That Time At The Place With The Stuff

Because I love xkcd so much, I'm going to open with this.


Human beings, when they're talking to people they know pretty well, have inside jokes. They make references to past experiences and conversations. Interesting characters will do this as well.

Don't believe me? Watch this clip from Love Actuallybetween 5:42 and 6:00.

Now, come on, isn't that an absolutely fabulous opening?

In that opener, we get a sense of who each guy is and just how well they know each other. Because they've got these shared experiences they can reference talking to each other.

Inside jokes -- so long as they're explained enough that one knows they're inside jokes -- can be a great way of explaining just how long characters have known each other, how well they know each other, and -- depending on the joke -- can provide hints to back story that might be apparent later.

Useful, no?

So, how about those zebras?

Do you like inside jokes? Do your characters tell them? How do you feel about character's rehashing shared experiences and telling inside jokes?

Things You Don't Want Your Readers Doing (No Pun Intended)

Anyone here spend time on xkcd? If yes, high fives all around. And now, for your viewing pleasure....

Now, how is this vaguely related to anything I've ever said or done in the past on this blog (aside from the fact that it vaguely amused me)?

If you guessed writing, you get another high five.

Have you ever read a book and thought, "Okay, I now have officially no idea what the turducken is going on"? Now, if you were anything like, well, the vast majority of the kids I knew in high school, unless the book was for a class, you closed the book and, when asked about it, said "That thing's incomprehensible." And, heck, maybe even if the book was for a class, you did that.

Okay, most people give a book more than one shot. So, even if sometimes something happens and you're confused, you keep reading, because you give the author the benefit of the doubt. Somehow, some way, you tell yourself, this will all get cleared up.

Because that's the deal writers make with readers. Readers will read what we write. What we write will make sense. I'm not even talking about plot or character arcs or any of that, at the moment (though those things should definitely make sense); I'm talking about writing. The words you use.

When you put words on paper in a particular order, they should, in the end, create a sentence that makes sense. And those sentences should result in a paragraph that makes sense. And hopefully those paragraphs will... well, you know the rest.

We've all been there. You read that sentence over and think, "What was I thinking when I wrote this? Honestly, how many Cokes did I down that night? Can you even do that in English?" And, let's face it, sometimes the answer is, no, no you can't do that in English.

That's why we edit. Because we are nice authors, and we don't want our readers walking into walls, tripping on stairs, or falling into manholes as they stumble around wondering, "Seriously, what was that supposed to mean?"

Have you ever been there? Has this ever happened to you? Do you ever feel like writing you're looking at, yours or other people's, just doesn't make sense in English?

Continued Uselessness

Desperate apologies. Sometime, maybe next Wednesday, if sleeps been able to occur on Tuesday, my life will not be meeting at an intersection of Work That Needs Doing, NaNo, and Theater. It'll just be Work That Needs Doing and NaNo. Much more reasonable. And then -- after some much needed sleep -- I will have my brain back. And when I get my brain back, there will be more interesting blog postings going on.

Terribly sorry, my lovelies.

In the interval, I'd like to introduce you to Truth or Fail, youtube's only game show, and the hands down best time vampire known to man. It's quite simple, Hank Green reads off a list of facts and factoids. You pick the right one, or you fail. Lots of fun.

In fact, I endorses it so much, I'm embedding one of my favorite ones right below. Enjoy!



Hope you have a great weekend!

How've you been?

Some Laughs

Okay, I'm terribly sorry about this. I'm usually not so useless at the whole blogging thing (as some of you who've been around a while can attest). However, I somehow used my whole store of creative thought working on my Positive Pranking.


No, it did not look like this....

I said Positive, remember. Nah, I kicked it old-school (which, I guess, is about two weeks old), and ran around putting Tootsie Pops on doors. Then I did a little dance of glee. :-)

I highly recommend this Positive Pranking. It's tons of fun.

Now, in reference to my previous post about references (as I pause and take too much glee in the preceding phrase and in my use of the word glee), and in recognition of the fact that I've been listening to this series on CD lately, I'll leave you with this.



Because, really, if you don't know this series, you're missing out.

Have a rocking day. :-)

How have you been doing lately?

