Good Writers Need To Read

Regular blog contributor Patrick Dilloway runs a blog called Every Other Writer Has A Blog...Why Can't I?  The other day he did a post that is located here.  In the post, Patrick said he had reached a road block of sorts and that he would take a hiatus from his work-in-progress to read some books in the genre in which he is writing.

Now, in the comments, Rusty Webb questioned Patrick's "motivation".  He wanted to know specifically

"I wonder what you think you’ll get from reading a bunch of genre stuff?"

This got me to thinking.  I know that Stephen King says that writers should read a lot.  I'm not going to quote him any further or go back to any of his source material.  The fact is that I think this too even if I had never read Mr. King's words.  Here is why.

Good writers need to read. Great writers need to read a lot and jot down ideas in response to what they read. I do it...I keep a list of words that I see on a notepad.  I think of how certain writers organize chapters from Faulkner's point-of-views to Vonnegut's one-page chapters to George R.R. Martin's cliffhangers.

And just as Mutt indicated in his post that I linked above, as a writer, you’ll find yourself hitting plateaus and roadblocks when you aren’t regularly reading. You’ll find that you actually run out of words, if you’re not regularly being challenged through reading new things. This is an important step to becoming a good writer.  I don't think I'm just spewing B.S. here either.  A car runs on fuel and words are the fuel that writers consume.

I admit...sometimes I may be guilty of over-analyzing things.  But I don't care.  It's just how my brain functions.  And this post is not about "meaning".  Many people read books to finish them. This is not always necessary. Read books or articles just to read them — to glean new ideas, to learn new words, to fall back in love with language.

So yeah, if you find yourself at an impasse with your writing, I think you should take a break.  Read a novel or two and see how that helps you.  As Tyrion Lannister has stated, "A mind needs books like a sword needs a whetstone, John Snow."  And George is absolutely right on the money.

Please keep in mind that writing is separate from publishing.  I'm not talking about publishing.  I'm sure there are plenty of examples of people who publish and who write and who make money.  But they are most likely terrible writers with a lot of money.  It's true folks :( Not everything that makes money is genius.  You can egg me later please.  So if you want to write well...please read.  It will make your prose better.

Please Avoid These Gay Stereotypes In Your Writing Or I May Suffer An Aneurysm When I Read Your Book

This post grew out of a discussion I had with Roguemutt on his post yesterday that has to do with his novel, "Where You Belong" which I'm enjoying. However, one of his characters is gay and some of the stereotypes straight writers use when they are writing gay characters are annoying so I thought I'd point them out to you so you could STOP IT! Credit goes to writer Melinda Lo who provided much of the analysis presented here.

1.) The effeminate gay man. For many gay people, the flaming queen is a mixed blessing. I’m not denying that flamboyant, feminine gay guys do exist. In fact, one could argue that they paved the way for many folks to come out of the closet because it is impossible to hide their sexual orientation. It takes a ton of courage to be out as a flamboyant gay man in our culture.

But in many representations of gay men, being effeminate is dismissed as a joke — as something to laugh at or as entertainment. Being labeled as effeminate can also result in physical assault, verbal abuse, and murder. Keep this in mind if you’re writing about a character who is a feminine boy: Understand that living in the world is a more dangerous place for him because he presents as feminine. And if you describe a gay character in feminine terms, ask yourself: Why have you chosen this kind of representation? How does that change him? It’s not just about acting like a diva and being a girl’s best friend.

2.) The mannish lesbian. Similarly, butch women have also been on the front lines of gay representation, because this is what mainstream society tends to recognize as lesbian. But unlike stereotypes of feminine gay men, the masculine woman is rarely seen as something fun or entertaining. Mainstream society often condemns her as unnatural, or as a threatening figure. It also takes a lot of courage to walk in the world as a butch lesbian. To endure taunts and about your lack of femininity; to battle for your right to wear what you want. In the worst cases, those taunts can result in violence. From day 1, it seems, our culture encourages little girls to love the color pink and to want to be princesses. If you don’t want to do that, you challenge a deeply held belief about what a girl is. So if you’re writing about a lesbian who is masculine or butch, keep this in mind: Being butch doesn’t mean that you want to be a man. It’s a different way of being a woman.

