TECH: What do you expect in a review?

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Original Posting May 4, 2016

On one of the websites I follow (Baen's Bar), someone was bemoaning the fact that they easily dashed off a short review of a book recently when someone asked about it, but if they sit down to write a review, they find themselves stumped as to what to say. Now, aside from the possibility that this person has what I tend to consider performance anxiety holding them back, I got to considering that I haven't seen much guidance on how to write a review. Not that I've looked very hard, but...

Then I started thinking about what I would suggest as guidelines for writing a review of a fiction book. I think the first thing might be simply to let us know what kind of a book it is, what genre, or perhaps what books it resembles. After all, some of us prefer science fiction, fantasy, mystery, romance, or some other brand. And even there... A fantasy reader might prefer urban fantasy, epic fantasy, or some other splinter of the field. Letting us know fairly quickly what style of book this is helps.

Related to that, you may want to talk about who would like to read this book. Young adult, person looking for light entertainment, someone who wants a heavy puzzle? Some hints as to the kind of person who will enjoy this book.

Then there's the meat of most reviews, a general sketch of the characters, setting, plot... The bones of the book. Do avoid giving away any really important surprises or twists, okay? I mean, if you start describing the plot, and then the surprises -- stop after getting us interested in the plot, and let us be surprised!

Hum. If the book is part of a series, it's probably worth pointing out whether this volume is an entry point for new readers, a standalone book that doesn't need knowledge of the others, or one of those that really requires you to steep yourself in these others to understand it.

Who would be interested in this book, and why would it interest them? I suppose those are the two key questions as I see it that provide structure to a review.

What do you think? Do you write reviews of books you have read? What do you do with them? What structure, questions, or whatever do you use when you write one?

tink

EXERCISE: Just a starter...

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Original Posting May 25, 2016

Pull gently on the rope, and...

Roll your dice and pick one of the following:

1. Policeman
2. Priest
3. Psychologist
4. Ship's captain
5. Homeless vagabond
6. Pick your own role

Then add that person to the following starting line:

The (insert role here) asked, "Why did you drown your robots?"

Now, what does the other character answer? And then what happens?

Go ahead. Why did your character drown his or her robots? What do they answer when asked? And how does it play out?

Write that scene!

[This exercise suggested by a scrap of dialogue in Howard Tayler's Schlock Mercenary today, for those who wonder.]

Hear the motors cranking up and starting to rumble?

Now write!
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EXERCISE: a superhero and ...

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Original Posting May 27, 2016

Okay, here's one of those fan fic superhero thingies.

Start by picking a superhero. You know, one of those guys with an iron suit, or maybe somebody with a cape? How about an immortal who flies an invisible plane? Or even one of the X-kiddies? Anybody you like...

Now, pick a number from one to six. Here is what you have chosen:

1. Kitten
2. Baby
3. Puppy
4. Five-year-old child
5. Fledgling penguin
6. An aging woman (or man) who isn't quite tracking mentally

Now, your superhero has found this bundle of joy, perhaps left on the doorstep of their fortress of solitude (or reasonable facsimile) or on the outskirts of the last battleground or somewhere else. They need care! So, being the sterling people with a heart of gold that every good superhero must be, they set out to take care of them.

Tell us that story! How did the superhero acquire their little buddy, how does their time together work out, and... Well, what happens then?

Write!
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Exercise: Memorial Day and other holidays

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Original Posting May 28, 2016

Here's a fun one. I've been reading a collection of short stories by one of my favorite authors (Janet Kagan), and one of the things I noticed was several Christmas stories. Then, of course, I think it's Memorial Day weekend in the US? So I was thinking about holidays.

Which leads up to your task! Pick a holiday. Well known, or perhaps one of those special ones that only a select few know about. And write us a story! Use that holiday, the things that set it up, the celebrations and memories, all that good stuff, to build your story. Mix and match, get those characters, a bit of plot, and write!

