Saturday, December 29, 2012

Insight on Getting Published

I know you thought it was going to be my truly inspired insight on getting published, but I thought I'd post this link to a great article by Jane Friedman on how long you should keep trying to get published by a traditional publisher.

She comments on a lot of details, including what you're trying to get published and whether it is commerically viable on a national level or if it's regional or niche.  And to me, the most important question of all: what your goals are.

Saturday, December 8, 2012

Writing Exercise: Waiting for a Stranger

Your character walks into a restaurant and has a conversation with the hostess (or host).  He (or she) says he has a reservation, for two people.  Hostess says he is the first to arrive, would he like to sit down or wait in the front.  Your character has never met the person he is dining with (is it breakfast, lunch, dinner?), and he doesn't know what they look like, so he's not sure what to do, since he won't recognize them when they come in.  How does the conversation go with the host/ess?  Who is your character?  Who is the person he (or she) is meeting?  Why are they meeting?  Finish the scene when the person comes in (or doesn') and they recognize each other (or don't).  Try to be a little bit more creative than 'a blind date.'

Saturday, December 1, 2012

Writing Exercise: After the Storm

Remember that person you wrote about in the last exercise and how they were preparing for an imminent storm?  When the wind dies down and the rain stops, and they come out of their hibernation, and step out into the world for the first time, what happened?  What are they faced with, damage, flooding, calm?  How did their preparations help, hinder, or have nothing to do with the the outcome of the storm?  And more importantly, how do they react to the situation?

Is there a tree down that crushed their car?
Do they have any shingles left on the roof?
Is the electricity out, and all that food in the refrigerator they bought is going to go bad anyway?

And more importantly, how do they feel about what they see?  And what do they do first?

Friday, October 26, 2012

Writing Prompt: Before the Storm

There are two courses of action I've heard the most from these days before the impending hurricane here in the northeast.  One school is all about water, milk, eggs, rice, prepared foods.  The other is wine, beer, cheese, baguette, DVDs, tortilla chips.  There's also me on a 24' ladder cleaning out the gutters that I haven't cleared in like two years, now that we might get ten inches of rain in one day.

So think about different types of people and what might be the most important things for them to take care of days before a possible hurricane.  Come up with something that is really uncommon or a person who's need is really unique.  Write up a description of their preparations through a day about two days before the hurricane "might" hit the area.  If you want to take this further, write about the day of the hurricane -- did it actually hit locally, or maybe it was a big bust and never came.  How did the preparations and the desperate need play into the results.

Sunday, October 14, 2012

Writing Prompt -- Real Life

It's time for another writing prompt.  If you're one of those people who just can't get inspired to start a project, writing prompts are great.  But even if you are currently working on an ongoing project, writing prompts are great side exercises to take you away from that constant focus on your project to be free to go have fun with your writing for ten minutes, then get back to your novel, memoir, screenplay, etc.  So let's do a short little exercise.

Mine your own life, real situations, real people, real settings to draw out writing prompts.  Rather than take everything about an occurrence, take a few key details and launch into fiction.  Write into that situation for ten minutes, then read back to yourself where you took it.  If you can't come up with one of your own, here, use this one from my life right now.

I am 46 years old and found myself needing to learn a new, very complicated piece of design software.  Not having any design experience and having never used a software package like this one, it became obvious I should take a class.  So there I find myself in a classroom in the computer lab at Fashion Institute of Technology.  I've never wanted to be 'that old guy' who doesn't know about computers or technology, isn't up with the times.  But here I find myself in a classroom with 18-20 year olds.  They all get it immediately.  In fact they're opening their Facebook pages and gmail on their computers while the teacher is re-explaining steps for a few of the slower learners, which sadly includes me.  To get into this classroom, I had to walk through the very large room full of dozens of computer terminals filled with young, hip, trendy design students.  Write a short dialogue between me and the hip young girl at the next terminal to me during class.  Or write a quick interaction between me and a student or group of students during a ten minute break in the two-and-a-half hour evening class.  How's that for a fish-out-of-water story?

Saturday, July 7, 2012

How About a New Writing Prompt

Three friends meet up regularly on Saturday mornings in one of their backyards with their dogs for a 'puppy playdate.'  As the dogs run around and romp, the three friends stand and chat and catch up.  This week, a fourth person shows up, unexpected.  Why did they come?  Did they bring a dog?  There is some reason, issue, argument, secret, need, interest, desire that led them to show up.  Are the friends all women, men, mixed?  What's the gender of the new person?  Did any of the three know this person would be showing up?

