Tweets, tweets, and more tweets.

I've caved. I've given into Twitter.

One more thing for me to fail to update, huh? Maybe I can manage 140 characters.

http://twitter.com/cupnjava

Today we bid farewell to...

Today we say farewell to another keyboard. Replacement Keyboard lived an especially short life and was snatched into Keyboard Heaven rather early. While here, Replacement Keyboard preformed with mediocre abilities and toward the end of its life completely forgot its multi-media functions...except for volume control.

Volume control worked especially hard and well and was always diligent with its green bars at the bottom of the screen duties. Although senile and with numerous buttons faded, Replacement Keyboard did try its best to provide hot words and a pleasing blue light.

I wish we could say that we would miss Replacement Keyboard, with its clear nail polish cosmetic surgery enhancements, but that is not the case. We shall only miss the money that will go toward Replacement Keyboard Number 2.

We will NOT miss the crappy and ill-designed Back-Up Keyboard Number 2 one little bit.

Electrons to electrons. Microchips to microchips. We do not return Replacement Keyboard back to its maker for it is no longer under warranty. Yea though I walk through the Valley of the Shadow of CompUSA, I shall fear only non-multi-media keyboards for the spirit of volume control aren't with me.

Go in peace.

Ok, ok, so that was a sub-par eulogy, but the keyboard DID suck. >.< What did it last? A year or so?

Writer's Blogs

I stumbled across an interesting post about writer's blogs on Amazon.

I hope that I'm not doing the things people are complaining about. I try to make this blog informative and productive. Hmm...I probably do have too many "me, me, me" posts in here.

What do you think about writer's blogs in general? Do you think they're worthwile reads or just another place for someone to yammer on about things only important to them?

I think they have good potential if they aren't all promo. I like some personal information about the author, because it makes me feel as if I'm getting to know them. I know that's not really true, but it still carries that sense. I like using my blogs as a way of keeping in touch with readers and fellow writers. It gives me a communal feeling of sorts. Some blogs focus on industry news and that's quite helpful. Other blogs focus on writing tips and that's equally as helpful.

All blogs are risky in a PR sense. If I go batshit insane it will, most likely, first show on a blog. If I'm not careful about my rantings (see previous posts), I can risk offending a good deal of people. (Or maybe one person when I factor in the traffic this blog usually gets. LOL!)

I run three "writing" blogs and one personal blog. Each blog has a different target audience and more often than not the blogs have unique content.

However, I'm going to continue reading through that thread on Amazon and see what kinds of things people are seeking when they visit writer's blog. Perhaps, I shall learn something.

Advice site.

KM Frontain has a wonderful writing advice site up. I try to read as much of these types of articles as possible. Not every piece of advice written on the net is worth heeding, but knowing what I disagree with and why I disagree with it is rather important and useful.

I need to work on POV transitions and I’m doing my best to learn what I can, but this has to be some of the best advice I’ve ever read about POV.

Here are some quotes from her POV article.

1A. Always lead away from one character POV to another using action, speech, or a "timing or placement" phrase.

What's a timing or placement phrase? Things like "Over on George's side of the table" or "When his friend looked into the kitchen". It's that simple. Actually, the timing and placement comes in if you use action to move away from a certain character's POV.


Personally, I love doing this. In Tainted Past the first POV transition is when the main POV character feels the effects of the morphine. Other times I have the character leave the scene or a new character enter as a transition marker. I see now that my transitions in Tainted Past are smoother than those in Full Circle.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m proud of Full Circle. I think it’s good work, but it is a first novel. It’s the official starting point of my growth as a writer. I can only imagine how in 5 years I’d finesse the work I’m doing now.

Tainted Past is told mainly from Tyler’s POV. Most of the emotion and the power in the scenes will be from Tyler’s perspective. However, there is information critical to the story that is only known by the other characters and that’s why this story needs third person and not first person.

Here’s another quote from the article.

You had better not intrude one perspective or thought pattern belonging to one character into the thoughts of another, unless they're telepathically connected.

I’m glad KM included this. There are always exceptions to rules and telepathically connected characters are the exception. Well, it’s not really an exception is it? If they’re telepathically connected then the character B’s POV becomes character A’s POV. There’s a section in Full Circle, during a sex scene, where this briefly happens.

