Tale Chasing » Links

How we got here

Kimiko — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 13:47:07 +0000

I mentioned in my last post that I was going to talk the search for a good critique partner. This post is going to hit and run on that topic. We’re here because I did infact audition some people as critique partners. And I found a few who were very helpful. Everyone that offered to help had some good stuff to say. Anyone I didn’t pursue was only due to chemistry with a particular person and not because I didn’t find their crits helpful. So with that little disclaimer out of the way….(and a lead up to another post about this entire process)…

I am standing with 8k words in my hands, wondering if it’s good enough. This is no doubt, not an uncommon process or issue for writers. So let me tell you about how I got here.

I sent out my first chapter to about 5 people. I figured that since I’m happily on the 5th Chapter and I still wish to get earlier chapters podcast it was about time in the process to do a final edit and get it out to the voice actors. Hence the need for a few beta readers.

Each person I sent it to had some issues with my first chapter. One person in particular helped me see that I was showing the opposite of what I’d intended with my main character. This left a hearty but not impossible re-write. InkGypsy, who’s become a big supporter and very helpful, calmed some of the stress. No, I didn’t need to trash it and start all over. Yes, it could be fixed with a bit of change here and there. It was all going to be ok.

So for the last week or two I’ve been mulling over how to fix Chapter 1. Then upon talking with someone else, I realize….we might not be getting into the action soon enough. There might not be enough uf in my first chapter. Suddenly everything I have written looks extraneous and do I need to cut out large chunks of what I’ve written or do I keep it and some small change can keep it salvagable? *sounds of screams and much head holding*

My thought is…if I cut out a large amount of what I’ve written to make things happen faster….isn’t that just making a book into a short story? I want to avoid doing that. It’s a novel I’m writing not a 5k word short.

Sadly, there is no resolution to my questions yet. This post is about my process and I haven’t found the answer yet. But I felt it was good to get this out here as I’m sure there are a few others of you right now holding your heads and sighing. We aren’t lost. We’ll discover the way out.

I do however, want to leave you with a few good links I’ve found:
A Novel in Three Acts Pt 1 – Stacia Kane
A Novel in Three Acts Pt 2 – Stacia Kane
A Novel in Three Acts Pt 3 – Stacia Kane
The Fear of Writing
Holly Lisle’s Think Sideways Course

Episode 21 – Interview with Mur Lafferty

Kimiko — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 02:53:26 +0000

It took me forever but it’s finally here. My interview with Mur Lafferty is finally finished and up. I want to thank Chris Moody for taking a first pass at the audio while I was working on another project. His help made it possible to get this up a little sooner.

P.S. I think I’m missing episode 20 but who’s to say it won’t find it’s way in the feed someday

Here are the links mentioned in the show:

Episode 19 – TaleChasing Feedback 0908

Kimiko — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 02:05:24 +0000

I did it! It’s less then two weeks after Dcon and I have an episode up. Granted not my NOTES from Dcon but an episode none the less. This says promising things. This is my feedback from the last year as I was a bad host and didn’t get back to it. That among other things…is going to change!

Enjoy
Show Notes:

Tee Morris

Adventures in SciFi Publishing ( my bad I said American SciFi Writing)

Lost Socks Insanity Podcast

Scott Sigler

Mur Lafferty – I Should Be Writing

DragonCon

Ivy Riesner – Writing Cast

PJ – Tech for Writers

Holly Lisle – Shop

Ian McLein (props to anyone who finds the beta pic)

Poser

The Devil Inside

David Mack

How to Think Sideways – Holly’s 6 month course

Look what I found

Kimiko — Wed, 14 May 2008 21:52:40 +0000

I was reading a list of questions with links to the answers by The Paperback Writer. There’s a lot of good stuff over there. But that led me to what seems to be a really good resource for writers who are looking for more info on how to plot, create characters, etc. I haven’t had time to read it all. I was very aware that I probably should have been writing instead of reading about writing….but part of the reason for linking it for you was so I could go back later and read it myself. If you find particularly good parts, feel free to put them in the comments!

