Hello! I recently returned from the SCBWI Western Washington, which was a truly fabulous conference where I got to listen to incredible keynotes from such authors as Adam Rex, Grace Lin, Ellen Hopkins and Jon Scieszka (these people have turned the Power Point presentation into an elite art form), where I met with very talented and friendly editors and agents, and also got a chance to meet some blog readers in person (hello blog readers! Thank you for introducing yourself!).
I realized this morning on the bus that by Friday I will have worked 28 out of the last 31 days on account of going to conferences three out of the last four weekends, and thus whatever brain resources I have left at my disposal today are going straight to clients and work, where they are most needed. It’s like mental triage.
So rather than risk giving you hallucinatory advice like “only query in iambic pentameter” and “the best synopses include every single character in your entire manuscript no matter how minor,” I thought I’d turn it over to you for an open thread.
Open thread!
no, No NO NO NOOOOOOOOO!!!!! You were here at the Western Washington SCBWI conference and I MISSED IT???? I knew I should have gone to that conference. Damn, grrrr, DRAT!!!
Nathan, it was great to have you! You have lots of fans here.
Must. Get. Sleep.
Thank you Nathan for the open thread. “No place like home” after venturing around the Land of Oz.
abc said: “Has anyone ever come up with a book idea from a dream?”
Lots of them. Much of my writing consists of not only the original dream inspiration, but much of the plot, characters, and strange happenings are based on dreams.
Writing the dreams down became a mess, so I organize them according to what book the “dreams” will work in. Some of the books are writing themselves, it seems.
Neil asked: “…what’s the hardest scene you’ve ever had to write?”
Truth.
By that, I don’t mean that it is difficult to tell the truth, but it is difficult to write certain scenes which reveal truth. I have decided to create fiction characters and let them bear the weight of it.
All the comments here have been interesting and delightful as always.
Lucinda
Neil,
Thanks for letting me know about panaramio.com. I’ll have to check it out.
Jen C.
I like the term geeking out. I’m often prone to doing such a thing.
It’s a hangover from my childhood.
I have to say, Nathan was right about the community of commentators on his blog…lots of interaction here.
I have to thank you all, this is the first day EVER where the number one ‘referrer’ to my blog was NOT ‘origins of bird poop good luck’.
Thanks 🙂
(Word: Mulan…it’s already been done by Disney)
Bane of Anubis,
I can see your point about the time travel episodes in HARRY POTTER. I loved the HARRY POTTER world so much, I was able to buy into the time travel ideas. On the other hand, I disliked TWILIGHT so much (reminded me of a bad soap opera), I found myself feeling that certain scenes were deus ex machina, while TWILIGHT fans felt those scenes fit well with the story.
I wonder if we expect literature to be more tightly written today than readers used to expect, especially with children’s books. I first read A WRINKLE IN TIME as an adult; and, as much as I liked that book, I felt it had huge gaps in scientific explanation to the point of using deus ex machina to move the story forward.
I love the parallel universe theory of time travel – really fascinating!
Bane, not only is it fantasy, but it’s metaphor. The story works on a different level – to my mind, it’s not, by any stretch of the imagination – lazy writing. The theme of that particular book is finding your strength within. It’s significant character development and growth for Harry. Time travel is a vital plot device to make the metaphor work. J.K. Rowling may be alot of things, but a lazy writer, she isn’t.
In terms of Stephen King, yes, I know that he spends 5 million pages talking about how much he hates adverbs, but I assumed that was the usual Stephen King trickery. He’s not going to fool me! If he spends that much time on something, he must love it.
I’m thinking maybe not just one adverb, but two should be there.
What about vociferously and voraciously? Virtuosity? Vicariously? Ooo I like that. Vociferously and vicariously santified….
I love it.
Thanks, Bane.
Marilyn – excellent point – it’s always easy to poke holes in the things we don’t like and skip them in those we do (although I did really enjoy Harry Potter – I just have to poke holes in things that receive fairly unadulterated adulation – the devil’s advocate in me, I guess).
Yeah, time travel/parallel universe theory is absolutely mind-boggling/scary.
Marilyn,
Don’t be so nice to Bane okay?
He’s wrong, wrong, wrong.
