Chapter Titles

Wow... so I found this saved as a draft from almost a year ago.  I decided I'll finish it and post it now; hopefully it still makes sense.

Happy End of the World, everyone!

I always seem to have a lot of trouble coming up with chapter titles.  I've heard that you're supposed* to title books after you finish writing them and I know a lot of people have trouble with this -  but to be honest, I have a much harder time titling the individual chapters.

I feel like the chapter titles should all sort of fit together, or have a theme or something.  Sort of like those young adult novels where every book in the series is an adjective (Broken, Taken, Flowing, Smelly) and it would be weird to have one out of place.

The big issue I'm having with Quicksand at the moment is titling the chapters (/parts).  The narrative is so long and convoluted (and will eventually put into an even less linear order) that I think separating it into chapters is necessary - but then I'm not sure how, or if the chapter titles should somehow indicate which of the three plots that chapter is technically about.  I've even considered little icons to indicate this - suns and moons and stars or rabbits and foxes or... something.  I don't even know.

I had this same problem with Aigaion Girl, and I think I was only saved by the fact that I wrote it in first person, so I very lazily titled each section with the name of the narrator, then counted down the signs of the apocalypse and BAM!

Of course, there's a little part of me that wonders if titled chapters are things that belong in children's books and fantasy novels only.  I'm racking my brain and I can't think of where else I've seen them.  Of course, I'm in Slovakia at the moment and don't have any books I can run and check.



*whoever decided that...

Rules of Writing Question

When information becomes free and universally accessible, voluminous research for a novel is devalued along with it.

True?  False? Discuss.

Rules of Writing Question

Jonathan Franzen said "It's doubtful that anyone with an Internet connection at his workplace is writing good fiction."

What do you think?

Personally, I would go nuts without having the Internet, mostly because I couldn't bring my various reference books with me to England, so my dictionary, thesaurus and anything-else-I-need-to-look-up are online.  I work 9-6 at a day job, so the library isn't an option for me either.  I use the Internet to fact-check, come up with character names and, yes, to procrastinate.

Rules of Writing Question

Anne Enright says that only bad writers think that their work is really good.

Do you agree?

Rules of Writing Question

 Geoff Dyer, in his 10 rules of writing says:  

Have more than one idea on the go at any one time. If it's a choice between writing a book and doing nothing I will always choose the latter. It's only if I have an idea for two books that I choose one rather than the other. I ­always have to feel that I'm bunking off from something.

Do you think it's better to have a few things on the go or to focus on one project at a time?

Another Random Question about Writing

Thought I might make this a weekly thing.  So here's today's question:

Do you think there is an unbreakable rule regarding (ad)verbs to carry dialogue?

I've heard it said many times that writers should never use any word other than "said" to carry dialogue and that adverbs should be avoided altogether.  What are your thoughts?

Personally, I use tonnes of other verbs to carry dialogue (the two most frequent being "told" and "admitted", though I'm also fond of "mumbled" and "screamed"), but I try to avoid awkward ones like "intoned" or "admonished" unless I'm trying to convey something really specific.  I also like to use verbs which you aren't technically supposed to apply to speech, like "smiled" and "sneered" - and I think in children's books, it's fair game to go ahead and include ones like "huffed" and "snarled", especially if your characters are animals.

A Random Question

A random question about your writing:

What are your thoughts on titling?

IE: Do you title your works before or after you write them?  Do you use working titles or refer to your pieces as that one where... until they're finished?

Under the Sun

They say there's nothing new under the sun. Whoever they are, it makes you wonder whether or not they're right.

A lot of what we (as a society) produce seems to be based on, inspired by or downright copies of, things that came before. I'm not just talking about things (for the sake of this discussion, I'm going to stick to artistic endeavours) that were created with the intention of retelling a familiar story, like Westside Story or She's the Man* - I'm talking about everything.

I would say the vast majority fiction, if we were to take away the stylistic aspects and change the characters' names to Protagonist, Antagonist, etc., would tell very similar stories. Which isn't to say those stories aren't compelling, but it calls the idea of originality into question.

Somewhere in this article, I've probably alluded to Shakespeare (and the Bible and maybe a hundred other things), without even knowing. Some things are so prolific that they become part of us, as if by osmosis, and can't possibly be avoided. We write them or say them out loud without any intention to do so. So is it even possible to be original?


I'm wondering if the similarities in the stories we tell exist because they follow a set format that limits us, like that Docx guy suggested, or if it's because we're unconsciously copying each other.

