Arrival & Day One, Algonkian Writers Workshop

On Tuesday, Sept 24, Ken and I got up at 2:30 am, and left for the airport at 3:45 am. We rarely get up that early anymore. The dog didn't even wake up. Poor Nike, I wonder what he thought later when Ken got him up and I was gone.

My flight to Seattle left about 6:00 am. I had a two-hour layover at Sea-Tac airport, and the flight to Dulles landed at 5:00 pm. By the time I got into the taxi line it was 5:30. I got to Algonkian Regional Park about 6 pm or so, last to arrive. A long day.

The Park has 12 rental cottages along the Potomac river. We took up four of them. #10 was the meeting place. Myself and another woman were in cottage #12. Perfectly nice, our only complaint was the bathroom fan sounded like a jet engine! That evening we went to Lima de Vera's, a Peruvian restaurant. We were a big group, and the food took a long time to arrive. My meal came last, even though they weren't very busy otherwise. It was good food though.

Originally there were 13 of us, plus two leaders, Michael and Joe. But within the first 12 hours two people had to leave unexpectedly, which left 11 participants.

On Wednesday after breakfast we met in a group to read our prepared book "pitches". According to the brief we got beforehand, the pitch should be 150-200 words, and include Protagonist Intro, Inciting Incident, Setting, Stakes, 1st Major Plot Point, and a Cliffhanger. Although they don't have to be in that order.

I should say here that the focus of this particular workshop is to help you write a commercially-viable novel that will (hopefully) get you an agent, and get traditionally published. Agents and publishers are looking for certain qualities in a novel, including a strong active plot with fresh ideas and unique characters that will appeal to readers of your genre. But that is NOT to say you're encouraged to "write to the market". Trad Pub is a long tough road. IF you finish the novel, find an agent, and get a publisher, it could take years for the book to come out in print. Very hard to predict trends that far ahead.

I'm planning to be flexible with this one. I'll try my best to acquire representation and get published, and after that I can, potentially, do things differently. I consider the whole effort a learning experience.

Back to the Pitch. As a former English teacher & recovering rule follower (and retired), I worked on my pitch for days beforehand. It started out long and rambling, but I trimmed and re-worked until it fit the brief. Definitely not perfect!! But it was a place to start.

After each person read their pitch, the leaders spent time asking questions, making suggestions, and helping them think about the pitch components. For example, it can be hard to figure out the required elements if the plot isn't complete, or the "stakes" aren't defined, or the genre isn't clear yet.

A few people at the workshop had already finished their first draft. Others, like me, were some fraction of the way through. But the value of writing a pitch, even at an early stage, is the mental exercise - you have to figure out how to describe the plot and characters in a succinct way, and find a cliffhanger that ties into the plot and leaves the reader wanting to know what happens next. In my case it helped me refine some of my fuzzier plot ideas for the better.

Michael, the organizer, has had a long career in writing, publishing, editing, etc. He didn't like a number of things in my pitch (although at the time it seemed like it was my whole story). He didn't like that I said my Protagonist is middle-aged, and thought dragons, though flying high right now (see what I did there? ;-) are on the way to becoming "over-done". Depending on when I begin submitting this novel, I could run into agent/publishers who say "I don't want any more dragon stories/dragon characters".

The other staff person, Joe, is agented and has published multiple SF/Fantasy novels. He disagreed that dragons are on the way out, so there was discussion about that. Based on experience, Michael said if I want trad pub, there has to be something new/different about the dragon. Fair enough. That's the kind of advice I came for. Homework to do for sure.

The middle-aged thing. Of the 11 attendees, 8 were women in their mid 30's - mid 60's. The others were men. Pretty much all the women said they'd read a fantasy novel with a middle-aged Protagonist. Joe agreed.

OTOH, Michael, having the most experience being in submission meetings with agents and publishers, had a very good point. Publishing house acquisition editors who will hear the pitch are nearly all in their late 20's. They want books that will make money for the company. In that crowd, "older" protagonists are a tough sell. Which brings home to me that I need to keep looking for good comparable books, or "comps". Preferably high fantasy genre with mature protagonists.

In any case, it's not a hill I want to die on, at least not for this particular book. After some thought and discussion, I realized the important thing about my Protagonist is her life experience. She's not a teenage "chosen one". She's raised children, run a farm, and served in her country's military. Her actual age number isn't important. After all, in a fantasy world what does age matter? Humans in fantasy worlds can age at different rates. 51 years old here and 51 years old in my fantasy world are two different things. Different aging rates are something I decided on when I first started writing.

