Tuesday, June 28, 2011
Quick Note
A quick note to apologize that I have not been able to visit or comment on blog posts. My uncle's internet is down, so I have only been able to get on for short periods to check email while stopping at Starbucks or Barnes & Noble. I miss the blogosphere, and I feel like I am missing so many great posts out there.
Thursday, June 23, 2011
Tornado
After a crazy trip, my family is tired but alive in Phoenix, Arizona. On a perfect journey it was already going to take around 21 hours. We had to first fly from Baku to London. When we arrived we found we had only twenty minutes to make the flight to Chicago. Turns out our gate was a LONG way from the place we needed to be, so we had to run. It was super-frustrating to hit another security check-through, as they really slowed us down past the point where we thought we had to have missed our flight. Luckily we barely made it.
![]()
Then Chicago. Just as the time for our departure to Phoenix was creeping around, a tornado alert sounded and they ushered everyone down to a lower level to wait it out. After more than an hour we heard rumors that a plane had been damaged. The news that I can find today says that about 360 flights were cancelled. Luckily for us they didn't cancel our flight, but it lifted off about four hours late, making me worry that the rental car company wouldn't hold our reservation.
We arrived in Phoenix at around 2 AM, and though I barely made it to the rental company under the 3 hour limit, they didn't have any cars in the size I had ordered. Again luck was with us as they had one SUV left that they let us have. So, we got to my Uncle's house at around 3:30 AM and slept like the dead.
In more interesting news. Nathan Bransford chose a posting that I did in his forum (it was my previous blog post, but I liked some of the thoughts in it, so I posted it at NB) to put on his front page. It was kind of exciting, though part of me wished I'd had a warning so I could have polished it a bit more. I tend to just type my posts out in about 15 minutes and go with them, while for Nathan I would have parsed every word and phrase until they shone. As it was, some people misinterpreted some of the things I said, and since I had to fly away, I didn't get to defend myself much.
I thought perhaps a couple people from Nathan's huge audience might come over to my blog, but the statistics show that I had fewer hits than normal. Oh well!
Then Chicago. Just as the time for our departure to Phoenix was creeping around, a tornado alert sounded and they ushered everyone down to a lower level to wait it out. After more than an hour we heard rumors that a plane had been damaged. The news that I can find today says that about 360 flights were cancelled. Luckily for us they didn't cancel our flight, but it lifted off about four hours late, making me worry that the rental car company wouldn't hold our reservation.
We arrived in Phoenix at around 2 AM, and though I barely made it to the rental company under the 3 hour limit, they didn't have any cars in the size I had ordered. Again luck was with us as they had one SUV left that they let us have. So, we got to my Uncle's house at around 3:30 AM and slept like the dead.
In more interesting news. Nathan Bransford chose a posting that I did in his forum (it was my previous blog post, but I liked some of the thoughts in it, so I posted it at NB) to put on his front page. It was kind of exciting, though part of me wished I'd had a warning so I could have polished it a bit more. I tend to just type my posts out in about 15 minutes and go with them, while for Nathan I would have parsed every word and phrase until they shone. As it was, some people misinterpreted some of the things I said, and since I had to fly away, I didn't get to defend myself much.
I thought perhaps a couple people from Nathan's huge audience might come over to my blog, but the statistics show that I had fewer hits than normal. Oh well!
Monday, June 20, 2011
On Memory...and Books
Think of the person you know who has the best memory. Can they quote from hundreds of books? Do they wow you with what can only be their photographic memory? It may be hard for modern people to fully comprehend, but the great memories of today can hardly compare to those of ancient times.
As the book I am reading now states (the following quote and all other quotes here are taken from The Discoverers by Daniel Boorsten) -- "Before the printed book, Memory ruled daily life..." Memory, both from individuals and communities, was the common means of passing knowledge on through the generations. People in those far off times had to intentionally cultivate an incredible memory in order to memorize amounts of information that would astound modern people.
