I'm trying to link this blog to my personal one on wordpress because I have considerably more functionality over there than here. However, I want to be able to have posts about writing to appear here so I don't feel like I'm advertising something other than the site and get in trouble with the mods. Does anyone know how to do this?
My experiment with social media is starting to get cranked up. What I've done is create my wordpress blog: taliasworld.wordpress.com and then linked it up with a Twitter feed and a group on Facebook. Now when I post, it goes to those pages at the same time, allowing each message to go further than they would alone. The next thing that takes careful consideration is the use of 'tags' at the bottom of your page. These are what Google and other search engines use to find your page for people searching. What I've done on my page is I have a menu spot for my writing, photography, thoughts on writing, rambles about space and time, rambles and then Dr.Who. That's allowed me to put snippets of my novel (and make sure you bounce around to keep from giving your plot away and NEVER NEVER NEVER put the first chapter out) and some of my photographs onto the site for people to follow. As I mentioned in a message to someone, I finally got things finished and started posting Tuesday or Wednesday and have grown from 1 follower to almost 40. Each day one or two more hop on either following my photography or writing. So, it's a very useful tool when done right.
A post on social networking and some of the best ways to build your brand. And it's not like you think.
One of the things I see a lot on writing forums are beginning writers asking about characters. It seems that creating characters is challenging to those who are just starting. In reality, they’re not. The problem most people have is they don’t realize that writing comes from the heart. What do I mean by that? Well, here’s a brief explanation. I created a character named Kate over twenty years ago while I was in middle school and carried her with me until late this past fall. She was a brutal character who could be very violent, and always carried a lot of angst with her. I have Bipolar and when I was coming through the school system, there wasn’t the support programs there are now. In fact, my illness got listed as LD/ED, and it never addressed the issues that lead to being unstable and not able to fit in with the crowd. That led to a lot of mental abuse from the people around me over the years and that ended up going into Kate. She became the anger, sadness and frustration that I felt over the past. So, all the brutal rage that builds up when one suffers abuse became the reason for her creation. One day, a kind lady named Maia challenged me. She asked me whether I wanted to be a serious writer, and I decided that the answer was “Yes.” When that happened, a thought arose to create a new character and, PERHAPS, kill Kate off. As I worked on creating the new character, three more came along to create and ensemble cast (which is a post for another day). Things started to change, and a whole new world for the characters morphed off the one I’d already built for Kate. Why? As I said earlier, the previous character Kate was based off my pain and hurt. The new character, Talia, and her sisters came from the ‘new’ me. Having spent almost three years having regular counseling after my last bipolar breakdown, I came to learn, and accept, who I was. This opened up another side that never had shown itself while writing. Thus, the characters changed. Hemmingway is famous for saying: “There is nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and bleed.” ― Ernest Hemingway His quote is very true, and I challenge everyone to look deep inside yourself when you’re starting your characterization process and see if there’s any connection, or chemistry, between you the writer and the creation. If that doesn’t exist than the writing won’t feel ‘real,’ and it’ll leave a person wondering what they’ve done wrong. Writing comes from the heart. TW
Several blog posts on writing from the heart and how it relates to character building and style of writing. Also, I'll be putting up some information about social networking and what I'm learning is effective and what isn't. I'll link things up when it's ready.
From a blog on the UK Daily Telegraph. http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/booksblog/2013/jan/03/science-fiction-predictions-2013 This is an interesting article about trends that are being predicted to happen in science fiction over the course of 2013. I find the concept of serializing a novel on Kindle to be very interesting indeed. If Scalzi is successful with this experiment, than it might mean a return to the days of classic science fiction where stories were told month by month in the magazines. I for one hope this comes true.
“The first draft of anything is shit.” ― Ernest Hemingway A good piece of wisdom from the man, whether we like his writing or not. Even after we've gone through and given a novel it's first massage, it's still not going to be very good. It'll take multiple passes, removing things each time, to reach the bare essence of what you are writing. I also believe his comment on Faulkner too: “Poor Faulkner. Does he really think big emotions come from big words? He thinks I don’t know the ten-dollar words. I know them all right. But there are older and simpler and better words, and those are the ones I use.” ― Ernest Hemingway One also doesn't need to use the ten dollar word to get our point across. Use what's simplest, and most effective to get your point across.