This is another gem from the article.

3. Be careful of your pronouns; do not leave your reader wondering who is speaking, acting or thinking.

What do I mean? Because multiple characters are acting or speaking, you can't just use "him" or "he" if all your characters are male.

When people read their first m/m it takes a while to become accustomed to the “name heavy” aspect of it. When het readers from a writing group I sometimes attend read one of my excerpts, I can count on them marking paragraphs as name heavy.

When I get that back, I’ll check it over and tweak it. I’ll also make a note about it and ask my editor to check it for being name heavy. My editor has never considered the paragraph name heavy. By het standards they would be name heavy, but by m/m standards they aren’t. It’s the nature of the beast. If there can be any doubt about the object of the preposition, use the name.

Thanks to KM for writing such informative articles!

POV a Powerful Tool

The manipulation and control of POV is a writer’s most powerful tool. The character that shows the reader the story (or scene) comes with his own biases and limitations.

In one WIP, Recovered Flotsam, I have a demented twisted character. This story, I have already been warned by two publishers and one editor, runs a strong risk of being too dark for publication.

Me write something too dark? Gee, who’da thunk it.

But one of the ways I’m telling the story that I want to tell while tempering the darkness, is to limit how much I tell from the antagonist’s perspective. My hands are tied in one scene where his prey has been rendered unconscious, but that stands to reason. Jeremy has a very warped sense of reality and giving the reader too much of that might be difficult to take.

However, it’s a balancing act. I like stories with teeth and authors use the most powerful POV to tell the scene. Which is more dark? A predator toying with his pet or the pet’s agony? Hmm…I may have to rethink my logic on some of these scenes.

Authors can also “cheat” or “fudge” a little via POV manipulation—you can’t do this too much or the reader will want to slap you. With About to Sin, I have a priest and a doctor. I’m neither a doctor nor a Catholic so I’ve had to do a lot of research for this short series. I don’t want to risk errors in my work so I handle things carefully. I show Anand between patients and he’s a bit cynical and jaded. This allows me to skirt some medical stuff that he’d know and I can’t possibly fully grasp. Due to his snarky personality, I can get away with him thinking about his patients by ailment—“Mr. Broken Arm” and such. Most importantly, I avoid having him in hardcore medical situations where I, as an author, do not command the medical knowledge to properly write the scene.

But, that’s not the real cheating.

The real cheating is the Catholic stuff. Anand isn’t Catholic. Oh, he’s been attending mass for six months, but that was to ogle the priest not for worship. He knows less about Catholicism than I do and I can use his ignorance to fudge what I don’t know. I spent hours looking up the names of the different vestments that priests wear and then it hit me. Anand wouldn’t know those names. He’d just think of them as robes or smocks maybe even “things.” One chapter will contain the start of mass, I dove into the internet looking for the order of mass and what was done when (Actually, I should attend a few masses, but I’m not that motivated on Sunday mornings.) Then I realized that Anand wouldn’t know the fine points of the jargon. He’d know the big stuff like communion and things, but he wouldn’t know the word “homily.” He’d call that a lecture or a sermon. LOL!

POV can also change the “reality” of the scene. It’s entirely possible for an outsider to view a consensual sex scene and pick up on certain things that might question the consensual nature of the sex. Think about the role-play that lovers enjoy and how all that grabbing, biting and thrusting can seem violent when it’s just heated passion.

Remember, there are tricks and ways around things. Yes, every story will require research some more than others and most more than expected, but you can use POV to help you figure out what you really need to know and what you don’t. Can’t figure out what that little part is called on the machine your repair guy is fixing? Use the customer’s POV.

Readers want good stories. They want accurate and believable stories, but if the reader gets hung up on one tiny detail, you never had them. Use your research skills. Talk to those in the know. Go forth and face the sea of information (some accurate and some not) that’s on the net, but don’t ditch a story because you can’t verify a few facts. Keep it in character. Know your characters. Create them to be good characters as well as writing tools and you’ll be just fine.

Unusual reference book rec.

