A Writer's Time

"The greatest part of a writer's time is spent in reading, in order to write; a man will turn over half a library to make one book."
--Samuel Johnson

NaNoWriMo

I'd been floundering around for the first few days of this year's NaNoWriMo. I had the general idea for the plot, based on a slightly fantasy version of the Vicksburg Campaign, and I had some idea of the characters, and I had my Scene Planner cards all ready, but it just wasn't coming together. A thousand words one day, 500 words the next, and one section that wandered off into a different universe entirely. Last night I was quite discouraged, thinking "This Is Not For Me". This morning I said "You know, this story could be Star Wars: 1862 Edition", and from that I was able to write a 2500 word plot outline in which pretty much everything fell into place. Still a few plot questions to answer, here and there--"What does Ming Duo do during the climactic battle", for example--but I have enough that I can get started actually putting together a narrative. Huzzah!

Yes, there will be a fair amount of Find & Replace on the names before all is done. "We can fix that in Post."

LibertyCon

My first LibertyCon. I went to panels on neurophysiology (led Tedd Roberts), writing epic fantasy, warfare in science fiction, and how to kill zombies as messily as possible. Saturday included a talk on how independents can increase their sales on Amazon (e.g. have a well designed book cover, where the title can be read at thumbnail size), structured socialization for geeks, a reading by John Ringo, a worldbuilding workshop led by Bill Fawcett and Jody Nye, and an introduction to the Tiny Epic RPG, plus a few minutes in the Con Suite at the end of the evening. Sunday was standing on the front steps where a few guys were around John Ringo, each telling or embellishing tales, and then a two hour game design workshop with Bill Fawcett. And on Saturday evening we had dinner with Jonathan, who was in Chattanooga due to the vagaries of the railroad.
People met include Miriam Ringo, Dorothy and Peter Grant, Todd Lyles, Michaux Dempster, Bill Fawcett,  Toni Weisskopf, plus others I'd met before including John Ringo, Mike Williamson, and Sarah Hoyt, and others. About 600 people at the con, which is a nice size, not too crowded. Quite a drive to get there, but a lot of fun.

Learning to Write

“You learn to write the same way you learn to play golf... You do it, and keep doing it until you get it right. A lot of people think something mystical happens to you, that maybe the muse kisses you on the ear. But writing isn’t divinely inspired – it’s hard work.”
― Tom Clancy

RavenCon

My first time to RavenCon, and lightning struck the building.
That's what I heard, anyway. A fire alarm went off as I was in the gaming room between seminars, and we all reluctantly ambled toward the exits. While it was pouring rain. Fortunately not too many people (ie, not me) got into the rain before Con Security started herding people back in, telling us that it had been a lightning strike. The gaming room has no exterior walls so we didn't hear a thunderclap ourselves.

My schedule:
Friday: Writing Believable Villains (panel); Agile Writer (Greg Smith) ; Historical Airships (Iver Cooper)

Saturday: Creating Believable Magic (panel); Working with an Editor; Writing the Other (panel); Baen Traveling Road Show (Jim Minz moderating, with authors Michael Z Williamson, Sarah Hoyt, Chris Weuve, Iver Cooper, Patrick Vanner, Steve White, Joelle Presby and non-innocent-bystander Tedd Roberts); Game mechanics.

The most informative session was the one on airships; Iver Cooper had slide after slide of detailed information and obviously knew the details of what he was talking about. I thought, in fact, that he might be an aeronautical engineer, but in fact he's a patent lawyer. The session with the most fun was the Baen show, in which Jim Minz told us which books were on the production schedule, talked about some of the art on the covers and some of the new authors, and got (and gave) some good-humored heckling from the authors. The most useful one, from a "writing insights" standpoint, was probably the Believable Villains one, although when I go back through the notes for Agile Writing I may change my mind. 

Good quotes: 

Kate Paulk: "I'm actually disappointed that I haven't gotten a fatwa over Impaler."

Eric Bakutis: "There's always the sequel. It's important to have goals!"

Sarah Hoyt: "Your well-rounded character can be deflated by something sharp and pointy."

Sarah Hoyt, speaking of one of Tom Kratman's characters: "He is seriously lacking in ruth."

