We’re very lucky to have with us today India Drummond who is going to offer up some advice for writers.
India is the author of paranormal romance and urban fantasy. She knew from age nine that writing would be her passion. Since then she’s discovered many more, but none quite so fulfilling as creating a world, a character, or a moment and watching them evolve into something complex and compelling. She has lived in three countries and four American states, is a dual British and American citizen, and currently lives at the base of the Scottish Highlands in a village so small its main attraction is a red phone box. In other words: paradise.
The supernatural and paranormal have always fascinated India. In addition to being an avid sci-fi and fantasy reader, she also enjoys mysteries, thrillers, and romance. This probably explains why her novels have elements of adventure, ghosts (or elves, fairies, angels, aliens, and whatever else she can dream up), and spicy love stories.
So without further ado! Here’s India’s Advice for Writers!
My advice? Oh, don’t ask me that! Why not? See, I’m perfectly happy to share. I have learned so much from authors I’ve met online, from classes, workshops, and the good, old school of experience. Ask me anything specific, and I’m happy to give freely of whatever knowledge I have, but I rarely offer advice.
I’ve learned that what works for one author often doesn’t work for another. For example, I used to write by the seat of my pants. Then I heard all these authors saying, “You have to learn to plot. It’s the only way.” And I tried it… and failed. I was so frustrated! I felt there was a right way to do things, but I couldn’t do it. Of course, I also assumed this was why I was languishing on the query-go-round.
Then, as I began to write more books, I saw the patterns in my various novel projects, how I created turning points in around 1/3 and 2/3 of the way through a book, how I wove multiple storylines into one. I was developing my own style, and from that, I created an outline template that works for me and makes life easier. Would it work for anyone else? Probably not.
There’s so much advice out there on the internet. Some of it’s good, some… not so much. And as an unpublished writer, I gobbled up every morsel of it, hoping to find the magic nugget of gold that would transport me beyond the forbidden gates and into the world of the published.
Now that I have achieved my dream of publication, I have more perspective. And looking back, I see that I used to spend hours socialising with other writers on the various networks out there. I wish now I had spent at least 50% of that time writing more books.
So here’s my one piece of advice to aspiring authors. It might annoy some to hear it. But if you can get this, it will make you a better writer: Write more books. Quit agonising over your query letter. Quit worrying that one project to death. Quit spending more time blogging than you do writing fiction. Quit spending more time critiquing for others than you do writing fiction.
Write. More. Books.
Why “more books” instead of just making the current project better?
Because the average published author has written six books by the time they get a contract. Nothing, and I mean NOTHING, will improve your writing like experience. And you can’t get all your experience in one book.
I think part of that is that with each successive story, we experiment. Those experiments lead us into new places, and we begin to see what works and what doesn’t. I promise those unpublished projects won’t be a waste of time. What you learn by the third or fourth book, you can go back and apply to your first book, once you have some perspective on it.
So, yes, there’s some good advice out there. Do learn to write a professional query letter. Do learn how to write a blurb, how to write effective dialogue, how to use just enough description, but not too much… But don’t obsessive over the mountains of advice you can find on the net these days, hoping to learn “the secret”.
The real secret, in my experience, is experience. And you get it by writing. Nothing more, and nothing less.
So go forth and WRITE!
Never give up. Never let yourself get down. Never give in to the voices in your head that tell you it’s too hard or it can’t be done, or maybe getting published is too big a dream. You CAN do it… if you’ll only WRITE… and write… and write.
THAT is what I wish I’d known two years ago.
* * * * *
I second India’s advice! I always tell writers that the only wrong thing to do is to not write. There is no wrong or right way to write. Each person has their own creative ways of doing things. So don’t be stymied by well meaning advice about “the right way” to write. And NEVER GIVE UP!
For more information on India, please check out these sources:
India’s website and blog: http://www.indiadrummond.com/
Facebook Fan Page: http://www.facebook.com/india.drummond.author
Twitter: http://twitter.com/IndiaDrummond
To arrange an interview or contact the author, please email: author@indiadrummond.com
I want to thank all of you who dropped by for yesterday’s Birthday Bash. Thank you all for sharing in my special day! The winner of yesterday’s Gift Card giveaway is CrystalGB! LOL – Crystal you have amazing luck. Please e-mail me at cpsromance at att dot net with your mailing address so I can send the card.
