Whole Worlds

Cover page of the Children of Tamal

One of the hardest parts in writing Sci-fi/ fantasy, for me anyway, was knowing where to draw the line between providing enough information about your version of the world for readers that they understand and yet not flood them with irrelevant and boring data.

You can work out the full political system, but do they need to know that the Council only rules in the King’s stead while he is mad? Maybe. Do they need to know that it is the Council that determines whether or not the King is mad? Eventually, especially if the plot involves him trying to reclaim his throne. But when, where and how? These are questions you always need to ask.

So what are the alternatives? Here are  few examples of how.

 

• Third person observation – his reading of the fading calligraphy gave him but one answer, it was the Council that decided the King’s ability to rule.
• Third person conversation – upon reading of the crumbling scrolls, the ambassador looked across and his friend, “It looks like it is the Council that decides.”
• First person thoughts – “So how would he prove himself sane to those that stood to lose the most by it?”

Sometimes the where takes care of itself. If the opening scene is the King’s determination to return to his rightful place as ruler, then start telling them right away. If you mean it to be the final plot twist, then near the end makes sense.  But you can foreshadow – i.e. give hints.

Foreshadowing can be difficult. It often makes sense to you, but for those that haven’t spent ages immersing themselves in your world, it can be a confusing irrelevance that stops them reading long before the actual moment is in play.

The best advice I was ever given by my editors was to give it to a friend to read. Someone that will be ruthlessly honest and hasn’t ever heard you ramble on about the world before. They can be hard to find, but well worth it. If your book is suitable, I find a twelve year old is a perfect blend of ruthless and is unlikely to have been listening to you even if you did talk about it. Maybe mine will still be that way when she is old enough to read my books. Sigh.

Talk about the weather

Destiny Sets - read the first chapter free online

My mother always told me don’t talk about religion or politics. You’ll only get into arguments. So what about when you are writing? Should you mention them then?

I feel a hearty Yes coming on.

After all, you are not supposed to talk about those things because they lead to arguments. People feel strongly about them. If you leave them out of your books, you leave a big hole in your characters.

So where do you draw the line between well rounded character and someone that is just a vehicle for your own beliefs?

The question holds the answer. Is this really the character speaking? Is that a legitimate point of view for them to have, and would they really say that out loud?

One of my favourite authors is John Ringo. His characters are often quite pronounced in their beliefs. Occasionally he can stray into the realms of proselytising  but it’s rare. (Or maybe it’s only when I disagree with him that I notice it.) Most of the times, it rings very true for the character, even if they are complete blow hards. And the characters around them treat them accordingly.

That is the other litmus test for me. Do the people around the character react in a realistic way? When proofing, I often try to put the other character’s hat on and think about their reaction while this is happening. It can drive your editor mad when your point of view shifts mid stream and you didn’t notice, but it really does make for a more realistic flow to the action.

So what do you think? Should we talk politics or the weather?

What Keeps You Reading–Or Makes You Put a Book Down by Christine Duncan

Michelle’s post about reading the other week got me thinking. I tend to put books down for all sorts of reasons–sometimes there is nothing wrong with the darn thing at all–I’m just in the mood for something else.
Have you ever felt that way? This week with all of the news about the Iranian election and the test nukes from North Korea, I can’t read what I think of as simple or sweet books. There has to be a complexity of character or plot to capture me right now. Otherwise, I’m drifting into other thoughts.
But other times, when life is overwhelming, it is the simple, the sweet, and the cozy that draws me.
I guess even though I always say that I’ll read anything, I’m a picky reader.
As a rule, I don’t read hobby mysteries, even when I like the hobby. I don’t usually read horror because the images stay in my mind. I’m not the type to read bestsellers just because they’re bestsellers either–a book has to be about something I’m interested in. But I will sometimes read best sellers to see why others are enthralled. I tore apart a couple of Dan Brown’s books just to see what the deal was. I concluded that his style read so quickly because he tended to keep it short. Short chapters, short paragraphs. There was always something going on–always more excitement but it was terseness that kept the tension. Or so I decided.
Lately I’ve put books down for too much terseness. There seems to be a trend where authors skip on description so that I can’t really see what is going on. It made me drop one book. She described a car as a “big ass pimp mobile.” And I couldn’t see the darn car at all–thus making some of the action obscure.
Conversely, another author who went on and on about every leaf in a field (or so it seemed) lost my interest. There can be too much.
As a writer, though this might seem discouraging, I think the opposite is true. Someone not being interested in your book is not a personal rejection. It’s not really a rejection at all. Sometimes, we crave ice cream, sometimes we want roast beef. What do you think?

The millionth word

Well, according to the Global Language Monitor , English now has over a million words. Others are saying that it is more, some less, but one thing we all have to admit, the English language is a living, breathing thing. Like most living things, it is changing every day. Ever since the Bard started coining new words to meet the requirements of his plays, writers have been adding new words into their books.

More power to them. As a Sci fi writer, I made up some words to show my characters were from a different place. I even did up a glossary in my fact file so I wouldn’t forget how I spelled them last time. Even in main stream writing though, new words are born every day. Take the term metrosexual - Mark Simpson created it when writing an article. He needed a quick way to describe a straight guy that dresses like a gay. You have to admit, it sounds a lot better and it invokes a great image. And that is the point. Language is there to help us convey our thoughts to someone else. So long as it is doing that, I feel it is valid. New words like this even have a name neologisms ( that was my new word for the day).