…..I get alittle protective of my HERO, J.K. Rowling.
If it makes you feel better, though, Bane, I thought the last book was weaker than the rest.
What do you mean, Marilyn, excellent point?
What am I, chopped liver?
Mira, I will always say that it’s a lazy plot device – I’m not saying she’s a lazy writer, but that gimmick is a lazy one… People can find strength within in other ways.
And, to really get the fire going, I think she did become a lazier writer in her later books. She caught some of Robert Jordan’s serialitis and forgot that oh so important phrase that Stephen King harps on in that book you adore: omit needless words…
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
That’s it!!!!!
That’s it!!!!!
I have the first sentence. I have it.
Here it is. The first sentence that will start my book that Nathan will adore. And he’ll sign me to be his client FOREVER.
MY SENTENCE (with alittle help from Jill Lynn, and of course Stephen King, and now Bane of Anubis)
“The ostrich-pickle conspiracy vociferously sanctified chopped liver.”
WOW.
The rest of the book will practically write itself.
Oh, who knew writing was so easy?
Happy, happy, happy.
Bane of Anubis, please don’t take this the wrong way, because I like you and we’re friends.
However, you just used Stephen King to critique the Goddess J.K. Rowling, so I’m afraid we have to be mortal enemies now.
That’s okay, though. I’ve always wanted a mortal enemy, and I think you’ll make a fine one.
My robot ninja pirate is disgusted by your need for coffee and I have compiled a few reason that will hi-light the said entities reasons:
1. “He’s” a freaking robot. Why the hell would he have a need to consume coffee? It is a crutch that only those of the “meat-bag” variety of entities would require. When the robots finally take over, I am sure that the first thing they will see to, aside from the total subjugation of the human race, is to make sure that coffee is removed from the face of the planet, thereby denying the slave-race of humans from ever gathering the will to resist their iron fisted rule.
2. A ninja would kill anyone who offered them coffee because ninja kill everything and they are awesome. In fact, it is a little known bit of news that seems to have escaped this travesty of a blog, but the greatest loss of life on this planet has never been due to war, pestilence, or hunger. That honor belongs to a single ninja upon the opening of the franchise store Starbucks! That ninja has been slaying non-fat soy mocha latte prigs since 1971 and has been able to spread his cycle of death to over 16,120 stores in 49 countries, including around 11,000 in the United States. And the thing is that he will kill you for free and not by charging you seven dollars for a sixteen ounce coffee that is more than a third of your recommended daily intake of calories.
3. Pirates do not drink coffee. Period! If they want something to drink, it would be rum served to the by a busty serving wench when said pirate had returned from plundering those nations devastated by the wave of deaths that have been sweeping their nations (see #2 above for more information). But since I am talking about a robot ninja pirate, you should be made aware that it does not need to consume rum (for the reason why, please see #1) nor does he require the tension relieving services of a busty serving wench (again, see #1 if you are still confused as to why this is).
Of course, when all three of these archetypes have been combined into a single form, you have the most awesome, non-meat-bag killer that has ever plundered…ever.
So you can have your coffee! I will stick with the robot ninja pirate.
Mira, excellent.
Warning: be wary of my goblins. FYI – they’re winning the war against the vampires – they fear nothing, not angels, initialed authors, or hearts of ice 🙂
So, since you hate King, you must therefore like Meyer? (the whole enemy’s enemy is my friend thing)
Nathan,
What a weekend! Sounds like you had as much as fun as I did. Thanks for coming up north and sharing your thoughts (and answering my numerous questions).
Okay.
Although haven’t we played this game before? Um, be wary of my goblin-eaters?
Oh. Are you writing a book including goblins?
I do feel sympathy for Stephen King around the whole Stephanie Meyers thing. I’m sure it’s hard on him that she’s such a better writer.
Nathan –
Just saw a pic of you on Suzanne Young’s blog. What a suave guy!
I think blogging is your therapy…
Scott – Wow. Doesn’t sound like a dream…more like a nightmare. Yikes.
My son got bit at day care today. Feeling a bit blah. I wish you would do open thread when it works for me. 😀 But in my defense I managed two or three posts while still blah. I guess it is my therapy?
Get some rest Nathan…while you’re at it, you need to look at the manuscript for my novel. I would hate to give it to an agent OTHER than your good self.
