Leece is a Western Australian artist living in Perth, on Whadjuk Nyoongar boodjar. She likes drawing animals and is interested in sf&f, nature and kayaking, Me-Moving and reading and lots of other stuff!
Tuesday, 25 October 2016
http://ursulav.livejournal.com/1686462.html This writer is always worth
a read, but this article stood out for me.
Thank you I liked it, much like i was/am really. If you have time you should watch the various Sanderson BYU lectures on you tube. They are both modern (2016) and insightful. I have been watching them on you tube on the 65" TV, to the bemusement of all and sundry.
I have been dumping my rewrites in the old link just as a back up but it's still open. It is amazing what a few changes will do. Although i am tightening the way I do pov, I must admit to being old fashioned, I'm not altogether comfortable with myopic/gen Y pov that seems to be required these days.
The late great Sherri S Tepper started her highly successful writing career at 54 and is considered one of the most innovative world and society builders out there, there's room for all. Not everyone likes the same thing.
True. I think if you start late the volume of what you have read over the years helps you immensely.
I have found even with my limited experience many young writers worry too much about their world building and not enough on their characters. With my rpg background I find the world building is not such a difficult task. I have also found I can invent characters. I just need to learn to write and much of that is keeping an open mind and practice.
The Sherri S. Tepper I have read was very hit or miss with me, but she was always interesting.
I haven't read much of her, just reading the tributes as they come in. I've read Six Moon Dance and one of the Jinian Footseer books, also The Family Tree if that was her. Enjoyed them. I think Steveg's read a lot of her.
Excellent! Yes, Satima is very active and I've seen her around for decades. Must get round to reading Dagger of Dresnia.
Marianne de Pierres , Kate Orman , Dirk Flinthart, Joel Shephard, Garth Nix are other active Australian SF&F writers you may come across, off the top of my head. All of them have attended Swancon to a varying degree in the past. I would especially recommend reading Sabriel by Garth Nix because it's such a good read, and shows that young adult fantasy can really shine, no matter who is reading it.
Alex (ex-Sue) Isle is one of the masters of Australian SF short stories, he's won awards for them, so if you want to look at some of his I've got his book of short stories on goings on in post apocalyptic Perth if you want to borrow it.
Huh, I'm so old fashioned, I just can't seem to get into youtube lectures, or podcasts. I'd rather read an article than listen to it, I lose focus and interest most of the time if I'm hearing something academic. And yet if it's live I do better.
I'll have to have a read of your revised manuscript - looking forward to it.
They do writing workshops at Swancon sometime that I've heard good things about., have to keep an eye on the program. We've booked our room. :-)
Yea I know I kill em when I notice them. Some are relics of the present tense rewrite, while a good exercise was horrible.
I try to limit contractions to conversations while elimination from the narration. Clive and the elves tend not to or rarely use contractions in their speech. the humans do however and Sarah swears as well.
The main task now is highlight then eliminate large tells by the narrator. This usually forces a rewrite which further tightens the viewpoints.
Since Clive is like a villain in many books, I like to explore the minor character (I call em Npc's) viewpoints as they bounce off him (and the other main characters) as he blithely wreaks havoc going about his tasks.
You may have noticed I have changed the race dynamics slightly by making the English elves a more vigorous race than they might have been if left to their own devices. They have been forced to compete with the Human English to survive and it has changed them. I'm hoping how they contrast with the Welsh elves highlights this.
Not an antihero as such, he is more like a force that moves through the world and the npc's bounce off him in different ways. I do you think if a central character is too nasty a reader won't want to know them. He was a lot more callous in the initial conception, I've deliberately pulled him towards the light.
Thank you I liked it, much like i was/am really.
ReplyDeleteIf you have time you should watch the various Sanderson BYU lectures on you tube. They are both modern (2016) and insightful.
I have been watching them on you tube on the 65" TV, to the bemusement of all and sundry.
