Any other authors lurking around here.

[GregRedd]

When I edit other author's books I call this very thing the Koontz Trap, don't fall into the habit of over complicating your writing with words and phrases that aren't really that well known.

Another reason why authors do this is because some fool somewhere mentioned that overusing a word is a bad thing, some made up rule if you use a certain verb or noun more than three times in a paragraph then your writing is bad. Utter malarkey if you ask me.

Ahh, okay I get what you're saying. I'm an absolutely unashamed lover of words and language, some might say a sesquipedalian even ( see what I did there?) and yet agree totally with you. I've been reading Koontz for years and remember clearly what you're saying happening to me in the days before integrated Kindle dictionaries. I think it was Phantoms where I had to resort to the dictionary on a number of occasions. It was the mid-80s and I was in my teens, so at the time assumed it was just my youthful lack of knowledge that was causing me to stumble.

Something else that has long bugged me about some of his writing is the way he sometimes uses (to my mind) strange metaphors. Here's an example of both issues that we're talking about:

“The mild wind made the trees sway gently, in a lullaby rhythm, and the resultant susurration was like the soft sighs and dreamy murmurs of a thousand peacefully slumbering children.”

There is, however, a counterargument (isn't there always?!) that suggests that as writers we should act as custodians of the language we write in and avoid the temptation to dumb down our language in order to help keep its' nuance and beauty alive, but also to help readers grow their own vocabulary. There's an interesting article here that highlights this concern. The conclusion to that article is where I think we all should be aiming:

The writer bears the responsibility to do his best to make his work legible and precise. But readers also bear a responsibility: to rise to the book’s intellectual challenge. Although books are all too often relegated to the realm of mere entertainment, they are also an endless source of education. And, as such, readers should expect to be lifted above themselves in some way.

As writers, we should strive to lift our readers. But like any good teacher, we must also make sense. We must find the balance between asking a reader to grow and losing him completely.

[Wyvern]

I am just tagging [MENTION=8104]Saint_Dee[/MENTION] in this as well

[GregRedd]

Spread the word. Let's get some people to read that thread that are regulars here. I don't exactly want to PM everyone. [MENTION=15883]GregRedd[/MENTION] [MENTION=14824]Donisia[/MENTION] [MENTION=3505]DarthMol[/MENTION] [MENTION=9056]ave[/MENTION] [MENTION=20]Solitude[/MENTION] Link below

http://mygaming.co.za/forum/showthre...03#post1135603

Thanks for setting it up Spartan. Looking forward to reading and contributing too.

[DarthMol]

“The mild wind made the trees sway gently, in a lullaby rhythm, and the resultant susurration was like the soft sighs and dreamy murmurs of a thousand peacefully slumbering children.”:

Now that is a beautiful description. Fortunately I've come across susurration before from other novels so I understood that sentence. Hmmm, I've never read Koontz before, maybe I should check out some of his books.

Admittedly you wouldn't technically need a dictionary in this instance if you didn't know the word, the rest of the description gives you an idea of what it means. I'm all for authors using fancy words but in doing so they must skillfully construct the sentence so that your average reader can gain an approximate idea regarding what the word means.

[Spartan]

Ahh, okay I get what you're saying. I'm an absolutely unashamed lover of words and language, some might say a sesquipedalian even ( see what I did there?) and yet agree totally with you. I've been reading Koontz for years and remember clearly what you're saying happening to me in the days before integrated Kindle dictionaries. I think it was Phantoms where I had to resort to the dictionary on a number of occasions. It was the mid-80s and I was in my teens, so at the time assumed it was just my youthful lack of knowledge that was causing me to stumble.

Something else that has long bugged me about some of his writing is the way he sometimes uses (to my mind) strange metaphors. Here's an example of both issues that we're talking about:


There is, however, a counterargument (isn't there always?!) that suggests that as writers we should act as custodians of the language we write in and avoid the temptation to dumb down our language in order to help keep its' nuance and beauty alive, but also to help readers grow their own vocabulary. There's an interesting article here that highlights this concern. The conclusion to that article is where I think we all should be aiming:

Oh yes. I forgot about his metaphors, they are extremely out there sometimes. And I agree that we need to grow our craft and teach our readers as we tell our story. But not at the expense of your story or immersion. That balance the article mentions is a thin line we need to follow.

