tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17040756.post1391355234266003240..comments2024-03-18T09:09:59.625-04:00Comments on Janet Reid, Literary Agent: It turns out I don't know it all...or didn'tJanet Reidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00615380335938685231noreply@blogger.comBlogger41125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17040756.post-18515156002654316622016-11-21T14:34:42.817-05:002016-11-21T14:34:42.817-05:00I finished reading The Long and Faraway Gone the d...I finished reading The Long and Faraway Gone the day before this post came out. It is an amazing read. I had the pleasure of listening to Lou Berney speak on a panel at Bouchercon. It was that exposure to him that prompted me to pick up the book, and boy, am I glad. There are a few writers that I deconstruct and try to understand their magic. This book is well worth the effort.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17040756.post-65198881101432927012016-11-16T03:51:16.887-05:002016-11-16T03:51:16.887-05:00I find analysing a good book completely impossible...I find analysing a good book completely impossible. I'm just so completely sucked into the story and unique turns of phrase, that I don't give analysis a second thought until I've read the last page.<br />Bad books, on the other hand, are excellent for analysing, and it's so very self-satisfying to think, ha, if a book this crappy got published then at least there's some sort of hope for me!!!MA Hudsonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11055543285024785889noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17040756.post-27371025015997540862016-11-16T00:49:29.051-05:002016-11-16T00:49:29.051-05:00Robert Parker RIP - what he could say in fewer wor...Robert Parker RIP - what he could say in fewer words yet put a vivid picture in your mind. Truly a gift.<br /><br />I have one of his first novels (paperback!), and good lord was he wordy when he first started out. Just.so.many.words. I found myself flipping pages because it was "yeah yeah, let's get to the story already!"<br /><br />But that early paperback of his gives me hope as a writer...Janice Grinyerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14363741660626407979noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17040756.post-92011631370066240572016-11-15T23:39:53.123-05:002016-11-15T23:39:53.123-05:00Adib I never thought of that. Not sure I'm com...<b>Adib</b> I never thought of that. Not sure I'm committed enough to type a whole book, but I can see doing it for certain passages. Beth Carpenterhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02447148196867821907noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17040756.post-21417561052200330552016-11-15T19:35:01.713-05:002016-11-15T19:35:01.713-05:00Hm...books that sucked me in so that I wanted to s...Hm...books that sucked me in so that I wanted to stay in the world. <br /><br />Jonathan Livingston Seagull. POV from a seagull? Who would have thought? Forgotten Beasts of Eld by Patricia McKillip. And as someone else mentioned Anne McCaffrey's dragonrider series. Mary Stewart's English world. Lisa Bodenheimhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17809067722921953857noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17040756.post-34267190910912023732016-11-15T16:52:59.182-05:002016-11-15T16:52:59.182-05:00I loved The Long and Faraway Gone. It had me from ...I loved The Long and Faraway Gone. It had me from the first page and kept me turning until the end. <br />I'm a craft book junkie, so I love to go back to novels I've read with a new perspective after reading some awesome books about writing fiction. The Great Gatsby is definitely one I return to again and again. The book is so lean and yet contains so much depth and so many layers. So many writing books I've read have highlighted a different aspect of Fitzgerald's classic that I'm continually surprised by what I can learn from it. Same with the Harry Potter series. Or any book that has touched me in some way. There truly is a method to the magic, and I'm an apprentice hungry to learn all the clever slights of hand I can.<br />Craft books I recently read and highly recommend: Thrill Me by Benjamin Percy and The Secrets of Story by Matt Bird. Currently, I'm study Karin Slaughter novels. I'm in awe of her writing. <br />By the way, Ordinary Grace by William Krueger is great too. Just thought I'd throw that out there. <br />Mallory Lovehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16282261391938135052noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17040756.post-60092447001170564492016-11-15T15:27:30.328-05:002016-11-15T15:27:30.328-05:00Personally I am a fan of the simplicity and effect...Personally I am a fan of the simplicity and effectiveness that late 19th and early 20th century used. In some of the better world builders of today you can read those influences.<br /><br />I am also a fan of using casual references to that world. It makes them seem more lived in. Leaving 85% or so of that particular world to the readers imagination seems to make them more memorable.<br /><br />Read critically and pick up the pieces that give you a thrill. I am learning a lot that way. Donna and her characters have taught me a great deal about voice. I have read other things that had as much voice but I am a better critical reader now. In the long run it will make me a better writer, I hope.Craig Fhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07157301156577795781noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17040756.post-69474829023111745602016-11-15T14:26:05.233-05:002016-11-15T14:26:05.233-05:00Several series stand out.
