The Dangers if Infodump

When I was in my college years, I loved epic fantasy. I also loved Tom Clancy novels. Pretty much anything under 300 pages was a short story, and I would have nothing to do with them.

I can’t believe I had “extra” time in college. Where is it now???

Anyway, at one point in my life I loved the big, thick, intricately plotted books that I now realize take years and years to write.  And way back when, I didn't mind the info dump.

Now I’m older and far less patient.  When too much information is thrust at me, instead of embracing it and soaking it in, I glean the top layer off and cast the rest off like yesterday’s socks.

Not that I usually mistakenly put on old socks…

I’ve mentioned a few times that I recently returned from a trip to Israel.  Well, when you go there, your tour group will be assigned an Israeli guide. I think it’s a law or something.  Ours was named Bassam, we called him Sam for short.  After all, uncultured American’s can’t possibly be asked to remember a guy’s name that’s different.

No, no, not a name. However, he gave us so much information that I’m pretty sure I’ve ejected more than 80% of it out the port on the back of my head.  One name (Bassam) I could totally handle.  But the 117 names for cities, people, regions, bodies of water, religions beliefs, rulers and a bunch of other things was WAY too much.

Granted, they did tell us to read some book before we went, which was a comprehensive (and quite dull) guide to the places we went to visit. If I had prepared maybe I wouldn’t have gotten so lost.

And it’s really easy to Google most of these places and get the  information that I’ve most certainly mixed up in my head. 

King Herod built the Dead Sea in the mountain region near the brother of Jordan and lived there until his college buddy Tiberius ruled the world from the  Mount of Olives and they had a party under the Dome of the Rock.

You see! That’s how my brain feels when someone does a huge info dump at the beginning of a book. It’s especially bad if all the names are similar. Herod, Heronian, Hades, Helvitica…you see. I’m already confusing myself.

I realize that most people who read big, fat books expect big, fat info dumps, but if you can incorporate it into the story in a sneaky but helpful manner, then do it. Please. For those of us with simple minds.

Besides, the story of Herod and Tiberius as college buddies is probably a pretty good story. (If they even lived at the same time. My brain is seriously overloaded.)

World Building

Some old guy at the very first Geek Fest (it was somewhere between a writer’s conference and a convention for fans—yes, there was some dressing up going on) I ever attended spewed forth a piece of advice that I will never forget.

A member of the audience, an aspiring writer I’m sure, asked the question, “Where do you get all your ideas for world building?”  If I recall correctly the old guy to whom the question was being asked had written some fairly epic fantasy novels.  So he had some experience at world building.

Well, instead of a long explanation from a scholar (which this man seemed to fancy himself), we got this bit of writing advise.  “Find something that sounds interesting and steal the Hell out of it.”

I’m pretty sure he wasn't just saying to look at the spot where the damned go in someone else’s world. Although I could be wrong, I don’t always get smart, old people jokes.  To me they’re just not funny.

However, this is good advice.  I’ve traveled a lot, but never before to the Middle East. I just returned from 9 days in Israel, and I have to say that the place is teeming with bits of world building to steal.

Seriously, think about it, first off, there have been multiple sets of people claiming this land for more generations than anyone can actually remember. Good thing for the Bible, right? So that particular conflict runs really deep.  And frankly, after driving through most of the country, I didn’t get the whole “bountiful, promised land” thing. The place is mostly a desert. I live in a desert. You have to work hard to get crops to grow and to get water where it should be.  So who came up with the land of plenty angle? And why are all these people so keen on keeping the land for themselves?

Good question. Make some answers and take your world building from there.

Let’s look at a different angle.  Jerusalem has been completely sacked like 8 times.(I didn’t Google, sorry, I’m on a plane, so that number could be off.)  What does that do to the land? Maybe the place itself is cursed, or blessed, or alive, or a crossroads to more than just trade routes, and all of the fighting is causing imbalances on a different plane or in a different part of the world.

We had an interesting discussion within our tour group. Basically, both the Palestinians and the Israelis (or maybe Jews and Muslims would be better to cite) believe that at the end of days, the other group will be wiped out by God because they are not worshiping the right thing or in the right way.  (It’s a long, long story that I’d rather not  go into here.)  But as we were discussing this, we thought about trying to negotiate a truce between the two peoples, and how fruitless that would be because both sides think that the other will eventually be gone. Why not start the annihilation now? Why wait?  There’s immediate conflict that can get both broader and deeper.

