Author Archives: Poseidon's Scribe

An Outline Every Writer Can Love

Ah, outlines. Some writers love ’em. Others despise ’em. In which camp do you pitch your tent?

Dilemma

In general, plotters love outlines. Plotters plan before writing, and that requires an outline, as detailed as possible. It comforts them to know where they’re going, what to write next.

In contrast, pantsers (as in writing by the seat of) abhor outlines. Too restrictive, too inhibiting. They want to write free of constraints, letting the story take them where it will. They figure if they don’t know how it will end, the reader won’t guess either.

Might there exist some rare species of outline acceptable to both types? Such an outline would strike a perfect balance, detailed enough for plotters, yet simple enough for pantsers.

Solution

The folks at Author Accelerator may have found it. They call it the Two-Tier Outline. (For pantsers repulsed by the very word ‘outline,’ you may call it the Two-Tier Guideline, or some similarly inoffensive term.)

The Author Accelerator post explains it better than I can. Although they focus on novels, the technique should work as well for short stories and novellas.

The method is simple: list your story’s scenes. For each scene, add two sub-bullets. The first states what happens in the scene, and the second states why the scene matters to your protagonist. Keep the whole thing under four pages.

How Plotters Benefit

Plotters often focus on action, on events, the essence of plot. When they do, what gets left out? Feelings, emotions, motivations, thoughts. Good plotters add those to the manuscript as they write. Bad plotters fail to include them in the story. The resulting work bristles with action, but contains flat, uninteresting characters.

The Two-Tier Outline forces plotters to include these otherwise missing elements. Also, the three-page limit constrains plotters’ tendencies to over-plan.

I blogged about a different way to factor in motivations here, but the Two-Tier Outline seems simpler.

How Pantsers Benefit

A simple, minimalist outline format grants pantsers plenty of freedom to go where the story leads them. However, having thought through the ‘what’ and ‘why’ of the scenes beforehand, pantsers may avoid writing themselves into a box, and therefore avoid major rewrites.

Also, if the story does end up deviating far away from the original outline, the pantser hasn’t wasted much time outlining. Nor would it take much time to re-do the outline, if desired.

Worth a Try?

Maybe this in-between, one-size-fits-all outline method will work for you. Consider adding it to your writer’s toolkit. If it works, great. If not, modify it to suit you better, or discard it.

An outline tool useful to both plotters and pantsers? Until Author Accelerator introduced it, nobody could have imagined such a thing, least of all—

Poseidon’s Scribe

February 4, 2024Permalink 1 Comment

Warehouse of Unwritten Stories

Today we visit a warehouse, a dark and dusty place of vast dimensions. Innumerable cobwebs stretch between wall and ceiling. Hundreds, maybe thousands, of crates stand stacked in utter disorder. We’ve entered the warehouse of your unwritten stories.

Most writers don’t suffer from a lack of ideas. Story ideas spring up all the time, born from new experiences, fresh acquaintances, travels, chance meetings, TV shows, daily life, other writers’ books—from everywhere. Many authors scribble these ideas or tap a note on their phone and save them in a file for later use. Let’s picture that file as a warehouse, into which more crates accumulate every day.

What happens to the items in there? On rare occasions, I venture into my warehouse, open an interesting crate, and write the story. Infrequent, but it happens. Most of the crates remain there, unopened, unexamined, gathering dust. I suspect your warehouse looks much the same.

In this helpful post on LifeHacker, writer Nick Douglas provides several methods of dealing with all these unused ideas. He doesn’t use the warehouse metaphor—he calls the phenomenon ‘Idea Debt.’ I’ll summarize his options here, in my own words, but I encourage you to read his post.

Mr. Douglas’ approach presupposes that you’ve rummaged through your warehouse, become overwhelmed, and fled in despair. So many good story ideas, so little time. Douglas’ steps represent a way to assess the warehouse inventory, sort it, and reduce the backlog.