I think I've got the background issue taken care of. Also have started a new facebook group for discussing science fiction for those who write and read it. I'd love to hear-either on my blog-or on my group about what's working and not working in the industry from the readers end. http://www.facebook.com/pages/Talias-World/425625254184582
to my personal site on Tumblr. Address is: http://taliasworld.tumblr.com I'm still going to post here, probably some cross posts too so this isn't going totally silent.
Before the rivet counters get going, the sections I'm using are from a VERY ROUGH draft of the novel I just finished. It's resting a bit while I get the second started. So, I wanted to make that clear. Humanizing a character is one of the hardest things to do as a author, especially if they write action stories or space operas with lots of action. The problem is that the more action a character (fight scenes, battles, naval warfare) the harder it is to make that person seem real. Look at the John Wayne movies and you'll see what I mean. All macho..no real humanity until you reach 'In Harm's Way' near the end of his career and life. Ok, how do you do this? It comes from their attitudes and experiences. If you've finished a battle scene (and I know there are critics of the act-react method but this is where it works very well) the next chapter, once the battle is done is a good way to do this. Let me set the table for these actions. Talia has had to use her Gahl cruiser to wipe out a Task Force that was going to destroy a colony. They left her no choice whether or not to do so. Twenty thousand lives verses several million..do that math. The naval battle is over, and she's heading over to the Bismark (and don't read too much into it, there's a convoluted plot that makes it being a 'German' ship not necessarily a solo group.) to briefly question the Task Force's CO before he's taken into custody. Her reactions to the battle are so: Talia sat beside the shuttle pilot in the cockpit, and crossed her arms before closing her eyes. Four ships destroyed in less then six minutes, with the flagship reduced to a floating hulk. Ten thousand lives snuffed out like snapping her fingers and it disturbed the experienced warrior. Why would humans want to do things like this to each other? Unnecessary. That defined the entire course of events and it lead her to sigh softly. During the course of a losing war, she’d seen more death then any one person should ever see and deal with, but none of it compared to the Cabal’s attempt at seizing total control of human space. Once they achieved their goal, what would be next? Take over the galaxy? She's sitting there, brooding to herself about how unnecessary the entire battle was. What is shows, right after she's had to command a devastating battle, that she has a conscience and is bothered by what happened. It brings her back into line with a reader who'd be feeling the same way at the time. Your reader has emotions, and thoughts, like the character's do, and when the story helps illustrate how the villain's (or multiple villains in this case) cause unnecessary events to happen. Talia crossed her arms and sighed. “What a waste.” “Ma’am?” “What a waste of human life. None of this had to happen. Ten thousand lives snuffed out in less then a minute.” “Better them then us.” “Yeah. Tell that to the parents who lost their child, and the wives and children either widowed or fatherless. They are the victims in all this.” “I’m just glad they didn’t kill the colony.” “Wrong way to look at things, Lieutenant. It’s very short sighted, because while it might be safe today, nothing guarantees tomorrow. Think big picture.” Another case of how you humanize your character. Talia's looking at a young marine officer, fresh from OCS and trying to give life advice about how futile combat is. Without going into great detail, Talia's lived 20 thousand years so she's seen it all, and is trying to pass on what the horrors of combat are. 'Yeah. Tell that to the parents...' Is a line meant to show the weight of command and the price decisions carry. What it's done is show that a character who might have to do something bad, understands the consequences of their actions, and how it affects others and not just herself. Another good example of that, is the Honor Harrington series-especially the early one's where Honor's commanding a single ship and you'll see it done in a similar fashion. (In this little piece of dialogue, it's not tagged so I need to let you know the order. It's Admiral Rickman first, then Talia who's still hiding under the guise of being Kate Almir when she's not) “No one likes a smart ass.” “And no one likes a traitor, Admiral.” “You would in my position.” “That’s where you’re wrong, Admiral. I wouldn’t, because, as a warrior, my honor is the most important thing. It’s not for sale.” “You say that now. It’ll change if someone offers enough.” “I’ve turned them down too.” “That was stupid.” Talia spun around, pointing at everything and the view screen devoid of anything other then the Valiant. “Stupid? What’s stupid is getting ten thousand people killed in less then a minute and for what? You’re personal lust for money and power?” “You don’t have the first clue about how this is working out. Josephson only does what he’s told, he gets his walking orders from above.” Here she's humanized again with the statement 'my honor is not for sale' because so far, all the enemy officers are corrupt. It allows for Talia to be shown to be honest, trustworthy and not just someone who'd go off like a loose cannon. It allows for the reader to further see the vulnerable side of a character and what he or she stands for. And she shows, again, how futile combat is-especially when done for the worst of reasons. She's showing the reader that she's above having a lust for money or power, which allows the reader to really latch onto her as the heroine and main protagonist. Part two will come tomorrow on how to use scenes that don't involve battle to humanize also. They work a bit differently.
