Our queen has a sniffle or two, nothing that should worry you, boo, so get busy and write, she'll soon be all right, back penning and playing with you.
Awwww! I hope the Sudafed does its job, O Mighty QOTKU. May you be back to chomping chum in no time. :)
For those who are interested, I posted part one of my trip to Manhattan on my blog today. With pictures! You know how I feel about linking to my own blog, but you'll find the link in my Blogger profile. :)
Oh no! Feel better. Rest. Torture a writer or two. Sip on a hot toddy. Feel better soon. We will manage.
I am out of sorts myself. Aside from my time suck day job, my WIP is snagged on a battle scene. Lord, it's hard to write a battle scene. I have been reading copiously authors who do this well. Does not make it easier. Ah well, going to swim off for some coffee.
EM - just have your m.c. get knocked out, then wake up when the battle is finished. (In the spirit of a blog post last week, for anyone wondering, that's a Bad Idea). Is it the first draft of the scene, or the edits? I find first drafts the hardest. Editing gives me a lot of clarification. Good luck :)
Kitty reminds me that as a child, if there was no Triaminic in the house, dad would put a spoonful of sugar in bourbon and that was our cold medicine. It is a shame, given my slight sore throat right now, that the Jack Daniels is at home and I am not. But a boon to other drivers, no doubt.
Feel better, O Queen. Not for us; for you. We can hang out and make lima bean jokes for a bit.
Elise, Great ZOT do I hate to write battle scenes. Worst part of a historical requiring multiples of same was creating unique scenes for each one; do you have more than one to deal with?
No advice from my experience; I did what you did, reading the works of those who do this well. I also did watch movies with battle scenes. This can be illuminating for the "show don't tell" side - gives you ideas of what to show (and not).
The worst thing about the sniffles is that you're miserable but still able to work. I hope you feel better soon!
EM: I love writing battle scenes, but when I get stuck writing one, boy, do I get stuck. Multiple POVs can help me out a bit - a new perspective on the scene can move it all forward! Sometimes I also strip the POV entirely and write the whole battle as an objective observer. Good luck pushing through!
Looks like sickness is going around - I hope you all feel better soon! We had a wave of norovirus going around work here, but luckily it was on the opposite side of the campus! (Our campus is enormous.)
Elise: My first novel, a 300,000 word tome that I'm seriously considering editing and polishing for the query trenches, has a couple of battle scenes. I must say, while the work has many faults, I recall those scenes as being among the most successful. There's a sword fight in there I particularly enjoyed writing. All I can say about how to approach battle scenes is what others have said: read how others do it, and dissect those passages where it's done well. Ask, why does this work? What are they doing that grabs my attention? How are they using words to make the scene vivid to my imagination? One tip that comes to mind: make sure your description matches the pace of the fight. If it quick, use short phrases and words that pack a lot of punch in a few syllables. If it's drawn out, take time to let the senses absorb what's going on.
As for cold remedies, I can't offer anything better than the hot toddie. In it's most basic form (as my mother would serve it to me as a child): whiskey and honey mixed in hot water. You can add other spices if you want. That would send me to sleep when I had the sniffles. And sleep is the best curative for that kind of thing. :)
Kitty When I was a student in London, I visited Cork, Ireland with some friends during a very cold March. I took ill. One of my friends was the son of a pub owner that kept a flat above the pub. They kept me there on a steady diet of whiskey, tea, and broth while my friends traveled about. I was on the mend by the end of the week.
Colin - Is there any way you can break your 300,000 word tome into a trilogy? or even a two-parter? Many, many agents will cringe when they see "300,000 words" even before they read the first glorious sentence (or so I've been led to believe).
Don't forget the chicken noodle soup! I whipped up a pot-full yesterday. Nothing could be easier, and it does seem to have magical healing powers. Or, pop open a can of the stuff - it works just as well.
Feel better, Janet, and all the Reiders down with colds.
Sorry to see so many are dealing with a bug or two. I myself am just coming off a week of battling a slight fever and coughing my brains out... but no rest for the weary 'cause horses gotta eat.
I'm in the Nyquil/Hot toddy camp once the work is complete and I'm in for the night. And I'm diffusing clove, ginger, and eucalyptus essential oil. Heavenly.
