Rowling Annoyed at Twisted Fan-Author Relations

Steven Vander Ark is the manager of a Harry Potter fansite full of fan fiction and essays, as well as lots of information about the Harry Potter Universe. Now, Ark is attempting to publish an unauthorized reference book, "Harry Potter Lexicon."

Rowling has said that she is annoyed that Ark and the publisher, RDR Books, are arguing that Rowling's acceptance of unofficial Harry Potter websites is justifying the creation of the book.

She says, "I find it devastating to contemplate the possibility of such a severe alteration of author-fan relations."

Rowling intends to publish her own Harry Potter encyclopedia, the sales of which could be compromised by the publication of Ark's own lexicon.

Read the full article here.

How to take Critiques

Alright, while I’m looking for more anti-cheese tips, why don’t you guys read over these for a bit…


Azrael Domination’s Ten Tips of the Day. Topic: How to take Critiques.
(Note: this is obviously for writers only)


(Note 2: I might revisit this in the near future)


1) No matter how harsh the critique, always take it in a good way. Never take it personally, even if it does bite.

2) Acknowledge everything the critique is saying – even if they’re doing it out of spite. Remember, the people most expert at pointing out your mistakes are your enemies.

3) With respect to Tip 2, be sure to filter out any useless stuff. Treat harsh critiques like eating fish. Eat the meat…spit out the bones.

4) Then again, if the critique is totally useless, and is not constructive in any way, you have all the right to give that person a piece of your mind. Be sure to do it in a way that doesn’t make you look like a loser. Be witty, calm, and nonchalant.

5) Unless it’s totally unavoidable, or you’re just addicted to it, do NOT critique a critique. Personal opinions are personal opinions, and it’s only going to be a waste of time trying to change them. Why not change your work first, and maybe the next one won’t be so harsh.

6) Remember, there’s safety in a multitude of councilors. Look at what all the critiques you’ve gotten have in common. Most likely, they’ll all contain the suggestions to correct mistakes that everyone has noticed.

7) Don’t blindly obey a critique either. Analyze it and determine whether it’s reliable and worthwhile.



Any questions?

Science Fiction: Subgenres (Part One)

Science fiction is a widespread genre. Everything from aliens to near future to intergalactic human empires, it encompasses just about anything you can imagine that can be explained, in some manner, by science. Magic becomes psionics, fantasy monsters become genetic creations. For this post I'm going to talk about three subgenres of science fiction to give an idea what they are about. Other posts will add to these.

Military Science Fiction
Space + Military + the Future. That's basically it. The great thing about this genre is that you have a huge range of options for dealing with military battles. Interstellar wars are common, wars between humans and aliens, or even humans and humans are just as common. The most important thing about this subgenre is that the military is involved.
Imagine entire campaigns of war and you have an idea what this genre is about. It does, however, extend beyond that. If you look at Battlestar Galactica you'll see that there isn't a whole lot of actual war, at least in the first season, of which I'm familiar with. While there are battles, a lot of the episodes deal with espionage, conspiracy, and other things within the framework of a militaristic society. The military exists to protect the fledgling human civilization and has to deal with problems beyond war.
Examples: Starship Troopers by Robert A. Heinlein, Old Man's War by John Scalzi, Warhammer 40K, and Battlestar Galactica.

First Contact
Any time you read a story or see a movie in which humans meet aliens for the first time, that is a first contact story. That's the basic premise. Humans meeting aliens for the first time. Star Trek does this quite a lot, where Captain Kirk or Captain Picard find new species. That's sort of in the reverse, but you get the basic premise.
Examples: Star Trek, Mission To Mars, and Contact by Carl Sagan.