3.) The promiscuous or devious bisexual. The stereotype of the bisexual as promiscuous or deceptive is probably less prevalent in YA than in adult fiction, film, or television, largely because this stereotype involves sex. But keep it in mind if you’re writing a character who is bi.

Often, people mistakenly believe that bisexuals have many sexual partners, or that they change sexual partners frequently. Alternatively, they may believe that bisexuals are being deceptive about their sexual orientation in order to trick someone. Even gay people can have the mistaken belief that bisexuals aren’t really bi; they’re just confused about whether they’re gay or straight.

But that’s not true. There is no evidence that bisexuals are any more promiscuous than anyone else. The word “bisexual” does not mean that a person is equally and continuously attracted to people of both sexes. It means that a person could potentially be attracted to people of both sexes. It may be true that all of us are, to some degree, bisexual.

4.) Dead gays. Gay characters created for the exclusive purpose of winding up dead in your fiction. Think of the Star Trek redshirt. Example in film: The Sopranos (only gay character dead). Orson Scott Card also uses gays as cannon fodder.

5.) The Pregnant Lesbian. For some reason, people who write lesbians think they're being incredibly original by having a story about a lesbian couple trying to get pregnant. This has been done exactly 2 million times before. It creates a scenario where, despite not having relationships with men, the lesbians still need men desperately.

6.) Homosexuals as villains. It's been done over and over and over. IT'S NOT ORIGINAL. IN FACT, IT'S CLICHE AND I WISH YOU WRITERS OUT THERE WOULD GET IT THROUGH YOUR HEADS THAT HOMOSEXUAL DOES NOT EQUATE TO EVIL. Here is the short list of films and books that I could think of where this occurs (there is more out there, this took me five minutes to compile). As you can indeed see by my list...yes, yes, yes, yes...this has been done before and is unoriginal.

• Diamonds are Forever
• Magnum Force (Dirty Harry movie)
• The Maltese Falcon
• The Detective
• Freebie and the Bean
• Mystic River
• The Boys of St. Vincent
• The Jackal
• Pulp Fiction
• Ace Ventura
• Braveheart
• Dune
• Lawrence of Arabia
• Rob Roy
• A Perfect World
• The Mexican
• Tron: Legacy
• 300
• Mutiny on the Bounty
• Casablanca
• Psycho
• Silence of the Lambs
• Ender's Game
• True Blood
• Where You Belong
• One Life To Live (soap opera)
• Desperate Housewives
• 24 (Fox's political thriller)
• Austin Powers
• Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil
• Interview With The Vampire
• The Talented Mr. Ripley
• Disney's "The Jungle Book"
• Disney's "Pocahontas"
• Disney's "Aladdin"
• Disney's "The Lion King" - Scar puts the gay in that pride
• A Portrait of Dorian Gray
• The Shawshank Redemption
• HBO's Oz (A prison drama)
• American Beauty

Rant over. Have a great Thursday :)

Foreshadowing: The Art of Good Storytelling In A Song of Ice and Fire

FORESHADOWING is a plot device in which an author suggests certain plot developments that might come later in a story. As much as I pick on George R.R. Martin, the man is a brilliant writer to whom I can only aspire to be as great (don't let him know that...he already has a fat head). One of the reasons he's brilliant is because the man knows how to foreshadow.

The reason I wanted to talk about this topic today is due to a short conversation that I had with writer Tamara Paulin on Monday regarding the hatching of the dragons in the television series "A Game of Thrones" by HBO during the season finale. I had expected the eggs to hatch even before I started reading the books (which occurred mid-season...around episode five). She was totally taken by surprise and even "Squeeeee'd"... This is an interesting reaction to me. How many more of you out there pay absolutely no attention to foreshadowing?

One does not give dragon eggs in fantasy unless they are to hatch. Okay, exception...a writer does this if he or she is a bad writer. But if you're a good writer...they will hatch. Martin is a good writer. If you don't agree with this statement, then you're bad.