Met Michael Z Williamson, Sarah Hoyt, Chris Weuve (who I'd met at Trafalgar Day 2005, although he was towards the rear of the Franco-Spanish fleet, while I was close to the van in Heros, so "met" might be an overstatement), Iver Cooper, Greg Smith.

Bought Cthulhu Fluxx (as a gift), Pirate Fluxx, four of the Flashman books, an autographed hardback of Freehold, a draft edition of Agile Writer, and a couple of miniatures, and added a few more books to the wish list (Paulk, Bova, Tony Daniel, Hoyt). 

Byzantines Discover America

A month ago, Josh and I were talking about story ideas, and I mentioned "Byzantines Discover America" as a setting. Josh liked that idea, so we spent a fair amount of tonight chatting about what year the Byzantines would depart, and what would be happening in the Mediterranean at the time--Roger de Flor and the Catalan Company, the Seventh Crusade, the Principality of Achaea, and so forth. Slightly esoteric, but fun.

Now reading

Two books on writing:

• Rachel Aaron's 2k to 10k: Writing Faster, Writing Better, and Writing More of What You Love
• David Farland's Million Dollar Outlines

Both of these having me taking notes and getting excited about getting back into writing.

And I'm also reading the rules to Impetus miniatures rules, which also look quite interesting

So You've Discovered That You're A Fictional Character

An article from Cracked.com on how to cope with this momentous discovery. (It's been several years since I realized that I'm a non player character).

MarsCon

I went to MarsCon in Williamsburg today. My schedule:

• interview with SM Stirling (author of Conquistador and The Peshawar Lancers, among many others)
• panel on steampunk costuming
• writing seminar on plotting
• diversions and amusements in the age of steam

I couldn't tag people and number them and attach little radio transmitters so scientists could study their migration patterns, but I'd guesstimate there were several hundred people there, possibly as many as a thousand, including guests, vendors, undead, steampunks, a member of the 501st Legion, a couple of jedi, a Sith, some Umbrella Corp guards, post-apocalyptic zombie hunters, miscellaneous geeks, and a few mundanes. Roughly 2000 square feet of vendor space, including Robert Quill, Artist for Hire and a couple other cartoonists, Hatton Cross Steampunk and a couple others with steampunk goods, The Leather Lair (they had some very nice coats and corsets, their website doesn't do it justice), plus people selling swords, books, games, tee shirts, jewelry, carvings, paintings and such.

Notes from the SM Stirling interview:

He said his e-book sales were 10% of his total last year, 20% this year. He likes reading books on history of logistics and such things; "world-building is good occupational therapy for lunatics who think they're god". He trained as a lawyer but had his dorsal fin removed, so never practiced.

The average book takes him 6-12 months to write, not counting gestation time. "The distinguishing mark of a real writer, compared to a wannabe, is...they write. And finish." He said his natural story length is a novel; "writing a short story is like stuffing a live cat into a Coke bottle without hurting it." And he said "If you're not having fun when you're writing, you're in the wrong line of work. It is work, but it's fun work."

Notes from the steampunk costuming panel:

"Ganymede Thornycroft" and "Finnegan O'Sullivan" were there with elaborate outfits. Most of the stuff people had was built with materials found in thrift stores, or bits picked up from the hardware store, or low-cost shops like Tuesday Morning. The best thrift stores are the ones by a military base, as they get a good assortment of strange things--things bought overseas, for instance. Get a Dremel or similar tool, and go to it. Steampunk: Gears Gadgets and Gizmos was recommended.

Notes from the writing session will be on Ficton.

Bought a couple of books and a game which I'll review later, had several people complement my paisley vest, resisted buying a handsome zatoichi sword for which I have no possible use, avoided the zombies, and had a good time.

Mars Con

I'm going to MarsCon in Williamsburg on Saturday. SM Stirling (The Peshawar Lancers) will be there, there will be a couple of writers' workshops, and a couple of steampunk panels.

NaNoWriMo

Ploughed through 4400 words in the last two days to end up at 30,006 for the month. That isn't 50k, but it is 30k more than I had when I started November.

NaNoWriMo

Hit 25K tonight, which bodes not well for hitting 50K by the end of the month! But I am tolerably pleased with the 25k I have.

NaNoWriMo 2011 Preparation

One month till the beginning of National Novel Writing Month. Get ready now.