In an earlier blog, I spoke about using quirks such as OCD to help bring character’s depth.

There’s something we can use to help lend some depth to stories. Superstitions.

I’m going to rec a book to everyone. “The Encyclopedia of Superstitions.” By: Christina Cole. If I’m reading the cover right, the edition I have was published by Barnes and Noble with the cooperation of Helicon Publishing Limited.

I hope you can find a copy.

This book goes into some very old superstitions as well as some newer ones. I used the information provided in this book in Full Circle and if you write period pieces you may want to check out some of the popular beliefs for whatever time frame you’re using.

I used superstition, that I didn’t assume the reader would know and used a character to introduce the idea, as a teeny hint for something with Full Circle. It’s a little thing that I expect most readers to miss it. When it comes to fruition (most likely in sequel) there should be an “Oh!” moment with the reader.

As a writing tool, I love it. As a book, I enjoy it.

Even if you don’t have a particularly superstitious character (putting in some might add character depth), it is chock full of plotbunnies waiting to be born.

Telling Time

Sometimes it can be difficult to establish the time era of a story. This might not be the case when you can refer to a Model-T or a hippie chick, but sometimes like the 80’s it might be a bit difficult.

Sure, you might be able to slip in the year or even tag it with an italicized June 17, 1984. Mentioning a song on the radio or a shaker sweater might work, but that would require the reader to recognize the song (and hope they don’t think the character is listening to an “oldies” station) or know when shaker sweaters were popular (and not think the character was having a passé fashion moment.)

There are certain historical events that characterize human history, but if you don’t need to mention the current President is Taylor then why force it into the story?

Fads, however, can help establish the timeline in a very subtle way. I stumbled across a website that talks about some of the major fads during the past decades in the USA. Even if you don’t like this as a writing tool, it’s still interesting.

http://www.bored.com/crazyfads/index.htm

Creative Characters Part 2

On my last post, I mentioned using dialects as a way of adding a bit of depth and color to a character. I've used another way of fleshing out the quirks of a character and this tactic nearly made delete the entire chapter.

OCD. People, in real life, have this. Characters, in fiction, can have this. It's a major pain to write, but I think in Purposed Chaos (no publisher yet) it pulled it off well. I have a character who has developed a problem with 1's, 4's, and 7's. His actions, sitting down with two cups of coffee, washing his hands twice, etc turned out to be easy to handle. His dialog, on the other hand, was painfully difficult. I couldn't let any of his dialog contain 1, 4, or 7 words or any combination of words that would end in 1, 4, or 7. So, no 11's, 14's or 17's. Teens in general were avoided because they start with a 1.

It made the character quirky and it served a purpose in the story, but it was rather difficult. If you have the patience for something like this and the eye to notice when you stray from the OCD, I highly recommend it.

Creative Characters

Character creation is a difficult and complex process. I've spoken to several writers and not two of us seem to do it the same way. Some start with the "job" or "goals" of the piece and devise a character to achieve those goals. Some start with a personality type skeleton and flesh out as the piece develops.

I don't think any way is right or wrong. Whatever works for you and your writing is what you should do.

One thing I particularly like is playing with the speech patterns of characters. I've been told that if you have crafted your characters properly, then you shouldn't need dialog tags. I'm not sure that's true, but I do like it when characters are, indeed, that distinct.

In Full Circle (to be released in a couple of weeks), I created a character with a very distinct dialect. I see you rolling your eyes now. I'm not talking about the kind of writing that only Mark Twain can pull off. I'm talking about the use of idioms and speech rooted in a different time era than the other characters.

In Full Circle all of the characters are children of whatever era they were born in or created in. Some have been able to acclimate themselves to the cultural changes of the centuries and some of them have not. Kendrick is a character who is comfortable and "in place" inside the room, but uncomfortable and "out of place" in time. Byron is a very modern character and I can easily see him walking down the street of today or yesteryear. Phineas, however, is special. His life's circumstances have prevented him from fully comprehending that he isn't where he use to be. Phineas is stuck in the Old West.

This made his dialog very difficult. It became so problematic that by the end of the novel, I told my editor, Tami Parrington, that I was killing him off as soon as I could. She told me it wasn't fair to kill off characters because they are hard.