This is really open ended for you.  Maybe one of the dogs bit this person.  Maybe this person is coming to ask out or propose to the host?  I'll stop giving you suggestions.  What happens?

Saturday, June 2, 2012

It's the End of the World as We Know It

Let's have some fun.  The Zombie Apocalypse is upon us!  To come up with a totally new and different spin on a genre theme that has been done 1,000 times before, let's start at the beginning. Answer these couple of questions, then write a short story that could be the start of a bigger story.

Where did the ZA start?
Get creative, get specific.  Yeah, yeah, yeah, the lab accident has been done to death.  Think about something else more interesting.  It might help to think on some of these questions as a whole, not one by one.  The characteristics of your zombies can be effected by your choice on where and how it started.
 
What caused it?
Virus, bacteria, inadequate burial practices, contaminated food, sexual contact, whatever your cause, even if it doesn't come out in the actual telling of your story, you as the writer should know.
 
How does it spread?
Do you have to get bitten by a zombie to get infected?  How do you get to that rule after the first victim?  Because I'm assuming the first victim wasn't bitten by a zombie, because there weren't any.  Can anyone now be infected the way the first person was?  Do you have to die first in order to become a zombie?  Are some people immune?
 
How fast does it spread?
I always wonder about just how fast the zombie infection will spread.  In order to get to full on Zombie Apocalypse it obviously has to spread pretty quickly, no?  Or maybe it spreads invisibly at first?  Or maybe on like Walking Dead, we're all infected

How do you become a zombie after the initial exposure?
The stories that make it about a bite or scratch typically have you get violently sick, flu-style, then die, then wake back up as a zombie.  Older stories would have people buried, then have to dig out of the ground.  Remember those great old pictures of the hands clawing out of the cemetery ground?  How about your story?  The cause will explain your first victim of the infection, so how does he or she spread it around?

What are the qualities and characteristics of zombies?
Of course eating people is always the top quality.  And most zombies don't talk.  They can't run, just walk.  They don't know how to turn door knobs.  And they have no compassion at all.  They don't eat each other, cuz frankly, wouldn't that take care of it?  Why do they crave human flesh?  Is it just human flesh they crave, or anything alive?  How can you avoid them?   Is it smell that drives them, or sight, or hearing?  The whole loud sounds thing getting their attention will make firearms dangerous to use.  Your survivors will need silent killing implements.

So... who is your main character?
Certainly the most important detail in any story, not just zombie.

Where is your main character?
Especially important in relation to where it started and how it spread.  Was your main character involved in the outbreak somehow?

More on the where, where is your main character going to ride out the ZA?  Or, where do they get stuck?  How are they able to survive?  Who is with the main character?  A group?  One loved one?  No one?

What will become your main characters strategy on how to survive and where to get to?
This the fun question of what is the quest for your character.  And I'll add, what is driving your main character?  Trying to save someone in particular, or trying to track down the cause or an antidote?  Or getting somewhere safe to live the rest of his/her life out?  This is where I hope you don't pick a shopping mall or the local high school.  I'm rather tired of stories of one hero desperately trying to find out about his/her one true love.  The entire world is crashing down around them.  Should we really care if he gets back and saves his ex-wife and the kids he doesn't have custody of anymore?

Add your own questions to the mix.  Be creative.  There are sorts of thngs you can try.  Maybe your main character is a zombie instead of a survivor?  Maybe zombies can talk?  Maybe they can fly?  Maybe the dig into the earth and they're like moles and can come up anywhere?  Come up with something entirely new and write a short synopsis or a short story or just an outline of the answers to all your questions.

Maybe I should come up with a framework and have people write stories inside the world of the Zombie Apocalypse as I created it.  Who would be in?

Wednesday, May 23, 2012

Fiction Writing Myth #1: Write What You Know

You hear it all the time in creative writing classes, particularly at the college level.  "Write what you know."  Biggest piece of hogwash you'll ever hear.  If it were true, we'd all be writing just memoirs.  And no one would be writing vampire fiction or fantasy or erotica (well, most erotica would be astoundingly boring).  And I don't want to think about who would be the only people qualified to write serial killer stories.

So why do they always say this to you in beginning creative writing classes?  'Write what you know.'  Does that mean I can only write stories set in the late 20th or early 21st century set in New Jersey, New York City, or San Francisco, about rather-boring men who commute to work every day on the train?

