How to use Irony and Yay! I got a present!

Well, I was going to save this link to a really awesome article called How To Push The Envelope on a really neat blog called Hypothetically Speaking but then she gave me an Award so I'll push this link up on the queue. This article was really handy for me because in my novel, still not sure whether to try to get it published as The Butterfly Lady or Curse of the Rose, I need to embed a lot of comparisons and contrasts into a whole House-load of characters.

A quote from Erica in her article:

"Weeds" and "Dexter" are both smash hits from Showtime. Both shows have developed enormous cult followings because they have mastered the art of IRONY. The beauty is that the irony lies in the main characters themselves.

Nicely written and very evocative. Take a look to see if this very clever character technique that Erica has unearthed can work for you as well. This article is so good that if I ever find another one of Erica's unearthed character techniques again, I am so doing a full post on it. (Oh, and by the way, how absolutely beautiful is her Blog? I mean, really! She puts me to shame.)

Now onto the bribery that caused me to do this blog post now, rather than try to lure more people to the page with a review on Joe Abercrombie. Erica gave me a Blog Award! My very first. *bows* Feel free to throw flowers up on the stage. *bows*


There it is! Not sure what to do with it other than bask in its radiance and smirk with new found arrogance. Oh well, radiance and smirking works for me any day of the week.

Book Analysis Thursday: Best Served Cold - Joe Abercrombie

Some schools of thought say that you should select a theme when writing a novel and build on it. Joe Abercrombie took to that piece of advice with gusto. Best Served Cold showcases a few solid themes and pulls every iota of plot out of them. The themes that I identified were: Are mercy and cowardice the same? Can revenge ever solve anything or will vengeance be doomed to spark more vengeance?

As a tragedy, this novel is incredibly fascinating as it picks apart the brutality of blood feuds, the futility of politics as old mistakes are repeated, the spreading corruption where hate and pain breed more of the same, and the psychological strains caused by such issues. The novel pits the characters against each other in a seemingly impossible paradox: loyalty is rewarded with suspicion which causes retaliation which leads to vengeance, hate, and the loss of a loyal comrade; while disloyalty can also lead back to vengeance, albeit on a straighter path. If you aren't suspicious enough, you will likely be betrayed, but suspicion itself can lead to treachery.

His characters are complex and driven and the book is a good read simply to see how a drunkard, a Master Poisoner, a Poisoner's assistant, a torturer, an ex-convict murderer, a mercenary, and a soldier all manage to justify their actions. Each believes that their own values are right and, though they may sometimes feel uncertain, and their world views can be shaken, generally they continue to justify their own actions as they stumble along. Often by forcing their expectations of the world adapt to the actions they are forced to undertake. One of the characters does this more than the others and its his terrible slide into tragic monster that really sets this book apart from most others. By helping us understand these people through their thought patterns and complexity, Joe Abercrombie engenders our sympathy simply through fascination. The characters truly are morbid specimens to watch.

Joe Abercrombie also manages to create a female mercenary character who is bitter and vindictive (yet sympathetic), who is actually comfortable in a masculine world (by ignoring masculine / feminine norms rather than railing against the feminine), and who is tough without being boring. There are enough subtle nuances, enough nods to the fact that she is a woman in a man's world, to keep her from just being a bloke with long hair and a girly name (well, sorta girly - Monza Murcatto isn't all that feminine in my book). Nor is she that stereotypical, groan-worthy, eye-roll-inducing macho bull-busting warrior women.

In truth, I think part of the trick was to make her rather nonchalant about a lot of things. Sex and violence are just part of the daily living. Women and men are evaluated as to their use to her. She keeps a tight lid on her feelings but they're certainly still there and when they do rise up and overwhelm her they do it in a way that is uniquely her. They manifest, generally, in physical terms with exhaustion, hunger for drugs, and palpable feelings reminiscent of barely restrained panic (trembling, weakness) rather than weeping or ranting.

This novel is quite unremittingly dark and bleak (which admittedly does fit the subject matter) and the ending left me dissatisfied because of it (which admittedly also fits with the theme - vengeance never brings satisfaction). The fight scenes were superbly described (as were the rather explicit sex scenes) but after awhile I grew bored with the fight scenes. They were too many, and went on for too long, for my tastes at least. Still, his skill in writing them is admirable.