She might be right, but I'm still gunning for bumping him off.

I like reading characters like this, but they are a major pain to write. Luckily, I live in the Information Age and I have access to the internet. Finding a print resource for speech patterns, idioms and etc of the Old West proved taxing and I found this little gem…

http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~poindexterfamily/OldWestSlang.html

Most of the characters in the story (and the reader too) won't know what Phineas is talking about when he refers to "Company Q" or what he really means when he says, "You done woke up the wrong passenger." Fortunately, Kendrick and Bob are there to translate what he says. I think his presence adds color and depth to the story and I recommend giving it a try. Just don't blame me if you want to kill off the character who is providing that color and depth.

Idiotic Idioms

The English language is a funny beast. We have sayings that we all know and use, but don't really understand.

Heavens to Betsy is one that springs to mind. Who is Betsy and why does she deserve all the heavens? AND how did that get turned into a default exclamation? Charles Earl Funk in his book "2107 Curious Word Origins, Sayings & Expressions" is stumped by Betsy too. He thinks this phrase is at least a hundred years old and it breaks geographic boundaries. This one has been relegated to "source unknown" and its roots have been gobbled by history. Some speculate that it has something to do with Betsy Ross, but the usage seems to indicate otherwise.

Ah, Betsy, a woman who knows the power of mystery.

Musical Muse

When I'm writing, I like to set the tone within myself with music. I organize my files by the type of scene they'd match not by genre of music. That works great for me, but it's a major pain for my friends who look for a specific song.

"Full Circle" was written with a lot of Depeche Mode in my ears and I think it shows. I can't remember the last time I wrote a masturbation scene without listening to "I Touch Myself" and a sex scene without NIN "Closer."

Music helps me set the tone and maintain it, what do you guys do?

Sorry about a lack of Word of the Post or Scene of the Post…I couldn't think of anything.

Got "got"?

My first grade teacher, Mrs. Bolling, was a kind and wonderful being. (I say was, because I'm assuming she's dead now. She'd be well over 100.) She inadvertently helped me learn the left handed hook, made sure "please" and "thank you" were so ingrained in me that I use them at the drive through, and taught me that "ain't" and "got" weren't words.

Yeah, "got" is not a word according to Mrs. Ruble Bolling. You wouldn't dare argue with Mrs. Ruble Bolling the greatest first grade teacher in the history of first grade teachers (next to my mother of course), would you?

Well, I would. I didn't at the time, but I do now. "Got" is a word, but it is a weak word. It's a meager way of saying "have" (among other things) and sometimes it feels downright redundant.

"You've got mail."

I'm of the camp that thinks this should be: "You have mail."

"Got milk?"

In my mind, I would use: "Have milk?" (Although some of the power might be lost.)

When you understand something do you "get" it? Or comprehend it?

I'm trying to think of an example where "got" is used and it couldn't be substituted for a better word. Don't get me wrong, "got" gets into my writing. (Hmm…let's change that. Before we misunderstand each other or I'm thrown into the category of hypocrite, let me state that I have been known to use the word "got" in my writing.)

As writers we carefully manipulate the weight of words to evoke emotions in the reader. I can't remember where I read it, but somewhere someone said, "The shorter the statement the more power it has."

[Paraphrased from memory] A single word has more weight than a phrase. A phrase has more weight than a sentence. A sentence has more weight than a paragraph. A paragraph has more weight than a page.

Or something like that. It feels true, but it might be wrong. I wonder if the same thing holds true for words.

I struggled with a line in "Full Circle". This is probably one of the lines where my editor, Tami Parrington, won't notice my fight. This sentence contains the word "got". It's a dah-dumm-insert-dramatic-music-oh-shit-oh-no moment in the story at least I hope the reader sees it that way.

I'm going to change it (make it vague) for this post. I don't want to spoil anything in the story.

"He just got his [something really bad]."

(I can hear Tami checking the last line in chapter five right now.)