  1. Shrink and Submit. Some of the best and most time-sensitive ideas might lend themselves to this method. Look at the idea and imagine the smallest viable product you can make from it. If you originally saw it as a novel, consider a short story, even flash fiction. Look for a way to turn it into a written product quickly, and get it done and submitted. Sure beats letting it linger in the warehouse.
  • Add to WIP. The smaller ideas, maybe just character sketches or scenes without a plot, could work here. Examine the idea for inclusion into your current work in progress. If it fits, presto, you’ve reduced some clutter already.
  • Gift It. Still have a lot of crates in the warehouse? Some you’ll gaze at, thinking, ‘I’ll never find time to write that,’ or ‘I’m not the one to write that.’ Maybe you know another writer who could use it. Give it to that writer. That’s how I ended up writing After the Martians. Another author gave the idea to me. Douglas also suggests you could post your idea/gift on social media as a giveaway.
  • Give Them Away. Looking around, you still see way too many crates. Face it, you’re never going to get around to most of them. The one-at-a-time process of gifting in step 3 would take forever. Time to break out the forklifts, load up the semi-truck, drive to the center of town, and dump the crates by the side of the road. In other words, gather the ideas in one long list and post the list on an open forum for others to use.
  • Manage the Remainder. What’s left in the warehouse now? Only those ideas that can’t be shrunk, won’t fit in your WIP, and are too valuable to give away. For those, you must become a disciplined project manager (or use an app that helps you become one). Writing those stories is now your next project.  Set goals, organize the work, break it down into tasks, schedule and accomplish the tasks. Get those stories written and submitted.

Wow! Your warehouse is empty, thanks mostly to Nick Douglas and, in lesser degree, to—

Poseidon’s Scribe

January 28, 2024Permalink 2 Comments

Mickey Mouse, LOTR, and Copyright

Two separate legal battles, over two different creative works, may prove instructive to the writers among you.

Recently, I blogged about the Julie and Julia Formula, where you transform a passion of yours into literary success. A workable formula, true, but you must take care to avoid the legal peril of copyright violation.

Copyright

In concept, copyright strikes a duration-specified balance between respecting the right of a creator to profit from creative work without competition, and providing the public unrestricted access to all ideas. Our nation’s founding fathers set that compromise at 14 years. Over time, Congress lengthened it to either 95 years after publication or 70 years after the author’s death, whichever comes first.

Mickey

Two recent events brought copyright into the news. I’ll start with Mickey Mouse. As of January 1, the early depictions of Walt Disney’s iconic cartoon rodent entered the public domain. You’re free to write or draw your own Mickey Mouse story and sell it. The Disney legal team won’t bury you in cease-and-desist orders if you do.

That lifting of a restriction arrived far too late for Dan O’Neill, who, in 1971, attempted to profit from his comic book, “Air Pirates Funnies,” which featured the famous mouse. Though Mickey is just a mouse, the Disney lawyers must have seemed to O’Neill like some larger and more voracious animal.

Tolkien

The other recent event concerns JRR Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings. Tolkien got his book published in 1955, so it’s still under copyright. A writer going by the name Polychron published an unauthorized sequel in 2022. An army soon attacked. Not an army of Orcs, but, worse, an army of lawyers hired by the Tolkien family heirs.

Temptation

What might we learn from these two cases? The obvious lesson—don’t infringe on someone else’s copyright.

Easy to say, but that lesson doesn’t say it all. Often, we take up writing because we’ve fallen in love with another author’s work. We love that author’s world and characters. We immerse ourselves in the book. We imagine other adventures for those characters. Ideas for sequels and prequels spring to mind.

We write a new story out of love, enjoying every minute of the project. We adore the finished product. What’s the harm, we think, of making a few bucks? The character’s original creator is dead, the family is wealthy, and our work is a tribute, after all, not some crass satire.

The Other Side

To see the harm, picture the matter from the other side. No matter what you think of the 95/70 years rule, it’s the current law. Imagine you dreamed up a memorable character, one the world fell in love with. Your book became a best-seller and the resulting movie a blockbuster. You’ve made a well-deserved fortune and you’ll die knowing your heirs will live in financial comfort.

Along comes some upstart, a writer who couldn’t be bothered to create an original character in an original world. This thief steals your work, your intellectual property, and seeks a profit from it. (Here, I’m not referring to anyone in particular, just to a hypothetical copyright violator.) In such a case, you’d hope the lawyers fight for the rights of your heirs.