This is just a few ideas about world building.  If you can’t travel, view some documentaries and glean some ideas off of those. Take what you see and twist it. Steal the Hell out of it and make it your own.

Duct Tape? Really?

Lately, I’ve been trying to delve into my character’s heads a little more.  Everyone has quirks, and finding out how they got said quirk is usually a nice little tidbit for a story.

For instance…

I was packing for this trip, and my boyfriend was “helping.”

Okay, he did actually help quite a bit. However, he was reading my list to me so I could grab everything, and he kept stopping and asking questions about stuff. I had  to justify my list!

“Earplugs?”

“Uh, my traveling companion (not him, this trip was planned before we started dating) snores like a chainsaw.”

“Ah.”

“Rope?”

“I’ve had my suitcase fall apart on me before.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, and I’ve also needed a laundry line a few times.”

“Huh.”

“Duct Tape? Really?”

“Uh yeah.”

“…”

“Hey, you NEVER know when you’re going to need some tape. Seriously.”

“Okay.”

(I wrap a few feet around a pencil. The pencil is wood and can be used to stake vampires. Or write a message, or you can use the tape.)

Point in fact, we’re still  on our first leg of plane rides, and we’ve already found uses for the tape. So don’t make fun!

These are the cool things that make your characters real people. Why does your main character always carry a dollar’s worth of quarters in his pocket? Or why does she keep floss in her purse? Or what’s with the padlock?

Each character in your story should have these awesome quirks. Because, let’s face it, we do in real life. And fiction is just an extension of real life, with a few really great twists and turns.

So delve, get into your characters bags, pockets and suitcases. Become a stalker. They’ll thank you for it.

Airplane Travel

I get the best writing ideas when I travel. I don’t know what it is, but I look around in the airport terminal or on the plane, and see more stories than I could tell in a life time.

For instance, while making my way to my rear-ish seat for the first leg of our flight to Israel, I thought about the people who were already comfortably seated and watching me as I wandered by with my back pack, pillow and “personal carry on item.”

Someone might be on their very first plane ride. There are a few kids onboard, so this is likely. But there could be an adult for whom this is their first ride as well. If so, why? Do they hate flying? Never had the money before?

Perhaps this is someone’s first time out of their own state. Or someone’s first trip to New York.  Or, as is my case, where is everyone headed after New York? If a super virus got let loose through the air system in this plane, how far would it travel in the next 24 hours? I’m going to Israel. Who knows where others are headed.

On the opposite spectrum, perhaps this is someone’s last flight. They may know they are dying, or it could happen unexpectedly. This could be the last time someone will see a loved one. Or there could be a handful of people going to funerals.

What about international adoptions? Business trips? Family obligations? Vacations? The list goes on and on. Then you start delving into who each of these people are, and why they are here, and what else is going on in their lives, and you just might get a story or two worth telling.

My mind always tosses in some sort of super-natural element, which makes things really interesting. Are there guardian angels sitting on the wings? Will someone time travel back before we all got on board and thwart a terrorist plot? Is there a wizard on board who can’t control their powers?

Sorry, it’s the geek in me that goes off like that.

There are stories all around us. Even better, there are bits and pieces of stories littering the world like dust, ready to be picked up and put into your latest novel or short story.  So take the time to look around and see what’s going on. You might find a bit of inspiration you’ve been waiting for.

Oh the Places You'll Go!

A few weeks ago I got to travel to Mesa Verde, Colorado.

(My boyfriend has some family there, so we went on the premise of a visit, but really I wanted to see the awesome cliff dwellings. Please don't tell him.)

I love ruins. I love to hear all of the possible scenarios that the historians and such have come up with as to:

Why did they build here?

How many people lived here?

What is the purpose for all of these circular rooms in the floor?

How long did people live here?

Why did they leave?

What did they do with their time?

What did they eat?

I've had the opportunity to see Machu Picchu in Peru, Chichen Itza in Mexico, old places in England and Europe as well as some ruins near Cozumel, Mexico. I listen to the tour guides and eat it up!

I maybe should have been an archeologist.

So as I'm sticking my head in a window in the cliff dwellings in Mesa Verde, I get the greatest idea for a story. What if the spirit from someone who lived there is trying to communicate with us now, and they choose a random tourist to drag back into their time so they can fix something that's gone catastrophically wrong?

