you know what actually pisses me off? when I finally start to feel a smidge of confidence in my writing ability and then some JERK POSTS A SINGLE LINE FROM A TERRY PRATCHETT NOVEL AND IT’S BETTER THAN ANYTHING I WILL EVER WRITE NO MATTER HOW MANY MILLENNIA I SPEND TRYING!
Terry was a professional writer from the age of 17. He worked as a journalist which meant that he had to learn to research, write and edit his own work very quickly or else he’d lose his job.
He was 23 when his first novel was published. After six years of writing professionally every single day. The Carpet People was a lovely novel, from a lovely writer, but almost all of Terry’s iconic truth bomb lines come from Discworld.
The Colour of Magic, the first ever Discworld novel was published in 1983. Terry was 35 years old. He had been writing professionally for 18 years. His career was old enough to vote, get married and drink. We now know that at 35 he was, tragically, over half way through his life. And do you know what us devoted, adoring Discworld fans say about The Colour of Magic? “Don’t start with Colour of Magic.”
It is the only reading order rule we ever give people. Because it’s not that great. Don’t get me wrong, very good book, although I’ll be honest I’ve never been able to finish it, but it’s nowhere near his later stuff. Compare it to Guards Guards, The Fifth Elephant, the utterly iconic Nightwatch and it pales in comparison because even after nearly 20 years of writing, half a lifetime of loving books and storytelling Terry was still learning.
He was a man with a wonderful natural talent, yes. But more importantly he worked and worked and worked to be a better writer. He was writing up until days before he died. He spent 49 years learning and growing as a writer, taking so much joy in storytelling that not even Alzheimer’s could steal it from him. He wouldn’t want that joy stolen from you too.
Terry was a wonderful, kind, compassionate, genius of a writer. And all of this was in spite of many many people telling him he wasn’t good enough. At the age of five his headmaster told him that he would never amount to anything. He died a knight of the realm and one of the most beloved writers ever to have lived in a country with a vast and rich literary tradition. He wouldn’t let anyone tell him that he wasn’t good enough. And he wouldn’t want you to think you aren’t good enough. He especially wouldn’t want to be the reason why you think you aren’t good enough.
You’re not Terry Pratchett.
You are you.
And Terry would love that.
I only ever had a chance to talk to Terry Pratchett once, and that was in an autograph line. I’d bought a copy of The Carpet People, which was his very first book, and he looked at it with a faint air of concern. “You realise that I wrote that when I was very young,” he said, in warning.
“Yes,” I said. “But I like seeing how authors grow.”
He brightened and reached for his pen. “That’s all right then,” he said, and signed.
I just completed an interview with a researcher looking into why fanwork creators participate in the fandom, and how it affects their writing. And it made me realise that the way I think about my own fics might be different to how other fandom participants (whether writers, readers, or other creators) do.
I put my work into this world with zero expectation and zero entitlement. Zero. I’m not sure if people realise this means I would continue to post my fics even if I got no kudos, no comments, no bookmarks. I would still post fics if I got no feedback whatsoever. I do not post my fics with the expectation that I will receive anything back from the world. I do not post my fics believing I am entitled to comments or even page views.
I post fics because I think, “I wrote this, and I love it, and I will put it somewhere in the hopes someone else will find it and also love it.” I do not expect that person to interact with me in exchange, or give me a comment or a bookmark. I expect nothing, and I believe I am not entitled to anything. Fandom is a deep and roiling ocean, and I just put my message in a bottle and let it fall into the waves.
Art for the sake of art; beauty for the joy of beauty. My message in a bottle wasn’t written because I expected a reply. It was written just so I could watch it float along until it left my sight. I believe fandom is not about, “I wrote nice comments, where’s my update?” and, “I wrote a fic, where’s my nice comments?”
