldbuilding, and weaker in plot or character. Some might be well-written all-around. And some may turn me off before I finish reading the first chapter. Even critically acclaimed books may not resonate with me. (Sometimes I can see why they might be praised for one thing but feel they're lacking elsewhere.) But since I have so many books and samples on my Kindle, and since I can (and do) download new free/cheap books every day, there's no reason for me to spend time reading a book I don't enjoy on some level. If I decide I don't want to continue reading a book, I delete it and move on to something else. I currently have over 440 items in my Kindle's To Read collection; why waste time on a mediocre (to me) or distasteful book when I can find something else that suits me better? On the other hand, if the story appeals to me strongly enough, I may continue reading even if there are craft issues--though I've done too much manuscript critiquing to shut the critic up when I'm reading.  Then again, how else will I improve my craft?

Are some genres "better" than others? Most of my fiction reading these days is in fantasy and science fiction, with some mystery and historical fiction mixed in. Speculative fiction doesn't appeal to everyone, but for me it has value. It doesn't just offer escape from the everyday world, but it allows us to look at our current world in new ways, explore new ideas, and think about the future. On the other hand, some genres don't appeal to me, but I can see how they might work for others. I don't want to label a genre as a "guilty" one because I feel this is a subjective judgment.

As for my own reading, I go back and forth between "light" and "serious" books, whether they're fiction or nonfiction, as the mood strikes me. I figure I have enough reading experience to judge for myself what I like; I don't need a publisher or critic to tell me what to read and what not to read. Reviews may give me some guidance, but in the end, it's between me and the book--and Goodreads. If you want to know what I've read so far this year, here's my list.

Reading is a valuable activity that takes us out of ourselves and puts us in the mind of someone else. It can teach empathy and broaden people's horizons. While we may disagree on what genres we like and which books are good (as opposed to which books are popular), in general, readers shouldn't feel ashamed for reading.

I'm between Kate and Christine in the Blog Chain, so please check out their responses to this question as well.

Back on the Blog Chain--So, You're an Artist

Amparo has a challenging question for us this round:

Confession: I can't draw to save my life. *sigh* If you had some seriously epic drawing skills (or if you already have them) which published book would you have loved to illustrate? Why does that book--and its characters/premise--strike you as something you'd love to work on as an artist? 

Like Amparo, my drawing skills are pretty poor. But if I could draw and illustrate books, I might choose to illustrate Brood of Bones by A. E. Marling. The heroine of the book is an narcoleptic enchantress named Hiresha. She wears twenty dresses--each one an award for an achievement--all at the same time. In this book, the first of a series, she investigates why all the women in her home city are pregnant, no matter how old they are. I'm drawn (no pun intended) to the image of Hiresha in all of her dresses. I think it would be a challenge to show her moving around in them, and it would be fun to create each dress in a different color in style. If you're looking for a fun fantasy read in an unusual setting, I recommend this book.

To see what books other writers-turned-artists would illustrate, start with Kate's post before mine and Christine's post tomorrow.

Back on the Blog Chain--Summer Loving

With the summer solstice coming later this month, Katrina wants to hear about our characters' summer romances:

Have you ever written a summer fling? Or are all your fictional relationships the deep, forever kind? If you did write one, how would it begin (the meet cute)? Where would it be set? Give us a few paragraphs sample. 
 
I prefer writing about long-term relationships over summer flings; however, there is one character of mine who is the exception to this rule. Her name is Jenna, and appropriately enough, she's the Sola Sum in my Season Lords (which I may rename Season Avatars) fantasy series. Jenna serves the God of Summer and has plant magic.  She is the most sensual of the Season Lords/Season Avatars. The first time I wrote about her, she was a farmer's daughter who'd grown up near the small town of Bull Rock and had had an affair with a youth named Ridley, the son of a local nobleman. The affair ended when Jenna became pregnant and Ridley refused to marry her because she wasn't of his class. (Technically, as a Season Lord or Season Avatar, Jenna is eligible to be ennobled in her own right and would actually outrank Ridley, but that hadn't happened at that point in the story. Ridley's rejection of her was based on snobbery for her low birth and Jenna's lack of social graces.) I've changed Jenna's background for Scattered Seasons, which will be the first book in the Season Lords/Season Avatars series, but since this affair is the closest thing I have to a summer fling, we'll use it for this blog post.