Let me give you advice that leads to what I think is intended by this stupid old rule.  Flip it on its head.  Rather than 'write what you know,' think about it as 'Know What You Write.'  You can set your story in another time, another place, even a place you've never been, about a character nothing like yourself.  But you have to get it right.  If you're setting your story in 19th century Paris, know everything you possibly can about 19th century Paris.  What did people wear?  You can't have someone put their cellphone in their jeans pocket, or say, '23 Skidoo, I'm gonna be late!'  Yes, yes, of course there is lee-way, and I'm being drastic with referring to a cellphone in the 19th century.  But you should know what style of clothing people wore and what Paris looked like back then.  I mean, do you really want your character walking into a building that couldn't have been there?  There's no pyramid attached to the front of the Louvre, you know.  You better know.

Yes, even if you're world-building, you have to know your world.  If it takes Bilbo a full days' ride to get from Hobbiton to Bree in one book, you can't have Frodo make the same journey on foot and arrive by noon a few books later.  Everything about your world and your characters has to ring true.  It's all about continuity and not confusing or distracting your readers.

Just like in the movies.  You know it takes them many, many takes to get each scene right.  And someone is there to make sure that if there is a magazine on a coffee table that is spread out and open, it needs to be set that way for every take.  And if no one has come by, and the next scene rolls right in from that one, the magazine can't suddenly be closed.  Unless it's a horror movie, then well, other rules.

For me, Frodo's Nipple is very jarring.  What?  What did I say?  Yes, Frodo's Nipple.  You remember the scene in Rivendell after Frodo wakes up from having been poisoned by the Nazgul blade.  He's lying in bed, and his friends are around him.  There is a super quick cut from one shot to the next as he is bounced upon by his hobbit friends.  In a split second, his shirt goes from being pulled wide open exposing his chest and nipple, and a split second later, as the other hobbit reaches down to hug him, the shirt is pulled closed tightly up to his neck.  That's what it's like when you put jeans on a character in 19th century Paris.  Suddenly I as the reader don't believe you anymore.  OK, silly example.  Here's one that's way more important, because it made me think something else entirely about a scene.

Anyone else remember the movie Jumping Jack Flash, starring Whoopi Goldberg?  Well, if you haven't seen it, and you like slapstick comedy you are missing out, because it is great.  Anyway, in one scene Whoopi's character, Terry Dolittle, returns to her apartment to find it ransacked by the bad guys.  As Terry enters and walks across the living room, behind her is the open bathroom door, and there is clearly something draped over the bathtub.  She turns around, and in the very next shot, it's not there.  Well, I noticed it, because my first thought was that it was a body (arm).  I screamed, 'Someone's in the bathroom!'  I watched the rest of the scene waiting for the person hiding in the bathroom to come out and jump her.  Never happened.  It was just a continuity error.  That's what happens when you get your facts wrong as a writer.

If you set up the rule that the spirits of all the people killed by a magic wand will come out of it in the order in which they were killed, if you screw up the order when the spirits come out, then all your readers will think something is wrong in the story as you told it.  Their minds will stick on the error, and you risk having them meander off your intended storytelling arc.

Yes, you can make things up.  Entire train lines or highways, towns and characters.  You can make someone the mayor of New York City even though we can look back in history and realize that they never existed.  But take care in its doing.  Make sure when your rewrite history, that you do it completely and explain how your reality works and is different from real reality.

We can continue with this whole idea of 'write what you know' in terms of plot, too.  But I think that's a post for another day.  But yes, I usually want to smack people who say, 'How can you write about heartbreak if you've never been in love?'  The same way I can write about stabbing you in your writing hand without having actually done it.  I just can't have you die in three seconds from the wound.

Sunday, May 20, 2012

How much is too much? Or even worse...

As an editor, I've heard several authors who were writing erotica or erotic romance or just straight up romance ask me the all-important question, 'Do you think there's too many sex scenes in my book?'  While I will say there is definitely a point at which some reader somewhere might be making her way through your book and think, 'Wow, enough is enough already,' I just wish I would hear just one author one time ask me the way more important question of, 'Do you think I need to add more sex?'

The only fatal problem I've ever found in the areas of erotica or erotic romance with regard to how much sex is in the book is 'not enough.'  I slogged my way through one terribly written cliche after cliche novel recently that was supposed to be erotic suspense, and at the end I realized that in about 250 pages there were 2 sexual situations, and one of them was a blowjob.