Stand on the shore and shout at the sea; it doesn’t care. I owe you nothing, and you owe me nothing, and yet we continue to give each other things. That,to me,is the beauty of fandom.
i’m thinking about charlotte brontë spending her last years editing and publishing her sisters’ writings and about christopher tolkien dedicating his life to the protection and meticulous reconstruction his father’s life’s work and about johanna van gogh publishing the letters between vincent and theo that would propel vincent van gogh into fame because she knew how much her husband had loved his brother, and about how so often art isn’t just a reflection of the artist’s mind and skills but a testament to the fact that they were loved
honestly a certain kind of fandom discourse would go a lot better if we could all acknowledge that from both an ethical & artistic standpoint fanfiction is essentially neutral. it’s not inherently transgressive & important and neither it is inherently The Death Of Art. it’s just a type of writing that people can do.
Fanfiction is not activism. It just isn’t. It’s a hobby that can be very fulfilling and enjoyable, as well as great practice for doing original writing. But there’s nothing radical about it and you aren’t saving the world by writing fanfiction with queer characters or characters of color or whatever (I say as a queer person of color).
The funny thing is I finished editing the Dreaded Middle™️ two months ago and then I had a sadistic thought:
Why don’t I give a query letter/elevator pitch/tagline a whirl?
So I did…
The thing about collapsing a 100k word story into 150 words (then a few sentences then a couple of words) is it has a great way of revealing story-level problems.
And that’s what happened. ABig Problemsurfaced.
So, these months I’ve been silent have been filled with a lot of work, but progress too:
✍️ Added a major plot thread and rewrote the beginning
✍️ Rewrote the hook (it’s very hooky!)
✍️ Streamlined minor plot threads
✍️ Dropped a minor POV and gave the content to the male protag (sorry Jack)
✍️ Rewrote/heavily revised eight chapters (fml)
✍️ Wrote a pretty decent query letter (process sucked, outcome worth it)
It was hell, but 10/10 would do it again. Onwards…
What are core values, and how do you pick them for your characters? (Part I of Core Values)
A core value is a fundamental belief your character holds, one that is so obvious to them that they cannot explain it.
A character’s decisions will always be guided by their core values.
Some examples:
Integritymeans a character will stick to their moral code; often links to the core values of Honesty, Trustworthiness, and Loyalty.
Justicemeans a character will seek to right wrongs, whether caused by someone else or themselves.
Autonomymeans a character needs to guide their own path and not be told what to do by others.
Loyaltymeans a character will act in a way that will benefit those to whom they are loyal, whether that’s a family member, friend, or another individual (or organization) that has earned their loyalty.
Survivalmeans a character will do whatever it takes to keep themselves alive.
Familymeans a character puts family above all else; strongly linked to Loyalty.
Personal gain means a character will do anything for wealth or other commodities.
Reputationmeans a character is concerned about how they appear to others and will do anything to make sure others see them as they wish to be seen.
How do you pick core values for your characters?
Core values are the root of all motivation, but there are a lot of ways to figure out what they are. The answer to the titular question depends on how you like to create your characters.
Some writers start with a basic character ‘picture,’ like “strong-willed airship pilot on an adventure for lost treasure”. Other writers start with a character-story hybrid, such as “grumpy, asocial wasteland survivalist who discovers what it means to be part of a found family.”
Still others might have an entirely different approach, but these are the two I’ll focus on today.
Building your character “values-first”
You may wish to decide your character’s core values first to figure out what situations to put them in. Choose 2 or 3 to start.
The “grumpy, asocial wasteland survivalist” character has values already baked into the concept. They value their Privacy/Autonomy and will prioritize Survival, but eventually, their Loyalty will prove more important.
Try this:Write a blurb for each value you’ve picked that explains how this value affects their life.
Discovering your character’s values as you write
On the other hand, you could start writing first and let the character tell you what they value based on their actions.
For instance, let’s say your strong-willed airship pilot just turned down a lucrative job because they want to be a trailblazer, not a follower. You didn’t know they were going to do that! Here, your character has just demonstrated that they value AutonomyabovePersonal gain.