The only other issue I had is a note of caution regarding pacing. Towards the end, the pace moved me so quickly that I started skim reading all the fighting / descriptions, etc. in my desperation to find out what happened next. This ended up reducing my satisfaction as I started stepping out of the scene and more into reader mode. Yes, it's a naughty habit of mine but it is a good point. If the tension goes up too high, you're going to have to write everything at a very quick and brief pace or else the reader will start skipping along.

So, in summary, read Best Served Cold to learn how to write a believable female soldier / warrior; explicit sex scenes; intense fight scenes; novels written solidly around a theme; well-described locations; and believable justifications for atrocities.

For those who have read this novel, what did you think? What techniques did you get out of it?

Oh, and feel free to review my review. Is this method of analysis useful to you? Is it too broad? Too vague? Should I pick one technique in particular and analyse that?

I'm always open to suggestions.

Social Media Advice

Picture Link.

This is some information I gathered on social media from the 2010 Volunteer Congress: Marketing Volunteers: Are we Selling the Unsellable? I thought I'd share it with you all. If you don't agree with it, that's fine. People do things differently and these are just industry recommendations from advertisers, marketers and radio personalities, not authors.

Social media is great to start conversations with a new audience so build the conversation, make it easy to get involved, ask some questions, and develop a web presence by being memorable and interesting. Listen to the conversation (on your blog and in others) so you can understand their thoughts, feelings, and the communication styles. Remember that people come to your social media site with a ‘What’s in it for ME?’ mentality. They want to know why they should spend valuable time and energy on learning more about you. Social media should generally be targeted so keep your writing blog separated from your personal blog unless you're sure that your audience will be interested in both.

Be willing to surrender control to your customers, to invest time, accept that your words may be misunderstood, be cautious when debating with critics (if you do it at all), and its generally a good idea to be polite and respectful toward your audience (though you can be irreverent towards your topics).

For those published authors who want to sell more books with their blog: Remember that selling is listening and problem solving. People buy from the people they like. It’s a recommendation economy and this is seen most clearly with blogs and Facebook where people can see your connections at a glance and choose to become connected themselves. Social media is a good opportunity to let your happy customers do the marketing for you. So remember, “At the heart of any worthwhile sale is a great conversation!”

What are the important things to consider in social media?

Challenges. (Why are you doing this? Why shouldn’t you be doing this? What are you worried about?)
Content. (Do I have enough? How long can I maintain this particular schedule? What would be a more feasible schedule? How can I improve, or increase, my content? What sort of content will I be putting out there? Plan ahead with your content, set standards, and stick to them.)
Communication. (What is the social etiquette expected in this medium? What sort of regularity can people expect from me? What sort of person do I wish to be and how can I reflect this through my communication styles?)
Connection / Conversation. (Don’t be afraid to make connections, build rapport, and get to know the people on your social media sites.)
Collaboration. (Remember, social media is about participation and not consumption. Social media sites are a collaborative effort. Surrender control – within limits – and understand that others are making a contribution whenever they comment or respond)
Conversion. (Be Fresh! Be Unexpected! Be fun! Be irreverent at times! Be provocative - but not too provocative. Have an idea! The more memorable you are, the more likely they are to become regular followers, but make sure you’re memorable for all the right reasons and not because of your rants about the underprivileged and how they should stop complaining.)

Self-branding.

Put some thought into your public persona. People will start to develop a sense of who you are from how you speak and they will feel more comfortable if you respond in a consistent manner. What image do you want people to have of you? Do you want to appear to be an intellectual, a sophisticated academic, a laidback friend, or a motherly voice of reason? Do you want to be that critical person who says what everyone else is thinking with style and flair?

And remember, technology and the internet are a strategy, not a solution. If you want to be a writer, you must write.

Adding Structure to Chaos

Been awhile, huh? I've gone from posting super-frequently to rarely at all. A big part of this is that I took a holiday from all things writing (and, well, editing) but if I'm going to blog, I might as well do it seriously. So, since going to the Marketing Volunteering conference in Adelaide, and listening to their explanations and advice on the whole social media thing, I've done some thinking and defined a few things.

The purpose of this blog: To put all my research, revelations, lists, and links all in one place for later perusal AND helping out the writers of the world by giving them access to it all.

The Blog Me: I'm going for intellectual but easy for most to understand. So, basically, I'm hoping to come across as funny but smart. I also hope I can tackle some of the harder issues in a sensitive enough way because some of my research will be on some not so nice matters.