If you didn't expect this, then you need to clue into the technique, because it will make you a much stronger writer. I'm not saying this with any "writer" laurels. I don't have an agent, I'm not published, but I'm not stupid either. I'm saying this as a reader (and I happen to consider myself a damn good reader at that). So here's a reader telling you aspiring writers out there... you should use "foreshadowing".  Here are examples I have pulled from George R.R. Martin along with my predictions. Regarding some of these plot developments, I'd be willing to bet money on if you'd like (just to make it more interesting).  DISCLAIMER: None of these predictions have come to pass yet in the books so this is not a spoiler. This is simply my critical reading of the foreshadowing evident in the books/film adaptation.

1) The Wall. It's 800 feet tall and hundreds of miles long. PREDICTION: This thing is going to come down. He's already introduced a plot device that will accomplish this...a horn...in one of the books. The Wildlings refused to use it...but I don't care...the wall is coming down. You don't build something this big and then just have it stand and work.  Think of how dumb the conversation would be... "Hey, did that wall work?" Answer: "Yeah...it worked really well."  Next question: "Hey, so it's kinda boring cause it worked, right?" Answer: "Yep...it worked." /end of books.

No one includes a wall like this in a fantasy series if you don't, indeed, intend for it to come tumbling down. Again, if Mr. Martin does this...he's a bad writer. He's not a bad writer...this baby is going to totally blow up in a most spectacular fashion.

2) The Eyrie. We've heard that it's "impregnable" over and over in the books. A fortress built on a mountain accessible by a goat path. Sansa would hate to be caught there in the winter. Oh how bleak and horrible a place it must be in the winter, etc. etc. PREDICTION: GUESS WHAT...this fortress is going to be used probably as the last stand of the Vale of Arryn when the white walkers invade. It's going to be epic. Plus, I predict that a dragon saves Sansa or someone of importance from the Moon Door. Why? Because dragons can fly and Sansa is terrified of the Moon Door. If this ends up coming true, I predict the Eyrie going up in towering flames that cause the mountain fortress to blaze in dragonfire that lights up like a miniature sun.  RULE: You don't include a frickin' fortress on a mountaintop in a fantasy series and say it is impregnable if you don't, in fact, intend to impregnate it!

3) Daenerys will turn into a dragon. We've already seen her survive intense fire and have dragons suckle from her teats (in the book). She's called the mother of dragons in the book and she declares, "I am the dragon!" over and over. She says she'll never have kids in her womb...well that's cause she's gonna become a fire-breathing reptile. To be honest...I'm not so certain of this prediction. However, it would be cool.

4) Bran will walk again. No one goes to the kinds of trouble Mr. Martin has gone to in having this kid be a cripple for so long without him not being cured of it in some miracle near the end. The kid wants to be a knight...he shall be one with one of his father's swords in his hand (reforged from ICE). 

I think that foreshadowing for the most part is too ambitious for most beginning writers and is something that only experienced ones can truly use. There are many reasons for this: 1) You don't know if your book is ever going to be published so you can't employ a technique (unless extremely weak that can be developed later) that will come to fruition in later books. 2) You're limited in your word count. There's only so much you can do in 80,000 words once you've worked in your love triangle, described the characters, and then given them something to do while you have the love triangle play its way out. Sorry, but that's why romance tends to suck...there's no room for any other fantastic writing tools in so little a space. And romance is almost required for a book to be published these days because it means $$$. 3) Foreshadowing requires plotting and most writers these days seem content to do this "pantsing" thing which seems like lazy writing to me (I've no idea why people do it other than they are so excited over a character that the just want to get writing--no idea why this happens either). Don't get me wrong...pantsing will get you agents and book contracts and $$$ but I seriously doubt if it will ever win you critical acclaim for your book. All that matters though is making money...who cares if high-brow people think you suck as a writer, right?

Please When You Write, Try To Do It Well...pretty please?

Good writing really does depend on more than making a collection of words worthy of belief.  In my opinion, a writer wants his work to be read by others with minds different than their own.  To this end, it requires practice and a lot of it.  For the any level of writer, maybe there's something below that you could put to use to polish that final draft into a gleaming manuscript of amazing(ness)!

1) A sentential adverb -- it's a single word or short phrase, usually interrupting normal syntax, used to lend emphasis to the words immediately proximate to the adverb.  Compare:

• But the lake was not drained before April.
• But the lake was not, in fact, drained before April.