"The elder Seneca (c. 55 B.C.-A.D. 37), a famous teacher of rhetoric, was said to be able to repeat long passages of speeches he had heard only once many years before. He would impress his students by asking each member of a class of two hundred to recite lines of poetry, and then he would recite all the lines they had quoted--in reverse order, from last to first."
Before the days of printing, "a highly developed Memory was needed by the entertainer, the poet, the singer, the physician, the lawyer, and the priest." We all know about the great ancient epics, such as Homer's Iliad and Odyssey, which were passed down orally for many centuries.
Even when the first writings became more common, Memory remained the primary means in use by lawyers and judges or anyone wishing to quote from the scrolls or manuscripts of the times. With no page numbers or other markings, it was too inconvenient to attempt to locate the necessary parts of text, often rolled up in scrolls dozens or even hundreds of feet long.
After the printing press was developed, books evolved into "an aid, and sometimes a substitute, for Memory." It was Socrates, two millennia earlier, who had first "lamented the effects of writing itself on Memory..." The more accurate and widespread the book became, the less important became the cultivation of a good memory.
The great anachronism of our age is Islam, which still sees as ideal for any Muslim child the full memorization of the Koran. A lesser one is the incredible use of memory of the elite chess grandmasters, who must memorize hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of positions, tactics, strategies, and lines of openings, middle games, and endgames.
The reason I decided to write this was because the (far more detailed) story from The Discoverers reminded me of some thoughts I had been having regarding the effects on memory of the internet age. If the rise of books had been a death knell for developing memory as a tool, how much worse is the internet, which in effect serves as a substitute memory for the world? Regardless of issues of accuracy, almost all data is now placed onto the internet. Google and similar search engines become the key to accessing this modern day Memory.
And what effect on memory will come of the decline of leisure reading? Reading, which long served to teach and broaden the minds of educated people, is clearly on the decline amongst (primarily) young males, at least when it comes to spending long hours and days poring over long books for leisure purposes. Now kids turn to email, blogs, text messages, and tweets as primary substitutes for the hours once spent reading. Are we going to reach a point where the average person feels they no longer need to have much 'data' stored within their minds, since they can access it at will on the internet? Will high quality writing and the desire to enjoy such writing decline as people become used to the shorthand of modern communications? When 'lol' and 'rofl' take over for actual knowledge of good English, what does it say of our future?
It is hard to say exactly how much impact the internet will have on the area of memory, but my belief is that the coming of the internet age will eventually have nearly as great an effect on memory as the invention of the printing press.
As the book I am reading now states (the following quote and all other quotes here are taken from The Discoverers by Daniel Boorsten) -- "Before the printed book, Memory ruled daily life..." Memory, both from individuals and communities, was the common means of passing knowledge on through the generations. People in those far off times had to intentionally cultivate an incredible memory in order to memorize amounts of information that would astound modern people.
"The elder Seneca (c. 55 B.C.-A.D. 37), a famous teacher of rhetoric, was said to be able to repeat long passages of speeches he had heard only once many years before. He would impress his students by asking each member of a class of two hundred to recite lines of poetry, and then he would recite all the lines they had quoted--in reverse order, from last to first."
Before the days of printing, "a highly developed Memory was needed by the entertainer, the poet, the singer, the physician, the lawyer, and the priest." We all know about the great ancient epics, such as Homer's Iliad and Odyssey, which were passed down orally for many centuries.
Even when the first writings became more common, Memory remained the primary means in use by lawyers and judges or anyone wishing to quote from the scrolls or manuscripts of the times. With no page numbers or other markings, it was too inconvenient to attempt to locate the necessary parts of text, often rolled up in scrolls dozens or even hundreds of feet long.
After the printing press was developed, books evolved into "an aid, and sometimes a substitute, for Memory." It was Socrates, two millennia earlier, who had first "lamented the effects of writing itself on Memory..." The more accurate and widespread the book became, the less important became the cultivation of a good memory.