So right on the first day at least two things about my pitch needed fixing. Our pitches took up the whole day, with all the discussion and suggestions. At the end, Joe asked me to send him some material from my novel so he could read it and give feedback. I was very pleased he was there. None of the other people Michael brought in were focused on SF/Fantasy.

I forget where we went for dinner. But afterwards I stayed up until 10-ish, working on the stuff Joe asked for. Not much chance to catch up on missed sleep from traveling, but oh well. I went there to work and I wanted to get as much out of it as possible.

My First Writing Workshop!

 

It's been a tough summer here in Idaho. Weeks of triple-digit temperatures, wildfire smoke from northern Idaho, Oregon and California, and resulting Air Quality readings of 120 - 170. We started getting up at 7am to walk the dog before breakfast. It was too unpleasant outside after 9am. In July and August all I could do in the garden was water, trying to keep the plants alive.

Most of the plants survived, but my tomatoes were a disaster. They looked like Charlie Brown's Christmas tree. Only 8 tomatoes from four plants. The fruits turned a weird yellow and stalled-out mid-ripening. Last week I finally gave up on them and picked the fruits, but they haven't got any redder sitting on the kitchen counter. Blech.

And now, finally, it's mid-September. Autumn isn't officially here, and the oak tree hasn't started dropping acorns yet, but it's soooo much cooler! We've even had rain. No more racing the heat to walk the dog, but we'll keep doing it until the days get a lot shorter. It's nice to have time to sit with our coffee after breakfast, instead of jumping up to walk right away.

Another thing about September is we get much busier. Last night our band, The Acrasians, played for the first Boise contradance of the season. September is also traditionally time for the Boise Highland Games - or Scottish Festival, as they're calling it this year. That's next weekend. The band will be playing, and our Scottish Dance class will have a tent and do demonstrations.  It's a loooong day, but usually fun.

But! For me, the most exciting thing in September is I'm going to my first in-person writing conference! Five days of classes, one-on-one consultations, and lots of writing in between. This particular conference also includes pre and post conference 'homework'. You're expected to work hard, and my impression is there will be a lot of individual attention. Hopefully I'll make progress, and my work will be better for it.

I fly out to Virginia on Sept 24, and the conference begins Sept 25. I'm not sure how much time I'll have to post during the event. But I plan to make notes and write a daily diary of what we did, and what it was like.

So far, the pre-conference work has consisted of assigned reading, and various writing tasks. We've done a character study of our antagonist, writing about the novel's conflicts, setting, plot structure, etc. The most recent homework, Assignment 3, is to submit 3-4 pages from our opening chapter to the conference forum, so conference staff can read it and assess our writing beforehand. 

My main task today is preparing those 3-4 pages. I'm trying to decide between the opening scene with my protagonist, or the first scene with the antagonist, a pivotal event in his early life that put him on the path to becoming the dark, evil leader who causes so much conflict in the story. I'd better get on with it.

Following - What Is It?

On my blog page, in the right sidebar under my Profile, there's a small blue button labeled "Follow" that you can click on. It asks you to agree you want to follow the blog and specify what email address you want to use.

Unfortunately, being a Follower doesn't mean you'll receive a notification when I post a new blog entry. I've been searching through Blogger Help, and there's no widget that lets people subscribe and get email notification of new posts.  So I'll continue sending my own emails when I post a new blog entry.

The following instructions are what I found out about "following" a Blogger blog.

If you can read my blog, you have a Google account. To see if there's been a new post on a Blogger blog (like mine), click on the little grid of dots next to your tiny profile picture and choose the Blogger app.

On the Blogger page, in the left sidebar, click on Reading List. This takes you to a list of blogs you're following. If you've "followed" my blog by clicking on the blue Follow button, then Roen Swynford should already be in the list of blogs.

If it's not, look on the right side of the Reading List page and find a blue MANAGE link. Click on that. To add my blog, click ADD, and enter the URL, www.roenswynford.com.

Even after doing this, you still need to visit your Blogger Reading List each time you want to see if I've posted a new blog entry. (sigh)

I've considered moving to another blog service, but those cost money and I'm not yet at a point where that's cost-effective to do.

I appreciate everyone's patience and willingness to stick with me on this. Thanks.