So will we ever see a novel written in SMS speak? y not, info is convyed u get point & it shld b OK. In fact it was a consistent rumour that even if you rerragne ltters but the frist letetr and the lsat are in the rihgt sopt, you can stlil raed it.  Now I think that is going a little far, but the idea that we should let the words flow, feel free to create and transform language and concentrate on painting the scenes we are portraying as fully as possible.

http://the-writing-bug.blogspot.com/2009/04/know-rulesthen-know-when-to-break-them.html seems to say it all for me. Especially as she says it is OK to write vampire stories. Whew, that’s OK then, I don’t have to take my series off the shelves.

The Worst Thing

The surest way I have ever found to get myself out of writer’s block is to ask, “What is the absolute worst thing you can do to your character?”  Bujold put me on to the idea and I love her for it. Find the one thing that would really disturb the character and do it. This tends to work in two ways.

1. You really have to get to know their motivations to answer that question, and
2. They start to do all sorts of interesting things to avoid it.

One of my favourite characters that I have ever written was born from just this process. The world I was writing was based very strongly on survival of the fittest. So what if they met someone who was surviving quite well but was in a wheel chair? How would they cope?

To my considerable surprise, the main character fell head over heels in love with her. Who knew he had it in him? As I typed, I could see it unfold and really threw me. No one reacted the way I thought they would. I really got to know them in a whole new way and the characters became a lot more real. Just like us, facing adversity really made them grow as people and gave them substance.

            One of my favourite movies is Soapdish. A line in that movie goes something like, “I’m normal, who wants to watch me on TV?” While characters can be normal people, they should always be given something extraordinary to overcome, losing the farm, finding their father’s murderer, finding the ‘Forgotten Crystal of Doom’, whatever the genre, giving them something to battle makes them interesting. And what should they battle? Well ask yourself – what is the worst thing that can happen to them? And see what happens.

English – the “common” language

As we near the end our first year of blogging at Rule of Three, we have figured out that life still happens. We get sick or go on vacation (or is that on holiday, ladies) or take on a few more responsibilities. And sometimes that means we just can’t post. So we have asked for someone to come in and pinch hit for us on those days. Luckily Karen Fainges responded and is here today to post for Narelle.

When asked to describe herself, Karen Fainges says teacher, wife, mother and writer, though not necessarily in that order. The Shaytonian chronicles were born one day as a story to keep her cousin and sister from being bored. The spark grew through many retellings, some in short stories, some in role-play. All those years of games, tears and laughter are distilled into a much more adult version than that long ago tale. Still, the childlike wonder of life, the fierce need for acceptance that we all can feel and the belief that the universe really does revolve around us; all comes through in this irreverent stab at all those old B movies. What if out there, there really was a race of beautiful slave looking for a male with whom to rebuild the species? And what if he said, “Sure, why not?”
Here is what Karen has to say about a subject that comes up often here at Rule of Three: English.

When George Bernard Shaw said that, “England and America are two countries separated by a common language”, he never spoke a truer word. Even in this world of constant online communication, this is still true. One question every Australian writer has to answer for themselves is, “Will I leave the ‘u’ in flavour?”

For some, the characters are Australian or English and then it is easy to say yes, it’s part of the character. As a writer of science fiction/fantasy, I have to decide for characters that learnt their English at the turn of the century (and I’m talking 1300’s).

But there is more to it than that. It’s not just different countries. I have found differences even in other states in Australia. What do you call a roll of pressed meat made to put in sandwiches? Is it spam, luncheon, deli meat or one of a dozen other names? And if I call it spam, do I have the characters spend five or six lines explaining that it is meat for sandwiches, and not annoying unsolicited emails? Actually, now I think of it, that gives me a great idea for a scene, I should write that down.

http://separatedbyacommonlanguage.blogspot.com/ gives some wonderful examples of the differences in English and American. Chips, are they hot or cold? Is being made redundant becoming obsolete or losing your job?

I have found more and more that I have to pass my work on to three or four different nationalities to see if it means the same thing to all of them. I am amazed how often the same words can invoke a completely different reaction.

Some of it is tone. To an Aussie, “yeah right” is often spoken sarcastically. For us, it can mean, pull the other one, it’s got bells on. For others reading those words, the tone of voice sounds a lot different, it means agreement.

So where is the line between making your writing clear and adding way too much explanation? I guess I can post this blog and see if anyone “gets” it.

Late breaking (competition) news

I’ve been a fan of the QueryTracker website since the day saw it. I’ve used it to locate agents and I was a member of the forum of a while.  Great community.

Patrick and the crew over at QT are having a top competition. Joanna Stampfel-Volpe of Nancy Coffey Literary is judging one line hooks for fiction manuscripts. Yep, you get one line to win her over. I love that idea. The competition is only open for 24 hours from Monday 13 April at 9am Eastern time (whatever time that is!).

There are three prizes ranging from a 10,000 word submission to full manuscript submission.   Full datails are available from the QueryTracker blog – http://www.querytracker.blogspot.com/

No matter how pushed for time you are, I’m sure you can fit in a one line hook for your manuscript.  I know i’ll be having a crack.

Very best of luck to us all.