Takeaway

Rather than stealing another author’s character, be creative. Turn that love of another’s work into something different. Honor your favorite author by slanting your book down a unique path.

Or, if you must use someone else’s ideas, pick those old enough to have advanced to the public domain. If you go that direction, don’t just add zombies—I’m begging you. The ‘classics plus zombies’ mashup is cliched. If any readers harbored doubts about your originality in copying an idea freshly emerged into the public domain, you’ll only confirm a reputation as an unimaginative hack by inserting zombies.

Go write a story involving the early Mickey Mouse if you wish. But, however strong the temptation, do not copy the ideas of—

Poseidon’s Scribe

January 21, 2024Permalink Leave a comment

Author Interview–Nancy Craig

For the first author interview of this year, I invited Nancy Craig, a writer from one of the critique groups I’m in, and she accepted. Here’s her bio:

I was born in Kansas, the first of two daughters of an Army family. Children of military families are collectively known as ‘brats’. I have lived all my adult life in Texas with the exception of eight months in Stirling, Scotland. I am a graduate of Texas Western College, now known as UTEP (University of Texas at El Paso). I am a retired school teacher, have been married 57 years and have two daughters and five grandchildren. I love gardening, cooking, traveling and writing.

Writing history: First book, The Liar’s Legacy (novella), four children’s books written under general title of Nanny Boo Adventures, The Final Decree. Three more books in line for publishing—Belonging, Achieving, and It Was Never a Dead End.

Awards: In 2020, It Was Never a Dead End received a first-place award in Narrative Nonfiction from the Oklahoma Writers Federation, Inc. (OWFI). In 2023, Belonging received a first-place award from OWFI for in the Unpublished Mainstream Book category. Also in 2023, The Final Decree received a second-place award from OWFI for Unpublished Historical Fiction. I’m a member of the Fort Worth Writers critique group.

Now, on to the interview:

Poseidon’s Scribe: How did you get started writing? What prompted you? 

Nancy Craig: Several things prompted me to start writing.  I had five young grandchildren and wanted to write a book for each. Idleness makes me crazy. I needed projects, something to do after I retired.

P.S.: Who are some of your influences? What are a few of your favorite books? 

N.C.: When teaching a gifted and talented class I gave them an assignment to write an Indian legend. FYI, legends are created to explain things in nature. Their creativity and imagination inspired me.

Favorite books—I tend toward historical fiction and contemporary drama. John Jakes, James Michener, and Diana Gabaldon for the historical fiction, and John Grisham, Jodi Picoult and Terry Hayes for contemporary fiction.

P.S.: You’ve written a series of four children’s books for kids aged five to ten—the Nanny Boo Adventure series (Tadpoles, Picnics and Field Goals, Babysitting, Lifeguards and Yard Sales, Movin’, and Birthdays, Bicycles and Braids). What prompted you to write these, and what kind of a girl is Nanny Boo?

N.C.: Nanny Boo is really me. I chose this character to portray events in my childhood. Also, they present social issues as seen today and a way for a child to handle them.

P.S.: Your first book, The Liar’s Legacy, seems to involve a spoiled woman forced to come to terms with her character flaw. Have I got that right? Please tell us about its main characters, Karen and Sarah.

N.C.: The Liar’s Legacy is about a young, vibrant media personality who is close to self-destruction because of her habitual lying. Karen Powers has alienated her parents, two husbands and her children. Her childhood friend, a lawyer who is defending her in a lawsuit, tells her to get professional help before she is all alone. A mental breakdown forces her children to institutionalize her in a private facility for a brief time. Alone, and now without any financial resources, she finds herself in a state mental hospital where she can no longer talk herself out of therapy. She connects with doctors, finally realizing how her lies have impacted others.

Her recovery comes, but with a price she never expected.

P.S.: What are the easiest, and the most difficult, aspects of writing for you?

N.C.: The easiest aspect of writing is imagining ideas to move a story along. The most difficult is staying on track with those ideas and not going down rabbit holes that gradually take me away from the main plot of the book. My mind seems to expand exponentially and I get off track very easily.

The greatest difficulty is maintaining a single point of view in a scene. I tend to wander into other people’s minds with extreme ease!!