2) Asyndeton consists of omitting conjunctions between words, phrases, or clauses.  In a list of items, asyndeton gives the effect of unpremeditated multiplicity, of an extemporaneous rather than a labored account:

• I came, I saw, I conquered.
• She likes pickles, olives, raisins, dates, pretzels.

3) Polysyndeton is the use of a conjunction between each word, phrase, or clause, and is thus structurally the opposite of asyndeton. The rheotrical effect of polysyndeton, however, often shares with that of asyndeton a feeling of multiplicity, energetic enumeration, and building up.

• "The water, like a witch's oils, / Burnt green, and blue, and white." --from Samuel Taylor Coleridge

4) Understatement deliberately expresses an idea as less important than it actually is and can be really effective in humor.

• "Hey! Assbutt!" -- The angel Castiel getting archangel Michael's attention in the Season 5 Supernatural episode right before he sets him on fire with holy oil.  Calling Archangel Michael an "assbutt" is really funny understatement in the context of the show and had me and others laughing.

5) Litotes is a particular form of understatement generated by denying the opposite or contrary of the word which otherwise would be used.  Compare:

• Heat waves are common in the summer.
• Heat waves are not rare in the summer.

6) Use adjectives but only when necessary.  To identify weak adjectives (the ones you really don't want), ask yourself what they mean.  What exactly am I saying by using the word "dark"?  Is "perfect" really a good adjective in this situation? Here's an example of the bad use of an adjective that I've seen in more than one manuscript:

• (something) was dark black.   Or, alternately, "He stared at me with his dark gaze while I lusted over his perfect features."

Black is already dark.  I actually cannot think of anything darker.  Please don't describe it as dark black.  And in the above sentence, dark and perfect are just silly.  It's impossible for me to imagine what exactly is going on because I've no idea what "dark" and/or "perfect" mean in this context.

You are wonderful :)

Microsoft Office 2010

I'm a p.c. so whatever the software is that Mac Users out there rely upon is in that unknown territory that I label "incognito".  As such, I want to report that I absolutely love MS Office 2010 and I'm happy that I upgraded.  Features that I reliably use in my writing.  Well for starters, it has a really nice Thesaurus feature built into it.  I know that professional writers like Stephen King say that you should write your whole manuscript out without ever consulting a Thesaurus.  However, all I have to say to that is that it obviously works for him but what may be good for the goose is not always good for the gander.

Other features...well OneNote is amazing.  I can keep all of my notes in this particular program and no matter what computer I use, as long as I have access to my email and a copy of MS Office 2010, then I have access to all of my scribbles.  With a click, I can save a huge web page of information.  This has been an invaluable tool in penning my second novel (the sequel to Slipstream) in which my protagonist goes to play ice hockey for the Cornell Big Red.  I wanted to make the experience and the details as real as possible about this famous Ivy League school.  So my research required a lot of articles, interviews, testimonials, and newspaper clippings about either Cornell or the games that the Big Red played. 

Additionally, I got really lucky and met Louis Harris online.  He's a super-talented, super-smart Editor that lives in South Africa.  At first, I didn't trust him completely and to assuage my trust issues, MS Office 2010 has security features that allow you to lock and safeguard your document (including placing a signature on every page).  This is a really awesome thing and mimics in many ways the security features available in Adobe Acrobat Professional but for way cheaper.

I know that there are people out there that disparrage Windows and/or Microsoft.  One of them happens to go by the name Admiral Potato.  I met this guy at my friend Meg's home for a night of board games and good food.  I have to admit, I was a little taken aback by the guy insisting to be called Admiral Potato, especially when I knew that this wasn't his name.  But he turned out to be pretty cool.  However, he was one of those that really hates Microsoft products. 

All I have to say to that is that Microsoft Products for me, seem to do exactly what I want them to do.  The Windows 7 operating system runs smoothly, it has backup and restore capability to my external hard drive, and all of the programs I run work well on it.  Additionally, I work with a lot of handicapped people, and MS Word really does well by Dragon Naturally Speaking.  Also, for people that can't afford DNS, Windows comes with its own voice-recognition software.  Truth be told, the company has inserted a lot into its operating system to help those with disabilities.

Anyway, if you're a writer like me, and don't know what to pick to help you get your words onto the page, I'd go with MS Office 2010.