Go ahead. Celebrate! In writing!
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TECH: Your Short Story Shape-Up Plan (a moldy oldie!)

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Original Posting June 4, 2016

Writer's Digest, May 1996 (yes, 20 years ago! That's why it's moldy!) on pages 27-29 had an article by Monica Wood with the title Your Short Story Shape-Up Plan. It's marked as the Technique of the Month, too! So, here's the three steps to tightening up your first draft into a great story. I'll just mention that you really should read the original, with the example of Teresa, the ornithologist on a wild woodpecker chase.

Step 1. 3 questions! These are aimed at making sure we know the general shape of the story and whether there's enough material in the draft to shape into a story.

1. What does the main character want? Start with the simple answer, but then push it a bit. Why do they want this?
2. Does the story have a beginning, middle, and end? What are they?
3. Does the story have the makings of a central (or unifying) metaphor? This is optional, but... nice to have.

When you finish answering these three, you will probably have new material to work in. So...

Step 2. The Classic Story Shape! Setup, complication, rising action, climax, denouement. Walk through these, and see how your story fits.

Setup: the beginning, that sets the stage.
Complication: an event or person that disrupts the setup and propels the story into motion (aka the inciting event!)
Rising action: all the events in the middle that expose the character or add more complications.
Climax: Kaboom! The end of the story, where there is a reversal, transformation, or realization.
Denouement: let the readers absorb the climax and relax.

The trick, of course, is to consider how your story fills these steps. Go ahead, consider the information from your 3 questions, and then make sure your story has a good solid shape, full of interesting and exciting events and characters.

Step 3. Weight and balance. Think of your story as one of those wonderful hill-shaped curves that English teachers love to show us. Does it have a setup and complication that fit nicely into the left-hand side of the curve? How about rising action filling in the middle? And do the climax and denouement take us smoothly down the right side of the curve? Don't make it too even! You want us to feel the rise and fall of dramatic tension. Don't unbalance it, though, with too much time on the setup or a long, meandering denouement.

Simple, right? Just three questions, a bit of shaping, and a final check for the right balance.

That's the way to make your story sit up and get some attention!
tink

TECH: Outlining Your Novel (Part 1)

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Original Posting June 18, 2016

I started reading an ebook with the title Outlining Your Novel: Map Your Way to Success by K. M. Weiland. I know it's available on Amazon. Anyway, these are some of my notes on reading through it. I'd be interested in whatever thoughts you might like to share.

Chapter one is Should you outline? Basically, K points out four major misconceptions that people often have about outlining that cause problems:

1. Outlines require formal formatting (and didn't we all hate those English teachers who insisted on 1a b etc, all properly indented and don't forget the punctuation?)
2. Outlines limit creativity (don't color outside the lines? Come on, it's your outline, you can modify it if you want to!)
3. Outlines ruin the joys of discovery (which is why no one uses maps and travel guides?)
4. Outlines take too much time (yeah, like writing the wrong thing and having to rewrite doesn't take any time at all?)

Then K goes into the benefits of outlining.
1. Ensure balance and cohesion (because you can see the whole picture before you dig into the details)
2. Prevents (well, helps avoid) dead-end ideas. Whack them while they are small, instead of spending a lot of time on them and then realizing it doesn't go anywhere!
3. Provide foreshadowing! Since you have a plan for the whole story, it's a whole lot easier to start foreshadowing earlier in your writing process.
4. Smoother pacing. Again, the broad view and plan ahead of time lets you do a better job of pacing.
5. Indicates the preferred POV. First person, third person, omniscient? Whose POV? It's hard to get right, but again, that overview can help you decide.
6. Maintain a consistent character voice. Since you have had a glimpse of the whole story, you can make that character more consistent.
7. Offers motivation and assurance. If you know what's going on across the story, it's a lot easier to keep the motivations straight, and you are more assured about what you are doing.