Dystopia
The infamous dystopia. Okay, it's not infamous, but it is famous. Dystopian novels are probably the most chilling of the science fiction breed because they intentionally draw upon all the darkest things you can possibly imagine about the human condition. Fallen societies, worlds crushed into the stone age, people preying on people for survival, governments ruling their people with violent force, etc.
There are enough movies and books out there to fill this genre to the tipping point. Why? Because it is a most loved genre. All that we hate about ourselves comes out in dystopian novels.
Examples: 1984 by George Orwell, Brave New World by Aldous Huxley, Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler, V For Vendetta, and A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess.

"Poetry Makes Nothing Happen"?

Is it true that "poetry makes nothing happen"?

Excerpt from http://books.guardian.co.uk/

The quotation about poetry making nothing happen is, in fact, half-remembered from the second part of Auden's In Memory of WB Yeats, that goes:

For poetry makes nothing happen: it survives
In the valley of its making where executives
Would never want to tamper; it flows south
From ranches of isolation and the busy griefs,
Raw towns that we believe and die in; it survives,
A way of happening, a mouth.

Read Full Article Here

An Interesting Character Indeed!

"Oh! You're such a Character!" or how about, "He's a character at heart." I'm sure we've all heard these phrases before; whether it was on a cheesy cartoon or in real life. What's the first thing that comes to your mind when you think of Character? Someone who's funny? Angry? Lively? Well, to me, a character is someone with personality; someone who keeps me interested, you know? Heh...that's my definition at least, but let's see what the real one is...

Character (KARE-ec-ter): A person who is responsible for the thoughts and actions within a story, poem, or other literature. Characters are extremely important because they are the medium through which a reader interacts with a piece of literature. Every character has his or her own personality, which a creative author uses to assist in forming the plot of a story or creating a mood. The different attitudes, mannerisms, and even appearances of characters can greatly influence the other major elements in a literary work, such as theme, setting, and tone. With this understanding of the character, a reader can become more aware of other aspects of literature, such as symbolism, giving the reader a more complete understanding of the work. The character is one of the most important tools available to the author. In the ballad "Edward," for instance, the character himself sets the tone of the ballad within the first stanza. After reading the first few stanzas, one learns that Edward has murdered his father and is very distraught. His attitude changes to disgust and finally to despair when he realizes the consequences he must face for his actions. An example of the attitudes and personalities of characters determining the theme is also seen in the book of Genesis. The proud personality of Cain and the humble personality of Abel help create the conflict for this story. Cain and Abel were brothers, possibly twins, who displayed intense sibling rivalry. God was not pleased with Cain's offerings, but found pleasure in Abel's offerings. Provoked by God's displeasure with him, Cain murdered his own brother out of jealousy

New Line Cinema to Lose Big

[Excerpt from guardian.co.uk]

JRR Tolkien's estate is suing the studio behind the Lord of the Rings trilogy and threatening to block production on the planned prequel, The Hobbit over claims it has not been paid its share of profits from the massively successful fantasy series.

Read Full Article Here.

Science Fiction: Definition

Defining science fiction is an elusive practice. One can point to thousands of wholly different definitions and never get a full picture of what it means. Regardless, I'm going to see if I can come up with a decent enough definition for such a powerful literary genre.

What is it about?
The question should probably be "what isn't it about?" but for this argument we have to understand what makes up this genre. First, to the easy stuff:

• The Future
  SF is primarily about the future, or more simply, it is about tomorrow. We can look to a vast majority of SF works and all of them have dealt with the future. When coming to this point, however, we have to note the location of literature in its written history. 1984 by George Orwell was written in 1948, roughly, and dealt with the year 1984, which was then considered to be the future. Obviously that year is long past us, but Orwell's vision is still one of the future. It doesn't matter that the year has past. For the time that it was written it had the future in mind and we have to consider its placement in the literary timeline.
• Science/Technology
  Well, the word science is in the name of SF, so it's pretty obvious this would be a part of it. The interesting thing about science and technology is that it is a vague point. Star Wars certainly shows a vast array of technological achievements for the semi-fantastical society that exists within the movies, but such technology is likely not rooted in science. SF only requires, for the most part, that science or technology exists. Some stories delve deeper into realistic science, while others skip past that, or ignore it.

