TECH: WHOOPS! Catching Up! Nano nails!

Jan. 6th, 2012 01:54 pm
[identity profile] mbarker.livejournal.com
Original Posting 25 Nov 2011

What? The last note was on the 13th? And today is the 25th? ARGH!

Hey, all. I've been sick. Believe it or not, I've had a cold, which for a while just meant arguing with the dictation software about whether sneezes really meant I wanted a line of "him" across the page (does a sneeze really sound like "him"? Oh, well...). Then I lost my voice!

Which may not sound like much of a problem, but if you quit typing to save your fingers, and have been using dictation software -- a whisper doesn't cut it. So I went back to the keyboard for a while. Even though it does hurt, some.

Anyway, I'm recovering, and still meeting and beating Nanowrimo into shape! So...

Let's see. Old bits and pieces...

ARCS! Attention, Relevance, Confidence, and Satisfaction. Or as I teach my students sometimes, surprise! WIIFM (What's in it for me?), Yes, you can!, and last but not least, rewards, smiles, and other treats. That's one theory of motivation, and you can pay attention to those in your writing, too. Twists and other surprises keep the reader on their toes. Getting them engaged makes it relevant. Being fair to the reader raises their confidence. And oh, do those climaxes satisfy us. Emotional rewards galore!

Bradbury's formula!  "Find a character, like yourself, who will want something or not want something, with all his heart. Give him running orders. Shoot him off. Then follow as fast as you can...." And don't forget the zest and gusto, too!

OCEAN? What's a character? Well, openness -- desire for change (or not!). Conscientiousness -- planner or not? Extravert or introvert? Agreeableness? How many friends do they have? And neuroticism, that emotional edge? Right! Make them personalties, with some warts, and see what happens.

Bradbury again? Yeah... "You must stay drunk on writing so reality cannot destroy you."

Go with the flow! Writing as a burst, a torrent of words flooding out. That's nanowrimo all over!

One more Bradbury notion? Aha, yes, the lists, the lists. Bradbury adored his lists, and so can you! Stop now and then, make a list of colors, of senses afire, actions, clues or whatever... and then expand on those, tell us all about them, and watch your words roll!

Ah, the metaphoric dance of the words! Yes, your neurons and mine enjoy connecting things up, so pick a number from one to seven (what, your die doesn't go that high? Okay, roll once. Odd is zero, even is one. Now roll again, and add whatever you get to your first roll. One to seven, with a bit of weight for the middle. Okay... where were we before I got distracted. Right! Pick your number and...)

Here's what you have chosen (behind door number 1, we have . . . ):

    1. Taking a bath
    2. Frying potatoes
    3. Boiling an egg
    4. Sending a letter (you remember, those funny paper things that preceded email?)
    5. Untangling a ball of string
    6. Learning to swim
    7. Starting a car in cold weather

Now, let your mind slide. That problem, that process, the incident in your story? How would you explain it in terms of this metaphor? What relates? What doesn't relate? What if...

There you go, a metaphorical fling for the fancy!

Oh, my. Then I threw in the business metaphors? I really wanted you to scramble those metaphors, fry some words, and get cooking, didn't I? Let's see, journeys, games, war, machines, organisms, social groups, family, jungle, and the zoo. Pick a style, narrow it down a bit and pick an example, then let the correlations begin!

Filling out characters? Right! Onions have layers, ogres have layers, and even secondary characters deserve a layer or two. Goals, motivations, conflicts, some change... make those characters stand out for us!

And today's old Nanowrimo posting? All about filling in the actions. Instead of just doing a scene change to put your favorite character at the next place where they get their lumps, consider filling in all the steps of getting there. And of course, in the scene, instead of just gliding over the action with summaries, go through the actions. How does the hero fry a hamburger, anyway? With a twist of garlic? And a dash of vinegar? Huh...

These nanowrimo notes are available at length somewhere over here http://writercises.livejournal.com/?skip=30&tag=nanowrimo along with many more!

But the key right now is ... I hope you are enjoying your Thanksgiving, Black Friday, and whatever, and getting ready to slam through the finish line on Nanowrimo, coming up next week! Scribble, tap, yackity-yack!
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Notes on Flame Bores...

Nov. 12th, 2009 02:27 pm
[identity profile] mbarker.livejournal.com
Original posting 3 August 1994

[just for clarification--I started to write this about July 14th. I don't even remember what the point of the argument then was, but it may still be topical, current, and not totally out of date...]