Is anyone else concerned by the negative influence that the rash of pirate movies has had on world culture? As the “Pirates of the Carribean” is finally getting translated into Sudanese, the problem is growing so obvious that the world community can no longer ignore this. Let’s start scratching up our DVD’s in protest.
Thanks for the podium, Nathan. This came to mind with the post above referring to pirates and their preferrance for rum. Please, don’t glorify this lifestyle. You’re hurting us all:)
Mira, yes – I’m trying to get the word out. Goblins are en vogue – like the ugly ducklings of the vampire world :)…
Though not a huge fan of King’s work, I’ll take him any day over SM.
PC:
I’ll tell you the same thing I told that boy I married the first time our son was bitten at day care.
It could be worse.
Dear Hubby was ready to call police, Army rangers, ninja robots, whatever into a meeting with that other kid’s parents while I talked him out of the belltower. With these words.
“Let’s just be glad he’s the bit-EE instead of the bit-ER.”
It took another four bites before our little angel starting dishing it back out but that was much worse since then it was the other parents calling for our munchkin to get kicked out.
I love the idea of querying in imabic pentameter, or perhaps a sonnet? 😀
Mira said:
“The ostrich-pickle conspiracy vociferously sanctified chopped liver.”
I think it might be time to follow the writing rule: edit, edit, edit. I know. You reached that stage in your new work so quickly, it’s really quite astounding, Mira. Chuckle. 🙂
Laurel –
Thanks. I’m thankful he is not a biter (yet). He has gone through a biting phase and was quickly curbed of it. But there is a whole lot of vent-worthy stuff to go along with him being bitten by THIS child. 😉
If I start, I won’t stop. So I am better to leave it at that. 🙂
PurpleClover said…
Nathan –
Just saw a pic of you on Suzanne Young’s blog. What a suave guy!
Oh my, you do look very tall there, Nathan!
Word Veri: brato. As in “Jen stop being such a brat…o” *childhood flashback*. (For the record I maintain I wasn’t really a brat, I was just misunderstood.)
Jarucia said…
Jen C.
I like the term geeking out. I’m often prone to doing such a thing.
Barely a day goes by in which I don’t geek out over something! You’re in good company, all the cool people are geeks, anyway…
Marilyn,
Thank you.
But honestly, how can you improve upon perfection?
Besides, I really couldn’t change a word of that sentence.
Really.
I have no idea what it means.
In fact, to be completely honest, I’m alittle scared of that sentence. I think I’ll leave it alone for now. I’m worried that if I mess with it too much, it will suddenly achieve consciousness and become a sentinent life form.
I once wrote a short story based on a dream and entered the story in one of those dark-and-stormy-night-bad-story contests. It didn’t win, and I didn’t know if it was because it was too good or too bad.
Oh dear god in heaven did someone just really say Meyer was a better writer than King. Stephanie Meyer is probably one of the single worst writers in the history of literature.
The only thing Meyer does and does very well is she knows how to speak to her audience, particularly females and even more specifically female teenagers.
Her books lacked any pacing and made for one of the most arduous readings I have ever gone through.
She honestly spent more time with her female lead looking across the lunchroom at the Cullen table (I believe this consisted of %25 of the entire book) then she did with her climax or any type of resolution to her story.
She crammed what would have been half a book of action into like two chapters at the end just to say hey I had to end it somehow now I can wash my hands of this vile thing.
And that was just Twilight, the other three books might actually be worse including Breaking Dawn which simply put is one of the most horrendous pieces of garbage ever written.
I am tired of the love for this hack of a writer, god I have a wife and a good friend who do nothing but dot on these horrible books. I tried to give them a chance, I read all four books but I would rather have my eyes eaten out by vultures than ever read anything she puts to paper again.
Hnnn…I’ll wait until after the coffee and a bit of sleep to query 😉
I’m with Bane and Patrick – King might not be my absolute favorite writer (Lord knows he needs an editor sometimes), but I’d take THE SHINING, THE DEAD ZONE, and many others ANY DAY over Meyer’s series. Due to the hype (and because I try to read as much as possible), I read all four of her books in a week’s time – and I’m still not sure why I kept going. Probably because I believe you should read something in its entirety before ripping it to pieces!
