Archives
Posted by Justine at 23:00, January 31st, 2009 under Guest post, Writing process |
Kim says:
How do you organize all the jumbles of idea generating, plot generating, character generating, and so on, in order to see what you have, so you can then take it and put it all together somehow? In my example, I have a 100 page document focused on one story (one novel) only. It has snippets of scenes, plot ideas, potential background for characters, what ifs and opposing what ifs, outlines and ideas for character’s backgrounds, and so on and so forth. Again, it’s specifically focused on one novel and one story idea, but it also includes multiple options for that novel and story idea etc. I’m finding that I can’t move forward with structuring this story without knowing what ...
Posted by Justine at 6:41, January 31st, 2009 under Liar, Writing process |
Posted by Justine at 16:21, January 30th, 2009 under How To Ditch Your Fairy, Magic or Madness trilogy, Writing process |
Posted by Justine at 22:07, January 29th, 2009 under Writing process |
Posted by Justine at 0:00, January 29th, 2009 under Research, Writing process |
Epiphany Renee says:
What is a good job to have to fund my writing career?
Do you know of any job that will pay me a living wage to read books?
What is a good major in College, especially for an aspiring writer? (I know you are opposed to Creative Writing as a major, but what do you think is a good one?)
As it happens a while back I asked people to share their suggestions on
good jobs for writers.
The only jobs I can think of that involve a great deal of book reading are librarian, editor, agent (and other publishing jobs), journalist, as well as academic. The problem with all of these jobs is that the reading of books is ...
Posted by Justine at 0:06, January 28th, 2009 under Writing process |
Monica says:
I have a hard time reading other novels without getting drawn in and forgetting to analyze and learn from them. Any tips?
Mary Elizabeth S. says:
A while back, you mentioned something about writing out scenes from books you liked in order to try and figure out how they worked and why. It was only mentioned in passing, and you were going to expound on it but never got the chance. (Of course, now I can’t find that post to save me life, and am wondering if I haven’t gone a bit crazy…) I’d like to know more about that exercise.
Funny you should ask, Monica, because your question overlaps with Mary Elizabeth's. One of the best ways to avoid getting sucked ...
Posted by Justine at 0:46, January 27th, 2009 under Praising, Writing process |
Posted by Justine at 16:19, January 26th, 2009 under 1930s NYC novel, New York City/USA, Praising, Young Adult literature |
Posted by Justine at 0:01, January 26th, 2009 under 1930s NYC novel, Writing process |
Melody says:
What do you do if you’re just drained? Not stuck, not blocked–you still know what’s going on, you have ideas, you can still write–but you’re completely energy devoid, whether it’s because you’ve been immensely productive or because the outside world has just been piling up obligations. Do you just power on through, or do you step back and take a bit of a break, let yourself recharge?
I'm probably the worst person in the world to answer this question. I am all about resting. I will rest at every opportunity. I think everyone should rest. I am horrified by how hard many of my writer friends work. I think it's immoral and plain wrong to work seven days a week. ...
Posted by Justine at 1:06, January 25th, 2009 under Writing process |
Posted by Justine at 0:10, January 24th, 2009 under 1930s NYC novel, Writing process |
Posted by Justine at 0:32, January 23rd, 2009 under Writing process |
Rachel says:
So, I just read the storyless character post, and I have a similar problem: the storyless scene. I tend to come up with a scene, kind of like your Charlie scene but generally the idea, not the character, is dominant. How do I give that basic idea and scene a plot, characters, and events?
I've been thinking about this one a lot and I'm failing to come up with any new suggestions. There's stuff on finding a plot
here and I think the one on
characters applies as well, and you've already read the
storyless character post.
I suspect that your problem is that you're still in the mulling stage and not yet in the writing stage. I'm ...
Posted by Justine at 1:03, January 22nd, 2009 under 1930s NYC novel, Writing process |
How To Ditch Your Fairy will be published in its shiny new paperback Australian edition next month.