Or, do they exist because of common interest, because we like reading about badass men and damsels in distress, because we like the idea that enemies can become friends and lovers and that the underdog can win, because blood is literally our life force and therefore extremely important to us - do they exist because we're human?

Personally, I think there is plenty new under the sun. I'm a firm believer of originality in art and as far as I can see, it's still going strong.

*I couldn't think of another example off the top of my head, but this kind of leads me to believe that Shakespeare should be left alone... although, 10 Things I Hate About You was really good.

Picking Your Battles (or, at least the order they come in)

I have so much going on right now. Not just in my non-writing life (which is wonderful and crazy-intense), but my writing world as well. I've got my normal 60+ stories on the go - I've been trying to pear (pare?) the list down to just a few, so I can complete some of them, and I think I'm down to about 5 that I'm actively writing. What I've discovered: 5 is still too many. I remember the wonderful years between '02 and '07ish, when I could keep all of my characters and storylines mostly straight in my head (2004 saw the introduction of the Characters spreadsheet, which I used to keep my 300+ characters in order and avoid reusing names), when I could write two or three novels simultaneously and not get confused, or figure out the entire plot to a new story and keep it straight in my head long enough to write it down.

So the question is, how do I narrow my list down even further? I don't want to give up on any of my stories, I'd like to think that I'll write them all, eventually, but the problem is that for every story I complete I start at least two, so how am I ever going to achieve that?

To get the 5, I've used a rough set of criteria based on what I feel like writing, what I can complete in the shortest amount of time and what has the greatest publishing potential, all of which, for reasons I don't quite understand, kind of makes me feel like a sell out. I don't know what else I can do to shorten the list, I honestly don't.

So how do I (or how does any writer) decide which projects to work on and which to push to the (seemingly endless) back burner?

Discussion Questions...?

...Should we have them?

I'm guessing yes.

This week - Song Lyrics. What makes them so damned effective? Or not, as the case may be. Got some favourites?

Come on people - lets get this site moving again. >:D

eReaders - The End of Paper Books?

I've spent a lot of time over the last little while thinking about e-readers and whether or not they're going to eventually mean an end to paper books. I really hope not.

It's not that I don't want people to be environmentally conscious. I do and I recognise that every little bit helps, so even though switching to ebooks isn't going to have the same impact as, say, driving a fuel efficient car or walking to work every day, I don't think it's a bad idea to do something to help the environment, especially where trees are concerned. This seems to be a hot topic for debate at the moment, but so far, even where there is a clear support of the continuation of paper books, everything I've read suggests that, over all, for avid readers, ereaders are the environmentally conscious way to go. Two blogs with differing opinions on the subject, but which present essentially the same research are Daniel Goleman's (E-Reader Versus Book: The Eco-Math) and Earth Beat (The future of paper books ... and e-readers).

So, why, as an environmentally conscious writer, would I not want ereaders to replace traditional books? A few reasons.

The first and biggest reason is that I think our society depends far too much on technology. Just about everyone in North America remembers that wide-spread, three-day blackout and the rolling black and brown outs that followed it. In the realm of disasters, it ranked pretty low, but it wasn't nothing. Some people died as a result, because they had no air conditioning and the financial damages done to businesses due to products spoiling or stores having to stay closed for long periods of time, was immense. And that is a system that has been in place for many, many years. What makes us think that the Internet (something new enough that I remember when only rich people could afford it, something which, at the time, couldn't be accessed without a dedicated phone line and ten minutes of horrible beeping and gurgling) is any less likely to spontaneously go down? Or, Hell, if you believe the Internet is bullet proof, good luck using it if the power goes out again. Good luck charging your ereader, too. If we've converted all of our old books to efiles and, especially, if our new books were never (or hardly ever) actually in print, a technological breakdown would be crippling to the acquired and compiled knowledge of the entire world. Think the burning of the library at Alexandria. Having all of our knowledge stored in one place is a bad idea.

It's also a money thing. Right now, especially, people don't have a lot of money to spend on, well, anything. So while an ereader might save you money overall (from what I can tell, ebooks aren't that much cheaper than paper, but they are a bit), most people don't have the money to spend on an ereader up front, and if they do, and enough people switch, it's going to drive the price of traditional books up - which means that people who couldn't ever hope to afford an ereader now won't be able to afford paper books either. Any new technology does this at first, drives out the old technology while simultaneously being too expensive for many people to afford (I saw this first hand with the transition from tape-cassette to CD, Discmans to mp3 players and videos to DVDs), and yes, eventually, it does balance out, but in the meantime, it sucks for the people who are too poor to afford the new stuff and (because the new stuff is so widely available to those who can afford it) can't find the old stuff anywhere.