P.S.: The description of your recently-published novel, The Final Decree, sounds like it might be alternate history. Is it? Let us know what it’s about, and why you wrote it.

N.C.: It’s mostly historical fiction, but I changed some things. The Final Decree makes use of several events and royalty to tell the story of a Decree written by King George III granting Scotland independence. History tells us that George had many mental shortcomings and was not an effective ruler. He sends his uncle the Duke of Cumberland to Scotland to proclaim the decree. The Duke becomes incapacitated and cannot complete his task. Fearing the worst, Cumberland goes to see a minister at Paisley Abbey to leave the decree in his safe hands. Copies are made of the decree and its hiding place in the abbey. The duke dies. Several days later a freak accident takes the life of the minister. The decree has been missing and forgotten for 250 years. It resurfaces before the voting on the 2014 referendum to give Scotland its independence. All of Britain learns of the decree’s existence. Questions arise as to its authenticity and legality, leaving both Scotland and Parliament wondering what will happen next.

As to why I wrote it? I hoped it might be an interesting read for Diana Gabaldon’s Outlander fans as we wait for her next book to be published and the TV series next production season.

P.S.: Is there a common attribute that ties your fiction together (genre, character types, settings, themes) or are you a more eclectic author?

N.C.: There is nothing specific that ties my fiction together. I’m willing to experiment with a variety of genre.

P.S.: I had the pleasure of reading an early draft of your upcoming novel, Belonging. Tell my readers about that story, and let us know when we might expect to see it published.

N.C.: Belonging!! I’m ready to take the big step to publish this story. I’m hoping for a date no later than March.

Belonging is the story of Serena Lewis, a widowed teacher with two adolescent children whose home is no longer safe. She petitions the Lincoln Institute for Social Studies and is accepted into their gated, segregated community. The town of Peace, Arkansas has been established to question the wisdom and inflexibility of the 1954 Supreme Court decision which declared separate but equal schools for Blacks are unconstitutional.

It is the institute’s desire to create and maintain a safe, healthy, active community that provides any tool necessary to help its residents become proud, successful, involved citizens.

The Lewis family thrives in the new environment, making friends, developing skills, learning how to be a productive member of the community.

Five years is the maximum stay in Peace. With her son and daughter graduated and gone, Serena moves to Harmony, a nearby community. She takes her skills as a teacher and a dynamic personality to create a new life for herself. All is not as she planned and a person from her past comes back into her life seeking revenge. Friends, both old and new help her to resolve the situation.

Lexie Lewis and her focused lifestyle have landed her a most prestigious position as a journalist. In a speech to the Capitol Press Club in Washington, DC, Lexie offers to share her means to success.  “My Mama is my mentor. She’s always been there, beside me advising, behind me urging me forward and in front of me leading by example. In Peace, you learn the importance of community. When you engage you get something back. You belong. And when you belong you embark on a journey to becoming.”

P.S.: Let’s say you’ve traveled through time and met yourself at a point when you were first thinking of being a writer. What would you tell this younger version of you?

N.C.: I would tell a younger me to write down memories. Keep a journal. You’ve begun the steps to comfortable writing because you write what you know. There’s no research necessary. Someday, kids or grandkids will ask questions about events that happened years ago. With your journal in hand, you’ll have answers that your memory has lost.

P.S.: What can you tell us about your recently finished first draft of your next novel, Achieving? It’s a sequel to Belonging, right?

N.C.: Achieving is complete in its first draft. It continues the story of Lexie Lewis and her journalistic world in Washington, DC, as the managing editor of The King Report, a monthly publication for the Black community. It’s a bumpy ride for Lexie, who is sent back to Peace to write a story about what Federal officials say is domestic terrorism. There are factions who want Peace erased from the Arkansas landscape and will do whatever is necessary to achieve that goal. There are others who work industriously to make the lives of the Peace residents a happy productive experience.

It is also a time of a love interest in Lexie’s life, a person she has known for many years. Happy family times in Peace collide with fear, danger, and even the death of loved ones.

Poseidon’s Scribe: What advice can you offer aspiring writers?

Nancy Craig: My advice to aspiring authors is to read, listen, remember. You were taught writing skills. If you’ve forgotten them, get a refresher course. Sentence structure, punctuation, subject/verb agreement, spelling, and proper use of nouns, pronouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs are essential to telling a story and having it understood.