The first influences in...Several series stand out.<br /><br />The first influences in that vein were all sci-fi, from Tom Swift, Jr when I was young, through Keith Laumer's Retief novels, Asimov's Foundation and robot novels, and the glorious, all too little output of James Schmitz (_The Witches of Karres_ is still a fave). Andre Norton. Frank Herbert (Dune). Madelaine L'Engle! Anne McCaffrey's Pern books. Etc.<br /><br />But the biggest, direct influences were probably:<br />Tolkien- before I met this man's writing, I already spent a lot of time building worlds for the sheer joy of it, long before I started saving the things I wrote. He planned like no one else, and it shows in his work.<br />C. S. Lewis- While his worlds were simpler and he didn't invent entire languages, his worlds were wondrous. One of the things I especially loved was the WAY in which he revealed the worlds. The modernists who push to have the stories read in chronological order vandalize a great deal of his work.<br />Rowling (Harry Potter) and Collins (Hunger Games) inspire me as well, both having some of the complexity of Tolkien and the revelatory pacing of Lewis.<br /><br />These people all touch me with their characters, dialogue and other elements as well.<br /><br />So, no, there is not a particular book I can credit for world building or the writing process. There is, however, a library full of them. It's at Casa Roadkill. 8^)roadkills-r-ushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14029861300358380117noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17040756.post-86388366002699743862016-11-15T13:57:11.666-05:002016-11-15T13:57:11.666-05:00"Is there a particular book you credit with i..."Is there a particular book you credit with illuminating something about the writing process for you?"<br /><br />My reaction to books I'd categorize into the "illumination" category are the ones I usually thought, "whoa, that was so good I didn't want it to end." And then I have to go back and look at certain passages and re-read, likely hoping it will soak in.<br /><br />One book I thoroughly enjoyed, and didn't want to end, (and is going to be an oddball example to choose) is THE BOYS OF MY YOUTH by Joanna Beard. Even though it's a memoir, she had such a quirky, spot on way of describing life events that equaled what I'd felt while growing up. There's a chapter where her parents are confused over why she was crying in her crib, and is a hilarious portrait that depicts (very likely depicts) the way a child, who is unable to speak, might react to a situation. I learned you COULD do this, write from the POV of an infant (hey it's been done with dogs), if you knew how - either way, I loved it. <br /><br />And then, more in line with what I write is Rick Bragg's ALL OVER BUT THE SHOUTIN' and (and many of you know this) BASTARD OUT OF CAROLINA. And SO many more...but we don't have all day here. :)<br />Donnaevehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09026536210749494257noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17040756.post-85542404355365185392016-11-15T13:54:38.704-05:002016-11-15T13:54:38.704-05:00I'm always amazed when any contemporary book m...I'm always amazed when any contemporary book manages to sweep me away in the world building. I'd say it's more common in books that take place outside of the United States—Michael Gruber's THE GOOD SON springs to mind for the vivid picture of Pakistan it paints—but I was also enthralled with the world building in Jonathan Safran Foer's EXTREMELY LOUD AND INCREDIBLY CLOSE. Oskar's New York is alive in a way I had never experienced New York before.<br /><br /><b>Beth,</b> I do the same: get absorbed when the writing is too good. Which is why when I want to really study something, I'll set the book down and start typing the whole thing out, cover to cover. (Full disclosure, I got this idea from Janet who has recommended it more than once, though I think more frequently on QueryShark than on this blog. And it's also recommended in SPELLBINDING SENTENCES.)<br /><br />Adib Khorramhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03836332867898941638noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17040756.post-45425963628320432112016-11-15T13:46:59.397-05:002016-11-15T13:46:59.397-05:00It’s interesting to me that when I read the select...It’s interesting to me that when I read the selections and think of my own, the ones that spring to mind are not the books I’ve read the past five years or so (except for C.J. Box - and he doesn’t build a world. He just plops us down in Wyoming and Montana), but the ones I read as a teenager and in my twenties. <br /><br />Of the ones mentioned today so far, Dune, Laura Ingalls Wilder’s Little House on the Prairie series, Harry Potter, Watership Down make my list. But also 1984, Catch-22, The Hobbit, Clan of the Cave Bear, Lost Horizon, Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Universe, the James Bond books, any Robert Louis Stevenson book. Maybe even Stan Lee’s Marvel Universe.