Blurb Writing & Going Public!

Blurbs, those little descriptions you find on the back cover of novels. Writing one is surprisingly difficult!

In 150-200 words the most common form of blurb should state the story's premise in a way that hooks the reader, introduce the main character(s) and their world, and make the conflict and stakes clear without revealing the ending. And, the writing should have the same tone as the novel itself. I'm not sure my writing has a distinctive 'tone' yet, so that part is hard.

And then, there's editing to "pack in" all the info required. I've gone back and forth about the phrase order of each sentence multiple times, and I'm still not sure what's best.

Here's the version I started with today...

"To avoid the shame of being ‘Talent-blind’, 51-year old Seja works the farm and raises two children in solitude, until her grown son is kidnapped and she leaves everything behind to rescue him. When she learns of a dark Talent behind the kidnapping who's plotting world domination, she must find a way to unblock her elemental Talent and work with an overbearing dragon to thwart the dark Talent’s plans."

It's better than the ones before, but still not right. And it's well under 100 words. A blurb isn't meant to be a complete blow-by-blow description, but I certainly have room for more details! 

This is what I came up after a few hours, about 140 words.

"When Seja's grown son is kidnapped from his trade caravan and the Traders Guild refuses to help, 51-year old Seja leaves her quiet farming life behind to rescue him. A choice that sweeps her unknowingly into a desperate struggle against a rogue elemental Talent plotting to enslave the people of an entire continent to feed his power."

"Once a respected earth Talent, Seja's elemental abilities dried up when her husband deserted her 16 years ago. Until now she's lived alone to avoid the stigma of being 'Talent-blind'. Traveling in her country's wild mountain borderlands she encounters an inept young dragon who insists on helping, despite her protests. As they get closer to finding Seja's son, the unwilling partners learn of a merciless dark leader behind the kidnapping,  Can Seja figure out how unblock her Talent and work with an overbearing dragon before it's too late?"

I'm not happy with the last two sentences, but I also don't want to say too much about the ending. I'll have to let this percolate, see how I feel after a few weeks.

You may be thinking - what's the point of writing a blurb before the novel is done? After all, it's inevitable some aspects of the plot will change as I write. But even with changes I still need a story premise, a main character, a primary conflict, and meaningful stakes for the MC and her world. This exercise makes you think. What are the most important building blocks of my story, and how do I prioritize them. If I can't describe them in a succinct way, one or more might be too weak, or worse, missing altogether.

In other news, I've decided to make this blog public, rather than 'invite only'. I've added Followers and Subscribe gadgets to the right sidebar, under my Profile. Please consider becoming a follower/subscriber. I'd appreciate it.

I haven't been posting lately and that needs to change. There's such a long way to go on my first draft, makes it hard to think of topics to blog about. OTOH, not posting regularly means I'm losing audience (modest as it is). 

Also, I'm not sure how going public will change things for you. I'll send a last email saying there's a new post. After that, becoming a Follower or Subscriber is probably the best way to find out there's a new post.

If you have difficulty accessing the blog, please let me know! And feel free to suggest it to friends you think might be interested. Thanks for your support. 💖

World Building My Fantasy Novel

Talking about a work in progress is one of those problematic writer things, as least for me. Saying too much sort of…takes the wind out of my sails. So I’ve struggled with how much to say in this post.

High fantasy (also called epic fantasy) is defined as a story that takes place in a completely different realm from Earth. Its societies, environment, animals, people, etc, are all different. So no references or comparisons to our world. I frequently ask myself, do I really need to create a new intelligent being, animal or plant for this situation? Or can I just call the broccoli “broccoli” and leave it at that? If you create something new, be it biped, animal, or veg, there must be a good reason in the story. And you need to work it into the narrative without resorting to the dreaded “info-dumping”. Otherwise readers lose patience.

For instance, although there are intelligent species besides humans, my world doesn’t have horses. And no cats (sorry), but I did create a cat-equivalent. The planet is earth-like, with a higher water-to-land ratio, and a lower average annual temperature. There are some hot dry areas, but most zones are temperate or colder, with more mountains and larger frozen areas at the poles. Hooved animals are still necessary for the inhabitants’ development level, but my world's genetics found different solutions to the problems posed by environment, landscape, and climate. 

