jmmcdowell

Feb 18

Posted by jmmcdowell

After last Saturday’s post, I thought I’d show an example of potted plants Minor Characters being more than they should. So I’m posting the previous version of a scene from ”Death Out of Time” followed by the latest revision. The scene is supposed to show some of Madeleine’s daily life and her early dealings with time travel. I realized not only did I spend too much time on these Minors (this is their only scene), I wasn’t showing an appropriate reaction for Madeleine. She shouldn’t be so glib this early in the story.

Jeff became Zach because I have other names that start with “J.” I wanted to get potential confusion out of there. I think the other changes are obvious. Hopefully, they’re an improvement, although I’m not satisfied with the last paragraph. I’d love to hear what you think.

Previous Version

Two of her crew members were cleaning the artifacts from the graves when she reached the lab. She recognized Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto no. 3 streaming from someone’s laptop. Classically trained pianist turned archaeology graduate student Jeff Yarde must be in charge of music for the day.

Ashley Benson picked up a bag and called over to Jeff, who was filling out the lab tracking forms. “Next up for washing is Burial 15, Field Bag 2.”

Cute, petite, and stylishly dressed, no one seeing Ashley for the first time would think she was an archaeologist. She’d started her master’s degree at Kelson the same year Madeleine arrived and was now working on her PhD at the University of Maryland.

“Got it. That was AJ Hopkins, wasn’t it?”

Good-looking and artfully scruffy Jeff had tried all summer to catch Ashley’s eye. But she was determined to finish her degree in record time and wasn’t looking for a boyfriend.

“Yeah,” Ashley replied as she emptied the bag into a strainer. “Madeleine and Jack excavated that one this weekend.”

Jeff looked over as Ashley started washing the artifacts. “Doesn’t look like they found anything too interesting—same old coffin hardware in this bag.”

Madeleine turned to look at the drying racks and pretended to sort through the artifacts that had been washed earlier. The crew would undoubtedly agree that a dead time traveler was seriously interesting.

Too bad I can’t tell them what they missed, she thought.

“That’s good,” Ashley laughed, using a toothbrush to gently clear away the loose dirt from a coffin hinge. “I’d hate to miss anything really cool.”

“Yeah, that would be our contribution to O’Brien’s Laws of Contract Archaeology, wouldn’t it? The best finds are made on your day off or when you’re in the lab.”

“I like it,” Madeleine said, managing to keep a straight face. “That’s now the Fifth Law. I’ll go jot it down now.”

Stepping into her office, she stifled her laughter and pulled herself together before rejoining Jack and Landry.

New Version [still subject to additional revisions]

Two of her crew members were cleaning the artifacts from the graves when she reached the lab. Both had studied with her as undergraduates and were now PhD students at the University of Maryland. She recognized Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto no. 3 streaming from a laptop, a welcome change from last week’s dance mix.

Ashley Benson picked up a bag and called over to Zach Yarde, who was filling out the lab tracking forms. “Next up for washing is Burial 15, Field Bag 2.”

“Got it. That was AJ Hopkins, wasn’t it?”

“Yeah,” Ashley replied as she emptied the bag into a strainer. “Madeleine and Jack excavated that one this weekend.”

Zach looked up from the paperwork as Ashley started washing the artifacts. “Did they find anything interesting? Or is it the same old coffin hardware?”

Madeleine turned to look at the drying racks and pretended to sort through the artifacts that had been washed earlier. The crew would undoubtedly agree that a dead time traveler was seriously interesting.

Too bad I can’t tell them what they missed, she thought.

“The same old stuff,” Ashley said, using a toothbrush to clear away the loose dirt from a coffin hinge. “And that’s good. I’d hate to have missed anything really cool.”

Zach glanced over at Madeleine, but she was still absorbed in the artifacts. “Yeah, that would be our contribution to O’Brien’s Laws of Contract Archaeology, wouldn’t it? The best finds are made on your day off or when you’re in the lab.”

“I like it,” Madeleine said, struggling to sound normal. She didn’t turn from the racks as she added, “That’s now the Fifth Law. I’ll go jot it down.”

Stepping into her office, she pulled herself together. She’d have to watch her reaction to everyday conversations. People would wonder what was wrong with her, and she couldn’t risk them learning about time travel. Satisfied that work was under control in the lab and she wore an ordinary expression, she rejoined Jack and Landry.

