Archive for » September, 2008 «
I don’t think there’s an author in the world that hasn’t been plagued by the bane of the info dump. At some point, somewhere in your writing career, you have succumbed to the curse of the backstory. It’s a bastard curse that’s so freakin’ hard to get away from but regardless of the turmoil, we must do it. Kristin Nelson talked about this in another one of her beginning writer mistakes posts. What she focuses on is the info dump that occurs at the beginning, setting the stage so we know just how the MC got to that starting point and why.
Yeah, don’t do this. Weave it in and our of your plot as a whole. No doubt about it your character will come across people, places, things or events that’ll remind him or her about this or that in that time of his or her life. That’s when you bring it in and not in flowing rivers either. Trickle it in and each time you do, it’ll add another piece to your character, fill them out just a little bit more. Remember, people need to like your character before they can care enough to find out what happens in their past. I need to actually want that information, not just have it given to me so I “understand” what’s going on. I’ll understand as I go along. Have enough faith in your readers to know that.
Info dumps are especially hard to avoid when writing in genres like science fiction or fantasy, especially if you’ve built the world from the ground up. You want to give the readers as much of your world as you can because you spent so much time building it and want them to understand it and marvel it and appreciate it like you do. It’ll make the story better.
Resist.
Resist hard.
Only use what’s important to the story. If flaming weezlewuzzles are a running motif and actually carry a point in the story, then sure, keep them in. If they serve no other purpose than being another piece in your intricate world, keep it out. Don’t detract people’s attentions from the more important plot because you want to divulge about your made up plant life or whatever else you’ve created. Keep the minutiae to your notes. World building that much allows you, as a writer, to have a better understanding to your own world which gives you the opportunity to write the story with that much more depth. Not every single hole has to be filled in. Just the important ones.
Agent Kristin also warns people to not to be fooled; that the info dump can creep into the story a few chapters in. Doesn’t make it not so and it’s not fooling anyone either. No matter where you place it in the story, it’s still an info dump and it needs to be whittled down to just what’s necessary. Go through your work with editor eyes and really look for parts that meander away from the plot at hand to talk about something that happened in the character’s past. Really watch out for those and then take a hack saw to them. Aside from the fact that it takes your readers’ attention away from the story, it’s unnecessary fat on the work. Give it a workout.
Info dumps are good for the author, not the reader.
This time Kristin Nelson talks about titles and how authors have a tendency of making them much more complicated than what they should be.
I know I’ve said it before (if not here then I know it’s on my website) that titles are the bane of my existence. I long for the day when I have the chance to have a publisher come up with something that I couldn’t even think of for my own work. I only title because I have to and even then it’s usually something that’s off the cuff and, well, crappy.
I usually try to keep them short because I know I, personally, can’t stand titles that have overextended their welcome. A good rule to live by is being able to say the thing in one breath. If you need two, start your editing. Usually the simpler the better. Easier said than done, right? Just find the right couple of words that perfectly represents your 70,000 word novel and you’re good to go!
Agent Kristin also touches upon subtitled books. Now I have to say I definitely see more of these in non-fiction than I do fiction but really, what’s the point of a title plus a subtitle for a work of fiction? Like she said, why would I want to read the book if everything’s laid out for me in the title itself? Takes the mystery out of it all.
The thing is, if you’re a series writer, a lot of times at least two titles come into the mix, one for the series and the others for each individual books. DM Cornish’s series, for instance, is Monster Blood Tattoo with Foundling being a book in that series. With my series, Diamond Crier is no longer fitting for the title of the first arc. It still fits, but not like it did when the tone was more serious. Diamond Crier would be good for a title for the series as a whole but I’m going to have to scour my mind for something a bit more quirky for the book itself. Damn.
If you’re like me and you hate and/or can’t seem to title your books, when your works are out on edits, have people recommend titles while they’re at it. They’re already editing a novel. What’s a few more words, right? The thing is, there’s a reason why you have someone else edit your work–to see things you might have missed. A different set of eyes might be able to garner a different selection of words from the work that you would have never thought of. It couldn’t hurt.
Just, whatever you do, don’t leave it untitled, especially if you’re querying it. Agents want to see that you can come up with something on your own (even though it more than likely won’t stick on a sale) than see someone that would rather just have someone else title it and not buckle down on anything. You can think the latter. I know I do. But just don’t act it out. Create the title and send it out. Besides, it’s not the title that’ll grab an agent. It’s the writing.