The Schedule: This is the bit I'm not a huge fan of but I might as well give it a go. I schedule everything else. Why not my blog? I'm not going to plan to do up a bunch of how-to-write toolkit articles (I will do them on occasion but I won't schedule them in) because there are other blogs that are better at it than me (The Other Side Of The Story) and there is no point retreading old ground.

So my schedule will include:

Tuesdays: A short research article on an emotion, issue, historical matter, or psychological problem that is both interesting and relevant to either my own work or writing in general.

Alternating Thursdays: One Thursday, I'll do a review. (Mostly novels but I may also review the storytelling techniques used by certain videogames and movies). The other Thursday, I'll do a brief ethnography (i.e. 200 - 250 words describing the feeling of working in a library) that I will then fantographise (my own random made-up word) to see what a similar setting would look like in my fantasy world. Consider it an exercise in stretching my fantasy brain and turning the mundane into something from another world.

I may do other articles as well. Updates on my writing. Interesting musings. Sudden ephiphanies. But they're not going on the schedule. These two things are. What do you guys think? Would you tune in for that? And what other themes could I put on my schedule?

Knowing Places

I've noticed more and more how much I don't really notice. I always used to have my head stuck in a book. It's only this year that I've actually started looking around me and I have noticed so much more. The way the bark peels from the trees in late Spring. The different amounts of birds. The many types of gardens and homes. I've also started doing a bit of minor research (mostly Wikipedia and Google) into some of the local areas. I've examined Google Earth views of my home city and tried to wrap my head around where everything is.

I live in what would be to Americans (and most other countries), a large country town, but which is a capital city in Australia. I've always considered it just the same old few streets but, really, when I look at it now I see so much more. There is so much you can learn about your home town or city. So many places that you won't see if you just whizz by in a car.

I've walked through Rundle Mall and paid attention to what I heard or smelled rather than what I saw. I've travelled the O'Bahn and noted how the River Torrens grows more shallow or deeper depending on the season, temperature, and recent rainfall. I've even noticed how what was green grass and weeds in winter became clover in early spring and is now this yellow reed-weeds that just blankets everything. How even the grasses seem to have died and it's not even all that hot or dry just yet! I've noticed how dark it gets and how quickly in winter and how much better it is in spring when I can get home and its still daylight.

I've noticed all kinds of things. These all help me as a writer and as a person. We spend so much time trying to figure out the right adjective or metaphor to describe something we've never seen, that we don't bother looking around us to take inspiration from things we can experience.

So, as a writing exercise, learn to look around you. You can learn so much more that way.

Mood and Other Links

This post gives us a number of really simple and easy subtle techniques for drawing readers into the mood rather than slapping them over the face with a 'Be scared now, this is scary, look at me signposting the scariness'.

Glorious Breaks & Sea-Faring Links

Well, I took a month off all things to do with writing. Critique Circle, this blog, editing, and everything in between. I brushed up on my oral storytelling skills through some rousing games of World of Darkness and now I'm back with a vengeance. I've got my story chapters all printed out and I'm going over them with a lead pencil.

First chapter required quite a lot of editing. Dozens of word changes per paragraph. *sigh* Next chapter has only a few dribs and drabs here and there. That first chapter is SUCH a pain but I guess that's what I get for writing in a three-year-old's perspective, especially when so much needs to be established in those few pages. You try portraying a non-medieval fantasyland through the eyes of a traumatised three-year-old in a servant's bedroom in the basement of a manor.... Oh well, it's certainly flexing my creative muscle. I have no excuse to info dump the answers, after all.

Of course, I have the distinct feeling that it's difficult to establish a non-European/non-medieval fantasyland no matter what your protagonist is. I mean, not unless you've writing a Japanese samurai-style fantasyland. Regrettably pants and frock coats and clock towers haven't put the point across well enough. I might need to underline kettle-drums, rapiers, and canons.... Sure, my fantasyland isn't really Napoleanic but it is, at the very least, closer to the 1700s than it is to the 1100s so it would still be a definite step up.

I wonder how many other authors find it difficult to help the reader realize that this isn't a medieval 'verse.

Oh, and also, a neat link for those tired of hard biscuit and weavils: http://lesleyannemcleod.blogspot.com/2010/11/necessary-articles-for-seafaring.html

Tough Guide to Fantasyland ... I've got it!