Your feedback would be greatly appreciated!

Posted in science fiction, writing

20 Comments

Tags: archaeology, characters, editing, fiction, novel, revisions, science fiction, writing, writing a novel

Feb 16

Posted by jmmcdowell

I’m going for a more light-hearted post today. I think my brain wants a little break from meatier topics as it works on the second draft of Death Out of Time. (As an aside, I had a good block of time to work on it yesterday. I got more done than I have in a few weeks. I’m hoping that’s a good sign.)

My curiosity about search terms is rather voyeuristic at this early stage of my blogging. Why? Because not many searches bring readers my way.

I know, I know. I should be better with using good tags and making offerings to the Google gods so they’ll like me and move me up in the search rankings. But I’m happy with my slow, steady pace. I can handle it.

But the last week or so, more searches than usual have brought visits to my blog. And it’s interesting to see what they are. The following data are courtesy of my cool WordPress site stats from yesterday:

“Character” variants — Maybe someone had a rough day typing? Or couldn’t remember the title of the post? But no worries. They got there.

“Clip Art” variants — Being good and citing my images has brought some unexpected traffic my way. Of course, the viewers won’t be finding “new” clip art. And they may question how good a job their search engine of choice is doing.

“Jonas Salk 5 Adjectives” — My first thought was, “Hmm, that’s an interesting search. Wonder if it’s for a class project.” And then I was scratching my head about “Jonas Salk.” How was my blog a result for that? But then I remembered Carrie Rubin mentioned him in a comment in my post “Losing the Academic Writing.” Someone was probably very disappointed in this hit.

“Death Out of Time” — Very specific. I’m guessing someone had heard about the book draft from someone else.

“Katharine Donnelly” — Wanna bet someone googled herself? I wonder if she’d like an avatar who’s an archaeologist with a clandestine sideline. . . .

“Science Fiction Archaeology” — Maybe someone out there thinks like I do?

“Why Do Publishers and Editors Dislike Adverbs?” Yes! My personal favorite! Maybe I rank up there on the “adverb”-related searches. There must be tens of people searching on that every year or so, don’t you think? Of course, then there was…

“I hate adjectives” — That one should NOT have led to my blog! I don’t hate them! Like adverbs, they should be used in moderation, but they are not hate-worthy.

So there they are, the searches that led to my blog. Not too many, yet, but I haven’t been at this much over 3 months. But I’ll bet some of you have some good ones you could share.

So how about you? Have you mastered tagging and Google? Do you have favorite search terms that led someone your way? Something funny? Off the wall? Or totally unexpected?

Posted in writing

34 Comments

Tags: adjectives, adverbs, blogs, fiction, science fiction, search engines, search terms, tags, writing

Feb 14

Posted by jmmcdowell

I haven’t attempted poetry of any kind since high school. And I wasn’t all that good at it even then. But as part of my goal to mix things up a bit on the blog now and again, I wrote the following haiku.

plaintive mourning doves

against the gray winter sky

herald Spring’s approach

Note the absence of my beloved adverbs. Now, please feel free to run to a real poetry blog for the good stuff ; )

Posted in attempted poetry, writing

26 Comments

Tags: adverbs, haiku, poetry, writing

Feb 11

Posted by jmmcdowell

Congratulations! You’ve won a walk-on role in an upcoming episode of your favorite TV show!

This is it—your chance to show what you’ve got. You’ll lay it all out there for the audience to see. Everyone will forget about the regular leads and demand more of you. The show will become about you.

Not so fast, partner. Do more than walk on, and your bit will end up on the cutting room floor. No one will ever see your award-winning performance.

Such is the lot of the Minor Character in a novel. The job description says it all—Minor Character.

Your only role is to support the Main Characters and their story in important but unobtrusive ways. You can be the bartender who takes their order. Or a co-worker at the water cooler. How about someone on the train who catches the Main’s eye because you remind him of the kindergarten bully? Or a red herring role as a robbery victim? You’re not seeing it? Hey, would you rather be “The Red Shirt” of Star Trek fame?

Sure, you can be smart. Or funny. Or evil and twisted. But you can’t steal the show. What’s that you say? You’ve heard about Mains who started as Minors and convinced the author they should be the star? All right, it can happen. If you get to the writer early enough. But if you don’t show up until she’s 70,000 words into the first draft, don’t hold your breath.