That's kind of a quick summary. The trick here, I think, is that if you are reading her book, you are probably interested in outlining and just need some support to try it. I doubt if hard seat-of-the-pants writers would even pick up the book, nor are they all that likely to be convinced by her arguments.

So... Next chapter is all about different styles or approaches to outlining. But I'll stop here for now.

Do you outline? Or discovery write? Oddly, the folks on Writing Excuses often say Dan is a discovery writer, but he's also explained the process of thought he goes through before writing, and it sure sounds kind of like outlining to me, even if he does it in his head instead of on paper. Brandon Sanderson used to claim he was a strict outliner, but then we found out he does three page outlines for 400,000 word books, and actually discovery writes his characters and other important parts of his stories. It seems as if the question might be how is your current writing process structured, and what frameworks or other methods do you use?

To outline or not to outline, was that the question?

tink

TECH: Outlining Your Novel (Part 2)

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Original Posting June 27, 2016

Continuing along with my reading of Outlining Your Novel by K. M. Weiland...

Okay! So, assuming you think you might want to give outlining a shot, Chapter two is Before you begin the outline. That's right, think before you outline! And here K recommends looking at various methods of outlining, and picking the one that works for you and your situation. Just for example, she suggests four different approaches:

1. Abbreviated. A quickie, especially if you are tight on time and need to crank out those words in a hurry.
2. Scene idea list. Instead of digging into everything, at least lay out the scene ideas.
3. Visual! Sure, some people prefer visual thinking, and either by clipping pictures from magazines and other sources (or maybe doing the modern day equivalent, grabbing Google images and other digital visions?) you can get a visual outline ready to write.
4. Blowout! Walk through all the steps and do a full outline, with all the trimmings.

K also points out that some people prefer mind map, pictures, maps, or dream review approaches.

So, what's a mind map? Basically, take a blank sheet of paper, and in the middle, write the key concept/idea. Put a bubble around that. Then around the sheet, sprinkle ideas that you come up with, and put bubbles around those. Add lines to connect things. Add more notes as you think of them. That's my basic approach. Some people use shapes, even pictures, and there is software available to do them online, if you prefer. However, I find a sheet of paper and a pencil works fine for me. The nice thing here is that it works as a personal brainstorming method, and doesn't enforce structure. You add that after you get enough pieces down on the sheet to start seeing how they fit together.

Pictures? That's the visual thing again. You might prefer doodles or something?

Maps. Quite a few fantasy writers seem to find maps, often made to suit, are a useful method of organizing their journeys.

Dream review? Well, suppose someone is writing the perfect review of your book, the one that you are going to write. What would they say? Who is the main character, and what do they think are the best points of your book. And now that you've written the review, guess what? You get to write the book that leads to that review.

K also raises the question of how you want to do things. Some people (I'm one of them) still prefer to start with pen and paper (actually, I prefer pencil and paper!). However, other people find a text editor or some other app to be good. K points out that yWriter, a freely available piece of software, was developed for writers, and some people prefer it.

Last part of chapter 2. K mentions that quite a few writers, especially those with sprawling epics, find a calendar or timeline to be necessary. Here again, you can go from the simple monthly calendar through timelines in Excel or even specialized apps for timelines. Do what works for you! But don't be surprised to find that keeping track of when things happen can help. After all, you're doing reveals, action in scenes, and all that fun timing to help the reader feel the rollercoaster thrill and tension of your story.

Okay? So the point of this chapter is to suggest some of the various styles of outlining, and get you to think about what suits your personal working style, and the story you are doing. Whether it's a quick list of the scenes, a set of pictures to help you see what's happening, or a more extensive set of notes, you can pick what works for you!

Hum... One thing I didn't see listed is the beat sheets that some folks recommend. Certain well-known points in a plot, whether it's just seven steps, however many there are in the hero's journey, or some other set of steps, these are something you can use to frame a plot outline. Maybe that's coming later?

Okay! So we've looked at why outline, thought about various styles of outline, and next, in chapter 3, we're going to craft our premise!

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