Just a short post of me congratulating myself on finally having a copy of The Tough Guide to Fantasyland in my hands. Here's hoping that none of my books qualify too closely. I'm also taking a look to see if there's anything in there that could be spun into something interesting. I mean, if 'guy gets shot to death' can be spun into thousands of wonderful crime novels (mm, I love crime ... gotta get back into reading fiction) then why can't fantasy tropes? Well, we'll see.

De-Toxing the Easy Way

Well, rather than succumb to one complicated diet or de-tox plan or another I decided to do something simple. My birthday weekend was a binge of energy drinks, snack foods, and the odd glass of alcohol so I figured I should probably do something to de-tox. So, preferring the simple way, and having noticed how 'meh' I've been feeling of late, I cut out the refined sugar.

Basically, no cordial, no chocolates, no cakes, no energy drinks, no lollies. This is my fifth day. My one failure was a yohurt-iced muesli bar so I'm doing pretty well. Especially since it was a Zombie Walk on Saturday that I went to that involved eating in the city for lunch (6-inch subway) and dinner (chicken burger at a yiros shop). Everyone else pretty much went to KFC so I think I did well. Later on, there was a close brush when the girl giving us a lift wanted to take us to a chocolate-based cafe where she was going to shout us food. Then we went to an On-The-Run petrol station where they picked up a very large cream-filled cake-thing for us all to share (me and my fiance resisted the urge).

This week, there has also either been a cake or biscuits in the lunch room at work every day of the week. Can you believe that? Normally I'm lucky if it happens once. This week it's every day! I've also been drinking 2 - 4 cups of water a day.

Funnily enough, other than massive cravings (destroyed by eating mangoes - they sure hit that sugar button) and a mild yet persistent headache on Day 2, I've felt better than before. While my poor sleeping habits ensure I'm sleepy each morning and I still laze in bed for 20 minutes post-alarm (don't worry, I set my alarm expecting that), that's still a 50% reduction in lazing-in time AND when I finally do get up I feel awake. I'm not even nodding off at my desk come 3.00PM like I used to.

So it appears to be working ... the trouble is that this isn't the intense de-tox that makes your body fit and fighting and ready for another onslaught. This is the sort of subtle de-tox that only really provides long-term benefits as part of a life-style change.

Gee, I'm glad it's fruit season in Australia because I sure have a sweet tooth!

Skilling Up Your Storytelling Skills

Well, we've all read up on how to improve your skills through reading how-to-write books and blogs, attending conferences, and interviewing writers. At least, odds are that if you're reading my blog, you have. I've also mentioned how you can improve your storytelling skills through general research, training and observation (such as going bush walking can improve your descriptive techniques as well as be inspirational).

Of course, there are other options. What about all those storytelling hobbies out there? What about sitting around a campfire and coming up with improvised horror stories? You can keep track of your skill by watching how a real live audience reacts to you. Doing theatre sports or acting classes can also assist by making you more aware of the role of body language amongst other things.

Also, why not try your hand at a pen-and-paper roleplaying game either as a player (where you create and control a single character complete with personality and goals) or as the Game Master / Storyteller / Dungeon Master (where you create and control the world, antagonists, and any character that isn't controlled by a player)? Sure, these games can be played as dice-rolling extravaganzas to the tune of 'lightning bolt' and 'magic missile' where the players simply use statistical number crunching to win against the enemy. Generally, however, they are played as excursions into other worlds, with players throwing themselves into the skins of their characters, and GMs developing story lines in an interactive universe. We all know what it's like when a protagonist in a novel has a mind of its own. What about having four that really do?

The benefits of doing this is that you can see first-hand which plot lines capture interest and which fall flat. A session of roleplay also generally covers more ground than a session of writing, which means that you can practice plotting on a faster level, and you certainly gain a lot of skills at description and dialogue. If your description is too long or your dialogue too unrealistic, you'll soon know about it. You can have games about solving crimes, exploring fantasy worlds (great to assist with your world building), dealing with horrible monsters, or hunting ghosts. Pretty much any type of genre has a market for it (except for Romance - that could just get plain weird between friends).

Also, it's a lot of fun and can give any budding writer the audience s/he craves. Just beware: No plot survives contact with players. A player's mind doesn't function the ways that ours does and they will always come up with some unexpected route to solve an obstacle.