REPOST BY REQUEST
While working out the larger story arc behind the novel I’m pitching, I thought it might be fun to blog a little about writing itself, as I experience it. Sort of telling the story behind telling the story.
I have written a lot of stuff over the years: tons of (mostly bad) poetry, a handful of short stories, and hundreds of thousands of words of non-fiction prose.
But, for this little series on writing I want to focus on The Ligan of the Disomus, and the larger world that is still growing from its seed. It is now a novel, with three sequel novels outlined for the long-term story arc.
When it began, however, it was just a short story assignment in a college writers’ group, an assignment the narrator — a fictional character — ran off with in directions I had not anticipated. But, he was not alone in commandeering what I considered to be “my” story…
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hornbook: A primer which was popular in England between the sixteenth and eighteenth centuries. Consisting of a single sheet of paper or vellum mounted on wood, on which were printed the alphabet, the Lord’s Prayer, and Roman numerals, the hornbook derived its name from the protective covering of horn over the sheet.
The term is used by Thomas Dekker in his Gull’s Hornbook
, a witty pamphlet for the young men-about-town of early-seventeenth-century London.
Literary Terms: A Dictionary
by Karl Beckson and Arthur Ganz.
Why doesn’t “exciting” mean “formerly making reference to”?
After commenting on a post defending MFA programs at Fiction Writers Review, I realized that the issue deserved a blog entry of its own. The post was itself commentary on a Huffington Post story by author Lev Raphael and, after having read the full article, I was more convinced than ever that I needed to write a detailed rebuttal.
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God bless Kassia Krozser of BookSquare for adding her voice to a growing chorus calling out the nakedness of the Emperor.
Yes, publishers themselves are helping to devalue books with their poor business decisions, by pushing awful books by famous people hoping we won’t remember, with speculative bidding frenzies that abandon all sense of reality, etc.
Of course, it’s a rant, but go read it.
“If it’s a sonnet, I’m onnet!”
- Things Wm. Shakespeare never said, but could have.
I realize the Picoult-NYT hubbub is simmering down, but I would like to share two of what I consider to be the best pieces I’ve read throughout the entire storm.
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Lincoln Michel at The Faster Times picks apart Picoult’s charges of sexism as well as her understanding of literary history.
Jim at Dystel & Goderich also calls into question Picoult’s dedication to literature, and claims she’s picked the wrong battle.
Occasionally names are mere placeholders in fiction.
Typically, however, a writer selects them with great care, to evoke a mood or hint at a secret, symbolic meaning. Choosing names for characters and places can be an involved, even agonizing process. And, it can be a major source of writer’s block.
Let’s face it, we are not all equipped to derive the name of every place and person meticulously from obscure ancient words the way a trained linguist like Tolkien would be. And we don’t all have the ready wit of Dickens. Most of us need more mundane inspiration.
Here are four places a writer can turn for name ideas when the creative juices are just not flowing as they should.
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You might think: I don’t write fantasy or sci-fi, so what do I need to know about worldbuilding? Maybe your story is set in the “real world.” That means the world is already built for you, right?
Like so many things, once you concentrate the essence of it — as worldbuilding is so essential to speculative fiction — you realize the key role it plays even when it is a minor ingredient. As David B. Coe explains over at the Magical Words blog, every writer builds a world.
Zombies … the ultimate Ponzi scheme.
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