On the opinions of critics

On Monster Hunter Nation, Larry Correia talks about being a Campbell Award nominee:

I am the least favored to win by the literary critical types, (in fact, I’ve seen a few places where they have ranked me #6 out of the 5 finalists) but that’s cool, because I am the only author eligible that has had a gnome fight or trailer park elves. (or as one critic pointed out, I am a relentlessly single tone throw back, and another said that if I win it is an insult and a black mark on the entire field of writing.) SWEET!  I’m so unabashadly pulpy and just happy to entertain, and thus offensive, that I make the inteligensia weep bitter blood tears of rage.
Hell, that alone makes writing books worth it. 
Though the gigantic royalty checks full of money from all of my many bestselling novels is pretty sweet too.

 That's the attitude I like.

Lie about how we met

A friend of mine had a Facebook posting: Tell the story of how we met, but lie about it. A little creativity is always good, so...
My brother Jonathan, who is 6 years younger than me, came up with the most inventive one thus far:

I wouldn't say we "met": I knew you before you hatched. I watched over you through your six week juvenile stage, and helped you emerge into adulthood. Then we found a suitable host for you. The rest is Chris-tory. 

 Feel free to add your own versions, in Comments.

Heinlein's rules of writing

Five Rules of Success in Writing:

1. You must write.
2. You must finish what you write
3. You must refrain from re-writing except to editorial order
4. You must place it on the market.
5. You must keep it on the market until sold.

From a lecture delivered by Robert A Heinlein in 1973 at Annapolis. Hat tip: Jerry Pournelle

FantaSci 9

On Saturday I attended FantaSci 9, a mini-convention held at the Chesapeake Library.  I'd guess 300 people participated: vendors from comic shops, authors, members of Star Wars, Star Trek and Resident Evil fan clubs, a couple of zombies, and people wandering in. Some of the people looked a bit silly, but some of them were pretty impressive. There was a tall thin black guy who, as Josh put it, did "Sith" very well; the Umbrella Corporation security team looked good and there was an excellent zombie.
There were three tracks of programs and I was there for the writing, so I sat in on "Worldbuilding" and "Craft, Publishing and Promotion"; the "Grab Your Reader on the First Page" one didn't grab me. The Worldbuilding one  was pleasant; Leona Wisoker was cheerful and organized, with handouts, and I enjoyed getting into the worldbuilding mode for a while.
The Craft, Publishing and Promotion panel also had some information. One of the authors said that his sales were at 2000 for the month of April; went to 17,000 in May, when his publisher made that title available as a Kindle download; and was at 18,500 in June. If you have a series, you can put the first ebook at 99 cents, and the rest of them at $2.99. All three authors on the panel said that you have to sell your own books; the publisher may help some but you can't just hand them the manuscript and expect that they'll do all the heavy lifting. I asked about promoting your books, "what did you discover that you had to do, that you hadn't expected when you got started?", and the answers were, basically, "be outgoing." Leona said that she learned to smile at everyone, including kids; Marshall Thomas said that he found that any time someone walks by your table, you talk to them, hand them something, get their attention. If people meet you at a con and like you, they'll be a lot more likely to read your books. They may not buy them while they're at the con, but they'll download them later.
I have to finish this post now so I can read the first chapter of Secret of the Sands.

How to Write a Novel

Larry Correia has a post discussing first person versus third person, and the penultimate paragraph is:

I want to be Dan Simmons when I grow up, but then again, I did just sell a book featuring a teleporting magic ninja fight on top of a flaming pirate dirigible in a world with bear cavalry, gangsters, wizards, and John Browning fighting the magic samurai of Imperial Japan with Tesla super weapons, so I’m working on it.

How could you not want to go out and buy that?

NaNoWriMo update

50,003 words. The novel isn't finished, but the NaNoWriMo challenge is. Woot!

NaNoWriMo update

My total for the month just hit 22,000. That's a little behind schedule, but I should ketchup tonight. With french fries and grilled hamburger. I put a little dry mustard and honey in the hamburger, along with chopped onion, black and red pepper, and salt. Yum.

The leaves are turning here. Some years they go from green straight to brown, but this year there's some red and  yellow. In the afternoon sunlight, the marsh grass looks gold.