This sentence commits two crimes – just and got. By all means, Mrs. Bolling would like for me to change this sentence to: "He recently received his [something really bad]." I tried rewording this sentence to eliminate "just" and "got", but I felt it lost power with each revision. "Recently received" sounds like getting (there's got again) a pleasant gift. I think the shorter words "just" and "got" add umph to the sentence that "recently" and "received" don't provide.

I'm willing to bet that 95% of the time "got" is used a more powerful word would serve the piece better.

So, do you get "got"? Or has "got" gotten a bad rep from Mrs. Bolling?

Everything in this post aside, I'm pretty sure Tami would appreciate me devoting more thought to my abuse of passive voice as opposed to the word "got."

Warning: The "Word of the Post" is rated M and is for adults only. Reader discretion is advised. It's probably "R" rated, but I want to err on the side of a caution.

For today's "Word of the Post" I'm using Poeminister's Archaic & Poetical Dictionary

Darkling – in the dark; mysterious

Hey Mark, dear, how's your back? (This one is an extension of the previous snippet. I'm not sure how long I'll continue this particular set of characterizations. Let's just relax and have fun with this, shall we?)

~~~

Mark hissed as he sank into the tub. The cool water felt particularly cold against his back. With a wad of cloth behind his neck, he relaxed and started to soak. His wrists bore bruises from his punishment and ached, but his mind was the most unsettled.

Why did he like enjoy it? What kind of perverse man was he?

With his predilection toward other men, he was accustomed to society seeing him as some kind of twisted and tainted beast. He hadn't battled confusion in himself over his own desires since he shared his first homosexual kiss.

He enjoyed being whipped. How sick was that? Perhaps demons had possessed him.

The water stung his striped flesh. He'd spent his life thinking pain was pain. The bite in his back now was very different than the heat he felt before. The sensation before did hurt in a way, but it was a different kind of hurt.

Mark groaned and whispered to the crickets, "This makes no sense." He couldn't deny how he felt during the punishment. At one point, it was as if he was beside himself. His mind blurred the sensations from the whip with carnal desires. He felt numb and yet very present.

A fluke -- that's all it was. He closed his eyes and let the water cradle him.

Something slid against his forehead quickly covering his eyes. He jerked up renewing the agony in his back. A firm hand gripped his shoulders. "Sh, I'm not here to hurt you."

Fingers caressed Mark's neck and the blindfold tightened around his head. He didn't know that voice, but the touch was gentle enough. Perhaps this intruder wasn't a threat. As long as he had his hands free he could still defend himself and grant a little leeway for curiosity. "What do you want with me?"

"Let's get you out of the water." The stranger touched Mark's biceps and helped him stand. The night air sent a shiver through his body and chill bumps spread across his skin. "Step out. Careful now."

By the time Mark was guided toward his home, he was shaking too much to stand without the support of the stranger.

"Getting into cold water was the worst thing you could have done."

Mark felt the heat from his hearth against his body. His teeth chattered nearly drowning out all other sounds. A gust of warm air brushed his legs and the stranger spoke again, "I need you on your stomach. On your knees first."

Mark used the stranger's arms to help himself kneel. When he explored the floor, he discovered a blanket. He crawled over the blanket and lay down. Warmth from the fire radiated over his body. "I-I-I can't stop shaking." He winced when he bit his tongue.

"Breathe deeply and try to relax." The stranger straddled Mark's hips.

The skin on skin contact made Mark gasp. "I th-th-think you have me mist—" The stranger hushed him with a kiss against the back of his neck.

"I know your choices. You can't lie to me."

He felt the man on his back shift to the side.

"This might sting, but it will help."

The stranger smeared some kind of salve on one of Mark's cuts. At first it did sting, but the soothing nature of the medicine pushed away any lingering pain. The man tended to Mark's wounds with a mixture of tender touches and gentle kisses. The fire warmed his body, the ointment quieted his pain and the caresses excited him. Mark found himself quite comfortable under the stranger's careful attention. He knitted his brow and wondered: Who was this darkling lover?

The man lifted one of Mark's arms and kissed a bruise. "Lesson number one: only the one who gives the pain can soothe it."

Mark knew now.

POV and me – What a difference a day makes

Tami Parrington (see links on the side) being the sweet, intelligent, patience-of-Job person she is, helped me see source of my confusion.

I had a flawed understanding of what third person omni was.

She probably read it in my writing and wanted to trample me with one of her miniature horses.

Let's go back to one of the sites I used last time.

http://www.nyu.edu/classes/op/writing/old_pointofview1.htm

The story is told by the author, using the third person, and his knowledge and prerogatives are unlimited. He can interpret the behavior of his characters; he can comment, if he wishes, on the significance of the story he is telling. (emphasis added)

I took that to mean EVERYTHING was fair game – including thoughts and feelings. Essentially, I was taking third person limited and third person omni smushing them together and making a mess of things.

Not a problem when the scene is three paragraphs long like in the "Word of the Post" section. This is a problem when the scene is several pages long.

Third person omni is really a detached view of things. It's like you are sitting in a theatre watching a movie. You can see and hear everything that's going on. You can see the bad guy sneaking up behind the good guy, but you can't know what either of them is thinking or feeling.

(Why it is this way, I'll never understand.)

Sucks to be me doing something I thought was making my writing better when I was actually muddling the works.

This reminds me of the "No Purple Prose" section. (see links on the side). They said…

It becomes headhopping when you switch MORE than once in a scene.

Do you agree or disagree? Do you think one POV switch in a scene is acceptable?

I think that is acceptable. Sometimes the meat of the scene has to be set up with one character, but the zinger is with the other character (like the example in yesterday's "Word of the Post" section.) Is it possible to set up the tenderness of the scene via Mark? I'm not so sure. I think the moment his shirt comes off he'd start being nervous about his scar. I think that would give it away before I want to give it away. I can see the rest of that scene being played out via Mark's POV and not needing to go back to James POV.

Today's "Word of the Post" is a word I discovered yesterday and comes from a common dictionary "Merriam Webster".

http://www.m-w.com/

Main Entry: chan·cel
Pronunciation: 'chan(t)-s&l
Function: noun
Etymology: Middle English, from Anglo-French, from Late Latin cancellus lattice, from Latin cancelli; from the latticework enclosing it -- more at CANCEL
: the part of a church containing the altar and seats for the clergy and choir

Instead of using my stock characters Mark and James, I'm going to use two of my boys from "Full Circle" – Josiah and Kendrick.

This is not in the manuscript and takes place before the story begins (and hopefully not written as a bastardization of third person limited and third person omni).