Colin: I'm off to your blog! Get well soon, Janet and everyone (including me).
Joseph: You're absolutely correct. Especially if I query this (i.e., it winds up being my debut), there's no way any sane agent will take on a 300,000 word novel from an unknown entity. The book does need a lot of editing, but even if I chop a third of it, 200,000 words is still a lot, so it may end up being at least a two-parter. And that's not so bad. I hear publishers like series. :)
Sorry to hear you're sniffling, Janet. For two days last week my most productive activity was blowing my nose, but it went away quickly. Hope your does as well.
Colin, my mouth watered at the sight of that Korean food. You earned it after putting up with all the delays. Glad you had fun.
My Queen, I hope Sudafed does the trick for you. It is only a sometime thing for me.
The past month or so has been weird for me too. Of course every year from Christmas to March does strange things to me. It probably feeds off of the depression this time of year gives me.
Right after Christmas past I landed a virus that made me feel like a marionette with cut strings. That morphed into a cold and then a fungus I found bloomed. If you think Sudafed fucks with you head try an oral fungicide. Today is day five of a two week regimen and my skin officially rebelled two days ago. I feel like I walked through a hoobab naked.
Donna: most ephedrine based medications are behind the druggist's counter. That is because it is a major ingredient in bathtub speed.
300,000 words, Colin, holy smokes! Isn't it nice, though, to both remember what you wrote fondly and want to work on it!
I'm kind of in that position with my werewolf novel, actually. I just read a friend's recently published book, and she was like "well....I want to look at your werewolves" and so I both sent her book 1 and reread it yesterday and...it wasn't anything too embarrassing. I can see where some edits/tweaks need to be made, but overall I'm proud of it. Now if I could just finish 2 and 3, maybe, maybe, my werewolf trilogy will be my foray into self publishing.
I have no cold remedies to offer, alas, but a hot toddy does rather sound as though it's up Madame Sharque's alley, n'est-ce pas? I hope everyone who's ill is on the mend quickly!
Melanie: Thank you! I warn you, there's a Shark in tomorrow's installment... ;)
Jennifer: It used to bug me that I liked this novel and thought I could work it into something publishable. As you know, the Conventional Wisdom is that your first few novels are practice and shouldn't be let out of the bottom drawer. In the end I figured to h-e-double-hockey-sticks with Conventional Wisdom. If I like the story, why not use it? After all, I'm coming back to it having written a few more novels, short stories, and other stuff, so hopefully I can make it work. :)
Congratulations all you bolders!!! Well done. Remember one of Janet's rules for writers? BE BOLD! Now you can... ;)
Colin I am not entirely sure this is what her Majesty meant by Be Bold? But then, you have recently been in her presence and rumors are you still have all your limbs. So maybe you are right. :/
Colin Not to alarm you, but I have begun to think us Carkoon ex-exiles must give over our first borns to Her Majesty to pay for her mercy. My first and only born is being spirited off the New York in less than 2 months.
Maybe my short time in Carkoon has made me a touch paranoid. But still, I do not wish to return to Carkoon so...
Elise: Hmmm... given how much my FirstBorn wants to live in NYC, I'm beginning to wonder. 8-O Of course, my FirstBorn comes with baking skills, so she was doomed from the outset. :)
Colin Curious and curiouser, my 1st born has been headed to NYC since she was a wee tot. She fell in love with the place from her first visit (her father's family are New Yorkers). And, she too, is quite the talented cook although her natural fondness for kale and quinoa is beyond me. Maybe your first born can entice my first born to bake. Possibly with chocolate and raspberries.
My, our sharkly queen is indeed powerful if she can exert her influence so across space and time to magnetically draw our first born towards her realm.
I wish all of you with sniffles a speedy recovery. I mean that from the bottom of my heart. It has nothing to do with the fact that your winter germs will soon be here for our winter. And that I want to know they aren't such terrible germs. And that they will disappear if I hit them with everything from behind the counter at the chemist... or the pub.
Janet - hope you're just unwell enough to warrant a day off (chuck a sickie, as we call it here) but well enough to enjoy being at home. Get better soon.