The great anachronism of our age is Islam, which still sees as ideal for any Muslim child the full memorization of the Koran. A lesser one is the incredible use of memory of the elite chess grandmasters, who must memorize hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of positions, tactics, strategies, and lines of openings, middle games, and endgames.
The reason I decided to write this was because the (far more detailed) story from The Discoverers reminded me of some thoughts I had been having regarding the effects on memory of the internet age. If the rise of books had been a death knell for developing memory as a tool, how much worse is the internet, which in effect serves as a substitute memory for the world? Regardless of issues of accuracy, almost all data is now placed onto the internet. Google and similar search engines become the key to accessing this modern day Memory.
And what effect on memory will come of the decline of leisure reading? Reading, which long served to teach and broaden the minds of educated people, is clearly on the decline amongst (primarily) young males, at least when it comes to spending long hours and days poring over long books for leisure purposes. Now kids turn to email, blogs, text messages, and tweets as primary substitutes for the hours once spent reading. Are we going to reach a point where the average person feels they no longer need to have much 'data' stored within their minds, since they can access it at will on the internet? Will high quality writing and the desire to enjoy such writing decline as people become used to the shorthand of modern communications? When 'lol' and 'rofl' take over for actual knowledge of good English, what does it say of our future?
It is hard to say exactly how much impact the internet will have on the area of memory, but my belief is that the coming of the internet age will eventually have nearly as great an effect on memory as the invention of the printing press.
Friday, June 17, 2011
Tagged...
I've seen this tagging game all over the place, so I knew it was just a matter of time before I got hit. The super-nice Victoria Caswell hit me up with this one, and I can't refuse her anything, so here goes...
Do you think you're hot?
I suppose I will be when I reach Arizona next week. Honestly, who can be comfortable answering a question like this? I think I am not bad, but I'm no Johnny Depp or anyone else my wife thinks is 'hot'. I don't think my wife has ever called me hot, though since she is from Russia, I don't think they use that word.
Upload a picture of wallpaper you are using at the moment.
I can't do this, sorry. I don't have my computer since it got packed away by the moving company. I'm typing on a computer with no wallpaper. How about a picture of my cockateil that we have to give away on Monday? Bye Gosha! **Sad**
![]()
Do you think you're hot?
I suppose I will be when I reach Arizona next week. Honestly, who can be comfortable answering a question like this? I think I am not bad, but I'm no Johnny Depp or anyone else my wife thinks is 'hot'. I don't think my wife has ever called me hot, though since she is from Russia, I don't think they use that word.
Upload a picture of wallpaper you are using at the moment.
I can't do this, sorry. I don't have my computer since it got packed away by the moving company. I'm typing on a computer with no wallpaper. How about a picture of my cockateil that we have to give away on Monday? Bye Gosha! **Sad**
When was the last time you ate chicken?
Is this an appropriate question after talking about my bird? I eat chicken quite a lot since I stopped eating so much red meat. Having said that, the move is throwing everything out of whack, so I haven't had chicken since my going away party last Friday at work.
The songs you listened to recently?
I don't have my beloved iTunes, so I am not getting to listen to much of anything. All I have left is a cd in my car, and it has:
Soundgarden - Searching With My Good Eye Closed, 4th of July, Boot Camp
White Zombie - Thunder Kiss '65
Filter - You Walk Away, American Cliche
Tool - Eulogy
and a few other really cool songs
What were you thinking as you were doing this?
Well, because of the last question, I've had White Zombie rocking in my head.
Do you have nicknames?
Sorry, no. My wife calls me 'Teddie', which I would hate if it was anyone else, but since she has such an adorable accent, it doesn't sound so bad coming from her. My kids call me Dad.
Tag five bloggers:
I think everyone's been tagged already. Aren't I the last one?