<br /><br /> Series books stand out. Two I still remember. A series on an imaginary baseball team. I can’t even remember its name – The St Louis Blues perhaps. Each book was the story how a new player was added to the team. One constant through all the books was the first baseman. The last book in the series was how a new first baseman replaced him. Noooooooo. The other was about the men on the ship Araby. Looking it up, it’s called the Tod Moran Mystery series by Howard Pease. Joseph S.https://www.blogger.com/profile/07437663031050410028noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17040756.post-12033979038015521442016-11-15T13:14:23.684-05:002016-11-15T13:14:23.684-05:00Oh, one more. Vanity Fair, for the most fascinatin...Oh, one more. Vanity Fair, for the most fascinating anti-heroine I've ever encountered. <br /><br />Vanity Fair is a comfort read for me, in a perverse way. I'm the opposite of cynical, and I have never tried to live on nothing a year, but there is something about the characters and the choices they make, the mixture of love and selfishness in everyone (even the "noble" Amelia) that never fails to fascinate me, to reflect the imperfections of human existence.<br /><br />For all the shady things Becky Sharp does, I think Thackeray shows her vulnerability, her search for security that comes before all other attachments (yes, she's vain and proud, too, but those are secondary motivations). She's not so different from Lizzy Bennet, just twisted by less fortunate circumstances (and a more talented musician). RachelErinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09510327163701754950noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17040756.post-4840450458161746572016-11-15T13:11:37.653-05:002016-11-15T13:11:37.653-05:00I'm a huge Lou Berney fan. Loved Gut Shot Stra...I'm a huge Lou Berney fan. Loved Gut Shot Straight and Whiplash River, as well as Long and Faraway Gone. David Guterson's Snow Falling on Cedars had me consciously slowing down, covering the next page so I wouldn't leap ahead. I wanted the story to last...Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06611656982367077903noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17040756.post-54119806249293235112016-11-15T12:40:53.791-05:002016-11-15T12:40:53.791-05:00Helen Dunmore's The Siege is a master class in...Helen Dunmore's The Siege is a master class in economy.<br /><br />Ian McEwan's Atonement and Kate Atkinson's Life After Life are brilliant examples of plotting.<br /><br />Theresahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18165072684559960801noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17040756.post-30383086188741570902016-11-15T12:24:18.993-05:002016-11-15T12:24:18.993-05:00Definitely agree that world building in non-scifi/...Definitely agree that world building in non-scifi/fantasy stories is great. It's the kind of thing you don't really notice or think about unless it's done really well. Immerses you in that world. I've never actually been to Paradise, MI or Natchez, MS or Harlan, KY but I feel like I've experienced pieces of those worlds. Had the towns become a character in the story.Steve Fortihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06027977543853683231noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17040756.post-64661538599093581162016-11-15T12:18:35.925-05:002016-11-15T12:18:35.925-05:00C.S. Lewis's Narnia. I won the first book in ...C.S. Lewis's Narnia. I won the first book in the fourth grade and remember holding it and thinking, "what is this?" I had dreams adventuring with the Pevensie kids and meeting Aslan. I wished I could meet them all, but especially Edmund with whom I felt a big connection. <br /><br />When I got to the last few chapters of the seventh (and final) book in the series, I read a sentence a day for months and finished it on my birthday. It felt like a good-bye ceremony for people I'd never see again. I was sad for a long time after that. <br /><br />Also, Watership Down. Crazy how a book about rabbits can do that to you?! Just goes to show, it's all in the writing. <br /><br />Lennon Farishttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03570629350169504234noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17040756.post-30587117759462333732016-11-15T12:17:29.017-05:002016-11-15T12:17:29.017-05:00Amy, I have the opposite problem. I start a book I...<b>Amy</b>, I have the opposite problem. I start a book I admire, trying to extract lessons on how it's done, but I get caught up in the story and before I know it, I've finished the book. I can study a flashback technique or how they handled dialogue tags in a party setting, but as to the pacing or flow of the whole story, I forget to notice. When done well, pacing seems effortless. Beth Carpenterhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02447148196867821907noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17040756.post-26869044238270212342016-11-15T12:06:58.291-05:002016-11-15T12:06:58.291-05:00Dittos for Rawlings and Cross Creek. Most know thi...Dittos for Rawlings and Cross Creek. Most know this author for The Yearling, also great. When I first read Stoker's epistolary Dracula I was drawn into the creepy world created by the letters and diary entries the characters wrote. Contemporarily, I have always enjoyed the worlds created by Richard Ford. His portrait of Detroit in The Sportswriter sticks with me. Currently reading Solzhenitsyn's Cancer Ward, the world of the post-Stalin Soviet Union made all too real. Mark Ellishttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17262292085318047939noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17040756.post-54252688672988338502016-11-15T11:59:33.196-05:002016-11-15T11:59:33.196-05:00World building shouldn't just be for sci-fi an...World building shouldn't just be for sci-fi and fantasy. It is for me just as essential in the every day world. Because we all live in different worlds even though we all live in the present.