[ave]

Congratulations [MENTION=9056]ave[/MENTION]! Huge achievement that is, and I wish you and Riftwalkers huge success to go with it. Thanks for the offer to send us a copy, but will definitely prefer to show you some support by buying a copy directly, and also so that my eventual review gets the "Verified Purchase" tag to go with it.

Thank you so much then. I really appreciate the support. and look forward to hearing what you think.

I've been writing on and off for most of my adult life, but never got to the point of actually submitting anything for publishing. I've dabbled in everything from short-form horror to epic-scale fantasy stuff (but never anything near the scale of your 850 page tome!) About 2 years ago now I made a decision to start reviewing some of my scratchings and looking at material, ideas, and ways to actually take that leap from private to published.

To that end, I've been working on some near-future sci-fi stuff (with the emphasis on the fi and not the sci!) as and when I can. Still months, if not years, away from ready to publish point though. When it is I will most definitely be going the self-pub route as well, for all the reasons mentioned by others already.

That's the kind of Sci-fi I enjoy. I'm pretty new to the genre, but I would rather have a fun, engaging story with great characters, than understand what this particular piece of tech does and why it's scientifically feasible.
Sci-fi sales have suffered in recent years, but I hear it's starting to make a comeback, in a big way- so you're probably getting in at the right time.
The industry had this weird loop going on, where publishers would only look at agented manuscripts, and agents, would only look at manuscripts that they thought publishers would want, based on what was currently popular, so the whole industry was in this weird cycle of stagnation. But as long as books were selling, they didn't care.
Then along came Amazon, and people started discovering books that were different- that pushed the boundaries, and publishers suddenly had to scramble to contain the hemorrhaging sales. I love it. They really don't know how to handle this self publishing revolution.

I did do some flash-fiction exercises when I made the decision to write a little more semi-pro, and there's still a piece or two posted on my web page if you (or anyone else) would like a quick read: Warlord and Don't Fear The Reapers are still up, but neither are anything close to what I'm working on. I was convinced I had posted an intro to one of those stories on the site, but can't seem to find it now.

All power to you and to all the other forumites who are brave, dedicated and committed enough to put their words out into the world - you have my respect.

Thanks for the links, I look forward to reading them.

Thanks. If I went back to the first one it would more than likely mean a re-write for the most part. Back then I was more enthusiasm than skill but I still think there were some decent ideas that may be worth keeping. Basically what happened was I started writing down the imaginary world I played out in my parents backyard - it was all inspired by an old Atari game called Archon. I even had a trilogy planned.

I can just picture it. The amount of time we spent in the garden playing with our He-man figurines- good memories, I think those years are important for developing your imagination as a writer. I often try to draw on that excitement and sense of wonder about the world, that I had as a kid.

So was your story also set in the garden, or was it completely other-world?

The second serious attempt was kick-started in Grade 11 (or thereabouts) when I heard of some competition where you could win $1000 or something. I had written a couple of chapters based on one of the other fantasy worlds I had constructed as a kid. The only thing was I would be hard pressed to reach the 50 000 word minimum in time so I grafted like crazy, trying to write at least 1 000 words a day. In the end I didn't enter despite achieving the 50 000 mark, essentially my story was just getting going so it was no where near complete.

With the creative writing class I did finish and submit one completed short story. After many revisions I finally had a story worth sending out into the world. Managed to crack a special mention in the Wits creative writing comp (one of the other students in our creative writing group won with a great little story).

I'm not sure why my drive for writing slowed down after that, haven't really written anything decent since. At the moment, work, studies, family etc. occupy most of my time. And the last thing I feel like doing after writing bunches of essays is to sit and write some more stuff (albeit creative). Plus I'm a gamer, struggling to work through my backlog...

Have you ever tried submitting the story again to any print or online magazines?

I know what you mean. The only reason I could finish my book was because I quit my job as a programmer, started doing freelance graphic design to pay the bills, and all but stopped going out. Thank goodness for steam and forums, or I'm sure I would be a little insane by now.