So, that's the easy stuff, right? Well the hard part is differentiating between fantasy and science fiction. There is actually a gray line here. While we typically think of fantasy as being about swords and ancient empires and magic, that is not always so. Some would consider Star Wars to be fantasy simply because it doesn't focus upon the science (it doesn't try to be realistic). Here is my argument for Star Wars:
Star Wars is science fiction because most people don't watch it and spend the whole time pointing out the logical fallacies in the science. There isn't an expectation of the story to be realistic. One can watch it and forget they are watching something that isn't real.
When you write science fiction you don't have to follow all the rules. Faster-than-light travel is, theoretically speaking, impossible. Einstein ruined that golden nugget of fun for everyone. But you can still write about FTL travel and ignore the rules. We can create wormholes and jumpdrives and warpdrives and not worry about it being completely real. FTL is a device that is, in and of itself, a fantasy, because, so far as we know, mankind will never achieve it. Even wormholes are not proven, and may very well be a fantasy too.
Science fiction, essentially, speculates upon the future, or a future. Star Wars is a possible future of a society that probably doesn't exist. Still, it's a future. Star Trek, for what it's worth, is a possible future of our world and galaxy. Spaceships, however, don't have to be a part of SF. In fact, they aren't even close to a requirement. One could easily have a story about hackers and have it be called science fiction, and in fact this has happened before. 1984 isn't a book about space travel, but about a totalitarian future. There are a million possibilities in SF.
So we have future and science/technology, and some rules about how those are incorporated. How would you define science fiction, then? Here's how I would define it:
Science fiction is a form of literature that deals with the future in some way and includes science or technology. It speculates on what might be, what could be, and what will be.

What do you think? Does that adequately describe it?

MORE TIPS, LESS CHESSE...

1) Happy scenes that make you puke.
- Please, no unrealistic weather and animal scenes, unless your novel is set in some Teletuby fantasy world

2) To name the attack, or not to name the attack?
- Unless it relates and is absolutely necessary, try not to use 'Dragon' or any other creature in the attack names TOO MUCH. People might think you have a fetish or something...

3) Boot-worthy dialogue
- Slang can get really annoying when overdone. Limit it, or sell the book to a bunch of hill-billies (no offense)

4) Crap fights
- Avoid the Dragonball Z fad when all the characters do is power-up while roaring for three episodes (or in your case, chapters) before making one move. We get it. They're powerful. And they have insanely large lungs.

5) Love scenes that inspire hate
- Go nothin' today. Come back next week

6) When Heroes turn into Half-wits
- When the good-guy takes a bullet and sacrifices himself, try not to draw too much attention on the 'weeping' characters. Yes, show they're sad, for a while. But when you fill several pages of nothing but condolence speeches, you're stepping into Cheese Territory. Be careful if you do.

7) When Antagonists turn into Addle-pates
- Honestly, does the bad guy have to monologue every single time? Well, if they have to, make sure they don't get too dramatic about it, unless you're writing a comedy and you're doing it on purpose, in which case SET THE SETTING UP before you try that

8) What characters shouldn’t do in their sleep
- The 'EWWWW' prize goes to the character who tosses and turns in their sleep before bolting upright and freaking out. Overdone into a crisp. Please.

The Everchanging Book of Names

This little tool has been mentioned before on YWO, but I think it deserves a good look. This is possibly one of the best tools I've ever come across for writing.

Where can you find it?
Here! Everything you need to know about the program is on that site, including addons, etc.