Today we’ve got a special visit from fellow author Elaine Cantrell who is going to be sharing her tips on creating a page turner. Thank you so much for dropping by Elaine!
* * * * *
I don’t know of an author anywhere who wouldn’t like for readers to say that his or her book is a page turner. Everyone knows what is meant by the term; it’s a story you can’t stop reading. You know you have to get up in the morning, but you don’t care because you absolutely have to find out what happens. I love it when I find a book like that.
But what makes the book a page turner? What has to be in it for me to lose sleep just to read it? I’ve analyzed this thing, and this is what appeals to me. First, the book has to use proper grammar and punctuation. It turns me off and feels jarring when subjects and verbs don’t agree, there’s a run-on sentence, etc. Naturally, there are exceptions to this rule. Characters can massacre the English language all they like, but I have to have the feeling that the author is doing it on purpose and not that he/she doesn’t know any better.
Second, you’d better have a good hook if you want me to read the book. I don’t have time to waste on books that don’t interest me. In my latest release, A New Dream, which is coming out today at http://www.astraeapress.com, I begin the book with a car crash:
“Oh, Matt, it’s such a beautiful night,” Stacey declared with a sigh. “I’m going to miss you when you leave tomorrow.”
Matt reached for her hand and brought it to his lips. “I’ll miss you too, but if I don’t report on time, I’m in trouble with the coach.”
“That’s what I get for falling in love with a pro football player,” Stacey teased, her blonde hair turned to frosted silver by the light of the full moon above them.
Matt squeezed her hand that wore his engagement ring. “It’s too late to back out now,” he teased. “You’re mine.”
“Mmm, do I like the sound of that!”
The car rounded a curve, and without warning a deer bounded across the road. “Look out,” Stacey screamed.
Matt braked sharply to avoid the animal. The tires slid on a patch of loose gravel in the road, and he lost control of the convertible. It fishtailed and started to spin in the road.
He hauled on the steering wheel to correct the slide, but it was useless. The car turned around once more and skidded backwards for a short distance before it charged off the road. It jumped a steep ditch and went airborne. All Matt could see was a blur of trees and darkness as the car careened into the woods. It made a lazy turn in the air and came to rest bottom side up.
The last thing he remembered was the sound of Stacey’s scream.
Okay, several questions immediately come to mind. Are Matt and Stacey okay? Do both of them survive the crash? Will the accident affect Matt’s pro-football career? Could his relationship with Stacey be changed in some way?
Third, the main characters must be dynamic and sympathetic. I have to like them and want things to work out for them. I recently read a book by a famous author, but I didn’t like it because the heroine just wasn’t a nice person. She made her living preying on grieving widowers and let her young daughter help her. It was hard to care what happened to her. The characters don’t have to be syrupy good, though. In A NEW DREAM, my heroine Violet is unforgiving when a loose thread from Matt’s past comes back to haunt him. She hurts Matt and jeopardizes their relationship with her doubts and suspicion.
Fourth, there must be some suspense involved. But I don’t read suspense, you say. You still need suspense. Readers should be biting their fingernails worrying about the outcome of the book. Will the heroine win the hero’s heart in spite of a dreadful accident which left her scarred and reclusive? Will the hero defuse the bomb in time? Will he believe the bad girl’s lies? Will she accept his child from a previous relationship? Well, you get the idea.
Lastly, the pacing is important. If it goes too slowly I lose interest. I like a face paced story myself, and that’s what I write. I’ve been accused of setting a blistering pace which is absolutely true. Okay, maybe I need to slow down a bit. Maybe I could throw in a few sensory images. Okay, you do need some sensory images, but like my friend recently said, “I just skip that part to get to the good stuff.”
Okay, I’ve given you my definition of a page turner. Do you agree with me? What’s your definition? If you’re interested in my work you can check it out at http://www.elainecantrell.com. Hope to see you there.
On the 19th I’ll be at the wonderful Liberty States Fiction Writers Create Something Magical Conference. It’s a great event with some awesome workshops and 20+ editors and agents taking pitches. Plus, there are going to be a bunch of gift baskets, including one with a Kindle, some nice giveaways and a book fair that’s open to the public. If you’ll be in the Woodbridge, NJ area that Saturday, please drop by. The book fair is from 5:30 to 7 pm on March 19th.
So with that conference at hand, today’s Thursday 13 is all about some conference tips. Here goes.
1. Have a business card at hand, even if you’re not published. You want to start making connections and people need to know how to reach you.