I think I will also enter the fray of the time travel discussion. Time travel is almost always done horribly in novel and movies because the writer always forgets one fundamental truth.
That truth is that the events have to occur in the first place before they can be changed. That means if your character dies the first time around then that character will not be able to travel back in time to fix that problem.
JK Rowling dropped the ball on that completely. If the first time around the Dementors performed the kiss on Harry then there is no possible way he can return and produce a patronous to save himself, he’s dead. The event occurred the first time around meaning since he is dead he can not adjust the future accordingly.
If Reese was John Connors father and he was sent back by Connor from the future then Connor could not exist because the first time around Reese wouldn’t have been around to father John Connor.
It’s such a simple thing that almost every writer forgets that the future has to unravel at least once before you can change it.
The film that I think did it the best was the Butterfly Effect where every time he goes back in time the changes he makes causes unexpected ripples that he could never predict. The best part though is everything occurred at least once before he tried to change it as they held to the one fundamental truth.
Ok can you tell my second novel has to do with a worm hole and time travel and that I have given this a lot of thought. It’s my dream novel, a novel I dreamed up just two months ago.
I love coming to your blog not only for your posts, but also for the comments!
On another note, since you mentioned coffee, have you ever tried yerba mate? I’m addicted to it (in a good way, of course), and I don’t remember a moment in my life I haven’t drank mate. I am from the nostalgic, melancholy country in the most austral point of our continent, and that may be the reason I got hooked in the first place. You should try it–with a lot of sugar.
Yamile,
Chau!
I drank lots of mate during the year and a half I lived in Argentina! I still have a mate cup and straw somewhere but alas, no mate.
I lived in Mendoza. Where are you from?
Jen C and Jarucia,
I’m with you. I swear there are more and more great things to geek out over every day. 🙂
Mira,
You are very wise. I failed to recognize the perfection. I thought I might recognize perfection if I ever saw it, but clearly I’ve had very little exposure to it.
Like you, I’m also a bit frightened of that sentence. You better wipe it off your computer, or it might come alive and eat all your other work. It seems a real possibility. That sentence is hungry.
Marilyn, hungry. Yes. That describes it perfectly.
Do I hear a stomach growling?
Time to go hide under the covers.
But not before mentioning two things:
a. Prior to reading fantasy that is written for children, people are now required to get a permission slip. Sadly, several of you do not currently qualify. On the other hand, good luck with your novel, Patrick!
b. Stephen King isn’t even in the same class as Stephanie Meyer.
I’ll tell you why.
Sure Stephen King’s books have disturbing and profound themes. You can’t put them down. They deal with deep unconscious motivations and conflicts.
But Stephanie Meyer has a hot vampire.
I rest my case.
Well, I actually watched the season premiere of the Bachelorette. Wow.
SPOILER!!!!!!
She didn’t eliminate the foot fetish guy!
Nathan, I just saw you at the SCBWI conference and I wanted to thank you for your talk, even if it was lacking in clever power point. Yours was actually the most helpful: it had never occured to me that the road to publication could start before I put this octopus of a manuscript to bed and tied it up with a pretty red bow. So thank you, and you may consider yourself the inspiration for a new little ship in the endless sea of the blogosphere.
Gosh, that’s a terrible word, don’t you think?
Patrick Rodgers,
I love talking about time travel, after reading scientific theories about it as background for my latest novel. It’s fascinating, isn’t it?
I like the many-worlds theory of time travel, which says that any change made to a time sequence when a person goes back in time simply opens up another world in which that event is real. Using your example, “If Reese was John Connors father and he was sent back by Connor from the future then Connor could not exist because the first time around Reese wouldn’t have been around to father John Connor.” … a different universe of possibilities opens up when Reese goes back in time. He remains father to John in one universe, but is part of a different time sequence in the other world in which he travels through time. Theoretically, all the different universes exist at once, but right now humans can’t see them because we don’t do that naturally and we don’t yet have the technology to allow us to see it.