Then there's the issue of the traditional in traditional books. It may sound a bit snobby and like it's not much of an argument, but there is something to be said for the feel of a paper book in your hands. There is something to be said for the idea of taking your book on a plane or a bus or to the beach or camping or hiking through the mountains and not having to worry about what happens if your batteries die. I don't know, the idea of reading The Paper Bag Princess to a kid on an ereader just doesn't work for me.

As for the solutions to the environmental implications of sticking with paper books, my suggestions to the publishing world at large include using recycled (preferably sustainable) paper and natural inks and printing books on demand, rather than printing huge quantities then warehousing them and eventually pulping the unwanted ones.

Obviously, this is a subject which readers and writers alike have strong opinions about and most of the articles I've read contain very evident biases (I read one article comparing various ereaders and paper books, which ranked most of the ereaders' readability as high and the readability of paper books as medium.) and I don't want to suggest that I think that ereaders in general are a bad idea, or that people shouldn't take steps to help the environment. In fact, I think they're a good idea, especially for people who want to read a book but don't necessarily want to own it (especially popular books which may not be in stock at a nearby library but are often overstocked at bookstores) or for people who spend a lot of time travelling and don't want to put fifteen books in the carry-on when they go on vacation. I think there are a lot of great uses for ereaders; I just don't want to see them replace paper books.

Websites & Attracting Attention

My website is almost up and running, and as such, I've been thinking of ways to publicize it, as well as myself. More than that, though, I've been thinking about content, which brings me to my question of the day: What should be included on an author's website?

So far, I have the page titles: Home, News, About, Stories, Poetry, Photography, Bits* and Blog**. The Home page has (for the moment) an ad for Aigaion Girl, which will change based on what I'm trying to publicize at the time. The News page is where I'll put information about new books, book release parties and whatever else I can think of that's newsish. The About page, obviously, is a little blurb about me, and the Photography page will have a bunch of pictures which I took last year (when I have some more $$, I'll have it adjusted so that I can upload and my own content for that page). Where I'm confused is with the Stories and Poetry pages. The more I'm thinking about this, the more I'm wondering if they were really necessary - especially, because right now, I really only have one story that's ready for public consumption. The poetry page is a bit easier, because I can include the full text of my best poems... but again, is it necessary? Will people be interested in reading my poems?

This, of course, brings me to my other question, which is: How do I go about getting my name out there? I have some ideas fot this. Once A/G is actually available for sale, I'm going to invite all of my friends to take that silly FB quiz and ask them to ALL invite their friends as well. Then, at the end of every single possible result, include a link to my site. I'm also going to put my website in the signature of my emails, so all of my correspodence has it, and anything I send out that gets forwarded has it as well. I know I want to have a book release party, to which I'll invite everyone I know, but beyond that, I'm kind of at a loss.

I read somewhere (I believe in my Writer's Market Guide) that a writer should spend ten minutes a day networking, which I think is probably true, especially when you consider the way that the famous writers of yore always seemed to travel in packs. The problem is, I'm not really sure how to go about doing it, or who I should be networking with. Plus, even if I knew a tonne of people, I always feel weird about taking advantage of my connections, even if those connections are happy to help.

So, there you have my little (and long-winded) dilema. Enjoy your day ;)

*Bits is the page where I can upload whatever I want: flash fiction, pictures, whatever.
**The Blog link links to my personal blog.

Formatting a Novel in OpenOffice.org Writer

I spent a large chunk of yesterday digging around on the web, trying to figure out how to format a novel in OpenOffice.org Writer. In order to potentially save you from a similar gruelling process, I'd like to share with you what I found, and what I worked out for myself. (I am assuming Microsoft Word has a similar set of command functions, but I'm not 100% sure.)

My questions were:

ONE: How do I add pages at the beginning of my book, without page numbers – and get the page numbers starting where I want them to, and starting at #1?

1. Type out the pages you want not to have numbers (or hit enter a bunch of times, so you have a couple of blank pages).

2. Make sure your cursor is on the first page. Press F11. This will bring up a Styles and Formatting menu. Click the forth icon from the left at the top of this menu (page styles). Click Index, then double click your page again. (Note, you may have to change your margins back to the way you want them after this, so it might be best to do this first).

3. At the bottom of the text on your final numberless page, click Insert>Manual Break>Select Page Break and set your style to Default. Check Change Page Number and change the page number to 1.

4. On your first numbered page, click Insert> either Header or Footer, whatever your preference>Default.

5. Click inside the grey header box. Click Insert>Fields>Page Number.
You can change the font, colour, etc of your page numbers by highlighting any one of them and altering it the same way you would ordinary text.