Bru Grace
Whose listed as number one?
Everyone knows Simon, right? Shame on you if you don't. He's one of the funniest and best writers I know, and he helped me a lot with crits on my first novel. I'd have tapped Matt Rush here also, except Victoria tagged him already.
Leave a lovey dovey message for number 2.
Oooo, I wish I knew how to flirt. Hart the Tart is great at it! Music is really sexy, and Jessica is splendid in that regard (not to mention her writing - she has a new book out!)
How did you get to know number 3?
The Naked Tart is a real character and also very helpful. She read my entire first book and gave me very nice feedback on it, for which I will always be grateful. She even pretended to like it!
How about number 4?
Hmm, I forget when I first 'met' L.G. (you see the problem of using initials for your name? I can't put a proper period there!). She's been a regular commenter and does really interesting posts. I hope any of you who haven't tried her blog will do so now!
Say something about number 5
I stumbled across Bru when I saw her interview of another blogger I follow. She did such a wonderful interview with me later. She's so kind and brave, too, as she battles near-blindness and other issues which she has bravely recounted to us. I wish so many good things for her.
Thursday, June 16, 2011
Blog Award of DOOM
The lovely L.G. Smith of Bards and Prophets (doesn't she have the greatest banner?) gave me this fun blog award, which gives me the opportunity to present one of my beloved characters in a very unpleasant situation. I have so many such scenes, which to choose?
The Rules:
1. When you receive the Blog Award of DOOM your task is to post a short selection of your writing, 100-300 words, in which your favorite character suffers a horrible fate. It can be your favorite character from your own writing or from something you've read, it can be from a finished manuscript, a WIP or something you just made up on the spot. Your choice, but it has to be full of DOOM!
2. Pass it on to one other blogger and let them know their DOOM has come.
3. Remember that the person who passed the award on to you also received it as well. Go back to their post to read and comment on their writing sample. Make sure to thank them for sending the DOOM your way.
4. Whenever you use the word DOOM in your post, you must capitalize the whole thing.
Let me first pass this along so I can finish this post with my excerpt. Hmm, who to give it to? I wonder if Joseph Selby and Sasha Barin would be willing to share a scene of DOOM with us? They are relative newcomers for me in the blogosphere, so I am curious what they might show us.
Here is a short excerpt from my fantasy novel The Shard. The young tinker's son, Geldrath, has become trapped inside a mountain along with some soldiers. They pass over a chasm and creep along a passageway to a small cavern, where they get a big shock, and poor Geldrath learns that he is nowhere close to becoming a hero yet.
*****
Dragon! Geldrath couldn’t believe his eyes. He was never meant to see the dragon. It was supposed to be in the Great Hall beyond. He saw the awful plunge of the dragon’s head, the quick death of one of the soldiers, and panic flooded through him like a molten river. He dropped the shield he was carrying, turned, and fled.
His arm struck someone as he ran. He felt fingers dig at his side and heard a shout, distantly as if from down a deep well. His mind refused to work. All he could think was--Dragon! Dragon! Run!
A tiny portion of his mind tickled at him, reminding him that he should feel shame; that he had responsibilities to friends and couldn’t desert them. The overriding part of his mind shoved those thoughts aside and forced him to run faster.
There was another shout behind him and he felt that someone was chasing him. Through the fear his mind teased him again with another thought: I’m forgetting something import--
His front foot came down on nothingness.
His throat jerked out a strangled scream as he pitched forward headfirst, his arms flailing. The back of his shoulders and head slammed into stone, followed by his buttocks and feet. His head rang and he felt consciousness slipping away as he plunged through cold air.
1. When you receive the Blog Award of DOOM your task is to post a short selection of your writing, 100-300 words, in which your favorite character suffers a horrible fate. It can be your favorite character from your own writing or from something you've read, it can be from a finished manuscript, a WIP or something you just made up on the spot. Your choice, but it has to be full of DOOM!