Poseidon’s Scribe: Thank you, Nancy. Best of luck with your upcoming novels.

Readers may keep up with Nancy Craig’s writing career by visiting her pages on Facebook and Amazon, and by reading updates about her on the Fort Worth Writers site.

January 15, 2024Permalink 2 Comments

Building Memorable Characters from Details

If you, Hopeful Writer, wish to astonish the world with a fictional character whom readers can’t forget, read this post by author Anne R. Allen.

I’ll repeat some of her major points here and add a few of my own. But my post serves only as a supplement to hers, not a substitute.

She advocates creating your character through the judicious use of details—the right details. Choose details both telling and distinctive. As when describing any object or place in words, make as much use of the five senses as is prudent, and add those qualities undetectable by any of those five. In describing characters, the predominant senses you’ll use are sight, hearing, smell, and possibly touch.

Senses

Start with the sense you’d like to emphasize most. We’re visual creatures, but you need not start with sight.

Still, let’s start there. In describing a character’s appearance, Ms. Allen’s post focuses on clothing, though body shape and dimensions also may deserve mention. Makeup, grooming, hair style, facial expression, even characteristic poses or hand gestures and nervous habits or tics come into play. The gait or manner of movement might also bear mentioning.

What distinctive noises can a character make? The speaking voice comes first to mind, but don’t limit yourself to tone or register, but also consider characteristic phrases, dialect, and speech mannerisms. Other parts of your character can also make noise, from the rustling of clothing fabric to the clomping of a cane or the tapping of shoe heels.

You might mention a person’s odor, whether pleasant or not. It can result from the body itself, perfume, clothing, an accompanying dog, etc.

On occasion, you might try the sense of touch—how a character feels on contact. Even if you don’t show another character touching the one you’re describing, you can suggest the potential for that action in another character’s mind. Perhaps the skin appears rough, or smooth, or certain articles of clothing might be of corduroy or silk.

Intangibles

How about those characteristics lying beyond the normal senses? In her post, Allen suggests mentioning the character’s music playlist. But such intangibles might include preferred food and drink, occupation, hobbies, habits, etc. Does the character possess some psychic connection to someone or something else? These things can help define and identify a character, but can’t be sensed.

Creation Process

Given the infinite number of choices, how do you select the right ones for your character? Allen mentions, and links to, several websites that might provide suggestions. I prefer to start by brainstorming. I imagine dozens of possibilities until a multi-sensory vision of my character emerges in my mind. I write ideas as I go, crossing out the ones that don’t work. While doing this, I do the sort of website research Ms. Allen advises. In time, I have a final description I can use.

You might not use every attribute you created, but use the ones most distinctive and telling, the ones that best convey your character’s essence. Old-style fiction writers used to lump all aspects of a character together in one batch, whether a paragraph or several pages. The modern method is to provide a few details at the first mention of a character, and sprinkle in other attributes later.

As the story proceeds, look for subtle ways to remind readers about your character’s description. Don’t overdo it, and don’t use the same words to describe a given attribute each time.

One clever technique is to change one or more attributes (or just the tone with which you describe it) as the story progresses. This change becomes a metaphor to suggest the way the character changes as a result of events in the story.

One cautionary note about character descriptions—make every effort to avoid stereotypes, tropes, and cliched characters. Here’s a way to detour around that pitfall—start with a stereotypical character, but add a clashing incongruity, a contradictory twist. Real people are complex, and you can make your characters complex, too.

Perhaps you’ll create your own famous and beloved character by following the advice of Anne R. Allen and—

Poseidon’s Scribe

January 14, 2024Permalink 1 Comment

10 SciFi Predictions for 2024

Yes, my predictions prove false more often than they prove true. But as the adage goes, a scientist is blamed for one falsehood in a hundred truths, while a seer is praised for one truth in a hundred falsehoods. So give this seer a break, will ya?

It’s all a matter of hitting on the right method. I’ve tried crystal balls, tea leaves, tarot cards, astrology, and palmistry, but none of those worked. This year, I realized I should turn to our modern-day version of the Oracle of Delphi—ChatGPT, the artificial intelligence chatbot by OpenAI.