2. Mingle. Make connections.
3. Don’t mingle. LOL, yes a little bit of a contradiction, but you need to learn body language. If two people are close together and in a serious discussion, it’s not the right time to butt in.
4. Enjoy yourself. Yes, it’s work, but it’s also a chance for you to unwind.
5. Choose your workshops carefully. Make sure they are ones that fit a need that you have.
6. Dress professionally.
7. Dress comfortably. You can do 6 and 7 and it’s important to find that balance. If you’re not comfortable, those vibes carry to others.
8. Don’t drink too much. You can’t believe how often I’ve seen people break this rule.
9. If meals are being served, choose a table where you can meet new people.
10. If you’ve got the time to spare, stay after the conference ends and the fun time begins. It’s part of networking, but it’s also part of finding time to share with other creative people. It can be really rejuvenating.
11. Prepare your pitch. Stand in front of a mirror or sit with a friend and practice it. See if it sounds natural.
12. Don’t be nervous in front of the editors and agents. They don’t bite. Really they don’t.
13. Have fun! You’ve probably spent some money to attend, travel, stay, get new clothes, etc. Take the time to enjoy yourself a little.
Hope you found these tips helpful! Hope to see you at the book fair!
Many thanks to fellow author Amy Atwell for providing her advice on how to setup a cool Facebook landing page. If you follow these steps, you will be able to provide new visitors with more information than what’s available on the regular Facebook wall (see below). This splash page will be visible to anyone who has not “Liked” you yet.
How do you create such a landing/splash page?
You will need to use Facebook’s FBML language, which is basically HTML code. If you’re not familiar with HMTL don’t worry. If you are using either WordPress or Blogger, you can use the regular editor to create a draft of the page that you want. When you’re done, disable rich text editing or the Visual editor and what you’ll see is the HTML code for what you just laid out.
Step 1: Search for FBML and you’ll find a user for that. “Like” them and add their “App” to your Fan page.
Step 2: Return to the Fan Page. At the top below your name you will see “Edit.” Click on “Edit.” You will see a list of items on the left hand side of the page. Click on “Apps.”
Step 3: This will bring up a list of added “Apps.” FBML should be down on the bottom. Click on “Go To App.” This will open up a blank page where you can either type your HTML if you know how to code or where you can cut and paste the HTML that you created with your blog program. Make sure to also give the page a title, like “Welcome!” Some things to remember:
The page width is about 500.
To get paragraph returns, use a < BR > (without the spaces).
You can use tables and other more complicated coding, just keep the page width in mind.
Keep the title short as there is not much space on the sidebar.
Step 4: Once you are done with the HMTL coding, click on “Save Changes” down at the bottom.
Step 5: Click on “View Page” and when you reach your Fan Page, look at the left hand side below your profile photo. You will see a list of available items. Click on the name for the FBML page you just created to view it. If it looks good, proceed to Step 6. If not, go back to Step 2 and repeat to tweak your code.
Step 6: To make this your “landing” page for people who have not yet “Liked” your Page, Go to “Manage Permissions.” This choice is located near the top of the items on the left hand side of the page. Down toward the middle of the page in the choices, you can choose which of your pages to make the “Default Landing Tab.” Choose the FBML page you just created.
Step 7: Logout and then go back to your Fan page so you can enter Facebook like someone who has not yet done the “Like.” This will let you see this new landing/splash page. Once you have done a “Like”, you will not see this landing/splash page again.
You can also use the FBML App to create additional pages with content for your readers! Visit my Fan Page to see what kinds of goodies are available.
Hope you found this useful! Feel free to share it with others.
We’ve got a very special guest with us today! Please welcome Amy Corwin who is going to offer up some tips on writing my favorites – Paranormals!
Plotting the Paranormal
My name is Amy Corwin and I write paranormals. Actually, I write mysteries—both contemporary and historical—as well, but today I wanted to explore writing paranormals. They really aren’t much different than writing other kinds of novels, except perhaps the focus of the plot. When you’re sitting down to write other kinds of fiction, you generally fall into plot-driven or character-driven categories, regardless of whether you’ve never plotted out a book in advance in your life (a “pantster” writer) or do a complete plot outline before you place fingers on the keyboard to write.
Plot-driven writers create a plot and their characters weave their way through it. Character-driven writers let a character’s strengths, weakness, and goals drive the plot. For example, in a character-driven plot, the main character may be a kleptomaniac and that trait causes the character to get into a series of escalating problems. In a plot-driven novel, the plot may be that someone wakes up to find a dead body in bed next to him and has to figure out what happened before he is arrested for murder.
