My favorite writing tip from Worldcon this past weekend

I was lucky enough to get to go to Worldcon this weekend. I only spent a day. Chiefly, I learned that a day is not enough time.

I found myself comparing it to Armadillocon a lot, because that's my only other recent convention experience. The main thing I'm looking for in a convention is panels about writing, and this one had them in plenty. On the Saturday I attended, nearly every hour had two panels of great interest to me -- which meant I found it hard to take time out to eat or go to the dealer room.

But I was going to give my favorite writing tip. This one came from a short-story panel featuring Michael Swanwick, James Patrick Kelley, Vylar Kaftan, and Cat Rambo. I'll state it like this:

"You'll be tempted to show character using backstory. Don't."

I found that one profound, because I'm always struggling with long backstory/flashback sequences bulking out my stories, and readers find they drag. This statement made me realize that backstory is the FIRST thing I think of for adding characterization.

I took this idea home and immediately cut a long sequence from my current story, without much pain.

The other thing I wanted to mention about this tip was that I walked away from the panel thinking that it was Michael Swanwick who said that. But when I checked my notes later, the tip actually came from James Patrick Kelley. I figure I attributed it to Swanwick just because he's more well known, and that is eye-opening.

Why Your Great Big 90s Comic Book Collection Ain't Worth Much

I feel oddly vindicated by this article: I never felt my comics collection was going to have future value. I always collected stuff because I wanted to have whole complete storylines available for my reading.

http://www.tcj.com/american-pickers/

Nowadays my 90s comics -- runs of Spider Man and The New Mutants and Dr. Strange -- suffer from poor storage and the occasional attacks of my children, who can't seem to put them back. When I started collecting again after college, I stuck almost exclusively to trade paperbacks and graphic novels, which have the virtue of fitting neatly on a shelf. Today I only keep the comics that fit on a single tall thin bookshelf, and periodically purge the ones I don't think I'll reread.

Holly Lisle's one-pass editing method

I think this Holly Lisle article deserves some review:

http://hollylisle.com/one-pass-manuscript-revision-from-first-draft-to-last-in-one-cycle/

I got to it on a tip from Rebecca Schwarz. I'm trying to iterate over this process right now, but it's taking me a while.

My first reaction to it is to point out that one-pass is a misnomer. It's really two passes: a heavy editing/markup pass, and then a complete retype.

Nothing wrong with that. I see that one-pass is a catchier concept. And the actual method fits how I work very well -- I've done this before: do a hardcopy markup and then, instead of entering the markup in the prior version, type a new version from scratch, incorporating the markup as you go. It frees you to use completely new language, but the markup serves as a roadmap. It's great.

However, my writing process for the past couple of years has involved MANY complete retypes of each story, which I now see needs to change. I used to pride myself on that, now I see it as indulgent. I'll have 10 such drafts sometimes.

So far this is what I've learned from trying this out:

1. I've gotten away from marking up hardcopies at all, but it remains super useful. I'd begun to use it only for proofing, but it's a great way to do high-level revision. You can't beat the ability to flip back and forth and mark on the text.
 

2. Lisle says she can use this process to edit a book in two weeks. I assume she has no other job. Me, it's taking me more than two weeks to edit a 10k-word short story.

3. The main thing that distinguishes this, I think, from other processes is a focus on resolving ALL of your issues with the story in the one editing pass.  One of the reasons I end up with man passes is that I'll put off some issue to a later draft, preferring to isolate it and handle it. That's good in terms of splitting a project into small tasks, but I've clearly taken it too far.

The Big Father Essay uses permutation to drive new language

The following piece, really more poetic memoir than essay, is both a moving read, and an interesting experiment in how to make prose:

http://atlengthmag.com/prose/the-big-father-essay/

The writer used a method of permutations of sentence types (which he describes in detail). This forced him to think about sentence structure constantly.

The result is the sort of prose-poem that I really like, with a dreamy, stream of consciousness quality mixed with beats that hit you like a midday hailstone.

Yeah, ok, it made me wanna get fancy. Check it out. You won't be disappointed. I believe I found this on Metafilter.