I've heard so many people try to explain it a certain way.  Answers I've heard range from 'every other chapter' to 'every character at least one' to 'every X number of pages.'  I actually like using that last one just as a writer's check in revising, but I do not profess it as an overarching rule.  Yes, I will suggest to a writer, go back and read through your entire book and mark the frequency of sexual situations, but overall, I hope no one approaches the telling of a story with a strict measuring stick for the juicy parts.  Sometimes one sexual scene will actually lead straight into another one, whether by effect of the plotline or placement of characters or whatever the reason.  Other times you will need to further your story along a little bit in order to get it told.  I mean, if you have your heroine lost in the woods all alone, not knowing if she'll ever get out or get found, you can't really throw in a sex scene.  Unless you're going to go with masturbation, dream, or flashback, but those are really really hocky constructs if there's no plot reason for them.

So I hope that's enough contradiction for you today.  Ever notice how writing advice never gives you a clear answer and tends to contradict itself?  Don't plan your sex in a per-page way, but when you finish writing your manuscript, go through and see for yourself how often the sex happens.  I know, I"m not very much help.  So let me just leave you with an old adage and a new one.

You've heard the old adage, 'Less is more.'  Right?  Well fuck that, here's your new adage, 'More is more.'  Geez, did I really juse use the word adage?  What an old fart.

Friday, May 18, 2012

Who Just Got Published!?!

Yes, it's true!  My novelette, THE TALE OF THE FARMER'S SECOND SON, is now up and available for sale on Amazon.  (coming soon on other retailer sites and device stores).  It's available for your Kindle now.  Or if you have a smart phone (iPhone, iPad, etc), you can download the free Kindle app and buy and read it through the app.

My fun little fairy tale of two brothers and a farm in a quiet little valley village by the forest.  I wanted to harken back to the language and feeling of old traditional fairy tales.  Not exactly for children, this tale isn't full of Prince Charming and Happily Ever After.  I hope you enjoy it nonetheless.  I think that's why I call it, 'Delightfully Evil.'  Click on the link below to buy it for your Kindle or for your Kindle app on your smart phone:



Saturday, March 31, 2012

Get Your Facts Straight About Facts

Now, I don't think you need me to tell you that when you're building your world, and even more importantly when you're setting your story in a real world setting, you should really pay attention to the details.

Remember that Will Smith movie where it starts out he's chasing an alien through the streets of New York, was it Men in Black?  And he jumps off the overpass  that rings around Grand Central Station.  And two blocks later they're running passed the Gugenheim.  That's like 40 blocks!  I know, I know, it could be they were going for time-lapse, but it still bothered me.

Well, it's the same in your novel.  Even if you invented the fictional town your story is set in.  It can't take someone twenty minutes to bike across town at one point in your story, then later they run over quickly to warn someone about something.  A lake has to be where a lake is, for the whole story.

One of my favorite books from the last year or so is The Language of Flowers, by Vanessa Diffendough.  The story is amazing, but what is so impressive is the perfection with which she paints San Francisco.  There is a community garden on a corner where she says it is.  I can even picture exactly where her character walks in a public park and finds flowers and trees and bushes specifically placed.  Now, yeah, if you don't know San Francisco, it doesn't matter.  But since I do, the book is that much more magical.

So even if you're creating a completely fictional town, I strongly urge you to draw it out in detail in your mind.  Know where every house, every store is.

Now, let's talk about what your characters know, and what they don't know.  If Mary wasn't there for a conversation between John and Sue, Mary can't know what they talked about.  She can't know what was divulged to whom by whom.  And once they know something, they know it.  I just read a book where something was explained to a character in the beginning.  Then later in the book, he doesn't know it again and he's told the same thing again.  Now he could have forgotten, but no, it's obvious the author forgot the character had been told something earlier.  It's just not clean writing.  If you're telling a story, keep your facts straight!  And actually, you have to keep everyone's facts straight!  What all your characters know, what they're aware of, what they think, how they feel about someone or something.  Particularly if you're writing a mystery!!!

OK, time to head to the beach, more later...

Monday, March 19, 2012

May the Road Rise Up to Meet You, by Peter Troy

 It's been a while since I posted, so let me say first, I've started a new job.  I'm now, well, since August, it's been that long since I've posted much on here, I'm now, as I was saying, senior acquisitions editor for AudioGO.  We publish unabridged audiobooks, as linked to below, but also I am launching into original publishing, looking for new and established authors.  We are looking forward into the new digital world and have a unique publishing program that will focus on eBook and audio publishing for the books that we publish.  I don't want to be one of those folks that screams that 'print is dead,' but this new digital world creates opportunity to get new exciting authors and innovative, edgier books published.  We hope to expand out of the common and into the innovative, challenging, and experimental.  More to come, always.