Colin - Your trip to New York sounds awesome. Thanks for sharing. I'd loved to have seen a photo of your chai teappuccino though. Hope it tasted as good as it sounds.
MA: You're welcome! The chai teapuccino tasted like creamy chai. I'm a black tea fan, so it wasn't what I would normally drink, but given the hotel's failure on the hot water front, it was good enough. Not bad, actually. :)
Ooh, black tea. You must be made of pretty tough stuff! I'm a total wimp and need lots of milk to drown out the bitterness. I often make chai at home. Not sure I'd like a creamy version... unless I was in New York, of course. In which case everything would be just darned awesome!
Elise: I sympathize with the difficulty of writing battle/fight scenes. Here are a couple good posts I've bookmarked that I think have good advice/info (sorry for lack of working links, I'm rushed for time rn):
Kdjames - Thanks for the links. Most helpful. And thanks to all the helpful guidance here at the Reef. Even under the weather, you guys are the cat's meow.
I have spent evening breaking battle into its component parts. My difficulty is that what is not on the page, duplicitous villain uses battle to murder, is as important as what is on page. An epic battle is a great way to cover up a murder, but neither of my POV characters have any clue. They are not even suspicious. But I want the reader to be at least somewhat dubious about the hero who is actually an evil shit. Tricky. This will take several drafts. And more whisky than I can afford. And my throat hurts. Is this blog contagious?
Elise, in the comments of the first post, he mentioned another post coming up about how to write an epic battle scene, so I looked for it (not an easy thing with their format) and found this:
Contains good info about motivation and stakes and emotional impact. I also love the suggestion of drawing a map, even if it's rough, to keep you grounded in character movements. Good luck!
And now I'm running way behind my (entirely arbitrary and self-imposed) schedule. SQUIRREL!!
I *really* enjoyed the second article, KD. Wonderful stuff - from someone who obviously knows how to fight. They're the best teachers - I learned a lot from Jonathan Maberry and Delilah S Dawson, too (Maberry's worked as everything from bouncer to bodyguard, and Dawson - despite being a small woman - has done her homework in fighting. You've got to love a woman who goes to a martial arts lesson to learn how to take a punch.) Thanks!
54 comments:
Thank goodness for Sudafed! I hope you're feeling better soon.
Our queen has a sniffle or two,
nothing that should worry you, boo,
so get busy and write,
she'll soon be all right,
back penning and playing with you.
Feel better soon!
Feel better soon Janet!
Awwww! I hope the Sudafed does its job, O Mighty QOTKU. May you be back to chomping chum in no time. :)
For those who are interested, I posted part one of my trip to Manhattan on my blog today. With pictures! You know how I feel about linking to my own blog, but you'll find the link in my Blogger profile. :)
Oh no! Feel better. Rest. Torture a writer or two. Sip on a hot toddy. Feel better soon. We will manage.
I am out of sorts myself. Aside from my time suck day job, my WIP is snagged on a battle scene. Lord, it's hard to write a battle scene. I have been reading copiously authors who do this well. Does not make it easier. Ah well, going to swim off for some coffee.
Sudafed? Sure, okay. And then there's this approach: 7 Whiskey Drinks That Could Help Cure Your Cold
Hope you feel better soon, Janet!
EM - just have your m.c. get knocked out, then wake up when the battle is finished. (In the spirit of a blog post last week, for anyone wondering, that's a Bad Idea). Is it the first draft of the scene, or the edits? I find first drafts the hardest. Editing gives me a lot of clarification. Good luck :)
Home on the couch today so I feel your pain. I'm a Dayquil, Nyquil kinda girl.
Kitty reminds me that as a child, if there was no Triaminic in the house, dad would put a spoonful of sugar in bourbon and that was our cold medicine. It is a shame, given my slight sore throat right now, that the Jack Daniels is at home and I am not. But a boon to other drivers, no doubt.
Feel better, O Queen. Not for us; for you. We can hang out and make lima bean jokes for a bit.
Elise, Great ZOT do I hate to write battle scenes. Worst part of a historical requiring multiples of same was creating unique scenes for each one; do you have more than one to deal with?
No advice from my experience; I did what you did, reading the works of those who do this well. I also did watch movies with battle scenes. This can be illuminating for the "show don't tell" side - gives you ideas of what to show (and not).