Okay, the idea is better than that, but that's the gist.

As as I'm climbing the ladder of death to get back to the top of the plateau, I start to think that in some ways, I am an archeologist.

I'm a writer.

I'm a fantasy and sci-fi writer. I take ideas and pictures in my head, and I flesh them out into an entire belief system, magic system, cultural issues and in some cases, an entire world. Sometimes beyond into a universe.

I have to ask myself the same questions that an archeologist does. That list above? I totally ask myself all of that. And then some.

And to me, that is some of the funnest part of the writing process. Creating a world out of a raw idea, and building a culture on a few key points that I want in a story, is both exciting and rewarding.

Heck, just look around your house, try to imagine you've never seen anything quite like it, and start to fill in the blanks. Which rooms did they live in? How many people lived per structure? Why is there an extra house at the end of the house? What lived in there? Did they worship these black screens? How did they communicate with their neighbors? What did they eat? How did they get food?

Writers have hard jobs!

But we also get to have a whole lot of fun. :)

It's Away!

You may have noticed the distinct lack of anything happening on this blog.

Sorry about that, I've been busy.  With lots of stuff. But the most important bit is this...

My publisher, Jolly Fish Press, send me my first round of editing revisions two weeks ago.  I had until today to get them back.  Pile this on top of an already bloated work schedule, the end of the school year for friends and family, the boyfriend (he is SUCH a time sucker) and trips and my life kind of went into overdrive mode.

Well, it was more like this:

But I'm feeling a little better now.  Mostly because I finished my edits, saved the file, took a deep breath, and sent it back.

Has anyone else ever felt like if they had the time they could rewrite the whole dang book and make it SOOoooo much better? Because that's how I feel.

I don't want to rewrite the book-I've beat the poor thing to death. But I see myself as a better writer now than when I wrote the novel, and my OCD is twitching like crazy to fix it.  All of it.

Lucky for me, a very helpful package of Thin Mints talked me down, and I only changed what I felt had to be changed.

This was pass 1 for editing. I didn't really know what to expect, and was pleasantly surprised that JFP didn't have much for me to change.  That was nice. But it didn't stop me from reading the whole thing aloud all the way through looking for issues.

Because I'm that author. The crazy, needy one who wants everything to be perfect.

That's why I sent it as fast as I could this morning, so I couldn't think about it any more.

Now I'm going to play with Babes in Spyland.

And for my reward, I'm going to see Star Trek.

So there.

Be Mean To Characters-The Little Things

Everyone is busy. If it's not kids, it's aging parents, or a needy spouse, or soccer practice, or a day job, or a night job, or a service opportunity, or a random obligation you didn't mean to say yes to, or an old friend in from out of town, or a cold, or the microwave blows up, or pursuing a hobby, or a mental illness or a struggling friend, or a lack of sleep that is about to drive you batty, or the simple fact that you're in a bad mood and have no extra energy by the time 8pm comes around.

And I came up with those from just three people. Imagine what it's like when we put everyone's stresses in one pile. I think that's what is now referred to as “Going Postal.”

But that's not what this blog post is about.

A few minutes ago, I sat staring at my computer screen, wondering what I should blog about. I'm frustrated about things that have nothing to do with writing, but they're effecting my writing. Affecting? Whichever. I didn't think I had anything writer-ish to type about.

But then my brain kicked into gear.

Oh yes, go brain.

Are you ready for this? This is so brilliant I'm pretty sure I've stolen it from somewhere.

Think about the last character you wrote or are writing. What are their worries? Sure, they've got those pesky aliens who are about to invade and destroy all the rolls of toilet paper on the planet (hey, this is really serious), but what else is going on? Ex-girlfriend bugging him? Maybe his dog is at the Vet for a haircut and must be picked up by 5:00pm or they charge an extra $50, which he just used to buy the last cell phone charger at the store because his phone was about to die as he was talking to the woman in charge, who is his now girlfriend and is really, really mad that he hung up on her.

Maybe his mother doesn't approve of said girlfriend. Or his best friend is trying to sell an old Porsche and keeps asking what price he should put on it. And his tap dancing instructor wants him to do a show on Friday night.

Who knows!?!?!

If we have these little concerns, than our characters do too.

So put them in your story. If your character isn't at least as stressed out as you are on TOP of whatever the story is about, then their life is way more fair than yours is.

You'd better take care of that.