Yzabel / January 11, 2006

Power Writer or Power Structure?

It’s a new year, it demands a new, good start in writing, and since I’ve discovered two months ago that planning is a good thing for me when it comes to novels, I’ve decided to invest money into one of these “planning” software for writers. A few demo and trial versions later, after having get out of the way the programs that more or less help in coming up with ideas and not found any free software that would strike my fancy, I’ve come to the conclusion that Power Writer may be my thing. It’s the only one I’ve tested so far that is complete enough, while not leaving me much room to get side-tracked (read: some products leave room to note files, but if I write down ideas this way, I forget half of them along the way, when I don’t forget where I’ve left the note files themselves).Read More

Yzabel / January 9, 2006

Spot On: 11 Ways To Get Your Story Rejected

A Newbie’s Guide To Publishing is a blog I follow at regular intervals, and a few days ago, its author, Joe Konrath, has posted an entry regarding his experience in being a judge in a short story contest. In his own words: “I can tell within ten seconds of looking at a story whether it will go on to the finals or not”. He then proceeds to list eleven points that will ensure a story, not to be published, but to go on the junk pile from the start. Of course, this is as usual a matter of perspective, and not every editor/judge/critic will proceed the same way; on the other hand, these points seem quite valid in my opinion, even if I know very well that following them all faithfully isn’t all there is to a good story.

The article is up on Joe Konrath’s blog. Here’s a summary of the points he lists (in fact, a general rule would be: “Present your story well, to at least show that you respect it”):Read More

Yzabel / January 6, 2006

NationStates: Ideas For World-Building?

NationStates is an old site, that I first discovered a few years ago. If I’m not mistaken, it had been put online at first in parallel with the development of the Jennifer Government story. Last week, I found a renewed interest for it, and created a new nation on the server. This is what got me to think some more about it, as a potential source for ideas.

The basis of the “game” is simple: one creates a nation, chooses its name, currency, animal/symbol and type of government, and every day (depending on the chosen settings), one or two issues are submitted to the “government” of this new country. Issues are on various topics, such as cloning research, minorities on television, people demanding a ban on cars due to pollution, and so on. Two or three opinions from imaginary inhabitants of the country are offered, and the player needs to choose one for each issue. Once these choices are input, the nation evolves to reflect the government’s new policy.

Where the ideas may stem from is exactly this: the issues, and the proposed solutions. Some are funny, some are just improbable, some are more serious. In any case, I think that it provides a good ground for imagination when it comes to creating a world for a work of fiction, and dividing said world in countries.

In all likeliness, the game won’t last me more than two or three weeks, as usual with this kind of things, but who knows? Maybe it can give an inspiration boost at times!

Yzabel / January 5, 2006

“Useless”scenes that don’t fit the plan of the novel

I’m very talented at that–writing scenes that I can’t use, or that turn out to be “too much”. I suspect it’s because I very often start by creating the characters instead of the plot, and as a result, I end up writing bits of scenes and chapters in the spur of the moment, only to realize later on that they don’t fit the general plan.

Truth be told, I’m calling them “useless” just because of this, because I spent time on something that doesn’t further the novel’s story itself. In a way, they are useful, since they allow me to develop the characters, to explore heir personalities, to set up events to react to, and this always turns to be a positive point when it comes to writing the “real” chapters. Thanks to the insight they help me get regarding my heroes, antagonists and even secondary characters, I can’t say that I’ve ever wasted time on working on such scenes. They also remain unedited, by the way; I don’t go around reading and rewriting half-chapters that aren’t placed within the flow of the plot yet. On this, at least, I don’t waste time.Read More

Yzabel / January 4, 2006

Schadenfreude, Perhaps, Yet Still A”Good”Read

Being a French person trying to write in English as well as in her mother tongue isn’t easy; to the usual doubts of the author regarding her ability to write well, are added the doubts about the other language, the one she doesn’t speak from the start. I don’t always have a clear appreciation of what good and bad writing in English is, and being given examples is an interesting way for me to learn and see what is being done (and what I shouldn’t do).

Along these lines, comes Miss Snark, who kindly provided her readers with a list of excerpts from stories submitted to Isaac Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine. Submitted, not published–yet this is already enlightening enough as it is.