Try this: Like in the above example, figure out why your character took a specific action, then translate that into a core value.
Add your answers for both exercises to your character bible for later reference.
How do youfigure out your characters’ motivations? Tell me!
I welcome additions to this post! If you have another method for figuring out what motivates your characters, I’d love to hear about it.
I’m going to make a few more posts about core values, including “how to keep your characters 'in-character’” and how to create conflict based on core values. They’ll all be in the core values tag on my blog once they’re up, and I’ll edit this post with links as well.
Core Values Series
Part I: What are core values, and how do you pick them for your characters? (you are here)
I know that there are a lot of writers on here who have projects other than fanfic in the works, so I thought this would be a good place to peddle my wares, as it were…
I am currently available for Editing & Proofreading any written works!
Manuscripts, articles, screenplays, cover letters, etc… whatever you got, I can help you, whether it’s just with checking spelling and grammar or more in-depth help like flow/syntax or content notes.
I actually edit an entertainment blog for a living, so I guess you can consider me a “professional”? lol. But I do this as a side hustle too for extra income (and a change of pace, tbh).
If you’re interested, just private message me with what you got and what you’re looking for and I can work with you on pricing! (I’m pretty cheap, lol…)
And if not interested, a signal boost would be mucho appreciated! :-)
Reblogging for National Proofreading Day
Reblogging to hype! I took @kateofthecanals up on this and it was amazing! I wrote a thorough review here. The edits were timely and invaluable!
First review forPhilophobia was online on amazon today. It’s lovely. There is hoping it won’t be the last one. In any case I’m gonna ride this happiness high for the whole weekend :) because like any writer I love hearing someone liked my story.
the things modern television writers could learn from seminal masterpiece Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - Justice for All, episode 4, “Farewell, My Turnabout” (d. Shu Takumi)…..
the “twist” is not shocking. you know exactly what’s going to happen when it happens, because the story has very carefully and purposefully lead you to that conclusion, via literal in-game clues, but also the actions and attitudes of the different characters involved. they could’ve saved everything for a dramatic rug-pull at the last moment, but they didn’t. you see it coming from the very beginning, and the foreshadowing just keeps piling and piling and piling up…
the slow burn of building dread? unmatched. the gut-punch of a reveal you’ve spent hours bracing for finally landing? brutal. the desperation of waiting for the characters’ understanding to catch up to what you’ve already figured out? excruciating. you can’t get any of that from a left-field plot twist. it has to come from a story that’s done the work to draw the viewer in, and then delivers on the expectations it’s created.
shock-value twists are for suckers and my favorite video game about cartoon lawyers is art, prove me wrong
Check out “Barry Lyndon”, a film whose period interiors were famously shot by period lamp-and-candle lighting (director Stanley Kubrick had to source special lenses with which to do it).
More recently, some scenes in “Wolf Hall” were also shot with period live-flame lighting and IIRC until they got used to it, actors had to be careful how they moved across the sets. However, it’s very atmospheric: there’s one scene where Cromwell is sitting by the fire, brooding about his association with Henry VIII while the candles in the room are put out around him. The effect is more than just visual.
As someone (I think it was Terry Pratchett) once said: “You always need enough light to see how dark it is.”
A demonstration of getting that out of balance happened in later seasons of “Game of Thrones”, most infamously in the complaint-heavy “Battle of Winterfell” episode, whose cinematographer claimed the poor visibility was because “a lot of people don’t know how to tune their TVs properly”.
So it was nothing to do with him at all, oh dear me no. Wottapillock. Needing to retune a TV to watch one programme but not others shows where the fault lies, and it’s not in the TV.
*****
We live in rural West Wicklow, Ireland, and it’s 80% certain that when we have a storm, a branch or even an entire tree will fall onto a power line and our lights will go out.
Usually the engineers have things fixed in an hour or two, but that can be a long dark time in the evenings or nights of October through February, so we always know where the candles and matches are and the oil lamp is always full.