"Meeting cute" sounds too contemporary for a fantasy world loosely based on Victorian England. Ridley and Jenna would have been aware of each other as they were growing up, but Ridley would have noticed Jenna more as she matured. Jenna is tall and shapely, with red hair, green eyes, and an alluring smile. Ridley came back from a winter in Challen's capital city of Vistichia to his family's estate in Bull Rock to find Jenna working with her family in the field. Her plant magic would have brought her to his attention, and then her attractive appearance and flirtatious ways would have done the rest. Ridley couldn't bring her back to his family's house without creating gossip fodder for the servants, so they'd go for walks in the evening and find hidden places in the fields and valleys for their trysts.


Ridley and Jenna's love affair had ended by the time the story started, so all I have for a sample is a bit of the aftermath:

Her heart twisted as she looked at him, and his pleasant expression faded as she stared. All through the winter, she’d sat at her window with her melon-like belly and dreamed of him missing her in Vistichia. Now she knew why he hadn’t even bothered to write her. He’d been with other women, and she was just his summer lightskirt. Maybe she wasn’t even the one he loved best.
“Get out,” she said, her voice surprisingly hoarse.
 “What?” he asked.   
“You heard me, get out.”
“Don’t you even want to hear what I’ve planned for our son?”
“He’s not your son, he’s mine! You’ll never have him.”
He backed away, arms outstretched. “What did I do?”
“You can’t figure that out, you’re more stupid than a carrot growin’ upside down. You and your father always take and never give. Go find some other pretty face to lift her skirts for you for nothin’, I won’t do it again.”

Ridley's character didn't make it into the most recent draft of Scattered Seasons, but I'd always planned to say "good riddance" to him anyway. Unfortunately for Jenna, her luck with men hasn't improved.

For happier summer flings, check out Kate's post from yesterday and visit Christine's blog tomorrow. Please let me know if you prefer "Season Lords" or "Season Avatars" for the series title. Thanks!

Back on the Blog Chain: What is Success?

Cole has a philosophical question for us this round:

How do you define success? Is it getting published, making the New York Times list, or just finishing a novel?

These are all possible ways to define success, but the meaning of success is going to differ from writer to writer, depending on their goals and motivation for writing.

For me, I originally started writing as a way to connect with others and share the things that matter most to me, like my love of science and my enjoyment of stories with ensemble casts. But I've been conditioned to reach for the top honors during my years in school, so at the same time I also daydreamed of winning the highest awards in my genre, like a Nebula or a Hugo. It took me a long time to hone my craft, and there's always something new to learn. In the meantime, I learned more about writing and publishing, and the world of publishing changed. With it changed my definition of success.

While I still celebrate finishing a first draft or indie-publishing a story, I consider it more satisfying than successful, like knocking something off your to-do list at work but knowing you have more projects to work on. It feels more like success to me to make a sale or to get a good review from a reader.

Success also depends on what goals you've set for yourself. I have a daily quota for new words, a publishing goal for this year, and a long-term goal (making a living from my writing) several years away. It's a challenge meeting all of those goals on top of everything else I do, but being successful at each small goal gets me closer to my long-term one.

As for the Hugo, I'm not holding my breath, but I have a feeling we'll eventually see indie-published work being nominated for major awards.

To follow the chain, visit Kate for the first post. Christine normally posts after me, but according to her blog, she may be on a short hiatus. Katrina would then be the next up.

I'm taking the day off from blogging on Wednesday (I have a lot of preparation to do for WisCon and my son's upcoming birthday party, plus I have to finish reviewing the audio version of Twinned Universes), but I'm participating in a cover reveal Thursday and will have the usual science links on Friday.

Back on the Blog Chain: Stuck on Repeat

Before I dive into this round of the Blog Chain, I have a quick announcement: today PT Dilloway has kindly let me visit his blog to discuss using Shakespeare's work as an inspiration for writing. Please stop on by; since I'm supposed to "class up the joint," I'd hate to be wearing pearls for nothing.