Hope you're better real soon, Janet and Carolynn and BJ.
Kitty Your link of whiskey cures belongs in The Treasure Chest. I favorited it myself. There is still a lot of winter ahead.
Lennon This is 1st draft of battle scene. I left it out on 1st draft of WIP but story doesn't work without it.
BJ I might take you up on that once I get a coherent draft of the scene(s).
I love this place
The worst thing about the sniffles is that you're miserable but still able to work. I hope you feel better soon!
EM: I love writing battle scenes, but when I get stuck writing one, boy, do I get stuck. Multiple POVs can help me out a bit - a new perspective on the scene can move it all forward! Sometimes I also strip the POV entirely and write the whole battle as an objective observer. Good luck pushing through!
Looks like sickness is going around - I hope you all feel better soon! We had a wave of norovirus going around work here, but luckily it was on the opposite side of the campus! (Our campus is enormous.)
DLM, remember when mothers would rub some bourbon on the gums of teething toddlers?
E.M. Goldsmith, my husband's 'cure' for pneumonia one year was to sweat it out with a bottle of ginger brandy. What can I say, it worked!
Elise: My first novel, a 300,000 word tome that I'm seriously considering editing and polishing for the query trenches, has a couple of battle scenes. I must say, while the work has many faults, I recall those scenes as being among the most successful. There's a sword fight in there I particularly enjoyed writing. All I can say about how to approach battle scenes is what others have said: read how others do it, and dissect those passages where it's done well. Ask, why does this work? What are they doing that grabs my attention? How are they using words to make the scene vivid to my imagination? One tip that comes to mind: make sure your description matches the pace of the fight. If it quick, use short phrases and words that pack a lot of punch in a few syllables. If it's drawn out, take time to let the senses absorb what's going on.
As for cold remedies, I can't offer anything better than the hot toddie. In it's most basic form (as my mother would serve it to me as a child): whiskey and honey mixed in hot water. You can add other spices if you want. That would send me to sleep when I had the sniffles. And sleep is the best curative for that kind of thing. :)
Kitty When I was a student in London, I visited Cork, Ireland with some friends during a very cold March. I took ill. One of my friends was the son of a pub owner that kept a flat above the pub. They kept me there on a steady diet of whiskey, tea, and broth while my friends traveled about. I was on the mend by the end of the week.
Colin - Is there any way you can break your 300,000 word tome into a trilogy? or even a two-parter? Many, many agents will cringe when they see "300,000 words" even before they read the first glorious sentence (or so I've been led to believe).
Don't forget the chicken noodle soup! I whipped up a pot-full yesterday. Nothing could be easier, and it does seem to have magical healing powers. Or, pop open a can of the stuff - it works just as well.
Feel better, Janet, and all the Reiders down with colds.
Chicken soup!
Sudafed makes the top of my head fuzzy - if I get the kind the pharmacist keeps behind the counter.
Kitty I remember my Mother doing that with babies she kept. I wonder if she told their mothers...
Sorry to see so many are dealing with a bug or two. I myself am just coming off a week of battling a slight fever and coughing my brains out... but no rest for the weary 'cause horses gotta eat.
I'm in the Nyquil/Hot toddy camp once the work is complete and I'm in for the night. And I'm diffusing clove, ginger, and eucalyptus essential oil. Heavenly.
Colin: I'm off to your blog! Get well soon, Janet and everyone (including me).
Joseph: You're absolutely correct. Especially if I query this (i.e., it winds up being my debut), there's no way any sane agent will take on a 300,000 word novel from an unknown entity. The book does need a lot of editing, but even if I chop a third of it, 200,000 words is still a lot, so it may end up being at least a two-parter. And that's not so bad. I hear publishers like series. :)
So, yeah, last night.
Ouch!
Who's that knocking in my head?
I'll be okay if I can just lean over this -- whoa, there's a lake down there. Lemme roll over -- whoa, fuck, there's a polar bear!
Oh, wait, he did Party at the Zoo last night too. Okay, buddy, you and me. What time's this place open, by the way?
sending healing vibes your way }}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}{{{{{{{{{{{{{{
Sorry to hear you're sniffling, Janet. For two days last week my most productive activity was blowing my nose, but it went away quickly. Hope your does as well.