TWO: How do I make my book look like a book? (Also, how do I know how many pages my book will be when it's printed in Novel-form?)

Personally, I can't stand to type on anything other than the standard, almost paper-sized white space that pops up when I click new word document. So, I would do this after I'd written it, but if you don't mind writing in a smaller space, you can do it first and save yourself some time later.

1. Find/Decide on your size. There are many standard novel sizes, the one used by CreateSpace and favoured by Lulu.com is 6x9 inches or 15.24x22.86 centimetres (1 inch = 2.54cm. Always a good thing to keep in mind.)

2. Click Format>Page and click the Page Tab. On the right side of the dialogue box, under “Layout Settings”, change the Page Layout to Mirrored. If you're using a 6x9 base, good margins to use are Inner: 2.00cm, everything else: 1.00cm. This leaves enough room on your inner margin for binding.

3. Justify your text. If you're like me, that makes you think of clicking the little justify button. Don't do that; it's not specific enough. Click Format>Paragraph and click the Alignment Tab. Select Justified, and make sure the Last Line is set to Left. This stops your text being spread across the page. Note that this only works when the program recognizes your paragraphs, which if they're indented properly, it will about 85% of the time. If you're still getting words spread across the page, go the end of the paragraph and hit enter, then bring the following paragraph back to where it should be.

4. Choose your font(s). I'm using two, one for chapter titles, one for everything else. If you're self-publishing, make sure your font choices are shareware or public domain, and not protected from commercial use by copyright laws.

5. Choose your spacing. Personally, I'm a fan of 1.5, but it depends on what you like. Most novels are single spaced or close to. I've never come across one that's double spaced, but that doesn't mean they don't exist. Format>Paragraph. Click the Indents and Spacing tab and adjust your spacing however you like it.

6. See it in book layout. Click File>Page Preview, then select the Book Preview button (the seventh icon from the left, next to the magnifying glass).

If you have any specific questions (or any other information to add), comment and/or post. I'd be happy to try to find answers to any formatting questions anyone might have, as I'm sure this is stuff we'll all need to know, sooner or later.

Aigaion Again

I know it's a while off - I still have a lot of editing to do - but I realized that I'm approaching the wire that I'll soon be getting down to, and I have no idea what to do for things like cover art, etc.

(Please excuse yet another self-plug.)

Self-publishing gives me some options that conventionally published authors don't have, not the least of which being that I can publish a book that's available online for free, and not get in trouble over it. Also, I have choices like: cream or white paper, standard paperback size, or something completely different. And I can design my cover all by my lonesome, which suits me down to the ground.

I'm thinking white paper, white cover with something simple in the middle of the front cover... but, what? Should I do this art myself, try to have it comissioned, use something that's in the public domain... just have text... I honestly have no idea. I have a picture in my head of what I want the cover to look like, but I'm not sure if it'll work. I like the tree I've been using. This was the original title page I came up with. Obviously, it woul dhave to have cleaner edges, and look more like one big picture, but... I don't know. I actually don't mind it, in principle. I think I'd like it better if it was just the tree, coloured as is, very slightly bigger, then my name in the middle at the bottom... the problem is, out of all the pictures I made this out of back in November, the tree is the only one that I'm not 100% sure is a public domain image... I guess I'd have to find that out.

Again, sorry for the random rant about my novel... I was just thinking about it today and freaking out because I have about a month and a half to finish it if I want it ready for September, which I really, really do. I'm hoping to give copies of it as Christmas presents to some of my more open-minded family members, and I'm kind of hoping other people will want to give it to some of theirs as well.

Also, I'll be putting a link to Createspace.com in the links list. They're a subsidiary of Amazon, so anything self-published on there is automatically available for purchase on Amazon. Also, unlike Lulu.com, they d0n't charge you for your ISPNs (barcodes) but provide them for free. They charge a set fee plus a percentage of the selling price (40% if it's sold from Amazon, 20% if it's sold from their own site)... kind of high, but I worked out what I would make from each sale, if I spent the $40 to upgrade to their 'pro plan' ($5 annually to renew), and I would make nearly $5 on every book sold for $10, which is pretty effing good.

Which brings me back to my final question: is $10 a reasonable price for a novel by a first time author? Assuming you knew nothing about me, say some random friend recomended me, would you be willing to spend $10 on a book by an unknown?

That's all I have for now. I'll likely be keeping you all painfully updated on how my self-publishing adventures pan out.

Music

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Got a good one?