We also know from experience how much reading can be done by candle-light, and it’s more than you’d think, once there’s a candle right behind you with its light falling on the pages.
You get more light than you’d expect from both candles and lamps, because for one thing, eyes adapt to dim light. @dduane says she can sometimes hear my irises dilating. Yeah, sure…
For another thing lamps can have accessories. Here’s an example: reflectors to direct light out from the wall into the room. I’ve tried this with a shiny foil pie-dish behind our own Very Modern Swedish Design oil lamp, and it works.
Smooth or parabolic reflectors concentrate their light (for a given value of concentrate, which is a pretty low value at that) while flatter fluted ones like these scatter the light over a wider area, though it’s less bright as a result:
This candle-holder has both a reflector and a magnifying lens, almost certainly to illuminate close or even medical work of some sort rather than light a room.
And then there’s this, which a lot of people saw and didn’t recognise, because it’s often described in tones of librarian horror as a beverage in the rare documents collection.
There IS a beverage, that’s in the beaker, but the spherical bottle is a light magnifier, and Gandalf would arrange a candle behind it for close study.
Here’s one being used - with a lightbulb - by a woodblock carver.
And here’s the effect it produces.
Here’s a four-sphere version used with a candle (all the fittings can be screwed up and down to get the candle and magnifiers properly lined up) and another one in use by a lacemaker.
Finally, here’s something I tried last night in our own kitchen, using a water-filled decanter. It’s not perfectly spherical so didn’t create the full effect, but it certainly impressed me, especially since I’d locked the camera so its automatic settings didn’t change to match light levels.
This is the effect with candles placed “normally”.
But when one candle is behind the sphere, this happens.
It also threw a long teardrop of concentrated light across the worktop; the photos of the woodcarver show that much better.
Poor-people lighting involved things like rushlights or tallow dips. They were awkward things, because they didn’t last long, needed constant adjustment, didn’t give much light and were smelly. But they were cheap, and that’s what mattered most.
They’re often mentioned in historical and fantasy fiction but seldom explained: a rushlight is a length of spongy pith from inside a rush plant, dried then dipped in tallow (or lard, or mutton-fat), hence both its names.
Oh man, guys, I really like this book I’ve written.
I had to reread that because I have never seen a writer say that ever and as a writer I envy you.
WHAT
There are so many comments on this post to this effect.
Dude! writers, artists, do what you need to do to gain objectivity and feel satisfaction for what you’ve done!
Art as pain and pain as art and the Eternal Dissatisfaction of the Poignant Creator™ is so 19th century.
Creating the art you wish you could see in the world but don’t, and then being fucking PSYCHED when you’ve done it™ is very 2018.
When you start loving the things you’ve made, it’s like a switch flips in your brain and suddenly you want to have that feeling all the time! And to feel that way, you make more things. And more things! So many things!
Seriously- learn to love the things that you’ve put time into.
I want to have this mentality. Where do I sign up for the coaching workshop?
Think of the story you really want to read. The one that you would have subscribed to for updates and you would go and check it once in a while anyway on the off chance that maybe a new update had been posted. The story that is full of every last thing that makes your id sing.
Then go write that story. A story where you really want to find out what happens next. Don’t try to outline it. Don’t take away the pleasure of discovery. Figure it out as you go along and at every step do just what makes you happiest. If you are bored writing a scene just set something on fire (literally) and go in a different direction. If you can’t wait for X to bang Y just have them go for it out of nowhere and maybe tell us what triggered it afterwards. If you feel the whole thing has gone off the rails, just finish it off quick somehow that makes you happy and start the next story.
Don’t worry about whether it is a “good” story. Don’t try to write something that you think is a clever idea or that hasn’t been done. In fact do the opposite. Write the thing you think is a dumb idea that you want anyway, or the story you have read 1000 versions of but really want to read again. Just write something you really want to read and make yourself impatient for the next piece of it. Enjoy the process and you’ll love the product. Once you have learned how to do this you can work on making the story work better and be more polished, and that work will be immediately rewarding because you will be making nicer things for yourself.