For this round, Christine asks,

What are your "go-to" scenes or phrases? You know, the ones you have to remind yourself NOT to use too frequently? What do you do to keep yourself from being overly reliant on them?

I have what might be an unusual approach to this topic in that I don't worry about my "go-to" words when drafting. In an effort to increase my daily word count, I'm trying to be less critical of what I write as I write so I don't disrupt my flow. This means if qualifying words, repeated phrases, or even dreaded adverbs insert themselves into my sentence, I type them anyway. After all, they do apply to my daily word count. It's important to keep the writing and revising phases of your work separate.

The time to worry about repeating yourself is when you're editing. This is when I go through my work and ask if all my "at least"s, "although"s, "just"s, adverbs, and other commonly used words are earning their keep. Some of them stay; many of them may be escorted none-too-gently to the curb. For example, "After all, they do apply to my daily word count" might become "They apply to my daily word count" after editing. "Do" might stay if I think the emphasis works in context.

Repeated scenes may be harder to catch. Even crit partners can have a hard time spotting them when they review a novel chapter-by-chapter over many months. The best ways to catch duplicate scenes are by reading the entire work in a short time (so you don't forget it), outlining (this works even if you're a panster; you can outline after the first draft is done and see you have too many scenes with your main character arguing with an authority figure), and hiring a really good content editor to find them for you.

For examples of scenes I personally may be using too much, there are several places in my current WIP where new characters enter the story, and my main characters have to explain the situation to them. The summaries will have to be shortened or skipped when I revise. I'm also not sure about the scenes which are mostly dialogue between my protagonist and his love interest. In this case, the scenes will change as their relationship evolves, but it's important to make sure the scenes are doing other things to advance the story as well. Right now, I just need to get the story written so I can revise it later.

Kate started the blog chain yesterday, and Christine will give us her answer to this question tomorrow.

Science of the Week, 5/3/13

Here are some of the most interesting articles I read on Science Blog this week:

UCSB researchers successfully treat autism in infants

People may grow to love talking objects

The dream-reading machine

How burning plants tell seeds to rise from the ashes

Microbe feast clue to smell of ancient Earth

Foul-smelling gas shows health benefits in reducing joint swelling

Conversion from bad fat to good fat

Quantum physics peeks head into classical world 

Turning human stem cells into brain cells sheds light on neural development 

Printed ear melds electronics and biology




I've decided I'm going to take Monday off from blogging. The next BRoP interview starts later next week, so I'm not scheduled to post again for it until May 13th. I still have Blog Chain next Tuesday, Indie Life on Wednesday, and Science on Friday, so please stop by then to see what's new.

Back on the Blog Chain: Growing a Thick Skin

For this round of the blog chain, Alyson wants to know how well we handle criticism:

Have you developed thick skin as a writer? How do you handle having your work critiqued? Do you love revising? Hate it?

I'm a lot better at handling criticism now than I was when I first started writing. Considering all the workshops I've attended, I've had lots of practice receiving it. That doesn't mean it's easy to handle criticism, but if it's delivered constructively, that helps. If I need to, I set the comments aside for a while and come back to them when I can look at them more objectively. I've also learned how subjective criticism can be; one person may love what another loathes. So I try to get feedback from several people and look at the comments in aggregate before I revise. I may not agree with every suggestion my crit partners and editor offer as far as changing the story, because sometimes doing so would take the story in a direction that doesn't feel right to me. However, these suggestions are still helpful because they force me to look at the underlying problems that inspired the suggestions and come up with another way to address them.

As for revising, yes, at times it can be frustrating, especially when you feel you're close to done with the story and realize you're nowhere near that point. However, as long as I feel the change is an improvement, taking the story closer to where it needs to go, then it's worth the pain of revision. I've lost track of how long I've worked on Twinned Universes and how many drafts it went through, but I feel the final product is all the better for it.

For more about thick skin and revising, visit Kate's post from yesterday, and tune in tomorrow to see what Christine has to say on this topic.

Back on the Blog Chain: Reading Non-Fiction

It's my turn to pick the topic for this round, and it requires some deep reading:

We all know it's important to read fiction if you want to write fiction, but what about reading non-fiction? How much non-fiction do you read? What kinds of non-fiction books do you read, and why? Has reading non-fiction influenced your fiction writing style?