~~~

The state of the sanctuary mirrored the condition of the world. Crumbling pews, strewn hymnals and Bibles, and broken glass stood testament to the shattered world around them. However, hope resided in this room as well as in the world. The cross above the chancel, albeit crooked, still clung to the wall. A few panes of stained glass refused to fall as a casualty of war.

Josiah sighed as he walked through the sanctuary.

The largest glimmer of hope resided in Kendrick, but the light was fading fast. The bedraggled vampire was a bastion of faith and perseverance, but Byron's absence was taking a heavy toll. Depression, a vile and evil beast, ate away at its captives slowly devouring them until they were too weak to resist.

Josiah stepped up into chancel and knelt beside Kendrick. Praying always praying. Centuries wasted pleading with a seemingly deaf God. What had those prayers yielded? Nothing. Not a damn thing. He whispered, "You can't fight this much longer, Kendrick."

Kendrick lifted his head from his folded hands. "We're in the same country now. Bob and Phineas think they may have spotted him. I can't stop fighting this close."

Josiah gritted his teeth. "It's been centuries since he left. You don't even know if he remembers you. And you better hope he doesn't, because if he does and he hasn't found you by now, then he's left you for good." He didn't want to be a bearer of bad news, but Kendrick needed to face facts. Byron was gone and he wasn't coming back.

"If he doesn't remember me, he'll feel our connection the moment he sees me. I'm certain of it."

Josiah rolled his eyes. At times Kendrick seemed like a naïve child. What did Kendrick expect? To lock eyes with Byron and – presto – all would be right with the world? It was ludicrous! When Byron's spontaneous epiphany didn't happen where would that leave them? Where would that leave Kendrick? Would Kendrick still fight for a runaway lover? "Damn it, Kendrick, your stubbornness is killing you."

"And your lack of faith pains me."