Wikipedia

I admit it, sometimes when I'm doing a quick-shot fact check for my writing, I consult Wikipedia. 'What forms of casts were used prior to 1840? Oh, Dextrin. That's nice. What'll that do to Maggie? Can't move her arm for a few hours? Oh, well, that's fine.' 'When exactly did they invent steamrollers anyway?' 'Just how likely is my MC to die suddenly from a snakebite? And the stuff that she did to fix it? That made it worse? Oops. My bad...' That sort of thing. But, as anyone who spends a lot of Wikipedia knows, it's a black hole that sucks you into an info vortex from which there is no escape.

Who hasn't encountered this situation:


I know I'm not the only one that happens to.

A Semi-Obligatory Flatland Reference

This is for everyone who had to read Flatland in high school. Because, quite frankly, since I had to read the book (which, in my view, sounded much better in description -- "A book about the government of 2D shapes" -- than it did in practice or when I had to write an essay about it), I feel like I should reference it when possible. Don't ask me why. (For expansion, click the image.)

An Obligatory Icarian Reference

Once upon a time, I attended a theater festival and spent an afternoon watching plays written by teen aspiring playwrights. These were actually some very incredible pieces. However, of the four presented, three had an Icarus and Daedalus streak a mile wide in them. Maybe one of the judges for the selected works had a thing for Greek myths, but even Greek myth loving me found that a tad surprising. Honestly, most teens I know aren't into Greek myths. Still, I can now no longer see an Icarus reference without thinking of Lincoln, Nebraska. (Go, Cornhuskers!)

Still, even if you've never set foot in a square state, this should amuse you. Especially if you've got a thing for Greek mythology. (Admit it, secretly, you do. Athena is your home girl. You know it.)
I promise I have never done this to anyone. That I know of.

This Amused Me

Until recently, my answer, when asked if I've ever read the Lord of the Rings trilogy, was, "I slept through half of it." See, my first exposure to the trilogy occurred when I watched the movies. Then, after that, my parents bought the books on CD, and we listened to them during a drive to Canada. (In case you didn't know, drives to Canada can take a while and get boring. And we did them a lot.) Well, I have a habit of sleeping in cars. So, I missed things.

Anyway, to rectify that situation, I've located those CDs and am now working my way through the books. It's been an interesting experience, especially considering the parts that weren't in my memory and which I believe I had a REM cycle through.

So, when my friend sent me a LOTR related joke, it made me laugh. It made me laugh, so I'm affixing it. Enjoy. (For better viewing, click here.)





















For the record, while I'd love to be this impressive, I'd never be able to pull this off for one of my books. Still, as far as I'm concerned, that's mad awesome. :-)

Tortoise Kitties

Earlier this week, I read an interesting post on the theme that everyone's journey is different. It's very true.

Just to remind me of that, I've found this very helpful kitty cat. :)


So,we just have to remember, kitties aren't tortoises and we aren't everyone else.

The Slippery Slope of Slides

Please take a moment to read the very enjoyable comic to the right before continuing on to the rest of the post.

You don't have to. It's optional really. But, if you want to understand what this post is about, it's highly recommended.

Now, as you might know, depending on whether or not you read the comic, this post is about stories that as you to 'bear with them a moment.'

All books ask you, at some point or other, to bear with them for a moment. It's inevitable. Because that's how books work. They build suspense by keeping things from you and saying, "If you'll bear with me for a moment, you'll see how this all works out."

And, you know, that's perfectly okay. After all, we all read because we're interested in having things kept from us and having to ferret the information out. It's fun.

But here's my thing, I don't like it when people keep saying "Bear with me a moment" over and over again without throwing me so much as a bone of an answer. (Seriously people, all I'm asking is for one clue how all this stuff you've been telling me blends together.) It gets frustrating for the reader when things keep happening but the reader doesn't know how it's all supposed to link together and the writer isn't giving any clues on that front.

I've read some quite complicated books in my time, ones with many subplots that all weaved together or had a lot of back story that mattered but the reader didn't know it. And the writers who pulled this off had two things in common: they kept things interesting and they threw info to the reader so she felt in the loop.

When introducing new complications, don't just say, "this is going to get a bit more complicated and I'm not going to clear it all up just yet, but bear with me." Make it interesting for the reader, so you'll have something shiny to distract them with while you don't clear up the rest.

And keep passing on new information. Clear some things up as you go along. I don't mean you have to give up all your mysteries up front but give some things up as time goes on so the reader isn't spending the last 2/3 of your book going, "Wait, what in the name J.K. Rowling is going on? Who's that guy and where did that bloke go? Wasn't he incredibly important two chapters ago? WWHHAATT?!!?" So, if you've had a question burning for the last five chapters, maybe fill in that gap if you're planning on opening another one. In other words, if you're opening a window, please, I beg you, shut the door first.