Of course, part of the reason I decided to save this for later is because I started reading and questioning whether I’d covered all the things they were talking about in my story and characters and that way leads to madness.

So…enjoy!

Twitter leads me to what's wrong with Urban Fanatsy

Kimiko — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 20:40:54 +0000

Twitter is good for so many things. In fact I put up a Twitterview today over here. But among it’s uses, you can set words to pop up to your phone or twitter program that you are interested in. So for example, anytime anyone posts anything about urban fantasy I get a twitter showing me where the word was used. Today one popped up by Paul Jessup. That led me to his twitter, which led me to his website, which led me to an article on what’s wrong with Urban Fantasy these days. (read the comments too..they are useful)

It was an extremely useful article in two ways. One..it’s always good to know what is bothering readers out there so that perhaps you can fix it. I admit, I was slightly overwhelmed when I read the “problem” which didn’t have very much in the way of “HOW” to fix it, until I read far down into the comments.

Vera Nazarian‘s main contention was that most UF these days is the same ole same. But here were some points she mentioned to fix those issues.

- Evocation of genuine wonder requires subtlety.

- Evocation of wonder requires genuine enthusiasm for the object of wonder on the part of the author first and foremost â€” before any of that can be transmitted on to the reader (or to the characters, or to whoever).

- Wonder and humor and smart attitude are not mutually exclusive.

- Humor of the non-wisecracking non-streetwise kind is an option â€” give it a try (put an ordinary non-funny person with little-to-no attitude in a crazy situation).

- Fast pacing can detract from a sense of wonder; slow down.

- Show donâ€™t tell: present the right details to the reader and that will elicit the wonder regardless of what the characters perceive (regardless of whether they are jaded or not).

- Take it a step further â€” make the familiar unfamiliar, alienate the reader from the ordinary.

- The pleasure of NEWNESS comes from the re-configuration of the FAMILIAR. No need to discard the familiar and comfortable, just reupholster it (who was it that said there were only 10 plotlines in the world?).

- Attraction is a reaction, to be elicited only, and only from a combination of specific elements that may all be different from reader to reader. There is no other real way to make it happen; no one leather vamp hunk fits all.

- Attraction is a kind of sense of wonder in itself.

- Flimsy facades of wood laminate paste board masquerading as the numinous in fantasy are overdone; give us the paranormal real thing, solid through and through.

- Unexpected real events can be just as striking or more so that banally presented fantastic events (bird poop versus boring fairy).

- Cliches jade not only the reader but the author who is writing them.

- Fairies [other "monster" types] can be very different â€” we havenâ€™t seen your unique version of them yetâ€¦

Stay tuned, coming up in a podcast I’ll talk to Paul Jessup about what he thinks is wrong with Urban Fantasy and how to fix it.

An update

Kimiko — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 13:59:02 +0000

Over the last few days I’ve been working on my plot cards and deciding how I want to open my story. A part of me wants to sit in front of them until I have each and every card filled out but we all know what that is. That’s procrastination. And that’s bad. So I’ll be kicking into gear in the next day or two.

This week I’ll be recording two interviews for the site and working on getting the one I did with Chris Lester up.

Last night I recorded most of my part for Chris’s cast. I finished recording my part for our entry for JC Hutchin’s Obsidian project, my new lines in Astral Audio’s new script and sent did an audition for another cast.

I found out yesterday that not only am I on the following panels for DragonCon but I am on a really awesome panel about Casting your Writing with Tee Morris, Michael Stackpole, and Scott Sigler. I may even have an opportunity to read something while I’m there. So I have a lot to do before August. Get a good percentage of my story written and cast, make biz cards to hand out, make a t-shirt to wear (which means you may have the option to buy one representing the story), and of course the ever present tone up. LOL

These are the panels I’m on: Webcam Girls, Self Publication, Promoting your Podcast, and Podcasting your Writing

Speaking of T-shirts….I am looking for an artist for an image I have in my head of what I want to represent the story. If you are willing to contribute your time and work for credit on the site and cast and want to send me a sample of your work please email me. The media can definitely be digital, done in poser, or regular.