I thought WATCHMEN – both the graphic novel and movie – demonstrated this idea extremely well. After Jon figures out how to reconstruct his body after it’s destroyed by the “intrinsic field subtractor”, he suddenly has the ability to see time in all its dimensions. He sees everything happening all at once – past, present and future. He can move from one dimension to another, and multiples of him sometimes appear in the same dimension. One theoretical device for traveling through time would be a machine that could move along the places where the different worlds intersect.
So far, scientists have been able to maniplulate time to a very limited degree in experiments on light. Reading about that really fascinated me! Weird things happen at the quantum level that suggest time travel is possible, but whether or not they can actually happen at a higher level is driving some fascinating research … and makes great background for science fiction writing!
In TIME TRAVELER: A SCIENTIST’S PERSONAL MISSION TO MAKE TIME TRAVEL A REALITY, Dr. Ronald L. Mallett suggests that quite possibly no one will ever be able to travel back to any point in time before the first time machine is switched on. I found that interesting.
As long as it’s open season…here’s (https://weo-cuttime.blogspot.com/) an interesting blog piece on the Kindle reader, with a link to a Wired article on the same topic. Both discuss the blandness, the visual vacuity, of the Kindle as-is, the Cut Time blog from a business-person’s point of view. I know Nathan’s a Kindle fan, and I too have found the Kindle to be pretty good for some purposes. But there are limitations, and these two pieces helped me to see those limitations in a broader, more contextual way. They also help articulate the ways in which cover art and other design decisions enhance and help brand a book, and by extension, the author.
Cheers,
Theo
I written two books based on things from dreams. ONe was an entrie dream – the other a prophecy that came in a dream.
Here’s some news for literary blogs and/or Kindle readers:
Literary blogs on Kindle
Nathan,
I’m sorry I no longer read your blog for your comments alone. I am now searching for MIRA’s, B of A’s, and MP. You have moved down to number 4. You have lost complete control.
Jo
Jo,
Thanks for the compliment, but don’t be silly. Really.
Nathan is the paper, and we are just the little wiggles running across it.
The fact that he gives us so much license is because he supports us as writers. He’s giving us freedom to express ourselves. He’s also allowing us to build a community here.
A community of which Nathan is the leader. And he will always be the leader, and I’ll tell you why.
As amusing and interesting as some of the commenters are, none of us can give you that signing contract.
That gives Nathan a charisma far beyond his wit, charm, intelligence, kindness and dashing good looks.
He’s an agent. A very kind one.
@ abc, 9:58am: All of my stories start out as dreams. I keep a dream journal as well, and have recorded over 150 dreams.
@ Nathan: The Coffee is our friend.
Word ver: “unserker”
Makes me think of “berserker,” so maybe an unserker is a berserker who’s unwinding after a hard day of…berserking?
Oh. Jo, also, you don’t this, but I’ve privately let Nathan know that I’ll stop immediately if that’s ever his preference.
He’s tacitly given his permission, and if he ever revokes that, I’ll respect his decision.
This is his blog.
Laurel,
I’m from Rosario. How long ago were you there in Argentina?
Marilyn I always saw a loophole to the John Connor conundrum of time travel and that was the fact that the first time around Sarah could have simply birthed John with a different father. I mean he would still be her son just a different father and then when John sent Reese back he could have changed John just for the better by being his father.
Terminator isn’t the worst of the time travel films or books that forget the first fundamental truth to time travel but dear god does it push the limits of it. I mean if John is such a warrior because his mother knew what was coming and training him to be so what happened the first time around. Maybe he didn’t need that training and all it did was cause him endless years of sorrow that he didn’t need to go through. It’s all about the ripple effect that messing with time causes.
And Mira I seriously hope your kidding
“Sure Stephen King’s books have disturbing and profound themes. You can’t put them down. They deal with deep unconscious motivations and conflicts.
But Stephanie Meyer has a hot vampire.”
Because Edward Cullen is one of the worst written characters EVER. He is such a cliched stereotype and has zero depth at all. He would have been better suited in a harlequin novel as the hero that you just have to blindly accept is perfect because its a freaking harlequin novel.
Meyer’s characters are so shallow and lack any type of development as the story progresses that it angers me to ever hear anyone praise her characters.
All the character of Edward is is the female teenager equivalent of a wet dream and by your statement that makes her books better than King’s.
So I hope A either you are kidding or B you are snorting crack right now and our willing to share.