Here's a conversation between Kate and the mercenary commander Colonel Markham. It's in her POV, and I'll talk about it at the bottom, The oily bark felt slick against the back of her knees as she swung down to hang upside down. The merc commander stopped, less then a foot away, to give orders, and Kate could hear his heartbeat. She smiled and then whistled softly. He turned to see the source of the sound, his forehead bumping against the end of the Glock’s slide with the barrel’s opening flush against the man’s skin. Kate watched him go white, and the merc’s heartbeat raced. She looked at him mildly, and raised a eyebrow. “Hello.” Kate said. “I believe we have some business to discuss.” He blanched. “Uh…ok.” “First off.” She said. “Call the kids off. I can kill all of your team in less then two seconds.” “I find that hard to believe.” Kate raised an eyebrow. “If you feel that way, then our business is over. I came to talk.” The merc never took his eyes of hers. “About what? You’ve killed several of my team. I know you ended Sally’s agony but it doesn’t change the fact you murdered a sixteen year old girl.” “Murder.” Kate said mildly. “Is defined by people who sit back in nice padded chairs, smoking cigars and drinking cognac while others are on battlefields.” “Doesn’t change anything, though.” Kate shrugged. “No, it doesn’t.” She agreed. “But I’m doing this for Sally. You see, I’m going to talk, and you’re going to listen.” “Ok.” (Let's look at the section, and there's good reason for why tags go where they go. In the first line, Kate's eyebrow went up BEFORE she spoke, so it wouldn't make sense to tag it on the end because it then makes it seem she did it after talking. A small but subtle difference that shows personality better. Now 'said mildly' went where it was because the ENTIRE comment was in a mild tone, so it made sense to leave it there. The shrugged it another action before speaking, with the tag put in intentionally to create a BEAT there. A BEAT in both play and script writing is a pause. While the word isn't used in writing, putting a tag strategically allows you to achieve the same goal.) “First off, what’s your name?” “Markham.” “Well, Markham.” She said. “You do know they’re pursuing me to keep from stopping your employer from killing the President.” “Yes.” “Good.” Kate said mildly. “So we both know where we stand. Sally bothered me a lot.” “It should have.” “Well.” She said. “If people weren’t trying to kill me, ya know, shit like this wouldn’t happen. But, ya know, a girl’s gotta do what a girl’s gotta do.” (Here there are no physical actions before the speech, so the tags are lined up appropriately. As said before, they can be used for pauses, and I personally wanted a few pauses in there. Like on the last line. "Well" PAUSE "If people weren't..." So there's plenty of uses for tags in a dialogue scene to help create the scene you want. It's a matter of experimenting with them, and understanding the mechanics of words, writing and what kind of pace you want.)