The herbivores on the main character’s continent evolved in mountainous terrain that’s cold most of the year. I mixed traits from mountain goats, pronghorn, wild sheep and llamas, to come with a few different breeds. Their feet have three or four three-jointed toes, with pads of grippy hairs on the bottom for traction on ice, snow and wet stone. The coat has a soft inner layer and longer hollow-cored hair, and a lanolin-equivalent skin oil that prevents them from becoming water-soaked. They also have horns. 

Over time people domesticated and selectively bred these animals to fit various purposes. One is a riding animal, the takri, with lyrate-curved horns. We think of a lyre shape as being in two dimensions, curving out, in, and out again. These horns add a third dimension to the basic lyre shape by also curving slightly forward from the base, then back, and forward again at the tips.

The takri has three-toed feet with grippy hair pads, a shaggy two-layer coat, and it's built like a large goat/antelope, with body and legs strong enough to carry humans. Compared to a horse, the head has a wider forehead tapering to a narrower nose, longer ears, and vertical-slit eyes. They’re intelligent animals that form strong attachments to their owner, and live to 30 years or more.

Takri were partly inspired by pronghorn antelope. We see those regularly here on the open range. It fascinates me that pronghorns are one of the few animals remaining from the Pleistocene. I’ve always wondered - what is it about pronghorns that’s helped them survive so long? In creating the takri, I took the answers my imagination dreamed up and ran with them.

(BTW, animal horns, what an unexpected rabbit hole! I could make up nearly anything and it’d be just as likely as what actually exists. These are just the more common antelopes. https://similarbutdifferentanimals.com/2018/05/30/antelope-horns/)

If you have time, please humor me by making a test comment.  Say hi, or give me a book suggestion. Thanks for reading!

Fantasy Books I've Loved

Inspired by Valentine's Day.

As a would-be author you hear it a lot, “Read in your genre.” I’ve been reading in my genre since finding Andre Norton and Madeline L’Engle in grade school. But now that I’m writing with a serious intention to publish, I’m learning more about the craft of writing, including understanding the style of writing that's popular now.

We’ve all been influenced, to various degrees, by film, social media, anime/comic books, and short-form writing of all kinds, and it’s informing our reading as well. It’s probably changed my preferences more than I realize, hardcore Tolkien fan that I am. Most readers now expect fiction books with an action-packed beginning and a brisk narrative, fewer scenes of character introspection and fewer world-building details. 

Just the other day a friend was talking about re-reading some old Spec Fic favorites. He was surprised to find the things that resonated with him the first time are different now. And in some cases the story/writing wasn’t as good as he remembered. So I wondered, would I still love my all-time-favorite fantasy books? By all-time I mean the formative books, with moments that lingered in my head long after I finished, and influenced my reading choices going forward. So I made a list, and discovered my all-time favs are all pretty “old”, in the publishing trend sense.

What this tells me is I really have to read more fantasy published in the last 5-10 years. For one thing, I'll need recent titles for “comps” (comparison titles) when I start to query agents. But who knows, maybe I’ll find some new all-time favorites as well!

In no particular order, here’s my list. It’s entirely possible I’ll find ones I’ve forgotten when I look for these, and my list might change. But these are the titles I recalled easily.

Doomsday Book, Connie Willis

Antarctica, Kim Stanley Robinson

Always Coming Home, Ursula K. Le Guin

Lord of the Rings, JRR Tolkien

Once & Future King, TH White

The Deeds of Paksennarion (series), Elizabeth Moon

Golden Witchbreed, Mary Gentle

Curse of Chalion (series), Lois McMaster Bujold

My plan is to hunt these down (all paperbacks I own) and either re-read in full, or skim through to help myself remember more. I’m curious to find out; will these books still feel as meaningful now as the first time? Which important things will be different? Will I find the writing as gripping now as it was then? And perhaps most importantly for a hopeful author, what qualities of the writing and plot made it such a good read?

To start with, I’ll talk about “Doomsday Book”, by Connie Willis, published in 1992. Willis received both a Hugo and a Nebula for this one.

The main character time-travels to England, mistakenly arriving in 1348, later than intended. For various reasons she can’t return to her own time right away. She’s a stranger in the village, but she forms friendships, helps to nurse people through the plague, and then loses many she cares about to the disease. In the 1300’s England lost approximately 40-50% of its population to plague, although the exact number isn’t known.