But if you behave yourself, maybe that writer will take a shine to you. Even if you’re stuck with a two-line role, maybe you can get a bigger part in the sequel. Or maybe, the Holy Grail—your own book as a Main Character.

Okay, I just wanted to have some fun up there. Handling these Minor Characters isn’t always easy for me. Quite a few have shown up in Death Out of Time, and I wonder if I have too many. A couple of beta readers thought there were a lot to keep track of. But others didn’t have any problems.

I have dropped a few of them and rolled their remaining bits into characters who survived the cut. My husband didn’t think I even needed to do that. And he has an interesting take on the supporting cast, which I had to share.

When he reads, he thinks of the Minors as “the potted plants in the room.” They help “decorate” the set and the story. But he doesn’t worry about remembering their names and doesn’t need to know what they look like and what they want out of life. As long as there’s a “reminder” within a few sentences of their reappearance, he’ll remember who they are. And if they don’t come back, he doesn’t wonder what happened to them.

But I know other readers who get distracted by every new character who appears. They want details to flesh out those Minors—even if they’re only in a single scene as a foil for the Mains. It’s hard to satisfy a reader like that without writing a monster Russian-style novel à la Tolstoy. And I haven’t heard that too many agents and editors today are looking for such a work.

So I think it comes down to balance again. Have enough potted plants Minors to decorate the story. But don’t let them get out of control and distract the reader from the real plot and the Main Characters.

What are your views on Minor Characters? Do you think there’s a set number that makes “too many,” or does it depend on the nature of the story? Has a Minor succeeded in becoming a Major in any of your work?

Posted in mainstream fiction, science fiction, writing

26 Comments

Tags: fiction, main characters, minor characters, novel, science fiction, writing, writing a novel

Feb 9

Posted by jmmcdowell

Whew. Just as I’ve been worrying about running out of ideas for the blog, Writer’s Digest comes to the rescue. Their Guide to Literary Agents has a guest column by Lisa Dale on a related subject. It was posted on Tuesday, and you can check it out here.

It’s a short article and easy to digest, but I’m spending time thinking about how I can incorporate some of her suggestions into my blog. I just realized my last post was my 50th. Maybe that’s why I need my second wind!

And maybe my posting resolutions constrain me a bit. One resolution is that this blog is about my writing journey and my works in progress. I’m not going to jump into politics or current events or sports or bits of my personal life much beyond writing.  But I should be able to find inspiration in the daily world around me and tie it into writing.

So, today’s post is a shorty while I think of new things to say and do. Hopefully you find them interesting and entertaining!

But I can’t be the only blogger who’s worried about this. Have you? Where did you find new inspiration and ideas?

Posted in writing

23 Comments

Tags: blogs, guide to literary agents, ideas, Writer's Digest, writing, writing a novel

Feb 7

Posted by jmmcdowell

I would really appreciate some input from readers here. I know you’ll have good insights and helpful suggestions!

I’ve gotten comments back from another beta reader on the first draft of Death Out of Time. This one doesn’t normally read sci-fi. But I now have two readers who were confused when a scene in one time was followed by a scene in another time, especially early in the book. Two other readers haven’t had the same difficulty.

Do those of you who read sci-fi have trouble with such jumps? Or do you catch on quickly because you know you’re reading a book about time travel? Do you think it’s helpful to put a date at the beginning of a scene when the action moves to another time?

I have several scenes per chapter, and the action switches back and forth several times within a chapter. I don’t want to make separate chapters for each time change — I’d have well over one hundred of them if I did.

So I’m wondering if it would be helpful to set up the scenes like this when the time changes:

2362, New Washington

“What was it like, Landry?” Foster asked, struggling to keep the envy out of his voice.

Landry stood silent for a few moments. How could he put the trip into words?

And then when the time changed in a following scene, we’d have something like this:

2014, Langley Heights

Jack sat back in his chair and looked at his watch. It was only ten o’clock on Monday morning.

God, when is this day going to end? he thought. Time for some coffee—maybe that’ll help.

I’ve seen this done in other books, and maybe it’s something I should do. But I’m not sure.

Thanks for your help, everyone. Your thoughts and insights would be invaluable!

Posted in science fiction, writing

10 Comments

Tags: fiction, novel, scene changes, sci fi, science fiction, time travel, writing, writing a novel

Feb 5

Posted by jmmcdowell