How Do I Know What I Think Until I See What I Say?

The dilemma a lot of writers have, including me, is how much character description to put into a story. Too much, and the reader's vision of a character in contradicted at every term. Too little, and you're not giving the reader enough to work with.* So what to do? 1. I feel like it's important for a reader to have a general idea what a character looks like. I try to sketch a general physical impression of a character--height, weight, body type. 2. I find that if I describe one character whose appearance is important, I can describe other characters in relation to her. Is character B taller or shorter than character A? Wider or slimmer? Darker, or more fair? 3. A description of a character's movements can give a reader an impression of the character just as well as a detailed description of physical traits. Is the character quick or slow? Graceful or awkward? Athletic or something that is the opposite of athletic? :) 4. Physical description should reveal...

1. This season on The Real World ,* the cast is having a prank war. It's involved shaving cream and show laces and rearranging furniture and all the normal stuff that prank wars usually involve. And this week, one of the cast members, Chet, decided to make a life-sized cutout of himself and put it on the wall.** And then it was defaced. And Chet was angry and felt it was because of his political views (he's a Republican and the season was shot during last year's election). But I don't think the cutout was defaced because you are a Republican, Chet. I think the cutout was defaced because it's a life-sized cutout of yourself that you put on the wall during a prank war. *** 2. I am now the proud owner of a new HVAC system. This is the fourth most expensive thing I have ever purchased, after my house, my education, and my car. It better be awesome. 3. I have now seen 6 episodes of the new Joss Whedon show Dollhouse. Thoughts to follow. 4. It is less than ...

A while ago, now, Maggie Stiefvater had yet another great post on Fangs, Fur & Fey about writing stories with supernatural elements, and the reactions of the characters to those supernatural elements. This is what she says: But in urban fantasy, we ask our characters to believe in the incredible in every book. We need them to believe before the end of the book, because in most cases, the plot sort of relies on the fact that they start dealing with the supernatural crapola that's going on instead of running to see a therapist. Once again, I totally agree with Maggie.* If a book is set in the "real world" and that "real world" is then infiltrated by, or discovered to have, various supernatural elements (be those vampires, or fey, or zombies, or whatever), the characters simultaneously need to react realistically, but also need to just accept that this is how things work now, and get to the plot already. It's a fine line. Too far on the "I don...

Moonrat over at Editorial Ass just posted this , about how an author attempted to pitch a book over the phone by pretending to be calling on behalf of an agent.* Really? REALLY!?! You know that phrase "the mind boggles?" That's how I felt when I read Moonrat's entry. Who does this? ~~~ *Moonrat's response also confirmed for me that I don't think I would ever want to change careers and be an agent or an editor. Because she tried to give a kind and informative response to an author who was either (a) seriously misguided or (b) had a crap agent. And my response would have been...different from that. And probably R-rated.

Recently, over at Fangs, Fur, & Fey, they asked the question about how to deal with the ups and downs of the writing life. They didn't mean, it seems, the day-to-day facing of the page that is writing, but rather the ups and downs of querying agents and trying to get a book published. Now, admittedly, I'm in the very beginning stages of this process, but there have been plenty of ups and downs already, and there are plenty of people I know who have been pushed out of trying to publish their books because of these ups and downs, so I have a teeny bit of experience here. This is what I have learned thus far about dealing with the ups and downs: 1. Stretch the ups as much as possible. When the writing is going good, when you get good news, when things are humming along, enjoy them. Talk about them to a few choice people. Note them in your journal (if you have one). Frame the acceptance email.* Don't move on to the next step without enjoying the current step a littl...

I know that only, like, three people read this, but I still have to say that I just saw the book trailer for Katie Alender's forthcoming novel Bad Girls Don't Die and it is AWESOME. While I shouldn't link to it, since Katie is doing a sneak preview for her subscribers, I can say that if you happen go to YouTube and happen to search on "Katie Alender" (in quotation marks) you may, hypothetically get a chance to see the book trailer, too. In theory. Congratulations to Katie on the book trailer (and on the actual book, which comes out on April 21st and which you can pre-order at Barnes and Noble or Amazon ).

1. I have lived in this town for ten years now, and it still amazes me the different things I see when I walk around instead of driving. 2. The TENP* proceeds apace. I proctored an exam this morning, which means writing, writing, writing (you try sitting through an SAT when you're not the one taking it). I got some good stuff and some...early stuff, and figured out an early knot. This is always such an interesting stage, because it can go in so many different directions. 3. Just another link to add fuel to my "why I don't thank people for form rejections" fire--this one from The Rejecter . 4. This is awesome. From John Green, advice on how to get boys to like you. He gives six different ways. Here is way number two: "become World of Warcraft." 5. I love McDonald's, and for the first 16 years of my McDonald's eating life, I ate only the Filet o' Fish, and even I am creeped out by the strange singing fish song about Filet o' Fish. ...