So. Very. Soon.
If you go over to the Allen & Unwin Alien Onion blog
you'll see what it looks like.
And guess what? I'll be doing a wee bit of a mini Oz book tour. I'm dead excited.
Two of my events are in Melbourne, including the actual book launch:
22 Feb 2009, 2:00PM - 3:30PM
Me and Simmone Howell in conversation + cake
State Library of Victoria - Conference Centre
328 Swanston Street
(Entrance 3 on La Trobe Street)
Melbourne, Victoria
Go here to book
24 Feb 2009, 6:30PM
Australian launch of How To Ditch Your Fairy
My book will be introduced by the lovely
Lili Wilkinson!
Readings Carlton
309 ...
Posted by Justine at 1:43, January 21st, 2009 under Book tour, Cons & Other Gatherings, How To Ditch Your Fairy, Sydney/Australia |
Posted by Justine at 23:12, January 20th, 2009 under New York City/USA, Praising, State of the World, Viewing |
Posted by Justine at 17:05, January 19th, 2009 under Magic or Madness trilogy, Publishing business, Writing process |
Posted by Justine at 19:59, January 18th, 2009 under Liar, Writing process |
Posted by Justine at 0:58, January 17th, 2009 under Writing process |
Posted by Justine at 2:19, January 16th, 2009 under Liar, Writing process |
Posted by Justine at 0:04, January 15th, 2009 under Writing process |
Posted by Justine at 0:02, January 14th, 2009 under Writing process |
AlisonG Says:
I’m working on my first YA novel, and have (of course) discovered two other books that have similar plots. What do you think, should I read the books so I can avoid similarities and reassure myself that my book will be unique? Or should I avoid them so I can claim I was not influenced and did not steal from them?
Kevin Says:
I’ll second AlisonG’s comment. Scalzi has talked about borrowing concepts for his books. I have a vague memory that Scott may have talked about his books having similar ideas or themes to other books. Have you had a situation where you’re borrowing concepts/ideas/settings and you borrow too much? How did you (or how would you) deal ...
Posted by Justine at 0:04, January 13th, 2009 under 1930s NYC novel, Writing process |
Diana Peterfreund has
come through with the goods: a smart, sensible and clear guide to writing a synopsis.
Go check it out!
Posted by Justine at 17:07, January 12th, 2009 under Writing process |
Natalie says:
I’m writing a fantasy novel. One of the characters has a great background story and I’m really struggling with how, or if, I should include it. I don’t want to vomit background all over a plot that’s moving forward at a good pace. I know background info can be kinda trixy. Is it better if I keep most of it to myself and only tell absolute need to know info within the text? Should I not include any at all? How do you know when to include background information and when to leave it out?
Excellent question. There are two basic approaches to this one. (Feel free to suggest others in the comments.)
1. The infodump
This is where you flat out ...
Posted by Justine at 0:04, January 12th, 2009 under Writing process |
Posted by Justine at 2:11, January 11th, 2009 under Liar, Magic or Madness trilogy, Writing process |
Posted by Justine at 15:09, January 10th, 2009 under Writing process |
Bran-la says:
The thing that i always have trouble with is getting started. I never know what to say in the beginning or where the setting should be. What helps you get started? Any hints and tips would be wonderful!
It is a scientific fact that the majority of first chapters never make it into the final version of the novel. Here's the
very first chapter I wrote of Magic or Madness and here is the
published first chapter of Magic or Madness. You will notice that the two have pretty much nothing in common.
This is good thing to know. It means you can relax and not worry whether your first sentence, first paragraph, first chapter is perfect. Odds are ...