Dialogue, when done correctly, is a writer's best friend. It allows for great characterization, the ability to move the story on quickly, and to share plot elements with you reader. Why is this so? Let's explore human interaction. When we interact with people, how we do this? By spoke word more then anything else, which is where dialogue comes in on your stories. It's the level where character's interact, and either have conflict, explain something, show their nature, or say things to push your story forwards. So, to start these are the four major uses for dialogue: 1. Conflict creation or resolution. 2. Explaining things. A lot of people would this isn't true-but it's part of how we interact so characters do this also. 3. Show their nature through their words 4. Say things to push the plot and story forwards. Now let's move into tags and what they're primarily used for. Tags are good to differentiating who's speaking, or to give a pause in the action. They also describe action when necessary. A lot of new writers make the mistake of saying: "Screw you!" Tom shook his head. Now, was the shaking of head first or happen after the words? The way it's written is that "screw you" happens then Tom shook his head. While that's fine if planned in that order, but what if the action is BEFORE the words? "Really?" Tom raised a mild eyebrow. would have it after. But like I just said: what if it's BEFORE? Tom raised a mild eyebrow. "Really?" An action can be described before the words are said. Plenty of people will say that's breaking a writing rule, but that's where knowing what they are helps. With that knowledge, you know when it can be broken like this to make your dialogue work. Now, let's look at a lengthy piece of dialogue: Now to set the stage, Melissa's looking for Kate Almir, my MC, to talk to her, who is the Almir (al-meyer) mentioned. I'm going to go through this almost line by line. “Looking for me?” “Yes.” Melissa said. “I am.” (Ok, the conversation has started, but could you differentiate between Kate and Melissa without the tag? This falls into place to allow a reader to know who is who.) “Why? Don’t be cute, girlfriend. My rifle’s aimed at your head, and I wouldn’t want my finger to spasm.” Melissa continued to look around. “I want to talk.” (The reason for the tag here is a pacing deal. You can control your pacing via the use of tags. Here I wanted to keep the conversation slow, and suspicious on both sides since neither truly trusts the other one. Now on the tag. Melissa's looking around for Kate before speaking, so to put 'Melissa continued to look around' at the end would make the reader think it was after the words when she's doing it before and after.) “Talk?” The girl’s tone turned suspicious. “I don’t know if you read the bulletin board, but that boat sailed a long time ago.” Melissa licked her lips and closed her eyes. Almir didn’t seem willing to talk, and she kicked herself for making the effort. Maybe the girl will be kind enough to make it quick. (In this one, you get the answer from Kate to Melissa's question. The tag allows for the comments to change. The "Talk?" is a basic question anyone asks-no real tone to it. However, the last half is when she starts to question to other woman's motives, and the tone turns suspicious. Now, given the fact that emotions change in the middle of statements with people, and in this case it does, the tag doesn't belong at the end.) Melissa dropped the rifle and extended her arms outwards. “Go ahead, then.” She said. “Shoot me.” “I’m not gonna kill you yet. I wanna know why you sought me out, and don’t bullshit me with ‘I want to talk.’ That boat don’t float.” “If you want me to tell you, then I want to know where you’re at. That seems like a fair trade.” “Possibly, but the world ain’t fair. Now, toss that rifle away.” (Ok, here we go to a faster paced conversation, which is why the lack of tags. The initial tag comes from the action Melissa does for speaking. Then it's back and forth between her and Kate. Using a tag to start gives the reader the chance to know who's speaking when so they don't get confused.) Melissa bent over, picked it up, and tossed it as far as she could. “There.” “Now your handgun.” Melissa followed suit. “Ok.” She said. “I’m unarmed.” Almir chuckled. “Look up.” (Ok, Melissa's action breaks the fast pace, and allows the reader to catch their breath. It's not a particularly fast paced conversation by design, but you can have whole pages that don't have a tag except every once and a while to give a break in the action. However, since the scene is in Melissa's POV, the dialogue here will then contain her actions also.) In closing, there's many ways to use dialogue to your advantage. These are just a couple examples. Experiment on the side, spend time writing as if YOU are the one talking with the character and see how the conversation goes, and flows. It's a give and take, high and low tide kind of thing. It's a challenge that I know you can beat.