Free play "Shipwrecked" has two more weekends before it closes

I juggled to open for the Penfold Theatre's production of Shipwrecked last night. It was a great all-ages play that did a lot with just three actors and I recommend it.

The show has two more Thursday/Friday/Saturday sequences left so get out there and see it if you can. It's at the Round Rock Amphitheatre, a small open-air stage at 301 W. Bagdad Ave, Round Rock TX 78664.

Some random thoughts about the play:

• The protagonist had an engaging naivete, and that was important in a play with only three actors.
• It was fun to see the other actors switch amongst many parts.
• The play had several elements, notably an entertaining dog character played by a Mr. Jerkins, that were fun for kids, while also having thoughtful elements for adults. Hence, it did a good job of entertaining all ages. It was a little long for small kids at about 90 minutes, but most kids seemed to stay interested throughout.
• The opening act was just, well, Amazing...

The archive file trick: how to throw away old story notes

When I work on stories, I generate a ton of notes. I find, though, that a lot of these notes are transient things that I don't need a few days later. And I typically want to pare down the notes that I'm referring to while I work on a draft, because if the file of notes is too long, it's hard to use. Plus, as things change, notes become out of date.

Also, a lot of my notes are simply lists of ideas: as soon as I get stuck on 'what's a good way for CactusMan to defeat the Crimson Tide's Blood Tank', I start a list.

(He sticks it to 'em though, of course. That's what CactusMan does.)

But it's hard to delete notes, as I worry that I'll need them later.

In recent projects, what I do to pare things down is throw the notes I'm done with in an archive file. That way they're not deleted and if I really need them, I can go find them.

I almost never do; they just hang out in the archive notes file forever. But that's okay. Having that reduces my inhibitions about throwing things out and cleaning up, and so I can clean out the cruft more easily.

Bundle of Holding +2 = Indy RPG splendor

I was going to wait and read all these books before posting about them, but they are on sale and the sale ENDS in three days, so heck with waiting.

Here's the link where you can get this: http://bundleofholding.com/index/current

I was lucky enough to get pointed at the link to this bundle by someone who thought I'd be interested. But I didn't actually look at it; I was busy and assumed it was a computer gaming bundle. I forwarded the link to my son, who then came after me to split the cost with him. Because he was actually interested in what turned out to be a collection of indie RPGs.

I've long been interested in these types of games, specifically the ones that have a pretty specific setting, simple rules, and are designed to be played with a minimum of prep. But except for Donjon, I haven't actually managed to play any of them. Like My Life With Master, which I still aim to play. So I wasn't initially up for buying more games to sit on a shelf.

But now my SON is interested, which greatly increases the chance of play. They look great and we bought them; they're running a pay-what-you-want sale right now so you can get a BUNCH of games cheap. Also I really like that they are being offered as totally unfettered PDF files. Here is the list of books. (The bonus items come if you pay more than the average price, which was at about $13.50 when I bought.)

• Kagematsu: Men play women and women play men, in feudal Japan.
• Shooting the Moon ... a 2- or 3-player game where two suitors pursue the same beloved.
• Grey Ranks ... you play young Polish soldiers in the Warsaw Uprising against the Nazis.
• Penny for My Thoughts: You've lost your memory; you and the other players work together to figure out how and why.
• BONUS BOOK: Monsterhearts: about 'the messy lives of teenage monsters'. Pretty much had me at teenage monsters.
• BONUS BOOK: Hollowpoint: 'Bad people killing bad people for bad reasons'. Agents who are good at being bad.

I've been really enjoying this volume of Dashiell Hammett _Lost Stories_ ... only now I can't find it

My dad mentioned this book to me. While on the phone with him, I put it on hold at the local Austin library. Within a few days I picked up a copy.

Usually I am not very interested in the introduction and about-the-author/about-the-story stuff in a volume like this, but this book tells you something about Hammett's life to frame each story in a really interesting way.

However, now I can't figure out where I put the volume!

Great story by a Slug Tribe member

I'm very glad to report that fellow Slug Tribe member Peter Enyeart has his first publication, and it's in a pretty prestigious place, Nature. I've read at least two previous stories by Peter and they are always interesting. Transmission Received.