Truth be told, those of you who’ve had a peek at the excerpts I’ve posted on my NaNo blog (yes, the unedited ones, these parts of a first draft that I wrote as if there was no tomorrow, drugged on coffee and gobbling down handfuls of frozen raspberries): am I right in thinking that I can’t do worse than that?

In all honesty, my self-confidence has been given a serious boost today–as well as a renewed desire to go on writing until I fall dead.

Yzabel / November 29, 2005

Inspiration Overload?!

I’d never thought I’d say that one day.

I believed the lack of inspiration was the worst thing in the world. That when it hit, it was a catastrophe. Well, I’ve just found out that the contrary can just be as problematic; there are only 24 hours in a day, and my chronic lack of focus really becomes a hassle in this case. (I can’t focus well nor for long, really. I hide it well, but I can’t.)

I’m currently in the throes of inspiration overload. Too many things going on in my head, too many things I want to do, much more than what I can do, in fact. Ideas for short stories are bursting out of my mind every ten minutes, and when it’s not for stories, it’s for illustrations. I can’t focus on work well, I can’t focus on finishing my novel, since five minutes into my writing, I already feel like doing something else, not out of lack of inspiration, but out of wanting to concretize other thoughts.Read More

Yzabel / September 19, 2005

The Writer’s Bump

Completely by chance, I found this article that dates back to May about the writer’s bump being headed for extinction, and I can indeed relate to this, since I had already noticed, quite some time ago, that mine had gotten smaller than before. Oh, it’s still here… just more discrete, less protuberant. Nowadays, when I work on my writing, I do it directly on the computer, so that I don’t need to “waste time” doing it on paper first, then copying everything in my word processor.

In a way, it’s a little sad. While I didn’t like it when I was still in my teens—I thought it made my finger look weird—I now somehow regret it. It was indeed some “badge of honor”, the proof that I was living with a pen in hand almost from the moment I got up in the morning to the moment I went to bed. I’d write everywhere, whenever I had five minutes ahead and no book under the hand to pass the time. Or I’d draw, depending on my mood. It’s a wonder that I don’t bear some freaky tatoo resulting from all this ink I got on my middle finger due to cheap leaky pens and mixing so many ink colors.

I still use pens here and there, of course, if only to write down an idea, but it’s nowhere near the amount of time I used to write manually “in times of old” (I know when I stopped: in 2002, when I switched from college studies to graphic-design ones, and would use a computer all the time). Same goes for drawing: vector works don’t demand me to prepare sketches for hours in a row. As a nasty side-effect, too, my handwriting has gotten awful; I used to tease my boyfriend about his, but really, mine hasn’t improved at all, on the contrary, since I’m not “practicing” as much as before.

Ah, well. This is one of the sad things about the wonders of the computer: our old writing scars are slowly disappearing!

Yzabel / August 20, 2005

Orion’s Arm: A Science-Fiction World in the Making

Sisyphean posted an annoucement about this at Writers Blog Alliance, and after taking a peek at the webpage, I thought it’s a pretty interesting project, worth being advertised a little more.

Without further ado, let me thus introduce you to Orion’s Arm, a collaborative project aiming at creating a science-fiction universe, complete from breeds to timeline, while following currently accepted science matters.

Our goal is to create a dramatic far-future universe that is internally consistent and abides as much as possible with the accepted facts and theories in the physical, biological, and social sciences. Thus matter cannot travel faster than light, matter and energy are conserved, no evolved humanoid aliens have been discovered, future ultratech social issues are likely to be very different to those of today, and so on. We embrace speculative ideas like drexlerian assemblers, mind uploads, posthuman intelligences, femtotech, magnetic monopoles, wormholes, as it is proposed that future sciences, technologies, and developments will make these possible. And we attempt a logical explanation for even the most fantastic-seeming elements in OA. We aim to paint a future that is plausible at every level, from the scientific to the social to the psychological.

While this may seem too scientific to one’s liking, for an author who’d like to write science-fiction, this approach can turn to be a very valuable one. Indeed, science-fiction is not just “something easy to write: you can invent anything”. Let’s not forget the word science in it, and that when creating our own little pocket universes, basing them off real scientific theories is a necessity, in order to make them more believable to our readers. I’m really not a scientific type, but grabbing a magazine here and there has taught me a few invaluable things to add in my stories.

It’s all about credibility—and seeing such a world being created is anyway a fascinating enough process in itself to at least take a few minutes and have a look at it.