2. Pass it on to one other blogger and let them know their DOOM has come.
3. Remember that the person who passed the award on to you also received it as well. Go back to their post to read and comment on their writing sample. Make sure to thank them for sending the DOOM your way.
4. Whenever you use the word DOOM in your post, you must capitalize the whole thing.
Let me first pass this along so I can finish this post with my excerpt. Hmm, who to give it to? I wonder if Joseph Selby and Sasha Barin would be willing to share a scene of DOOM with us? They are relative newcomers for me in the blogosphere, so I am curious what they might show us.
Here is a short excerpt from my fantasy novel The Shard. The young tinker's son, Geldrath, has become trapped inside a mountain along with some soldiers. They pass over a chasm and creep along a passageway to a small cavern, where they get a big shock, and poor Geldrath learns that he is nowhere close to becoming a hero yet.
*****
Dragon! Geldrath couldn’t believe his eyes. He was never meant to see the dragon. It was supposed to be in the Great Hall beyond. He saw the awful plunge of the dragon’s head, the quick death of one of the soldiers, and panic flooded through him like a molten river. He dropped the shield he was carrying, turned, and fled.
His arm struck someone as he ran. He felt fingers dig at his side and heard a shout, distantly as if from down a deep well. His mind refused to work. All he could think was--Dragon! Dragon! Run!
A tiny portion of his mind tickled at him, reminding him that he should feel shame; that he had responsibilities to friends and couldn’t desert them. The overriding part of his mind shoved those thoughts aside and forced him to run faster.
There was another shout behind him and he felt that someone was chasing him. Through the fear his mind teased him again with another thought: I’m forgetting something import--
His front foot came down on nothingness.
His throat jerked out a strangled scream as he pitched forward headfirst, his arms flailing. The back of his shoulders and head slammed into stone, followed by his buttocks and feet. His head rang and he felt consciousness slipping away as he plunged through cold air.
Wednesday, June 15, 2011
Authonomy
I've noticed that although the blogosphere is filled with writers eagerly learning their craft, almost none of them seem to be taking advantage of sites like Authonomy (link is to my book there). I've been a member since December 2009, and it's one of the most useful sites I have joined. It leans slightly toward the British side of things, since it is a Harper Collins site, but there are writers from all over the world there. I've recently been getting some great feedback for my book from a wonderful Belorussian writer.
As with any such site, one must have a bit of a thick skin to be able to ignore the few people who are not diplomatic enough, but most there are decent critiquers and pretty supportive. You just need to filter out the bad and concern yourself with the good.
The first time I posted a book there I had already completed it. Not many take the time to read the entire novel, which I can understand since reading on a monitor isn't the most pleasant experience, but a few do, and most will read some of it and generally leave some useful feedback. I have made thousands of corrections on my books due to Authonomy critters.
I've been posting my latest book chapter by chapter as I write it, and I've found this very useful. The critters have pointed out a number of things that have saved me lots of further effort down the line if I had waited to post only after completing the book. People seem to be enjoying this book far more than my first, perhaps because thrillers are more popular than Tolkienesque fantasy, but also perhaps because I am a slightly better writer the second time around.
I would never ask anyone to support me blindly, but if anyone finds Authonomy useful and checks out my book, I can always use more support. BTW, it actually doesn't help a book if you support it immediately upon joining. You need to add some books that don't mean much to you (or other ones you find that are good) and first get a ranking before adding the books you truly like to your shelf. Only with a ranking will books accrue benefit from your support. The longer you leave them on your shelf, the more points they gain.
After a year and a half, my first book reached around 191 in the rankings (out of tens of thousands of books on there). My second book has reached 84 after just over one month! If you like thrillers and/or science fiction, perhaps check it out!
The first time I posted a book there I had already completed it. Not many take the time to read the entire novel, which I can understand since reading on a monitor isn't the most pleasant experience, but a few do, and most will read some of it and generally leave some useful feedback. I have made thousands of corrections on my books due to Authonomy critters.