Notes on Flame Bores...
or:
How to Waste Bandwidth and Irritate Everyone

On the networks, flame baiting (posting something deliberately provocative) and flame wars are often dismissed, ridiculed, and prohibited--and far too common.

There is an underlying cycle in these cataclysmic amusements that seems to occur here (also on other network groups, but we're mostly interested in this group). This cycle runs something like:

1. Many, many submissions, crits, and other "writerly" pieces flying (this seems to be a precondition)

2. Someone posts something--a bit provocative, a bit witless, or something. (Note that this often is a posting which would pass by without comment or with very little notice on any other day of the year)

3. For some reason (often inexplicable), someone else responds with a touch of acidity or bitterness. Not especially harsh, but perhaps a bit stronger than the provocation seems to require. Often the response is fired off rapidly after writing it, without much consideration to toning down the irritation.

4. The world goes nuts. Personal attacks, grandstanding, sweeping generalizations, and all the other fallacies and befuddlements come whooshing out of whatever closet they normally are locked in. This is the classic "flame bore" syndrome seen on so many lists.

[This is usually the point where we can really identify the original post as "flame bait." In many cases, it is really a pretty innocent posting--somehow the timing, situation, and other factors have turned a minor irritant into a major trigger.]

5. [patent-pending step found here on WRITERS] Humorous seltzer bottles, laborious sandtraps of illogical analogies, and other patent-pending methods of extinguishing the blazes (or at least burying them under words) are deployed by those members of the list who manage to avoid falling under the influence of the expanding whirlpool of emotive distress. This is relatively unique on the networks. It works surprisingly well--most of our blazes get damped down in a very short time compared to some of the hotheaded conflagrations visible on other lists. Typically avoids the worst of number 6...

6. [common result on many lists] At this point, there is often a slide into flaming exits, calls to "true writers" for some kind of crusade, and other diversionary hazards. Very dangerous, although sometimes the explosive effects do disperse the original minor flickers at the expense of more major damages. (There is a certain grim irony in this step, as step one almost ensures that the "flame bore" starts as a very minor part of current postings).

Not particularly amusing, but I do see this repeated cycle in postings on the list.

My advice to everyone: Hang on when you see one starting and (as far as possible) ignore the flaming bores. Do watch for the occasional sparkling bit of writing or other wonderful fireworks display touched off by the flaming bores, but be careful playing with the embers, as they may burn your fingers.
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TECH: Markets and such

Jun. 18th, 2009 11:24 am
[identity profile] mbarker.livejournal.com
Original posting 12 November 1993

Roger Writes (and Randy and Chris kicked around, too)

-> -- for example there's much less talk of literary markets than
-> I thought (are any of you sending your wonderful SUB:'s out?) -- Roger
->

do you remember someone recently mentioning depth-charges and the effect they have on subs? Sometimes I feel that must be the fate of these rascals.

Actually, with enough patience, the swallows do return to Capistrano and shit all over the walls.

Then I put them in another envelope and sending them winging out into that great darkness again.

And come back to writers to keep my spirits up during that long, cold winter.

Someday, someway, the sun must rise, and we'll go surfing in the summer sun, with the beach boys riding the waves and the salt breeze spitting on our smiling face. [this is my obligatory pie in the sky by and by dream...]

In the meantime, what would you like to know? I know how to make up a list of markets, how to send things out, how to wait impatiently, how to wait quasi-patiently, and how to vent frustrations while waiting and upon getting that dreaded "your piece was not selected..." I even know how to grit my teeth, skim it once more (and edit if I see something major), and put back in envelope to restart waiting.

Say, is there any way to wait patiently? That is something I haven't learned!

My market lists come from the Writer's Digest big book (groan!) and Gila Queen's monthly (if you want to subscribe, mention that I told you about it - sometimes she gives out extra issues...) I also get Scavenger's right now, but may drop that next year, simply because it seems aimed at the "pays in copies" magazines and I cannot afford them (it costs me about three dollars in postage to send out a submission - reject me a few times and we're talking money! I want some payoff...)