Ideally, you want the characters to drive the plot, while keeping them in line so that the plot doesn’t just drift off randomly like a blind man lost in a swamp. For example, if the guy does wake up in bed to find a dead body, it may be that his character led him to that place to begin with (he’s a party guy and notoriously drunk and someone used that to decide to frame him) and his character may drive the rest of the plot as he tries to prove his innocence. Most books aren’t purely one or the other.
A paranormal novel adds an additional dimension to the plot: the paranormal. What is interesting, however, is how this changes the basic plotting. In a way, you could think of a paranormal as being paranormal-driven. Whatever element makes the story a paranormal, be it a supernatural creature or some super-psychic ability, is what needs to drive the plot. If your story is about a woman who can see dead people, then the plot needs to revolve around her ability to see the dead. Perhaps she sees her dead son and learns he didn’t really commit suicide, but was murdered. She’s then driven to resolve the case, but runs into other difficulties due to her psychic abilities. That ability is the “character” trait that must drive the plot. Kay Hooper does this very, very effectively in her Noah Bishop, Special Crimes Unit novels. Each character in that series has a different psychic trait and that trait forces the character into the story and propels him or her forward.
Haunted house stories are another familiar breed and in contrast to Kay Hooper’s Special Crimes Unit, haunted house stories tend to be more plot-driven, but the plot is in essence the paranormal element: the haunted house. But since it’s rare to have successful books solely plot or character driven, and a classic example is Shirley Jackson’s The Haunting of Hill House. While it is a haunted house story and driven by that paranormal element, the haunting works on the main character’s weaknesses. It was Eleanor’s personality and sad history that intensified the paranormal elements and created a compelling story. Without Eleanor’s specific emotional makeup, the story would have been just another blah-blah ghost story. Instead, it became a classic that few other books have ever matched.
It’s never easy to blend all the elements and it’s perhaps a wee bit more difficult when you add the paranormal. It’s like a juggler picking up that third axe: two axes seem dangerous enough, the third just seems crazy. But it’s thrilling to be crazy.
Vampire Protector
Publisher: The Wild Rose Press
Memories may help her survive, but will they help her resist her vampire protector?
Exploring Gwen’s long abandoned childhood home in the company of her attractive neighbor, John, sounds like an intriguing evening. However, she soon realizes her mistake. John is a vampire and her house is not exactly empty. Secrets—and the dead—don’t always stay buried, and John’s extraordinary strength and determination may be all that can withstand what awaits them in the darkness.
In the following excerpt, Gwen has asked her neighbor, John Wright, to accompany her to her abandoned family home. She knows he’s a vampire, but despite this, she’s attracted to him and wants his company on this adventure.
But when the two of them get to the house, she’s not so sure it’s a good idea to enter…
Excerpt from Vampire Protector
John stopped and waited on the stoop. He glanced over his shoulder. When she didn’t move, he held out his hand in a peremptory gesture. She stared at it, thinking how human his hand looked with a sprinkling of dark hairs on the back of his wrists and strong, blunt-tipped fingers.
He must have been working outdoors the day he died, for there was still a tinge of sunburned red deepening the tan. The sun-kissed color reinforced the false sensation of heat radiating from him. He felt warm and alive to all her senses, despite the knowledge that he was not.
Her heart twisted with loneliness. It had been so long since she had felt arms around her. But she hadn’t met a man she felt she could trust, and a vampire was out of the question.
She had lost her way and did not know how to find the path back to a real life.
“Hold my hand if you’re afraid of ghosts,” he offered with a twisted smile. A flicker of sympathy grew in the depths of his eyes, revealing a sad recognition of the gulf between them: vampire and human.
With a sense of surprise, she felt his warm gaze tug her even closer to him. As if his awareness of the differences between them meant they shared similar core beliefs and that she could trust him because of that.
She shivered and thrust her thoughts away.
“Hanging onto your cold, dead fingers is not going to make me feel any better.”
“I’ll warm them for you.” His dark eyes flickered. The corners crinkled with silent laughter.
“You can make me think they’re warm. But they’ll still be cold, dead fingers.” The hairs rose along her neck and arms. She glanced over her shoulder toward the graveyard across the street.