Hahaha, I've also got such a huge backlog- At the moment it's sitting at around 220 titles.

Lets say i have an book idea, and i cant word it or i keep changing the way i write... would there be any tips you could give me... I started a novel, but i just cant seem to make whats in my head come alive on paper... Its been a bit of a failure since i started as i keep restarting, ive pretty much got the entire story in my head already (just one or two minor changes that will happen as i write).

The best advice I can give it to just write without even reading what you've written. Just get it out onto paper, and only once you're finished, then go back and edit. That's the point of NANOWRIMO- national novel writing month that happens every November. They encourage you to write a 50,000 word novel in 1 month, and then they all laugh at how terrible their novels are. But what happens is your story begins to come to life. You get ideas, and a better understanding of your world, and characters, so that when you go back and edit, you can then write with a compete picture.

Another tip is to keep the writing simple. Beginners often try to write beautifully, because we all love language, but very often that can come across as forced, especially when you are still developing your craft. Just say what you want to say without trying to impress. It's quite liberating. And then afterwards you can always pretty it up a bit, but you don't even need to.

Study what other writers are doing. Find someone you admire and literally write out two pages of the book word for word. This gives you a feel for the way they write and how they construct their sentences. when something grabs you in a story, write a page of notes, on why it was so effective for you, and what he/she did to engage you.

Finally I know this doesn't work for everyone, but I found outlining worked very well for me. For my first book I just sat down and wrote, and only came up with a plan half way through, but at times I had to scrap 30,000 words or more. For my second, I didn't really know where I was going with it, but I would get up in the morning, come up with some ideas for the next chapter, and then write. The problem here is that editing took so much time, because I had to correct so much afterwards.
For my third novel, I did an extensive outline, and then, because I knew where the story was going, and what the characters backstories were, I could bring that stuff across in dialogue and could foreshadow events etc.

First drafts always suck, for everyone. Writers often say that's your first draft is vomiting onto the page- Which is quite apt. Editing is where you then go back and clean it all up.

Also remember the rule of thumb is that you have to put in 10,000 hours before you really excel at any craft. Whatever the number is, it takes time and practice to get better. Your skills will improve in steps. For weeks you'll be battling with something and then one day you wake up and all of a sudden you can do it. Writing is no different. Keep practicing and you'll get better.

[ave]

I can totally relate to that first part, I also find myself reading and discovering the story as I write it.

With regard to your last tip, I think sometimes writing is about the grind and if you ever want to finish you have to put in a fair amount of discipline. If I recall correctly, Charles Dickens would sit to write 5 hours a day, even if all he got out of it was one sentence. I guess it's all about what works for you as an author, some people need to write reams and then pick the best out of it and others agonise over every single word (that's me!).

This works for me as well. I find I work best when I have some momentum going. If I stop writing for a couple of days, I find it really difficult to get back in to it. Mondays are always a grind for me for this very reason.
Like Dickens I also find that it's better to set aside time than to try reach a word goal. So instead of saying I want to reach 2000 words today, I will say I want to write between 10am and 11am, and in that time I wont go on the internet, or do anything else, and If I only write 1 sentence, well that's fine.

http://mygaming.co.za/forum/showthre...03#post1135603

Done.

I'm in

Some of my opinion about Koontz is personal, and some others have complained about as well. Every now and again, say 1 out of every 3 books Koontz writes, he alienates the reader with obscure word and phrase usage. Not everyone reading a novel is a master of the English language, and his usage breaks the readers immersion and flow of the story. He uses the strangest words to explain simple tasks, in certain cases they work, but other times they are as if he had the simple version of the word and then searched for the most obscure synonym for that word, thinking it makes him sound more professional. This then filters through to other new authors who do the same thing, they try and make their writing sound more professional by using words the average reader will never have heard or even read. I have a vast vocabulary and many times, during his old and new titles, I was forced to stop and research the word or phrase he dug out of ancient times.

I've heard with many A-list authors, publishers aren't as strict with the edits- firstly because the books going to sell anyway, and secondly because if the author insists then they don't want to upset him / her, so they often let the little things slide. I loved some of Tom Clancy's books, but they definitely got longer and longer as they years went on.