[Edited June 18 2009 to add: No longer true. There are some excellent web listings that can help. For the speculative fiction genre, try these
Ralan's SpecFic & Humor webstravaganza: http://www.ralan.com/
StoryPilot's Science Fiction and Fantasy Market Search Engine: http://storypilot.com/
duotrope's digest: http://www.duotrope.com/]

How do I make a list? Sit down with book. Read and guess. Toss out obvious no-fits. Scratch head and guess. Play with ouiji board. Guess. Throw dice. Guess.

Highly scientific approach, no?

This is not my favored part of the biz, but I haven't seen anything better. Do it up as nicely as possible, send it out, and keep on sending it out. During #&@*( blank pauses, work on other pieces, and try to keep as many out as you can.

And dream.

(whoever it was saying they were happy to get a rejection - I always love them, too. at least I know the thing hasn't vanished in the post box or been eaten by bookworms or whatever fantastic tragedy I can dream up to account for it disappearing somewhere on the way. It really did go there and come back, and now I get to do something with it again, at least for a little while...)
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TECH: Nanowrimo Notes #20: A Word In Need

Nov. 22nd, 2008 10:26 am
[identity profile] mbarker.livejournal.com
Word Lists

I was looking at Ray Bradbury's Zen In The Art of Writing, and almost started to summarize the article with the title, "Run Fast, Stand Still, Or, The Thing at the Top of the Stairs, Or, New Ghosts from Old Minds." I mean, there are pieces like this:

"I finally figured out that if you're going to step on a live mine, make it your own. Be blown up, as it were, by your own delights and despairs."

But the key thing, the thread that runs through that article, are the lists. Bradbury has this to say about them:

"But along through those years I began to make lists of titles, to put down long lines of nouns. These lists were the provocations, finally, that caused my better stuff to surface. I was feeling my way toward something honest, hidden under the trapdoor on the top of my skull."

So I was playing with this notion of words, of putting down phrases and such. And it seems to me that at least for my writing, there often is a page of scribbled notes -- disjointed terms, phrases that snatch at the ideas that are tumbling around. And that page is part of what I pull out when I sit down to write. I'll take a phrase and stretch it, play with it, see what it suggests to me. The other day, in the train on the way to Osaka, I looked out at the passing trees and scribbled this down:
  • Foliage -- colors, red, brown, gold, green, yellow.
  • Capturing sunrise and sunset, draining them off into the trees as the day grows shorter?
  • Fading into streaks of brown and black against the graying skies leaves falling into piles, heaps, rustling
  • the clock ticks into the evening of the year
  • the breeze sharpens into a cool shiver, a warning of winter's cold to come
  • visions of the warm hearth and home, baking pies, roasting meat, the lights shining ahead
Looking at this list, I can see the patches of color in my mind's eye, the trees bursting like static fireworks. And then there's the notion that the trees are somehow grabbing the colors of sunrise and sunset off of the day, squeezing the day down as they pull those colors out of the sky and into their leaves. Although as the leaves fall, rustling and piling, the trees turn into brown and black silhouettes, inky sketches of themselves against the darkening clouds. And I haven't even started into the conceit of autumn as the evening of the year, perhaps with the celestial clock ticking slowly, day by day turning the annual cycle.

Anyway, you can see that that word foliage brings up a whole set of ideas and thoughts for me. So one of the things you can play with is taking some words that you like, that have some excitement for you, and play this game of listing out some of the tumbling thoughts in your head. Then later, slow it down and stretch it out. What's that about capturing sunrise and sunset? Explain it, consider how you might have a character talk about it, perhaps use it as a piece of background setting?

And as Bradbury mentions, you may simply want to write down the titles, the nouns, the points that grab your attention -- and then let them rub against each other, think about them, and see what turns up.

And of course, there's this final advice:

"I leave you now at the bottom of your own stair, at half after midnight, with a pad, a pen, and a list to be made. Conjure the nouns, alert the secret self, taste the darkness. Your own Thing stands waiting 'way up there in the attic shadows. If you speak softly, and write any old word that wants to jump out of your nerves onto the page . . . Your Thing at the top of your stairs in your own private night . . . may well come down."

Okay? So feel free to make some word lists. Or, in the way of nanowrimo, to make the lists, and then expand on them, and use them as the base for daydreams and idles, for this and that and the other thing, for seeing what words will come when we have pages to fill before we sleep, and punctuation to use before a break. In other words, write!

Is a word indeed!
tink
(about 700 words)
Like a falling leaf, drifting down to the ground . . .
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