Colin, my mouth watered at the sight of that Korean food. You earned it after putting up with all the delays. Glad you had fun.
Feel better soon, Janet. And I hope you have the extra soft tissues--chapped noses are the worst.
And feel better to the rest of the gang, whatever the source of your woes may be.
My Queen, I hope Sudafed does the trick for you. It is only a sometime thing for me.
The past month or so has been weird for me too. Of course every year from Christmas to March does strange things to me. It probably feeds off of the depression this time of year gives me.
Right after Christmas past I landed a virus that made me feel like a marionette with cut strings. That morphed into a cold and then a fungus I found bloomed. If you think Sudafed fucks with you head try an oral fungicide. Today is day five of a two week regimen and my skin officially rebelled two days ago. I feel like I walked through a hoobab naked.
Donna: most ephedrine based medications are behind the druggist's counter. That is because it is a major ingredient in bathtub speed.
Obviously, I've been gone too long as I no longer know how to bold without strict instructions! And I've no patience for that right now.
Janet, so sorry to hear you're feeling poorly. Or would that be polarly?
Kitty, great references for the whisky. I've done as Colin wrote in his comment with lemon and hot water so I'll have to bookmark your suggestions!
Sorry. I meant Haboob.
Colin
Maybe you'd have luck if you titled your novel "Fifty Shades of Greidawl"
Lisa: It's b within "<>" before the text to be bolded, and /b within "<>" after the text to be bolded.
Joseph: Ooo... then I wouldn't need to edit it at all!! ;)
Lisa: Minus the quotation marks, of course. :)
Colin I loved reading about your trip to NYC. I dream of going there one day. Looking forward to the next installment. And YAY! I successfully bolded
300,000 words, Colin, holy smokes! Isn't it nice, though, to both remember what you wrote fondly and want to work on it!
I'm kind of in that position with my werewolf novel, actually. I just read a friend's recently published book, and she was like "well....I want to look at your werewolves" and so I both sent her book 1 and reread it yesterday and...it wasn't anything too embarrassing. I can see where some edits/tweaks need to be made, but overall I'm proud of it. Now if I could just finish 2 and 3, maybe, maybe, my werewolf trilogy will be my foray into self publishing.
I have no cold remedies to offer, alas, but a hot toddy does rather sound as though it's up Madame Sharque's alley, n'est-ce pas? I hope everyone who's ill is on the mend quickly!
Hey it worked I bolded for the first time.
Melanie: Thank you! I warn you, there's a Shark in tomorrow's installment... ;)
Jennifer: It used to bug me that I liked this novel and thought I could work it into something publishable. As you know, the Conventional Wisdom is that your first few novels are practice and shouldn't be let out of the bottom drawer. In the end I figured to h-e-double-hockey-sticks with Conventional Wisdom. If I like the story, why not use it? After all, I'm coming back to it having written a few more novels, short stories, and other stuff, so hopefully I can make it work. :)
Congratulations all you bolders!!! Well done. Remember one of Janet's rules for writers? BE BOLD! Now you can... ;)
Colin I am not entirely sure this is what her Majesty meant by Be Bold? But then, you have recently been in her presence and rumors are you still have all your limbs. So maybe you are right. :/
Elise: I assure you, any mercy shown me by Her Mighty Sharkfulness was entirely due to the presence of my daughter. :)
Colin Not to alarm you, but I have begun to think us Carkoon ex-exiles must give over our first borns to Her Majesty to pay for her mercy. My first and only born is being spirited off the New York in less than 2 months.
Maybe my short time in Carkoon has made me a touch paranoid. But still, I do not wish to return to Carkoon so...
Elise: Hmmm... given how much my FirstBorn wants to live in NYC, I'm beginning to wonder. 8-O Of course, my FirstBorn comes with baking skills, so she was doomed from the outset. :)
Colin Curious and curiouser, my 1st born has been headed to NYC since she was a wee tot. She fell in love with the place from her first visit (her father's family are New Yorkers). And, she too, is quite the talented cook although her natural fondness for kale and quinoa is beyond me. Maybe your first born can entice my first born to bake. Possibly with chocolate and raspberries.