I always love everything I write because I write it for me. :)
Worst part about writing for a new fandom is figuring out the characters speech patterns
The best way to do this is to watch part of the show, or all the movie, or some of the book or comic etc. that the character is in with your phone notes function, or pen and paper. You’re going to write down some key wordsand maybe some key phrasesand that’s it. If you like the show / book, rewatching or rereading sections shouldn’t be much of an issue! You can do this with more than one character at the same time, just have a different list for each!
Firstly, not all characters are written consistently dialogue-wise, which can be a winner if you want to be flexible re: what dialogue you’re using.
Think about what you’re hearing/seeing. Think about greetings. How does the character meet people? Do they say ‘hey’ or 'hello’ or 'hi’ or 'what’s up’ or 'greetings’ or smile or just launch into sentences? Likewise, when they leave a conversation, do they just leave?
What are their 'hesitation’ words? Do they say 'um’ or 'ah’ or 'mmm’ or 'hmm’ or 'like’ or 'welllll’. Do they pad their sentences with things like 'I think’ or 'I’ve just realised.’ Do they say 'yeah’ or 'yes’ or 'nah’ or 'no?’
Do they have any common short phrases they use: 'As I was saying’ or 'by and by’ (no one says this) or 'absolutely not.’ How do they (if they do) swear? What words do they prefer? If you’re lucky, the show may give you things like preferred endearments, or how they tend to react when they’re outraged.
Doing these things alone will give you pretty much all you need to make a really good version of that character’s dialogue. Also, for people who have OCs, doing this with what you’ve written so far (or before you even start) will help your character stay consistent.If you want to go deeper, keep reading!
Find one or two styles of sentence, or sentence fragments that feellike the character to you. It could be: 'you speak the truth’ or 'took you long enough’ or 'sure seems that way’ or you’re a bitch.’ It could be: 'Well, frankly darling, I don’t much care either way’ (which tells you a lotabout the character in one sentence) or 'Whoo, lads, we’re hitting the piss tonight!’ or 'H-hi everyone, um, don’t mind me, um…I just have something I wanted to ask you.’
Are they prone to long or short sentences? Do they have lots of pauses and half-sentences or do they speak cleanly in complete sentences? Do they prefer a snappy comeback or are they more reticent and shy? Are they comical or serious? Are they wry? Are they an emotional or cerebral speaker? Are they using their body when they talk, or are they locked in?
Do they swear and are they coarse or vulgar? Or are they very prim and proper? When I was writing Bull and Cullen in Stuck on the Puzzle, it was fun for me to contrast Cullen’s very upright, stiff dialogue against Bull’s vulgar, coarse dialogue.
What is their styleof dialogue? Is it contemporary or old-fashioned? If it’s contemporary, does it have a style? Are they a 40 yo working in an office, vs. a 19 yo at university? What is their age? Where are they from? Does their culture or ethnicity influence their dialogue? When I was writing the Gancanagh, an Irish fae, it was very important to me that he almost never use anyone’s name while referring to them, because this was an aspect of Irish folklore and sometimes dialogue, to say 'this man here’ instead of 'you’ or 'Tom.’
The trick is to then use these things, but not so much your character turns into a caricature. As in - you can add new stuff! Especially if it’s alongside old recognisable statements. You can add other formal speech patterns alongside a formal speaking character.
Anyway, hope that helps! I know not everyone wants to go this deep, or wants to do this, but for people who do want to learn how to do this, this has held me in reallygood stead. Also! Once you start actually just asking yourself these kinds of questions, you won’t always need to actually write stuff down anymore, you’ll start observing anyway when you want to fic something. :D
i don’t think there is a more gratifying compliment than ‘i have read your fic more than once’
Oh yes. May I also submit for your consideration. “I read the fic you wrote for the fandom I’m in and then I came here, to a fandom I am not in, because you are writing fic in it.”