As always, I come between Kate and Christine in the blog chain.

So far, I've read 45 books this year. Of these, eleven are non-fiction, so 24% of my reading this year has been non-fiction. I'm currently in the middle of three books, one fantasy, one a non-fiction book on writing, and one about Native Americans (research for a story). This is actually a lot of non-fiction for me; last year, I read 34 non-fiction books out of 174, or 19% of my total reading. I typically aim for one or two non-fiction books a month. I suppose the proportion of non-fiction reading would go up if you include news articles, blog posts, and issues of Scientific American.

As for types of non-fiction I read, they include books on writing/self-publishing/marketing, science, history, parenting, and what I'll call home economics (cookbooks, cleaning/organizing tips, or other practical advice books). I mostly read non-fiction to learn. Sometimes I'm looking for something specific--perhaps to research something for a writing project--but other times I'm just absorbing tidbits of knowledge to use later for world-building. Reading history gives me ideas on how to construct societies in my worlds. Some of the non-fiction applies more to my personal life, such as books on parenting.


Has reading non-fiction influenced my writing style? Well, I could point to my unholy love of semicolons and complex sentences as an example. That aside, I do try to keep my fiction style easy to read while respecting my readers' intelligence. By "easy to read," I try keep my writing as clear as possible to avoid misunderstandings that might take the reader out of the story. That's probably an influence of my technical writing training.

How about you? Do you read non-fiction, and if so, what types of books do you read? I'd love to see some people answer this question in the comments.

Back on the Blog Chain--Why I'm a SF Fan

For this round, Michelle wants to know what attracts us to our favorite genres:

What elements in your favorite genre make it your favorite? For instance, if your favorite genre is romance, what elements do you like in a romance story? A tortured hero? A spunky heroine? Steamy love scenes? Sweet romance? If your fave genre is sci-fi, what elements do you love the most (the characters, the science, the possibilities?), etc?

So, what was it that first attracted me to speculative fiction, or science fiction and fantasy? For me, I would say it was the fantastic, out-of-this-world elements, whether those mean magic or sufficiently advanced science. I enjoy the extraordinary and the sense of wonder they inspire. But I'm also a science geek, so I enjoy reading about science in fiction. 

Kate mentioned in her blog post yesterday that she enjoyed YA because it can be mixed with other genres. The same thing can be said of speculative fiction. The genre mixes well with other genres like romance, mystery, and even Western (Star Trek was pitched as "Wagon Train [a TV Western] to the stars.") Settings can range from our own past (or alternate versions of it) to our future. And even though at first glance, speculative fiction doesn't seem to be linked to the real world, it can provide a different perspective on our world and current events. For example, nonhuman characters like androids and elves can be used to explore what it means to be human. Writers living in oppressive regimes have used speculative fiction as a way to talk about ideas that might otherwise get them into trouble. Speculative fiction can be read on many levels and tell many types of stories. In my opinion, it's an under-appreciated genre, and I hope more people try it. There's bound to be a story you'll enjoy.

Kate was the first to tackle this question, and Christine will address it tomorrow. 

Back on the Blog Chain: Tempting Tropes

Kate has an intriguing question for us this round:

As a reader and/or a writer what are some of your favorite fiction
tropes? Are you sucker for secretly in love with best friend type
stories, stories set in mysterious boarding school stories, stories
that contain time travel, or something else entirely? As a writer how
do you try to give the tropes you tackle in your own books a fresh
spin?

Here are a few of my favorite tropes:

Mysterious/magical houses
Families with a magical talent (especially interesting if we get to follow several generations of the family)
Historical settings with a magic twist
Unicorns (yes, I know, I know....)
Ensemble stories with several main characters
Stories that take place in a setting I'm familiar with

Just because a story has one or more of these tropes doesn't mean I'll enjoy reading it; it also depends a lot on the story, characters, and writing itself.

How do I keep these tropes fresh when I write them? By combining them or putting them into a new setting. For example, my short story "The Book of Beasts" puts one of the above tropes to a logical but unconventional use. (You'll have to read it to find out which one.) 

Check out Christine's blog tomorrow to learn what her favorite tropes are.