Here’s a few links worth taking a look at:

Btw..I’m also looking for a few good beta readers. What I’m seeking is someone who can critique my story not my grammar. I need feedback on my characters, my setting, what you get out of it, what you think you learned, etc. Feel free to write if you are interested. I should have something to crit in less then a week.

A few good finds…

Kimiko — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 23:33:49 +0000

Because I felt so tired today, something I’m sure you’ll come across from time to time, I tried my best to put myself in the frame of mind to work on my project. The best way I could think of to do that was take a few minutes and go through some of my RSS feeds from my favorite writers, etc.

Here’s a few things I found that might be of interest to you. I’ll be adding a few of them to the Resources page as well.

Laurell K Hamilton puts up a post on her blog where she talks about realizing what SHE wants to do and what her Characters want to do are two different things and which way is better to go.

Lawrence Watt Evans, writes several great articles on his site dealing with writing, getting your work published, and sci-fi/fantasy in your work. It’s well worth going and looking over the site.

For anyone who wants to put a touch of the middle ages in their stories, I ran across a site on Castles and the like. It’s a great find for extra believability in your stories.

A day of connections

Kimiko — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 05:35:48 +0000

I was really fortunate today to be able to hook up with Scott Sigler for lunch while he’s here in NYC for a book reading/signing for Infected! Not only did I get to sit down and eat sushi but he was really sweet and helped me answer a few questions related to an audio project (read below) I’m going to possibly get involved with and answered some of my questions about writing, podcasting my writing, and my plot. It wasÂ an extremely useful converstation and well worth the time to trek into NYC for. I sadly wasn’t able to hit his reading because of some other obligations but I have no doubt the man was swamped with fans!

As I mentioned above, I may be getting involved in an audio project that I set in motion in February. I’m keeping the details close to my chest but it looks like I may have an opportunity to record some audio books and I’m really excited about it.

The last bit of really exciting news is that it looks like not only is a comment I made on an article in the SF Chronical online mentioned in an article for today but it’ll be printed in the SF Chronical’s paper tomorrow! The article is about how Seth Harwood and Scott Sigler have made such an impact on the publishing world via their free audio podcast of their work. The Tale Chasing site is actually mentioned and will get the exposure of all of their online and print readers! They asked me yesterday if they could repost my comment and it never occured to me that they’d be ‘printing’ the comment as well. So I’m extremely psyched about that!

As a side note, because people are starting to search for “tail chasing” to find the site, I back ordered the tailchasing.com domain in the hopes that anyone looking for this site can find it. Ok…now I’m off to work on my plot.

Some good links!

Kimiko — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 22:44:45 +0000

On Jeannie Frost’s livejournal she gives aspiring authors a chance to see that even if you are published you never stop learning to working to make yourself better. Read some of her articles as well as a short scene from “One Foot in the Grave“. Her website is under construction but is already looking good!

Also you might want to go over and bookmark the New ReleasesÂ 2008Â page on Urban Fantasy Land. Then start saving your money because you’re going to need it!

What's coming and related article

Kimiko — Sun, 06 Apr 2008 20:38:35 +0000

Hey gang! I want to give you a heads up on what’s in the can and soon to be up. I recorded an interview on Wednesday night with author and podcaster, Chris Lester of Metamor City. We talk about alot of really neat stuff including how podcasting your fiction is becoming so popular.

On Friday morning, I got a chance to get Rachel Vincent on the line and we did an interview about her books and writing process. I’m sure you’ll enjoy listening to our converstation.

In related news, this article on how podcasting can get your work out to fans and possibly to publishing houses is a great source of info. Check it out!