When I read this in 1994 I was living in England. British history was already an interest of mine, so the blend of science fiction and history caught my attention. The main character’s reactions to the chaos and pain of the plague years read as genuine and deeply felt. During the weeks I was reading the book we visited St Mary’s Church, Ashwell, Herts. Many old churches in the UK have bits and pieces from different eras. St. Mary’s is mostly 14^th century, with many of its original features. It also has some significant 14^thC. graffiti. One, scratched on the church tower’s wall during a plague epidemic in the reign of Edward III, struck me:

“MCT Espente miseranda ferox, violenta Superest plebs pessima testis, MCCCL”

The church information booklet translated this as: 

“1350 Miserable, wild, distracted 1350. The dregs of the mob alone survive to witness.”

A real person wrote that, someone experiencing the same pain and loss as the book's main character. It was such a strong real-life echo that the experience of reading the book has stayed with me ever since. Willis did a wonderful job blending real history and science fiction, with strong characters I could relate to. Will I still feel that way if I re-read it? I’m going to find out.

What are your all-time favorite SF/F novels, the ones that affected you in a lasting way? Any suggestions for fantasy novels published in the last 5-10 years that I might want to try?

Why a Pen Name?

Hello All.

Here I am on the NEW new blogger account. Evidently you figured out what was going on from my email. Thanks for following me here.  Today I'm talking about names, and choosing a pen name.

Pen names have advantages and drawbacks. I decided to use a pen name for the sake of privacy. My personal Facebook and Instagram accounts are set to Friends Only. I prefer to interact with my friends without worrying about unpleasant comments from strangers or creepy friend requests. But authors these days are expected to actively promote their books on social media, which of course means author accounts have to be open, so people can find them.

I wasn't completely comfortable with that, so I'm using an author pen name. It will separate my writing life from my personal life, including the social media aspects. From a business point of view the disadvantages of a pen name are minimal, for me at least. If I do manage to get a book publishing contract and adjustments have to be made, I'll deal with it at the time.

Back to names! Most of my life I've been fascinated by names, their meanings and history, how they look on the page, how they sound. To me, the look and sound of a name carries emotion, meaning, and an additional layer showing a person's character. I'm having trouble explaining what I mean, but it's similar to synesthesia, in a way. 

In my youth, before the internet, I discovered name dictionaries and baby name books in the library. Some long-time favorites are "New Age Baby Name Book" by Sue Browder; "Character Naming Sourcebook" by Kenyon, Blythe & Sweet; and "What Shall We Name the Baby" by Winthrop Ames. From those I learned the origins and meanings of common names, which incidentally became an entry point for learning their root words in Latin, Greek, German, or whatever language.

I love choosing names for characters in my stories. I want the name to feel *just right*. Sometimes I'd choose a name with symbolic meaning, and sometimes I'd just make up a name that sounded cool and looked good on the page (Eventually I learned those "cool and exotic" names were hard for people to pronounce. I'm trying to do better now. :-)

But having a chance to choose another name for myself? Pretty much irresistible! 

It took me a few months to figure out a pen name. I started with online name dictionaries, including The Name Generator, https://www.behindthename.com/random/) and https://babynames.com/. I also found blogs and interviews where writers discussed the do's and don't's of choosing a pen name, and how they chose one.

Some things I learned;

• Choose something with a personal meaning or connection to you. You could be tied to that pen name for a long time. It needs to be something you'll still love years from now.
• Check the nickname and initials of the name for rude or embarrassing meanings.
• Do a search on the name. Partly to make sure it's not already being used by a published author or media personality. And partly to see how common it is. You want to stand out from the crowd.
• Make a short list and live with each name for a while. After a few days it might become irritating or sound stupid. You can cross it off the list and try the next one.

When I had a list of five possibles, I pretended each name was mine for a few days. That helped me narrow down to a first and last name I liked most, Rowan Swynford.

Swinford is one of my ancestral family lines. One of the oldest Swinford ancestors is Payn de Roet, father of Katherine de Roet Swynford who married John of Gaunt. It's unlikely my line of Swinfords in America are directly related to de Roet's line, but the history is interesting.

Unfortunately, an online search for Rowan found it was a very common name for authors. Not ideal. Then I thought of that ancestor, but I mis-remembered the spelling as "Roen". When I looked him up again I saw I'd got the spelling wrong. But by that point I was so attached to Roen I decided to use it anyway. Even with the quirky spelling, both names have a personal connection to me, and are unusual enough that I haven't found anyone else using them.

Thanks for reading, and feel free to comment.