I've been posting my latest book chapter by chapter as I write it, and I've found this very useful. The critters have pointed out a number of things that have saved me lots of further effort down the line if I had waited to post only after completing the book. People seem to be enjoying this book far more than my first, perhaps because thrillers are more popular than Tolkienesque fantasy, but also perhaps because I am a slightly better writer the second time around.
I would never ask anyone to support me blindly, but if anyone finds Authonomy useful and checks out my book, I can always use more support. BTW, it actually doesn't help a book if you support it immediately upon joining. You need to add some books that don't mean much to you (or other ones you find that are good) and first get a ranking before adding the books you truly like to your shelf. Only with a ranking will books accrue benefit from your support. The longer you leave them on your shelf, the more points they gain.
After a year and a half, my first book reached around 191 in the rankings (out of tens of thousands of books on there). My second book has reached 84 after just over one month! If you like thrillers and/or science fiction, perhaps check it out!
Tuesday, June 14, 2011
Writing vs Story
My feeling is that most of us newbie writers have a serious problem with story. When we first take to the blogosphere, we learn an incredible amount about writing, and after a year or two we gain a lot of confidence. However, I think the bulk of what we learn concerns only one aspect of writing a novel, and that is the writing side of it. I don't mean only grammar, though of course that is an important part of it, but rather all of the disparate elements of creating decent prose and dialogue.
Imagine for a moment that you have learned to write perfectly, that you have perfect grammar, perfect prose, perfect dialogue. You can still write a terrible story.
Story is where most of us go wrong in our early efforts. Part of it is that it is a bit elusive. Who is to say for your particular subgenre where the best place to begin your story truly is? Who can tell you whether to have a single POV character, or whether several might work better for the needs of the story? There are some things that I can give an opinion on, though they are not universal. For instance, these days I feel that omniscient is not the best POV to use, though having said that I still see good books by famous authors using it and using it well. I feel that close 3rd works best for me, and for YA books first person seems to be the most commonly used POV.
Do you ratchet up the tension enough in your story? Do you deflate it too quickly? Do you use too much exposition? I keep hearing that there should be almost no exposition in the first fifty or so pages. You need to hook the reader and gain their trust before you start doing a little 'telling'. There are no hard and fast rules that will work in all cases, which is why becoming good at 'story' is so hard and frustrating.
So many times I see writers not getting it when it comes to story. They will post a chapter or excerpt online and others will let them know that something is wrong with it, yet when they come back with an edited version it is easy to see that they didn't truly 'get it'. It might be too much exposition, or perhaps the writer is overwhelming the reader with too many new characters in one chapter, but when the writer is warned about the issue, they more often than not tinker a bit with it rather than actually resolving the problem.
What are your thoughts on story?
Imagine for a moment that you have learned to write perfectly, that you have perfect grammar, perfect prose, perfect dialogue. You can still write a terrible story.
Story is where most of us go wrong in our early efforts. Part of it is that it is a bit elusive. Who is to say for your particular subgenre where the best place to begin your story truly is? Who can tell you whether to have a single POV character, or whether several might work better for the needs of the story? There are some things that I can give an opinion on, though they are not universal. For instance, these days I feel that omniscient is not the best POV to use, though having said that I still see good books by famous authors using it and using it well. I feel that close 3rd works best for me, and for YA books first person seems to be the most commonly used POV.
So many times I see writers not getting it when it comes to story. They will post a chapter or excerpt online and others will let them know that something is wrong with it, yet when they come back with an edited version it is easy to see that they didn't truly 'get it'. It might be too much exposition, or perhaps the writer is overwhelming the reader with too many new characters in one chapter, but when the writer is warned about the issue, they more often than not tinker a bit with it rather than actually resolving the problem.
What are your thoughts on story?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