“The remnants of the dead—those tatters—have probably drifted over from the graveyard. They’ll collect here. It’s not that I’m afraid of them. It’s not like they’d consciously attack me or anything, but they’ll be attracted to the body heat of anything living. Like me.”
She gestured toward one of the drifts of leaves in the farthest corner of the porch.
A few pitiful gray, black, and white feathers lay amidst the debris. At some point in the past, a mockingbird had tried to nest in the shelter of the porch. The bird had been sucked dry of energy and warmth before it realized what was happening and flew away. All that remained was a dry handful of feathers and bones.
The sight did not bode well for anything alive that entered the house.
About Amy: Amy Corwin is a charter member of the Romance Writers of America and has been writing for the last ten years and managing a career as an enterprise systems administrator in the computer industry. She writes Regencies/historicals, mysteries, and contemporary paranormals. To be truthful, most of her books include a bit of murder and mayhem since she discovered that killing off at least one character is a highly effective way to make the remaining ones toe the plot line.
Amy’s books include the two Regency romances, SMUGGLED ROSE, and LOVE, THE CRITIC; three Regency romantic mysteries, I BID ONE AMERICAN, THE BRICKLAYER’S HELPER, and THE NECKLACE; and her first paranormal, VAMPIRE PROTECTOR.
Join her and discover that every good romance has a touch of mystery.
Website: http://www.amycorwin.com
Twitter: http://twitter.com/amycorwin
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/AmyCorwinAuthor
Blog: http://amycorwin.blogspot.com
Thank you for having me here today, I enjoyed it and hope you’ll leave comments about the kinds of paranormal stories you love the best!
SEO (Search Engine Optimization) experts will tell you that one of the most important things you can do to increase website traffic and improve search engine listings is to increase the number of backlinks to your website.
What is a backlink? Backlinks are incoming links to a website. Backlinks are also one way that Google determines PageRank in order to assess the popularity of a website. (Did you know Page is actually the name of Larry Page, the inventor of the ranking algorithm?)
Wondering how your website ranks and how many backlinks there are to it? Click here for a nice backlink checker that also provides a ton of other info.
So how can you boost backlinks?
1. Exchange links to your website with others. List them on your links page in exchange for them linking to you. If you’ve got a book/author/writing related website to share, leave a comment with it and I’ll add you if you’ll add me!
2. Article submissions. Writing articles in your area of expertise or about topics of interest are a great way to create backlinks. E-zine Articles is a great way to do this. You can check out some of my articles by clicking here.
3. Social sites (Facebook, Twitter and Myspace) and social bookmarking are also great ways to create backlinks and it doesn’t have to be time-consuming. Applications like Hootsuite and sites like Ping.fm allow you to propogate multiple sites. Make sure to bookmark important pages on your site to Digg, Delicious and Stumbleupon, but also remember that “social” bookmarking is about being “social”. Share fun and interesting links as well via these sites.
4. Video submission sites are another manner in which to generate backlinks to your site and your uploaded videos.
5. Get listed at the various search directories like dmoz.org, Alexa, Google, Bing and Yahoo. This will assist in making sure that these search engines spider your site. This will help boost where you appear in their listings.
6. Guest blogs and comments on blogs also help create backlinks to your site. While every blog/website has a different method for leaving comments, try to use choose the method that allows you to leave your name and URL.
I will leave you with those tips for now, but I also invite you to drop by later today and visit with me at the Carina Press blog where I will be chatting about AZTEC GOLD and what inspired the story, including my own personal fear which influenced the herione’s character.
Don’t get me wrong, I love the holidays, but as a writer they provide one of the most serious distractions from getting any writing done. Even with the assistance of Santa’s helpers such as this one!
So what can you do to actually accomplish some writing and not allow worries about deadlines/revisions/etc. to dim your holiday cheer?
The first thing is to do a loose schedule of what needs to be done, when it needs to be done and with whom it needs to be done. See if there aren’t any chores which can be combined in order to use your time more effectively.
Second thing to do is multi-task. If you want to be able to watch those shows you love, set up your wrap station in front of the television so you can do two things at once.
Get up an hour earlier or stay up an hour later on as many days as you can. Try to fit in your writing in that extra hour. If you are definitely either a morning person or night owl, choose to do that extra hour during the time that is best for you. I’ve discovered I’m a morning bird and will get up at 5 a.m. instead of 6 to get the writing done.
If you’ve got some time coming to you at work, see about taking a day off to either do some of your chores or the writing.