My, our sharkly queen is indeed powerful if she can exert her influence so across space and time to magnetically draw our first born towards her realm.
Well, at least we'll keep our limbs, possibly.
This is not a comment.
No sniffles hee,but I hope you feel better soon.
I wish all of you with sniffles a speedy recovery. I mean that from the bottom of my heart. It has nothing to do with the fact that your winter germs will soon be here for our winter. And that I want to know they aren't such terrible germs. And that they will disappear if I hit them with everything from behind the counter at the chemist... or the pub.
Janet - hope you're just unwell enough to warrant a day off (chuck a sickie, as we call it here) but well enough to enjoy being at home. Get better soon.
Colin - Your trip to New York sounds awesome. Thanks for sharing. I'd loved to have seen a photo of your chai teappuccino though. Hope it tasted as good as it sounds.
Colin, I was sure I did it that way, but twice the gooberythingamabob spit it out with a 404. Or was it a 400?
This is my 2nd attempt tonight but I'm smartening up. I copy before I hit submit because I don't want to lose the whole shebang.
dagnabbit. 2nd attempt tonight failed too. I quit...no bold for me!!
Get well soon! I've heard Sudafed works wonders, but it just turns me into a frothing rage monster. Thank goodness for other decongestants.
MA: You're welcome! The chai teapuccino tasted like creamy chai. I'm a black tea fan, so it wasn't what I would normally drink, but given the hotel's failure on the hot water front, it was good enough. Not bad, actually. :)
Hope you feel better soon, JR!
Ooh, black tea. You must be made of pretty tough stuff! I'm a total wimp and need lots of milk to drown out the bitterness. I often make chai at home. Not sure I'd like a creamy version... unless I was in New York, of course. In which case everything would be just darned awesome!
Elise: I sympathize with the difficulty of writing battle/fight scenes. Here are a couple good posts I've bookmarked that I think have good advice/info (sorry for lack of working links, I'm rushed for time rn):
https://www.standoutbooks.com/heres-how-to-write-a-damn-good-fight-scene/
This one is more about hand-to-hand combat and what not to do:
http://www.evilwriters.com/2015/06/ten-hand-to-hand-combat-myths-writers-need-to-stop-using/
In both posts, there's also some good feedback in the comments (so, yes, ignore common wisdom and read the comments). Hope they're helpful for you.
Janet, hope your sniffles don't morph into the serious variety, as so many seem to do these days. Feel better soon, everyone!
Kdjames - Thanks for the links. Most helpful. And thanks to all the helpful guidance here at the Reef. Even under the weather, you guys are the cat's meow.
I have spent evening breaking battle into its component parts. My difficulty is that what is not on the page, duplicitous villain uses battle to murder, is as important as what is on page. An epic battle is a great way to cover up a murder, but neither of my POV characters have any clue. They are not even suspicious. But I want the reader to be at least somewhat dubious about the hero who is actually an evil shit. Tricky. This will take several drafts. And more whisky than I can afford. And my throat hurts. Is this blog contagious?
Elise: Your throat is crying for that whisky.
And KD's links:
Here's how to write a damn good fight scene
Ten hand-to-hand combat myths writers need to stop using
Now to read those links, because they look awesome!
Thanks, BJ!
Elise, in the comments of the first post, he mentioned another post coming up about how to write an epic battle scene, so I looked for it (not an easy thing with their format) and found this:
https://www.standoutbooks.com/write-epic-battle-scene/
Contains good info about motivation and stakes and emotional impact. I also love the suggestion of drawing a map, even if it's rough, to keep you grounded in character movements. Good luck!
And now I'm running way behind my (entirely arbitrary and self-imposed) schedule. SQUIRREL!!
I *really* enjoyed the second article, KD. Wonderful stuff - from someone who obviously knows how to fight. They're the best teachers - I learned a lot from Jonathan Maberry and Delilah S Dawson, too (Maberry's worked as everything from bouncer to bodyguard, and Dawson - despite being a small woman - has done her homework in fighting. You've got to love a woman who goes to a martial arts lesson to learn how to take a punch.) Thanks!
And here's your last link: Write an epic battle scene
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