So, what is EBoN?
The Everchanging Book of Names is a random name generator, only it's better than that. It's a name generator that comes with 'chapters' or alternate languages not only from real life, but from Tolkien's works and various other writers and fantasy worlds. So what? I've already got a random name generator!
What makes it better than other random name generator is that it isn't entirely random. Yes, the names are generated at random, but depending on the 'chapter' you use you'll get varying result. Why? Because each 'chapter' has its own set of rules that it must follow to produce the names. You'll never see Bob in two different languages unless that name would exist in both languages (so, in the case of Japanese and English, you'd never see Bob in the former).
Additionally, you can actually edit the settings that EBoN uses to determine names. You can affect how many consonants or vowels are used, etc., giving you a huge variety of names in one language set. Most likely you'll not mess with that, but if you wanted to get really trick you could!
What about those addons you talked about?
Well, the great thing about having a product like EBoN available to the public without a lot of security garbage protecting things is that users can make their own 'chapters'. The result is that you can find on the website all sorts of languages that don't initially come with the software. Some users have their own languages that they've uploaded and others have worked out the languages of writers or fantasy worlds like Warhammer or D&D. This means that you could end up with a whole lot of different options to come up with names!

How much is it?
Well, technically it's shareware, but the great thing about the program is that you can still use its amazing features without registering. Here is the downside: you can only generate five names at a time with most 'chapters' (these chapters are 'locked'). But all you have to do to get another five names is reload the 'chapter'. That's it!
However, if you want to pay for the software and use all its features, including the ability to generate 100 names instantly, among other features, then it's a mere $10 USD (or you can pay for it in other currencies too).

So, if you need a good tool to come up with names, this is it! Check it out, give it a try, and you'll see how useful it is!

Beginnings: Episode Three -- First Paragraphs

You can find the first two episodes of this here (on YWO). I've been wanting to finish this series, so here goes episode three. This is going to be somewhat of a refresher on the first two though, as they deal directly with this one.

If you've managed to write your first sentence well, and the first few sentences well, then you're on your way to doing well in general. That might seem like a lot of wells, but this is all true. While your first sentence is the most important sentence in your entire book (beyond the last sentence), and the first few sentences are you more important sentences, the first few paragraphs are your most important paragraphs. Your first sentence establishes the tone and gives the reader the hook. It tells the reader to pay attention, or at least it's supposed to. The sentences that follow that are meant to keep that reader interested. In comes the first few paragraphs.
The first paragraphs of your work not only have to continue to keep the reader interest, but they also have to give the reader insight into the world you'll be working with. If you're in a fantasy world, then here is where you want to make that very clear. I'm not talking about info-dumping. Your first paragraphs are paragraphs that establish completely the general setting, the general tone, and push forward the hook.
Here's an example (from The Hobbit):

In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit.

There's your hook. What is a hobbit? I don't know (well I do, but let's pretend this is my first time reading it). But now I want to know what a hobbit is and why the heck it lives in a hole in the ground. Then come the next few sentences of your first paragraph:

Not a nasty, dirty, wet hole, filled with the ends of worms and an oozy smell, nor yet a dry, bare, sandy hole with nothing in it to sit down on or to eat: it was a hobbit-hole, and that means comfort.

Now we know all about that lovely little hole, well mostly. What we still don't know is what a hobbit is. The great thing about Tolkien is his ability to draw you into the story. His weak point is in his writing style, which to modern standards is highly antiquated. But still, here is the second paragraph of The Hobbit:

It had a perfectly round door like a porthole, painted green, with a shiny yellow brass knob in the exact middle. The door opened on to a tube-shaped hall like a tunnel: a very comfortable tunnel without smoke, with panelled walls, and floors tiled and carpeted, provided with polished chairs, and lots and lots of pegs for hats and coats--the hobbit was fond of visitors. The tunnel wound on and on, going fairly but not quite straight into the side of the hill--The Hill, as all the people for many miles round called it--and many little round doors opened out of it, first on one side and then on another. No going upstairs for the hobbit: bedrooms, bathrooms, cellars, pantries (lots of these), wardrobes (he had whole rooms devoted to clothes), kitchens, diningrooms, all were on the same floor, and indeed on the same passage. The best rooms were all on the lefthand side (going in), for these were the only ones to have windows, deep-set round windows looking over his garden, and meadows beyond, sloping down to the river.