I actually found myself spending nearly three hours today world building, and, for the first time, making a list of things about my four characters. This is new for me, and came about in a funny way because of something I'd decided on over a year ago about Kate, my MC, and then tossed. As she (and yes SHE fills the things in. It's almost like listening to someone describe their life, and you're just typing it) filled in her life, it became painfully evident that the thrown away idea described her reality. So, I wrote it into the larger overall series arc. None of these novels, which are capable of being stand alone's also, have been written with anything other then a series in mind. However, after watching the anime Aquarius, something kicked around in my head, and a reality involving Kate and her three other main characters came to being. Now, the problem with something like that is, with on character, things are fairly simple for me to keep up with mentally. I can even do it with 2-3, but once the fourth hopped onto the scene, and this idea (which I'm not going to give away my thunder ) came into fruition as I slept last night, the need for some world building and outlining came into being, and I'll explain why. Science Fiction worlds are, by nature, very large when they deal with outer space. The Milky Way's a massive place, and world's for character's can be equally large. However, here's where the rubber meets the road. Hang in with me here, ok? Let's say you're taking something like "Aquarius" where the MC's are reincarnated for thousands of years ago. Ok, right there you've just given yourself TWO story lines, and worlds to be honest, to keep track of. That means, knowing HOW they tie on together, why they were together, what happened to break things. Then the next step would be WHY they came back into being in the present of your story. That's your second world you have to have built, or worked together to tie up loose ends. When dealing with issues that large, you have so many threads tied together it's easier to write down. Now, let's move to world building 101 for people who are just starting out. In principle, a "world" is the same as what we live in. Whether it's 100,000 years in the future, or yesterday, there's always real life there. For a fictional character, that's what you call 'a world.' When building a world, depending on the scope of your novel, it needs to be large enough, and real enough, to encompass your characters and give them a legitimate home. Now that can be something from 'The Hobbit' 'Lord of the Rings' to 'Blade Runner.' The choice is yours. However, it needs to fit your character. Now in science fiction, depending on the type your writing, there are general basics you need for deep space opera: Ships to get to and from places Faster then Light (FTL) Note: NOT always necessary. There are items such as generational ships that can be used. They're crewed by people who literally live and die on the ship as it travels towards the destination, with each generation growing closer. Ways of communication. Can by courier ship, or if you have FTL, then it can be FTL. Some things from land mobile radio communications can be used if you like. There are base stations, mobiles (radios on cars/trucks), handhelds and what's called repeaters (they take the signal, amplify it and then repeat it outwards for it to go further). They can be modified to be used for FTL coms if you like, the principles could work the same, but the tech be different. Resources/planets. One or more government are something I think, and it doesn't have to be that way fully, allow for more intrigue and greater possibility for tension and conflict. This is writer's discretion. If one wants alien's, you have several different ways to go about it. There can be humanoid aliens, who are different DNA wise from us, perhaps seeded the earth (which could be used to explain items such a Atlantis and other items in both archaeological and religious history without stepping on toes (when done correctly) or one can go for the completely inhuman appearance and structure. Those cover a few of the basics with science fiction. Note, science fiction gives a great avenue for throwing great curves or twists that can be easily explained through technology, aliens, history, planets, etc. Not that other forms of writing don't, it just seems there's more avenues for it in sci fi. So, in closing, make sure your world is large enough for the MC to move about in easily and freely, and make sure it's not only 'real' for them, but real for the reader too. Good luck in your endeavors, and as we say in the south. "Yawl come back ya hear." CK
The initial thing to learn are the colors of the various jackets and shirts that work on the flight deck. There is a website, run by the US Navy that details what they mean, and the individual duties it is here: http://www.navy.mil/navydata/ships/carriers/rainbow.asp With that out of the way, keep in mind that it's a dangerous operation. Each plane has to hooked to the catapult by a person, who accesses it by moving under the plane. This is done to prevent someone from being sucked into a jet engine. There is a video on youtube showing this very danger, which the crewman get very lucky and survived. When moving behind the plane, where the engine wash comes from, personnel bend over with their hand over head. If it's warm, then you bend over further, because once hooked into the launch system, the jets are at full mil power (meaning maximum thrust) to be able to climb after being launched off. Walls come up from the deck to protect the planes waiting to launch from the engine thrust of the one's on the catapult. They have been known to come down, and seriously injure people by crushing or cutting off limbs, so keep that in mind when writing. The person who decides when the plane goes is called the shooter. While there are people in a small bubble built into the deck that control the actual catapult's, the shooter makes the final call. They were yellow, so their job falls into that category. Also, the crew member's who make final inspection of the flaps, rudders, etc, chain themselves to a small hole on deck to keep from being blown down the deck. Furthermore, wherever there isn't a catwalk running beside the flight deck, there is netting built around the edge of deck with the purpose of trying to catch and keep a crew member from going overboard. Landing involves arrestor cables, I think it's somewhere between three to five on the deck, at the rear (called stern in the navy. The very front of the ship is called the bow. Left is called Port, right is called Starboard), or stern, of the craft. The aircraft are built with hooks, and they catch the hydraulic cables and the resistance stops the plane. There have been instances of them failing, which can be found on youtube. I know they'll be military people on the board who can really go in depth on the subject, but this is a very simplistic information, which can help. The more in depth others provide can give your novel a better depth of realism.