Here is a link a Patrick Rothfuss interview, he is talking with another author about their troubles writing a sequel. I must admit was the first time I heard him speak, he seems to be genuine.
http://www.tor.com/2016/10/18/patrick-rothfuss-talk-sabaa-tahir-kingkiller-chronicle-kvothe/
I have been dumping my rewrites in the old link just as a back up but it's still open. It is amazing what a few changes will do. Although i am tightening the way I do pov, I must admit to being old fashioned, I'm not altogether comfortable with myopic/gen Y pov that seems to be required these days.
The late great Sherri S Tepper started her highly successful writing career at 54 and is considered one of the most innovative world and society builders out there, there's room for all. Not everyone likes the same thing.
ReplyDeleteTrue. I think if you start late the volume of what you have read over the years helps you immensely.
ReplyDeleteI have found even with my limited experience many young writers worry too much about their world building and not enough on their characters. With my rpg background I find the world building is not such a difficult task. I have also found I can invent characters.
I just need to learn to write and much of that is keeping an open mind and practice.
The Sherri S. Tepper I have read was very hit or miss with me, but she was always interesting.
I haven't read much of her, just reading the tributes as they come in. I've read Six Moon Dance and one of the Jinian Footseer books, also The Family Tree if that was her. Enjoyed them. I think Steveg's read a lot of her.
ReplyDeleteI mainly read her earlier works when I was vacuuming up any fantasy that came out.
ReplyDeleteExcellent! Yes, Satima is very active and I've seen her around for decades. Must get round to reading Dagger of Dresnia.
ReplyDeleteMarianne de Pierres , Kate Orman , Dirk Flinthart, Joel Shephard, Garth Nix are other active Australian SF&F writers you may come across, off the top of my head. All of them have attended Swancon to a varying degree in the past. I would especially recommend reading Sabriel by Garth Nix because it's such a good read, and shows that young adult fantasy can really shine, no matter who is reading it.
Alex (ex-Sue) Isle is one of the masters of Australian SF short stories, he's won awards for them, so if you want to look at some of his I've got his book of short stories on goings on in post apocalyptic Perth if you want to borrow it.
Huh, I'm so old fashioned, I just can't seem to get into youtube lectures, or podcasts. I'd rather read an article than listen to it, I lose focus and interest most of the time if I'm hearing something academic. And yet if it's live I do better.
I'll have to have a read of your revised manuscript - looking forward to it.
They do writing workshops at Swancon sometime that I've heard good things about., have to keep an eye on the program. We've booked our room. :-)
Oops and Edwina Harvey - I illustrated one of her stories once! :-)
ReplyDeletehttp://stephaniegunn.com/bibliography/ is a local too.
ReplyDeletethe rewritten stuff is raw, i am constantly revising it to get the various pov's right but im eliminating the big tells
ReplyDeleteDoing well, it's tightening up.
ReplyDeleteExamine your it's - they're a contraction for "it is", but with the tense you've chosen they should all be "it was" or similar.
Yea I know I kill em when I notice them.
ReplyDeleteSome are relics of the present tense rewrite, while a good exercise was horrible.
I try to limit contractions to conversations while elimination from the narration.
Clive and the elves tend not to or rarely use contractions in their speech. the humans do however and Sarah swears as well.
The main task now is highlight then eliminate large tells by the narrator. This usually forces a rewrite which further tightens the viewpoints.
ReplyDeleteSince Clive is like a villain in many books, I like to explore the minor character (I call em Npc's) viewpoints as they bounce off him (and the other main characters) as he blithely wreaks havoc going about his tasks.
You may have noticed I have changed the race dynamics slightly by making the English elves a more vigorous race than they might have been if left to their own devices. They have been forced to compete with the Human English to survive and it has changed them. I'm hoping how they contrast with the Welsh elves highlights this.
He's not exactly an antihero though, to my mind.
ReplyDeleteNot an antihero as such, he is more like a force that moves through the world and the npc's bounce off him in different ways.
ReplyDeleteI do you think if a central character is too nasty a reader won't want to know them. He was a lot more callous in the initial conception, I've deliberately pulled him towards the light.