Last, but not least, don’t worry about it. Worry is one of the most draining emotions that exists. It will accomplish nothing and only leave you feeling worse, which is the last thing you want to do during a season that should be filled with happiness, family and friends.
What do you do around the holidays to try to keep to your routines? I’d love to hear how you’ve managed to keep things running smoothly.
One of the things that has been coming up often on the ARE YOU STRONG ENOUGH blog tour are questions about how I get the inspirations for the books that I write.
Which makes me vaguely remember a quote somewhere about writers being able to talk to themselves without being labeled crazy (or at least not at first) and some very popular writer kinds of T-shirt quotes, such as:
Watch out or you’ll end up in my novel.
I kill off my enemies in my book. You’re on page 12.
Truthfully, those quotes are accurate. For example, a very nice waiter was the inspiration for the Ryder name. Roman mythology helped create Ryder’s lover, Diana. I confess to killing off at least one person who truly pissed me off in very gruesome fashion. Last, but not least, the names of friends and family have graced characters that I like, sometimes more than once.
But beyond that, where the ideas originate is difficult to say, although it is safe to say that a writer’s mind never stops observing and recording those things around them in order to use those observations in a story. Whether it’s a meal that you savor or where you eat it, a walk along a street with a different vibe, a new city that you visit… Any and all of those life experiences may germinate the kernel of an idea that takes root and grows into a story.
Take STRONGER THAN SIN for instance. You may have heard me mention on other blogs that the idea for the genetic engineering came about as a result of my science major geekdom. But my love of sports was what influenced the hero’s occupation. Rather than choosing baseball, which is more a game of physics and strategy, I needed the hero to suffer serious physical injury in a bone-crushing collision. Bazinga-he had to be a football player. Someone big and powerful cut down in the prime of his life.
Enter the heroine who I had already introduced in SINS OF THE FLESH, but who I came to love and needed her own big story. Was it coincidence that she was a doctor in book one? No because I needed someone who could offer medical assistance on the sly in that book. Was it coincidence that she was training to be an orthopedic surgeon? Not really either since I knew even then the second story was going to be about someone with a bone disease and I also had a friend with that profession who I could ask questions about treatments, etc.
My life experiences and influences eventually led to ex-football player Jesse Bradford and Dr. Liliana Carrera and their story.
Other life experiences, namely my love of history and travel, are what helped set up the evolution of the SINS series for books 3 and 4 – THE LOST and THE CLAIMED as well as the two books coming out from Carina – AZTEC GOLD and THE FIFTH KINGDOM. Although I’m a little crazed right now with trying to finish THE CLAIMED, I’m going to dig through some photos and get them scanned so you can see what inspired some of the story elements and locations that I chose for those books!
I guess what I’m trying to say in a very long way is that a writer’s inspiration comes from everything around them and in particular, from those things about which they find interesting or about which they are passionate. Why are those last two things so important? Because when a writer is interested or passionate about something, it shows in the words that they put on the page and bring the story alive for readers.
Thanks for dropping by today’s Kiss Me, Kill Tuesday. Don’t forget to visit the various stops on the ARE YOU STRONG ENOUGH blog tour to learn more about STRONGER THAN SIN and also, to possibly win of the giveaways.
Also take a moment to visit with my very good friend and fellow author Mary Kennedy at SOS Aloha today! Mary is chatting about Sherlock Holmes which is thoroughly appropriate since she has the wonderful Talk Radio Mysteries out on shelves. Just click here to visit!
First let me preface this with: I love CHUCK. It’s a great spy romantic comedy suspense.
Last night’s episode kind of annoyed me. I think in many different kinds of stories we’re asked to suspend disbelief for certain things. In the case of CHUCK there are many of them, but the primary one is that a person’s mind can somehow be programmed to be a supercomputer. It’s like believing that people can be genetically engineered to be something other than human (LOL!).
But when it comes to real life things, it’s up to a writer to make sure those real life things are portrayed accurately.
Case in point: The escape from the villain’s jet using parachutes. Chuck and his seemingly more nerdy older spy guy put on parachutes. They don’t secure them in any fashion, just slip them over their shoulders. They open the door to a moving jet and it goes flying off. They have time for banter and then jump out. The remaining people in the jet, who are unsecured in any way, are able to stay on the jet.
So wrong from a real life perspective.
1. You need to secure the parachute pack or it might get pulled off your body when you engage the chute. That’s just common sense.