I gave ChatGPT this task: “make 10 predictions about topics or themes science fiction writers will write about in 2024.”

The AI couched its answer by stating that predictions are iffy. Further, it said its last training update occurred in January 2022, so the predictions are based on trends known up to that date. Personally, I think it was just being humble.

With all the caveats out of the way, here’s what we can expect in 2024:

  • AI Ethics and Rights. As artificial intelligence continues to advance, science fiction writers may delve into the ethical considerations and legal rights surrounding sentient AI beings. This could include questions about consciousness, autonomy, and the responsibilities of creators.
  • Climate Crisis Solutions. With an increasing focus on climate change, science fiction could explore innovative and speculative solutions to the environmental challenges facing the planet. This might include technologies to reverse environmental damage or new ways of sustainable living.
  • Neurotechnology and Brain-Computer Interfaces. As developments in neurotechnology progress, science fiction writers may explore the implications of widespread use of brain-computer interfaces. Themes could include mind control, augmented intelligence, and the potential societal impacts of such technologies.
  • Space Exploration and Colonization. Given the growing interest in space exploration, science fiction could continue to explore themes related to interplanetary travel and the challenges of colonizing other celestial bodies. This may include the societal dynamics of living in space and encounters with extraterrestrial life.
  • Genetic Engineering and Biohacking. Advances in genetic engineering and biohacking may lead science fiction writers to explore the consequences of manipulating DNA, creating designer organisms, or even the potential for genetic warfare.
  • Virtual Reality and Alternate Realities. With the evolution of virtual reality, science fiction could depict worlds where the lines between physical and virtual realities blur, exploring themes of identity, addiction, and the consequences of living in immersive digital environments.
  • Post-Pandemic Societies. In the wake of global events, science fiction writers might explore the long-term societal impacts of pandemics, including changes in governance, healthcare systems, and the dynamics of human interaction.
  • Quantum Computing and Reality Manipulation. The advent of quantum computing may inspire science fiction narratives centered around the manipulation of reality, parallel universes, and the consequences of unlocking the full potential of quantum technology.
  • Social Media and Surveillance Culture. With the increasing prevalence of surveillance technologies and the influence of social media, science fiction could examine dystopian futures where privacy is almost nonexistent, exploring themes of control, rebellion, and the impact on individual freedom.
  • Augmented Reality in Everyday Life. As augmented reality becomes more integrated into daily life, science fiction might explore the societal implications of a world where digital information overlays the physical world. This could include themes of information manipulation, addiction, and the consequences of an increasingly connected reality.

Now you know. The oracle has spoken. By ‘oracle,’ I mean, of course, ChatGPT, not—

Poseidon’s Scribe

December 31, 2023Permalink Leave a comment

Looking Back, My 2023 Predictions Assessed

We’ve arrived at that time of year again, when I judge how well I did at this time last year in foretelling the attributes of science fiction books in 2023.

In past years, I’ve tried various techniques, but this time I used a sure-fire method—palm reading. Let’s see how well I did:

  • Prediction: Artificial Intelligence. A continuing trend, yes, but in 2023, we’ll see a twist. Authors will get past the Frankenstein reruns and the cute-robot-is-nobler-than-humans plot. Novels will show us more sophisticated AI, computers with a different order of intelligence, one alien to us.
  • Prediction: Classics redone in LGBTQ. Authors will explore the contours of the LGBTQ realm by rewriting classic tales, but repopulating them with LGBTQ characters.
  • Prediction: Private Space Flight. I jumped the gun, er, rocket, in predicting this for 2022. 2023 is the year we’ll see spaceships funded by billionaires without government involvement, for better or worse.
    • Assessment: It took some hunting, but I found what might be an example. Skeleton Crew by HT Aaron appears to involve private space flight, though I may be wrong about that.
  • Prediction: Terraforming. Once seen as an extension of man’s dominion over Earth, terraforming will show its warts in 2023. We’ll see stories of botched terraforming, opposed terraforming, and weaponized terraforming.

Before you congratulate me on my foresight (I know you were about to), maybe you shouldn’t credit my palmistry skills. What’s really improved is my after-the-fact ability to find books that fulfilled my prophesies. For those prediction assessments that cite only one or two examples, it’s clear I didn’t forecast a major trend.

