Comic Con Schedule

Thursday, JULY 24, 2:15-3:15 - San Diego Comic Con - ROOM 6A

Halo Panel: Halo Wars and the Halo Universe. This panel includes some of the biggest names from Halo: Joseph Staten (Bungie Team), Eric Nylund (author), Tobias Buckell (author), Graeme Devine (Halo Wars) and Frank O’Connor (Halo Universe Writer), and Jon Goff and Corrinne Robinson (MacFarlane Toys).

One caveat—I’m flying in that morning...so my fingers are crossed that there are no delays. (Hey what are the odds of that happening, right?)

Note: Prima says that there will be “fantastic prizes” there. Your guess is as good as mine about that one.


Saturday, JULY 26, 10:00-10:45 AM - San Diego Comic Con - Fox Booth (#4129)

Autographing Session: I’ll be signing books, posters, and paraphernalia (anything that's not wriggling too much or blank checks/contracts). Stop by and say hello!

Hope to see you there.

You Should Be Writing 2.0

Let me recommend the podcast “I Should Be Writing 2.0” by Mur Lafferty.

She has almost a hundred podcasts, chronicling her journey as a writer from noob to about-to-be-published novelist. Some good advice for beginners to pro writers alike.

Omniscient Internet

That was quick. Posted on SFSCOPE today:

Eric Nylund sells second of five fantasy novels to Tor
By Ian Randal Strock July 1, 2008

Eric Nylund sold All That Lives Must Die to Eric Raab at Tor via agent Richard Curtis of Richard Curtis Associates. In the book, the second of a project fantasy quintet "pitting immortals and infernals, Eliot and Fiona Post uncover a staggering family mystery after entering a high school for children from magical families."

I swear I just sent off the contract in the mail yesterday!

This internet thing is getting practically omniscient....

“New” HALO Audio Books

A while ago Allen pointed out the older HALO novels were on audible.com (read by Todd McLaren). Over the years I’d seen various versions of the early HALO books advertised...only to vanish before they materialized.

But it really does look like there are now audible book versions of THE FALL OF REACH, THE FLOOD, and FIRST STRIKE available for download on iTunes and audible.com. CD versions look like they’re coming out soon, too.

To answer your questions Allen: No, I’m not in the loop on the decisions pertaining to the making and release of the audio versions.

Update: When I started downloading THE FALL OF REACH from iTunes it skipped over the first part with the dreaded “unknown error.” I paused the download, disabled simultaneous downloads, resumed, and that fix it. Both parts seem to play just fine on my computer/iPod.

I’ll listen to it on the way into work, and report later in the comments.

Cool.

Pacing Basics

Nikoda asks (paraphrased): I get confused on pacing. I just can't wrap my head around the assorted definitions....

Pacing is complicated and I could teach a week or two worth of classes on this. Here are a few tips, though, to point you in the right direction.

Pacing is the rhythm and speed of a story. Some stories slow down, not a lot seems to happen, details and descriptions and complex interactions occur; language can be richly textured.

Or text can be sparse. Lots of action. The story jumps from location to location.

There are plenty of great books that have both types of pacing. There is no one right pacing.

I do think it’s important to know the kind of book you want to write, and what your audience expects. For me, I always try to vary the pacing. Too much action, too fast, too many things happening—it wears (or worse, confuses!) your readers. If your story is always slow you risk fatiguing the reader and losing them.

There are many ways to vary pace. The easiest is on a mechanical level. Shorter, simple sentences, brief paragraphs, and quick dialogue all make for a faster pace. Conversely, longer paragraphs, lengthy speeches and descriptions, fat sections of character self analysis all slow the pace.

The most critical thing to remember is that slow pace doesn’t mean boring, and fast pace doesn’t necessity mean compelling. This is the classic rookie mistake.

You want your slow sections to have tension, to mean something, and draw the reader deeper into your story. For example I’ve recently re-read Salem’s Lot wherein there is a long passage describing the setting sun. Normally a mistake because the story grinds to a halt...but in this case it heightens the drama because you knew when that sun sets a hundred vampire are coming to get the heroes!

Conversely going fast all the time cheats your readers on the details of your world and characters, and you lose the opportunity to make them fall in love with your story.

To really understand the building blocks of pacing you need to understand how to build tension (to make everything--slow and fast--be integral to the narrative). And to build tension, understand it on the most granular level, I’ll refer again to STORY by Robert McKee wherein he talks at great length about this topic.

I hope that helps. Good luck with your writing!

Comic Con 2008

I’ll be in San Diego July 24-27 for Comic Con 2008. My schedule is still up in the air, but I’ll try and sign books again--even if I have to camp out and put up a cardboard sign.

I’ll post as soon as I know more.

Writers Don't Listen

When you ask an author to give feedback on something you’ve written they might shy away. They'll say “everyone writes differently,” and “you have to find your own way.” Or, they'll say they don't have time to read your material. These are all very good reasons...