2. Most parachute jumps occur from about 13,000 feet. HALO (High Altitude Low Oxygen) jumps occur from about 25,000 to 35,000 feet. HALO jumps require bailout oxygen because of the lack of oxygen at those high altitudes.
3. Most passenger jets fly at altitudes of between 30,000 and 37,000 feet. Smaller business jets may fly at even higher altitudes. Some twin engine aircraft and prop planes may fly as low as 8,000 feet. At higher altitudes, jumping from any kind of jet operating at standard norms would require bailout oxygen.
4. Flying planes at those heights also requires something else: Cabin pressurization to prevent passengers and crew members to maintain a safe and comfortable environment. Think of the inside of the cabin as the inside of a bottle of champagne. What happens when you pop off the top? With explosive decompression, things may get sucked out of the plane if the hole in large enough (as in an open door) and if the difference in pressure from inside the cabin to out is high enough.
5. The normal air speed for the aircraft when parachuting is about 90 mph. Most common jet airliners travel between 450 and 600 miles per hour. Smaller jets usually fly about 100 miles slower, but Honda is introduced a new jet in 2006 that flies at 480 miles per hour.
So in other words, the jet plane parachute escape was totally implausible on various real life points. Again, while some liberties are allowed with certain fictionalized elements that form the basis of your story, you cannot skimp on facts. If a viewer or reader immediately says, “That’s so not realistic”, it draws them out of the story. It’s your job as a writer not to let that happen.
Hope you enjoyed today’s Kiss Me, Kill Me Tuesday.
On another note, don’t forget the various contests that are running to celebrate the release of STRONGER THAN SIN!
Today is the last day for the Bitten by Books release party and a chance to win a $50 gift card.
The ARE YOU STRONG ENOUGH contest and Fresh Fiction contest will be running until the end of November.
It seems somehow appropriate on this dreary and rainy Tuesday to discuss something about which all writers worry. No, not the Dreaded Synopsis.
Revisions.
It’s especially appropriate since I just turned in a manuscript which required revisions and since at my Saturday workshop someone asked, “What do you do when someone asks you to change your work?”
The answer was simple: You do the revisions.
It’s one of those things that I often warn aspiring authors about – being a diva. I’ve heard more than one writer say that they won’t make any changes to their work and I often wonder whether they’ll ever get published or if they do, will they be able to sustain a career.
Although some believe that editors are like carpenters with a hammer and nail, give them paper and a pen and they want to make changes, the reality of it is that editors know the market and what’s selling. They understand voice and pacing and conflict. They oftentimes will see past what’s on the page to what the writer wants to accomplish because many times the writer has become so involved in their work and knows it so intimately that they fail to get what’s up in their heads down on paper.
It’s the editor’s job to make sure that gets done and a good editor will accomplish just that.
What if what the editor wants you to do is totally different than what you want to do?
That’s a tough situation for sure and the answer is not so simple. The first thing to do is divest your ego from the work. Look at it as an outsider would. Are the editor’s comments justified? Do you think that they might possibly make the work better or more marketable? If the answer is “yes”, then take a moment and try rewriting the first ten or so pages with the editor’s suggestions.
Now step back and look at it again. Is it better? More marketable? Then dig in and start rewriting.
You may have noticed that I’ve used that “marketable” word multiple times already because the reality is that if you’re writing commercial fiction (as in selling to the mass market), what you’re writing needs to sell. That means it needs to meet certain reader and bookseller expectations.
Your editor is the one who can best tell you whether or not you’ve managed to do that.
If you’re still not convinced about all the changes, then try a conciliatory approach rather than a confrontational one. For example, when I first wrote DARKNESS CALLS one of the revision requests was that I have the heroine, Diana Reyes, become a vampire at the end of the novel. In my heart I felt that the story was much too complicated and rich for that kind of ending. I also felt that there would be greater emotion and impact for the readers if the characters had that conflict hanging over their heads – Love me even though I will die before you do. It spoke of a much greater love and commitment if Ryder and Diana chose to get together despite that fact.
I discussed it with my editors and we agreed I would write the ending as I envisioned it and that if it did not work, I would revise it. Bottom line was, the ending worked and we left it as is. Everyone was happy with the compromise we reached initially and the end result.
So the bottom line is, be open to change. Be willing to compromise. Your editors know what’s best and what’s selling. Trust them to help you craft a better book.