Environmentalist vampires. That sounded, well, interesting to say the least. The real selling point, though? The hardcover was $5 on the Barnes and Noble bargain rack. Can’t beat that! And I have to say, thank whatever god may exist that that’s all I paid for it. I would have been peeved if it cost any more.
I must have missed the “literary” note in the jacket flap (I skim, it’s highly likely) but, even then, I don’t think the writing in this was good enough to be deemed real literary. Not that I think literary is bad, but I would have expected something other than the hype the jacket flap was offering if I had seen that note. This is the second book where I was swayed by the flap and it thoroughly let me down (regardless of my missing the “literary” point).
The flap reads thusly–
“If you ever want to hide from the world, live in a small city, where everyone seems anonymous.”
That’s the advice of twelve-year-old Ariella Montero, who lives with her father in Saratoga Springs, New York, in a house haunted more by secrets than by memories. The Society of S traces her journey south, to Asheville and Savannah, and on to Florida, as she learns that everything she knows about her family is a lie.
When she find her mother, she learns the truth: Ariella is a fledgling member of the Society of S.
S stands for Sanguinists: a sect of environmentalists concerned with ethics and human rights–although they happen to be vampires. S also stands for synesthete: a person able to see words and letters in colors. The letter S is lucky for Sara, Ariella’s mother, who gravitates to cities such as Savannah and Sarasota. But will it be lucky for Ariella?
Susan Hubbard’s novel is an intricate literary mystery that raises provocative questions about the way we live now. Ariella’s voice will lure you into a world where you’ll meet the others among us: vampires who cope with their special nature and need for blood in a variety of ways, ranging from the savage to the mundane to the scientific.
It’s that time of year again to do the very thing that overbearing parents and anal-retentive, commandeering childless adults fought so hard to stifle. Starting today, September 27th and ending next Saturday, October 4th, is Banned Books Week where we of much readage peer upon lists of the most challenged and banned books of years past and scoff at the complete idiocy of it all while thanking whatever god we may or may not believe in that we have the Constitutional right to write things that others would like to set on fire.
So, in honor of Banned Books Week, and to stick it to the schmucks with way too much time on their hands, pick up a book from this past year’s most challenged and banned list and read it. If you’re feeling extra generous, pass it along to others. Organize a public reading or send the author a thank you note. While you’re at it, ask Sarah Palin why she’d even ask a librarian if she’d willingly de-shelf books she wanted banned, even if it’s for nothing more than “loyalty purposes” (/political chide).
Be sure to check out the American Library Association’s plethora of information on banned and challenged books. And hug a librarian . . . with permission. After all, I think they’re the ones that love books the most out of anyone and they’re the ones laughing fighting the hardest to keep moronicism at bay.
So what have you read off of that list? Me? To Kill A Mockingbird, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, Of Mice and Men and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Eh, pretty short and no, I’ve never read Slaughterhouse Five. I know I must. I do think I need to get me some merchandise, though. Or maybe I’ll make myself a t-shirt that says I <3 Banned Books. Fitting!
Maybe it’s time I read The Joy of Sex. Obviously those people aren’t using it. I don’t want it to get dusty. Yeah . . . that’s it . . .
At this point I’m finding it hard to not be redundant in my reviews of this series. Everything that I’ve said regarding characters and personalities and plot all stands except everything’s magnified, amplified, blown up and whatever other synonym you want to use.
Bella is perpetually helpless, perpetually under attack and perpetually self-deprecating. Edward is perpetually helpful, perpetually there to save the day and perpetually reassuring. It must be all those years of vampiric patience. I wonder how many centuries it’ll take for the “you’re better than me” putz Bella is constantly spewing out to wear thin. Will love survive such endless, backwards-hair-rubbing cycles? I’m hard-pressed to think she’ll get over it any time soon. That is unless she becomes “OMG beautiful!” once she becomes a vampire like she hopes to. Why? So she can stand next to Edward and feel like she belongs there. Three f*^$^%( books of this so far. He’s stuck around this long but obviously that’s not enough. Neither is the drippy goo love. I think sacrificial goats are in order for Edward to start proving himself since she’s obviously not getting it.