<br /><br />I'm just thinking off the top of my head, but I really enjoyed all of Philip Craig's books set on Martha's vineyard. I don't know that part of the country at all, yet I feel like I have fished with JW Jackson and wandered the island with him.<br /><br />Dana Stabenow has brought Alaska vibrantly alive for me. Small villages, native culture, and the wilderness and vastness that is Alaska. I have to sit under a blanket to read her books.<br /><br />And Nevada Barr's novels set in National parks has taken me to all sorts of places I need to put on my To Be Visited list.<br /><br />Some books don't do this well. They could be set in any big town USA. Or any suburb or any backwater town. But endless descriptive passages are not the way to achieve a rich environment. The authors that do it best incorporate it seamlessly into their stories. Delicious.RosannaMhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06399732751877180737noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17040756.post-32072524221020877372016-11-15T11:53:40.004-05:002016-11-15T11:53:40.004-05:00As you know, these days I write history books. Wor...As you know, these days I write history books. World building is essential. We don’t teach history well; readers are disconnected from the past. I want my readers to connect to the era. Every skill I used when writing fantasy fiction is essential to writing history, except I don’t get to make up the world I write about.<br /><br />The last half of the 19th Century is an alien world, as much so as Landover, as the Pixie Home Forest, as Oz. Those who read our books, even other historians, are often disconnected from daily life of the era. When I taught history (I recently stopped teaching because of health issues), I connected my students to an era of no electronics, no flush toilets, rats, filth on the streets, and belief systems that were common then but alien now. <br /><br />Every writer should be a world builder. <br />Sha'el, Princess of Pixieshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14049854555801812071noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17040756.post-55016751358378683652016-11-15T11:10:14.672-05:002016-11-15T11:10:14.672-05:00I couldn't narrow this down to one particular ...I couldn't narrow this down to one particular book. I think I probably learn about writing every time I read a book. Which is probably why I'm such a slooooow reader. Oftentimes even when I'm getting carried away by story, I'm still analyzing: <br /><br />Wow, she did a really nice job of (fill in the blank) here. <br /><br />Oh, I like how he did (fill in with something else). Now let me go back to the page where that started and take a closer look at how he did it.<br /><br />I hear about people taking an afternoon to read a novel. Merely one afternoon? What? Never.Amy Johnsonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05324408700941398495noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17040756.post-85629778166139836592016-11-15T10:39:27.157-05:002016-11-15T10:39:27.157-05:00I remember as a child getting lost in White Fang a...I remember as a child getting lost in White Fang and Call of the Wild. I didn't know it then, but they taught me much about point of view. I'll have to reread them sometime soon and see if they stand up after a few decades. Beth Carpenterhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02447148196867821907noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17040756.post-29547415032983790232016-11-15T10:32:15.494-05:002016-11-15T10:32:15.494-05:00MelanieSueBowles: I hear you re: the Little House ...<b>MelanieSueBowles</b>: I hear you re: the Little House series. I read them, and re-read them, over and over. I can still hear passages from many of those books ringing in my head. Farmer Boy, in particular, was my favorite. Claire Bobrowhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15666082441972111293noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17040756.post-58147910620670415642016-11-15T10:21:18.323-05:002016-11-15T10:21:18.323-05:00Oh Janet, I concur. The Long and Faraway Gone is a...Oh Janet, I concur. The Long and Faraway Gone is a master class in world building.<br /><br />Tana French is another writer who can take me there. I believe with all my heart I can navigate the Dublin Murder Squad's physical and emotional turf, though I've never been a cop and (not yet!) made it to the city on the Liffey.Brenda Buchananhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14161539130987122737noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17040756.post-23109105336129568912016-11-15T10:15:19.899-05:002016-11-15T10:15:19.899-05:00I cut my teeth on Laura Ingalls Wilder. The "...I cut my teeth on Laura Ingalls Wilder. The "Little House" series was a world I wanted to live in, and it was the inspiration for repeatedly telling my mother that I was going to live on a farm one day and write about my life with the animals who live with me - a dream realized. I was rarely drawn to read fiction, preferring non-fiction, memoirs, and biographies. But even these writers must build a world where the reader can become immersed. One book that had an enormous impact on me and my desire to write was CROSS CREEK by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings. This book would most definitely be a snore-fest for folks who want high-octane action and suspense... but for me, it was pure magic. Melanie Sue Bowleshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11820711791019410116noreply@blogger.com