I made no personal predictions last year about how my own writing would fare in 2023. Probably a good thing I didn’t.

Watch this space next week to see my spot-on predictions for the world of science fiction in 2024. Considering my past track record, the law of averages says you’ll be amazed at the prognosticating prowess of—

Poseidon’s Scribe

December 24, 2023Permalink Leave a comment

Writing Performance Review for 2023

Few people look forward to performance reviews, and I’m not one of them. As an upside, I’m my own boss. Downside—I’m my own harshest critic.

Time to assess my writing for 2023. As in past years, I’m using The Writer’s Performance Review scorecard by book coach, Jennie Nash.

This year, I examined the rating descriptions in greater detail and it resulted in a lower score than in previous years. For each attribute, you rank from one to five. One = below expectations. Two = partially meets expectations. Three = meets expectations. Four = exceeds expectations. Five = far exceeds expectations.

It’s a comparison of actual performance during the year to expected performance. Based on that, a score of three isn’t bad. It means you’re doing what you expected to do. If you scored three in all twenty attributes, you’d get 60.

As my assessment turned out, I did get a 60. Mostly 3s, but also one 5, four 4s, four 2s, and one 1.

That 1 rating applies to “strategic thinking,” and I’ll do more in 2024 to discover the influencers of my genre by checking out podcasts and Youtube videos by reviewers and authors.

I’ve also committed to some corrective actions in the areas rated as 2:

  • Organization and Planning – I’ll use the Pomodoro method to manage my time.
  • Goal Orientation – I’ll follow the Stephen Covey method of setting large goals, then breaking them down into smaller goals, and weekly tasks.
  • Genre Knowledge – I’ll read more books in my genre.
  • Target Audience Knowledge – I’ll spend some time listing characteristics of my ‘ideal reader.’ That’s how I get to know my fictional characters better, so it might work for readers.

As for writing accomplishments this year:

  • My story “Turned Off” got published in The Science Fiction Tarot. 
  • I finished the second draft of one novel, and
  • I made good progress on the first draft of another novel
  • I completed another round of edits on my upcoming short story collection, The Seastead Chronicles, and am hoping for its publication in 2024.

    Most employers and employees keep annual performance assessments private. As both employer and employee, I display mine to the world as a service to other writers.

    May all of us who scribble words have a successful 2024. That’s the New Year’s wish of—

    Poseidon’s Scribe

    December 17, 2023Permalink Leave a comment

    The Amazing Christmas Machine

    Though I usually blog about writing, today I’ll depart from that to focus on a fun historical story for the holiday season.

    Among my late father’s belongings, I found a scrapbook of family history compiled by my aunt. It included an article copied from “A Lake Country Christmas,” Volume 2, 1983, pages 3 and 4. Written by Cindy Lindstedt, the article bore the title “Christmas Memories: The Southard’s of Delafield.”

    It concerns a Wisconsin farming family living in a house with a prominent mulberry tree. The article singles out a man named John Southard (called ‘Papa’) and his children Margaret, Grace, and Bob, during a particular Christmas in 1938 or ’39. Here’s a paragraph from the article:

    “The strangest memory is the day in 1939 when Papa, then in his 70’s and dependent upon a wheelchair to get around, engineered his special Christmas project. With a bushel basket hoop as a foundation, he called for various sizes of wood. The mystified but obedient children complied with his requests, and Papa pounded and puttered. Margaret was asked to cut and paint three plywood reindeer and a Santa and a sleigh. Soon the finished product was unveiled: a Delco-powered, motorized Santa who sent his reindeer “leaping over the mountain” in front of his sleigh, as the large, circular contraption rotated vertically. Although Grace, Margaret and Bob were in their twenties, squeals of delight rustled the branches of the Mulberry tree that day the wonderful machine first rumbled into motion (and many Christmas seasons hence, whenever the invention has been viewed by later generations).”

    Children of today might spend fifteen seconds watching such a machine spin before asking if it made sounds or lit up, then lose interest. During the Great Depression, though, when electrical machinery was rare and expensive, a time before mass-marketed toys, even a crude rotating wheel would entertain a whole family.