What we've learned here is mostly about the hobbit-hole, which is a problematic paragraph by today's standards. This is what you should avoid--info-dumping. Tolkien was king of it for a reason: he was inventing an entire world from the ground up, with different races, customs, and beliefs.
Tolkien does, however, establish the setting and the character and the general tone of the work. This is what you have to do in your work. If you don't, your reader will be very unlikely to read beyond that first page. These first paragraphs are crucial. An editor wants to be entertained and to know that you will entertain the audience the editor is going to be dealing with. Remember, editors are picky for a good reason. Their jobs depend on putting out works that are, to put it simply, good. Good starts in the beginning. Attention spans are short, so if you can't entertain from the start, then you'll be out of luck.
So, get to writing those first paragraphs!

The Next Batch of Anti-Cheese Tips

(Note...once you have a target audience)

Tips for today concerning....




1) Happy scenes that make you puke.
- Regulate the ‘cheer level’ according to what’s going on, but set a limit. The mermaids singing, elves prancing, fireworks blazing, birds flying, random-slapstick-deus-ex-machina acts of goofiness by foil characters gets sickening after a while. Again, recognizing your target audience helps.

2) To name the attack, or not to name the attack?
- Say it yourself in the tone your character would say it. If it’s English words coined together, try choosing ones that aren’t too much of a mouthful or have a nice ring to it. The same goes for non-English names.

3) Boot-worthy dialogue
- Cheese in dialogue mostly revolves around the ones with lots of emotion and drama in it. Be careful when you have to make an angry/sad/love-struck/jovial character speak. Avoid using hyperboles and painfully-obvious dialogue tags that seem like they’re enhancing the feel of what the character is saying, but aren’t.

4) Crap fights
- About time I got here. Fight scenes can be sickeningly sweet – if you know how to manage them. Inserting too much trash-talking, drama, wannabe-witty catchphrases and heroic actions can ruin a perfect action sequence.

5) Love scenes that inspire hate
- Oh, I’ve got a ton for this topic, but one per day will do. Remember, once you’ve chosen your target audience, make sure you stick to their preference. And, unless they crave the uber-dramatic scenes, I’d avoid dialogue bloated with flowery Shakespearian speech (related to Romeo taking half an hour to tell Juliet ‘hi. You’re pretty.’), sex after a fight (I mean, seriously: overworked and frankly, unrealistic), and the ever so corny ‘Sing to the girl from beneath her window’ scene. And that’s just for starters. However, it is possible to make cheese in romance work out. You’ll just have to set up the mood for it. (Check out the scene in 10 things I hate about you where Heath Ledger sings to his lady-love in front of everyone during soccer practice. It’s mega-corny…but it worked out.)

6) When Heroes turn into Half-wits
- The ‘hero speech’ before some great conflict is a risky thing you do. When used with the proper setting, mood, tone and diction, it could turn to some famous quote one day. If not, it could turn into a mozzarella-infested ramble that will make the fans cringe.

7) When Antagonists turn into Addle-pates
- The laugh has got to go. I mean, again, if you use it properly, it WILL work…but the bad guy that does nothing BUT laugh and trash-talk will get on people’s nerves.

8) Next week, I’ll be adding “What characters shouldn’t do in their sleep…”

Best Sellers, From Cell Phones?

Cellphone novels, believe it or not, are books written on cell phone keypads, typed one tiny key at a time. For the most part, readers have experienced them on those tiny screens as well. Also for the most part, they have been called a category of literature that's even more frowned upon than fan fiction.

Recently, these novels, born on a phone, have started appearing in paperback form. Not only that, but they have become increasingly popular in Japan. At the end of last year, five of the nation's ten best sellers were originally made on a cell phone.

Absurd? Perhaps. A trend that could lower the standards for literature in Japan? Also a maybe. Whatever the future holds for these books, their authors are making the sort of money that would make many conventional authors jealous.

Read the full article.