So, ladies and gentlemen, if you'll bear with me a moment....

Just teasing.

Have you ever run into a novel that told you to 'bear with me' a few too many times? How did that make you feel? Do you ever worry you might be doing this to your readers?

ASL Dance Music

Okay, I love dancing and dance music, and I have some sort of irrational fascination with ASL. So, all in all, this video made me super happy. Enjoy. :-)

A Lawyer Joke

Okay, first of all, I don't hate lawyers. I really don't. Really. I'm related to some very nice ones.
And, if any of you are lawyers, please don't take this personally. It's just that this joke was so amusing.

One Monday morning, a man named Richard called a law office and said, "Excuse me, I would like to speak with Mr. Smythe. He's my lawyer."

The receptionist replied, "I’m sorry, sir; however, Mr. Smythe died last week."

The next day Richard called again and asked the same question. The receptionist replied, "Sir, as I told you yesterday, I am very sorry, but Mr. Smythe died last week."

Wednesday morning, Richard called for the third time. He asked to speak with his lawyer. By this time the receptionist had become quite annoyed. She snapped. "Sir," she yelled, "I keep telling you, your lawyer died last week. Why do you keep calling?!!"

Richard laughed. "Because I just love hearing it!"

Bring the Funny

If you were ever a fan of the TV show The West Wing -- and if you weren't, start watching, because it's more awesome than apple pie--, you might remember an episode in which Sam gathered together everyone he could find to revise a speech, because, as he said, the speechwriters "forgot to bring the funny." When it comes to writing, that's sometimes been my problem.

As I looked back over some parts of The Thief Book, I felt that I was going too long without being amused. Maybe it's because I'd seen it before, but things weren't amusing me as much as I'd like. (Admittedly, I'd kind of like the people reading my book(s) to be falling off their beds laughing, though I accept that might not be the case.)

Here's my thing about the funny, it's important. It's the grease on the wheels, the butter on the baking dish, and some other metaphor about smoothing things out to ease processes. The humor helps make parts of the story that would otherwise be unappealing to the reader, or not as interesting or important to the reader.

One place I like to make sure there's humor is descriptions. A while back, I read a description of pacing that basically said that during description, the pace slows to pretty much zero. For all the words there are on the page, there is no real action occurring. Description is, in comparison to just about everything else that's happening, slow. So, if I'm asking my reader to read words in which nothing is happening, I can at least make sure that the words are amusing and interesting. Wouldn't you rather read "Rebbecca weighed the chances of surviving a jump from the third floor window. Minimal. But if her choices were the window or continuing this conversation, she'd have to pick the window," than read "she didn't want to continue this conversation"? I, personally, would.

Another place to inject humor into your story is to use it as means of filling out your characters. I mean, let your characters be funny. They're allowed to tell jokes and be amusing, in between giving out useful info and doing interesting things and, in other ways, saving the universe (or contributing to its downfall. Villains can be funny, too). A character's humor says a lot about them. Not all characters are funny in the same way, just like all people aren't funny in the same way. Some characters might not even be funny at all. (I admit it, I hope to write a character who cannot tell jokes or tries and fails to be funny. I'd love that.)

Sure, there are times when humor isn't appropriate. Have you ever watched a sitcom and a really dramatic or emotional moment is occurring only to be cut short by a joke? Doesn't that just make you want to throw a pillow/soft drink/cat at the set? My personal response tending to be along the lines of "May a swift and Ebola-like death come unto you! Why can't you just let things be?" All of which is my way of saying that sometimes humor has a time and a place (much like warm weather, despite what my current environment seems to think. Anyway...)

How much humor do you try to include in your writing? Do you like funny books, or do you tend to the more dramatic genres? Any humor-related pet peeves?

We All Know How Kitty Feels

Posts that Amused Me

Instead of a straight-up jokes, this week I'm rekicking to some posts that were amusing and informative.

Stephanie Thorton posted this little gem. Really, it's hilarious six ways to Sunday, so you should skedaddle on over there and check that out.

Karen Hooper encourages the release of our monsters. Mine should be attacking Port Arthur, Texas in a week. Hehehe.

The Girl With One Eye talks about jeans. And, quite frankly, we should all be talking about jeans. Because they're just that awesome.

On Talent and A Hecka Ton of Work

This is funny and interesting.

However, be warned, this does contain cursing (including an F-word). Probably a PG-13. Just clearing that up up front.