Breaking the (Writing) Law! March 22, 2008
Posted by fredcharles in Writing.Tags: orson scott card, Writing
2 comments
I’ve learned many things about writing over the years. You can read every book about writing on the earth, but you really won’t learn anything unless you do it. Even though most writing books contain the same core principals, you will never figure out what works for you until you actually do some writing.
The funny thing is that the authors of these books will tell you one thing, then break the rules in their own books. I’ve caught several known authors giving advice in their own writing books, and then doing exactly what they said not to do in their novels. My classic example of this is Orson Scott Card. In his excellent book How to Write Science Fiction and Fantasy, tells the young writer not to start a novel off with a prologue. The next book that I picked from Card started off with a prologue, of course.
Over time, you learn that breaking the rules is part of writing. It’s kind of liberating sometimes to use one of those dirty adverbs or to use some type of formatting that you were told to never use, but somehow just works. Sometimes breaking the rules will set you apart from the rest of those law-abiding writers out there.
I’m not saying to overdo it. I’m just saying that sometimes a well placed crime in your writing may do you some good.
Write a Snowflake in 30 Days March 9, 2008
Posted by fredcharles in Uncategorized.Tags: Book in 30 Days, Snowflake Method, Writing
9 comments
The stars aligned today and I was able to go to the bookstore-by myself.
Usually, I have my daughter with me when I go to the bookstore. This is usually a different experience than when I go by myself. Consider these metrics:
With Daughter:
99% Time spent in the kids section
1% Time spent trying to browse the Science Fiction and Fantasy section while my daughter dives in and out of every chair in the area
So you can understand my excitement at getting to go myself.
I drove past the Best Buy and laughed at the line of people standing outside in the blustery wind, waiting to get their hands on a Nintendo Wii. Honestly, does anyone need anything that bad?
I got to the bookstore and went straight to the Writing section (after browsing through the latest copy of Terrorizer, which I placed in front of the copies of AP Press that were labeled as the “Staff Pick of the Month.)
While checking out the writing section, I found a new book called “Write a Book in 30 Days“. The book is a work plan for writing your novel. You write inside the book and perform certain tasks each day for a month. At the end of 30 days, you are supposed to have your book written. Since I am always up for new methods, I considered buying it, but at the hefty price tag of $22.99, I wanted to browse through it before buying. After checking through it, I came to the conclusion that I already knew about most of the methods in the book. The book did seem useful, but I still stand by my belief that you should not rush a novel. Most of my best ideas developed over time.
After leaving the bookstore, I remembered reading about something called the Snowflake Method online. The snowflake method is another plan for writing a novel. I know some writers who have used this method in the past, but I never got confirmation as to whether it worked for them.
Have any of you used the Snowflake method?
Do you have your own method of novel writing that works?