But it’s not why most authors don't give feedback.

It's because they know you won't listen.

Many times when people ask for feedback what they really want is encouragement. When less-than-glowing feedback is given, the critiqued will defend their work.

The problem is that we know writing fiction is not like solving a math problem. There are no objective answers. So when a person gives us their subjective advice, we know it’s subject to interpretation...and all too often this translates into ignoring the bad news that something needs fixing.

And it's not just beginning writers.

It’s professionals, too.

Heck, even me.

When I went to the Clarion West Writers Workshop, I thought I knew I was doing. To a large extent, I did...but that didn't mean I didn't have light-years of room for improvement.

So when two professional editors critiqued my work and said they were very worried about the extent of my characterization (the lack thereof, specifically), I stopped listening.

What did they know? I had already published a novel! I didn't need extensive characterization. My characters were developed through their actions.

(Please don’t trip over my hubris and naiveté here)

This was internalized justification for a real weakness of mine. I wished I had listened, and hadn't taken several years to reach the same conclusion and take steps to fix it. It could have saved some real agony.

This is one of the conundrums of being a writer. You have to step away from your work and be objective.

You at least have to listen when people give you feedback. A good start is to find a trusted reader and train them to give you the feedback you want and need (see my older posts about that here and here).

Ultimately it's up to you to remain open to the possibility that your writing isn’t perfect yet.

And with a little luck, and humility, we’ll all become better writers.

Making Your Story Longer

Z asks (paraphrased): “How do you extend a story? My novel is, so far, 50,000 words and I thought I had 20,000 left in me max to finish. Dialog takes up more space then prose and is easier to write, so maybe I'll just include more dialog.”

Dear Z, you’re right. 70,000 words probably aren’t enough. Most science fiction/fantasy novels today are about 100,000 words. Only a few decades ago it was okay to publish a 60,000-word novel. Perhaps it’s the perception that you’re getting more for your money with a bigger book. Or perhaps people want to settle down with a nice long story.

I’m not saying a 60K word novel is bad. I’m not saying a 300K word novel is better, either. The issue is that a starting novelist doesn’t want to try and sell something less than 80K words. (You should consult the WRITER’S MARKET and see what minimum lengths individual publishers want).

(All bets are off, though, if you write the next STARSHIP TROOPERS or NEUROMANCER and it’s 60,000 words. I don’t know a single editor who wouldn’t snap that up!)

But back to your question. How to lengthen a story if you come up short?

Don’t simply add more dialogue. Good dialog needs underlying tension and emotional context. Adding extra just to boost word count and you risk making that dialog less interesting...perhaps even boring (the cardinal sin in writing).

To property lengthen a novel, you’ll need more conflict and tension—in short you’ll need more story.

For starters you can go back and insert some complication or sub-plot or maybe even a new character earlier in your story. Whatever it is, make sure it is just as exciting and emotionally charged as the rest.

Don’t skimp. Don’t pad.

I don’t have this particular problem (although, trust me I have plenty of other witting issues of my own) because I work out the length when I’m creating my outline. After ten years I know how long each chapter is going to be, and can estimate within 5% the final word count.

Another reason I don’t have this problem, is because these days I’m making my stories more epic—with bigger issues, more characters—a wider canvas to paint upon. Which is why they’re growing to 200,000 words or more. Maybe even a series of 200,000+ word novels.

Good luck!

A "Few Minor" Changes

I hate messing with my fiction once it’s “done,” but this was worth it.

After re-reading MORTAL COILS, I realized my two main characters acted older than they were—especially the way they dealt with familial treachery, violence, and the opposite sex!

So I ran the idea of bumping their ages from 14 to 15 years old by my editor at TOR books (the genius Eric Raab), and he agreed.

As I went through the manuscript, however, it wasn’t a simple matter of turning every “14” into a “15.” There were a hundred little things that had to be changed along the way to reflect this one-year bump. And in a 200,000 word novel, any little change snowballs into larger ones (as you can see in the picture).

The new corrected edition is now off to the copyeditor and we’ll have bound galleys to send out to reviewers soon.

One step closer to publication!

On On Writing

About once a year I dive back into Stephen King's, On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft. I especially like the audio book because of the way King talks about writing. He has a lot of passion!

I would put this on my must-read list of books for beginners, save for one thing: Stephen King dislikes the notion of outlining. And I mean really dislikes.

Don't get me wrong, I love Stephen King's work (when it comes to characterization you’ll be hard pressed to find anyone who does a better).

But I use outlines. I like them. They free me to do my best creative work without worrying where the story is meandering off to. Long ago I came to accept writers who outlined and those who don't. I believe all writers’ brains are just wired differently.

This caveat aside, King's book is definitely worth reading. His work ethic is extraordinary. If for nothing else, you should listen/read this book if you want to jumpstart your writing motivation.

Speaking of which... I need to get back to my writing (new project titled: All that Lives Must Die) and get my minimum word count today.