Posted by Justine at 0:27, January 10th, 2009 under Writing process |
Posted by Justine at 0:49, January 9th, 2009 under Reading, Writing process |
Posted by Justine at 3:11, January 8th, 2009 under Cricket, Sport, Sydney/Australia |
I've had a couple of questions that are about publishing, not writing. I have disqualifed such questions from this month's advice though I might run a publishing questions month later in the year. ((Though I am far less qualified to answer publishing questions.)) But since I've already gotten two such questions I'm grandfathering them in.
But I will answer NO OTHER publishing questions! From now on: questions about the process of writing only. Thanks!
beth says:
I’d be interested in looking at the differences in submissions from when you were first starting to now. Could you share your query letters? Could you show us a real-life synopsis that you used when publishing one of your books? As someone with a complete ...
Posted by Justine at 0:05, January 7th, 2009 under Magic or Madness trilogy, New York City/USA, Publishing business |
Tony Greig just said on Channel Nine that "South Africa's cricket team has had a quota since Nelson Mandela was elected."
Um, no, Mr Greig. South African cricket has always had a quota system. It's just that prior to the end of apartheid that quota was 100% white.
Posted by Justine at 0:06, January 6th, 2009 under Cricket, Sport, State of the World |
There are a number of requests that touch on the same theme of getting stuck:
Jonathan says:
I’d be very interested in the pushing a dead plot post, since that’s where my novel is at.
On the other hand, I sort of know the answer already---stop reading blogs, sit down, and write.
Sylvia_rachel says:
I second the request for a pushing-through-a-dead-plot post (or perhaps a figuring-out-who-the-villain-is post). My writing projects tend to start with a strongly felt character/voice or scene, and then I have to go looking for a plot — sometimes easily found, sometimes … not.
Quiz question: Lois McMaster Bujold has said that the way she finds plots for character-driven novels is (I’m paraphrasing) to figure out what’s the worst thing she ...
Posted by Justine at 19:57, January 5th, 2009 under Ideas, Magic or Madness trilogy, Scott's books, Writing process |
I've just added six more categories:
Book tour: this one's obvious. Is for all the posts about book tours. In general,
are they a good idea? And specifically,
reports from on the road.
Book challenges: this one's for
censorship,
book banning, and
challenges, which are sadly common in the land of YA.
Publishing business: this is for the posts specifically about
some aspect of the
publishing business. Such as what an
editorial letter is,
money, and
how to get an agent,
publishing in Australia etc etc.
Titles & names: I noticed that I talk about the
problem of coming up with a title for ...
Posted by Justine at 18:25, January 3rd, 2009 under Admin, Search Terms |
Posted by Justine at 1:01, January 3rd, 2009 under Ideas, Writing process |
Posted by Justine at 21:35, January 2nd, 2009 under Admin, Bloggery/Internetty Stuff |
Malcolm Tredinnick Says:
Picking a point of view and how you learnt to work with the different types would be something I’d be interested to hear about. As a reader, I kind of know when the point of view works for the story and when it doesn’t, but I don’t really know how consciously writers make the choice or how you do it.
Hmmm, a tricky one first up. Curses!
I think I may have mentioned that for most of my writing life i.e since I was five and first started, I wrote short stories, not novels. I'd start many but not finish them. But I finished hundreds of short stories. None of them were much good as stories, but ...
Posted by Justine at 4:03, January 2nd, 2009 under 1930s NYC novel, Liar, Magic or Madness trilogy, Writing process |
[UPDATE: I'll be answering questions about the process of writing only. No questions about publishing. Thanks!]
[UPDATE the second: This is for the folks asking about what order I'm answering the questions in. I'm answering them in the order they come in. Though I'm bundling similar themed questions together. If you've asked two unrelated quessies I'll answer your second one only after I've gone through everyone else's first questions. Hope that makes sense! I'll be turning off comments on the last day of January. I won't be doing daily writing posts after that. Though I will try to answer all quessies. It'll just be slower. Much slower.]
I am working on organising my
writing process posts so that they're more accessible. ...
Posted by Justine at 0:02, January 1st, 2009 under Best of Blog, Writing process |