    One phrase in the article stood out to me—Delco-powered. Today, we know AC Delco as a General Motors-owned company making automotive parts including spark plugs and batteries. At first, I assumed Papa Southard’s Christmas Machine drew its power from a car battery.

    However, the term ‘Delco-powered’ probably meant something different in the late 1930s, something that would have been remembered in those rural communities in the 1980s when the article appeared. In the decades before electric lines stretched to every remote house, Delco sold a product called “Delco-Light,” a miniature power plant for a farm. A kerosene-fueled generator charged a bank of batteries to run electric equipment inside the home. I believe the article referred to a device like that.

    I’m a little unsure of my relationship to Papa. I had a great-grandfather named John Southard, who lived in that area and would have been about the right age at that time. However, John is a common first name and many Southards lived in that region of Wisconsin. My grandfather wasn’t named Bob (the only son of Papa mentioned in the article). Moreover, my own father would have been seven or eight years old when Papa built the Christmas Machine, and my dad never mentioned it, though he wrote a lot about his childhood.

    Still, it’s interesting to think about a time when a wheelchair-bound tinkerer in his eighth decade would cobble together a mechanical/electrical wheel to entertain his family at Christmas time. Can’t you just hear that motor hum and the wood creak, and see the three reindeer leading the way, pulling Santa’s sleigh up, down, and around?

    Leaving you to imagine that, I’ll wish you a Merry Christmas from—

    Poseidon’s Scribe

    December 10, 2023Permalink Leave a comment

    Would the Julie & Julia Formula Work for You?

    If you’re struggling as a writer, not achieving the success you imagined, Catherine Baab-Muguira has a solution for you. She calls it the Julie and Julia Formula. Does that formula work?

    In a wonderful blogpost on Jane Friedman’s site, Ms. Baab-Muguira described the formula. At its essence, she says “you can reach your dreams by loving another person’s work.”

    Give your obsession free reign, she says, and your book will write itself, fueled—even supercharged—by your passion.

    That formula worked for Julie Powell and her obsession with Julia Child—several books and a movie resulted. It worked for Ms. Baab-Muguira and her obsession with Edgar Allan Poe. It also worked for several other authors whom she lists in her post. I’m happy for the success of those authors, and find it easy to see why the formula can work.

    Most writers choose subjects or settings or genres over which they obsess a bit. But the J&J Formula is more than just ‘write what you know.’ It’s more like ‘channel your passion for another person (often another writer) into a sort of tribute book.’

    The formula can work because:

    • You’re an expert on, and confident about, your subject;
    • Your passion for the subject will infuse your work, creating enthusiasm in the reader; and
    • That same passion will sustain you throughout the writing project, helping you to power through the down times.

    However, just because the J&J Formula sometimes works, that doesn’t guarantee success in your case (nor does Ms. Baab-Muguira claim it will). I believe two factors determine whether the formula will work for you:

    • The popularity of the person (or subject) you’re obsessing over; but mostly,
    • How well you write

    As I said, your obsession will suffuse your writing, resulting in passionate prose. However, if you obsess over someone or something obscure or uninteresting to others, you’ll have to make up for that through truly strong or unique writing. (I’m thinking here of the famous honey badger video).

    Conversely, even if you obsess over a very popular person, poor writing won’t gain you many readers.

    In short, the J&J Formula may work, but don’t think of it as a sure-fire path to mega-sales.

    In my own case, perceptive followers of my blog know of my passion for the novels of Jules Verne. However, you’ll search the best-seller lists in vain for any mention of my name (so far). Is that due to Verne’s obscurity, to my lack of writing talent, to my poor execution of the J&J Formula, or to some defect in the Formula itself? Who knows?

    My own formula, for what it’s worth, comprises four words—write well and often. I believe good writing tends to get noticed. Even if it doesn’t, you’ll be proud of having written it. The J&J Formula may prove a good way for you to write well and often, but it’s not the only way.

    If you’re writing a lot with nothing to show for all that work, give the Julie and Julia Formula a try. Perhaps you’ll succeed with it, as others have. If not, well, you got no rose-garden promises from—

    Poseidon’s Scribe

    December 3, 2023Permalink 1 Comment