Why Sci-fi Readers should attend Comic Book Conventions

Picture this:

People dressed as their favorite characters from their favorite book, Wizards, Comic book Heroes, cartoon heroes or even the off-beat goofball.

These are the sights that can be seen in abundance at nearly every ComicCon, FanX, WonderCon or convention, whatever the current naming sequence. It is a wondrous celebration that transforms everyone into a new person; sends them to a new world and creates a new experience.

This is the enjoyment that we get when we attend these events.

Why I went to Comic Conventions

I have to say, when I started going to these conventions, I had the singular purpose of selling the Science Fiction books that my brothers and I had written.  

I have been a Sci-fi geek since I was eight years old and my mother read Heinlein’s Rocketship Galileo to me and my brother, and I was deeply engaged into comic books before Marvel ever hit the big screen, but I have never had the urge to attend a ComicCon. This thought process changed after my first visit, even though, as I mentioned, I went just to sell books. As I also mentioned, the experience is something that you have to, well… experience, to understand.

I have to admit, that there are those who will probably never understand, and there is nothing wrong with that. The world is made up of different people and that is the way it should be. For those of us who identify with the young Luke Skywalker as he looks off into the desert and wants adventure in his life, the ComicCons and other conventions, will always stir our thoughts and our adventurous natures.

Why Sci-Fi readers should be at Comic Book Conventions

So, why do Sci-fi readers need to attend these conventions? First, I you need to understand that every Con is different. They all have their own vibe and theme. I have to say that the first time I went to the Salt Lake ComicCon (now renamed FanX) it had a strong writer feel to it, probably because many of the guests and panelists were writers or publishers.

The Portland, OR ‘RoseCity Con’ however had a much stronger Comic Book feel to it, probably because many of the guests were comic publishers and there were fewer authors there. Having said that, however, all Cons have a great chance for authors to interact with their readers directly. This year, at FanX, I went to a panel that had Brandon Sanderson, Mercedes Lackey, David Farland, all several other authors, all on the same panel, talking to whoever wanted to sit in a room and listen to them. It was awesome!

Author Panels are Great for Readers as well as Authors.

I also had the chance to sit in another panel. Now I have to admit, I probably wouldn’t have gone to this one without a special reason. The topic was something like- How Do You Convert your Ideas into Novels. I have found that, over the years, this has become easier for me. Like any talent or muscle, the more you exercise it, the easier it seems to be to use it. As I prepare to publish my fifth novel, this process is easier for me than it once was.  Like I said, I probably wouldn’t have gone to this panel except that a young lady was speaking there that I have known since she was seven years old and my daughter’s best friend. Tricia Levenseller has published two exceptional YA books and her third was released this last February. I was excited to see that she had been invited to be on the panel and I wanted to go see her.  It was a great panel, and I have to say I learned some things that I could use, too.  But I have to say that the best thing about both panels was the fact that authors were willing to sit and answer questions and let readers into the process of how a story goes together.

As an Author, I’d Love to See You at my Next Con

Whatever your previous feelings about Comic Conventions, I hope that I will see you at my next Con. It is the place where all readers belong. A land of adventures.

What do you think?

How to Start a Book

Okay, I finished the rough draft of my manuscript… and then the second draft… and then I went through it again. You know what? I hated the beginning.

Maybe I had read this thing too many times. Maybe the whole thing was trash. I started doing some research. I had one question to answer… How is a book supposed to start?

I realized that I’m not the first author to ask this question when I realized how many books and blogs there are out there with this as a topic line. Realizing that I could kill many hours reading and call it research, I dug in to read as many of these as possible. I was going to find out the perfect solution to my dragging book problem.

After several hours, I realized that each author had their own solution to the best way to start a book. Although I had become familiar with some great phrases like, ‘setting the hook’ and ‘dragging the reader in’, I still didn’t know for sure how to redo the beginning of my book. I had found several books that made me question where the beginning of my book should be, however. Maybe I needed to add a few more chapters at the beginning? Tell more story? Tell less story?

Finally, I decided that the opening of the book just needs a couple of things. When I go shopping for a new book I often read the first page. If I like the character and the voice of the author, I’ll probably buy the book. So, I decided that what I really needed to do was to go back to the beginning of my book and rewrite the first page and make sure that the character is in there enough to be understood and that I get enough of my writing style there for the reader to understand how I’ll write the story. I just needed to create some situation for the main character to ‘be in’ that would describe her personality in the first page. How hard could that be, right?

One of the most interesting blogs, that I read, used the Disney movies as an example. In most of the Disney animated movies, the main character is introduced by an opening song that goes through and introduces their world and the one thing that they value. Belle in the opening of Beauty and the Beast and her books, as an example. 

Now, all I have to do is find that core value of my character and create an interesting scene to begin the book. It doesn’t even have to have an importance in the story, just introduce the character and grab the reader into the story.

Should be easy, right?

Keeping our Manuscripts out of the Trash

Recently, I attended a writing workshop where I sat down in a class that was outside my normal genre. I didn’t see anything that fit with my needs during that hour, so I thought I would give it a shot. I usually write Science Fiction but the next book I was considering was a murder mystery on a space station, so I thought I would attend a workshop class with a mystery writer and see if I could pick up a few tips.

Boy was this a great choice.

The author in question was named Betty Webb and she was one of the most informative instructors of the three-day conference. In fact, I adjusted my schedule to attend a couple of her other offerings before the end of the workshop. One of the things I appreciated, aside from the loads of great information, was the handouts she gave to the group. It’s one of these I want to share with you today.

A lot of the information she shared was specifically about mystery writers but some was for writers in general and this handout was a great example of that.

It is titled:

The Top 25 Reasons Your Submissions are Rejected.

Tips from the Surrey, B.C. Writers Conference. Each year agents and publishers conduct an exercise, where they read aloud the first pages of writers’ submissions to see how far they would read before it would be rejected. Here is a list of the reasons for rejection:

1.      An opening image that did not work.

2.      Opened with a rhetorical question.

3.      The first line is about setting, not about story.

4.      The first line’s hook did not work, because it was not tied to the plot or the conflict of the opening scene.

5.      The first line’s hook did not work, because it was an image, rather than getting the reader into the story.

6.      Took too long for anything to happen (a critique, incidentally, leveled several times at a submission after only the first paragraph had been read); the story taking time to warm up.

7.      Not enough happens on page 1.

8.      The opening sounded like an ad for the book or a recap of the pitch, rather than getting the reader into the story.

9.      The opening contained the phrases, “My name is…” and/or “My age is…”

10.   The opening contained the phrase, “This can’t be happening.”

11.   The opening contained the phrase or the implication, “And then I woke up.”

12.   The opening paragraph contained too much jargon.

13.   The opening contained one or more clichéd phrases.

14.   The opening contained one or more clichéd pieces of materiel. (The most I counted in a single submission was 5.) Specifically singled out: a character’s long red or blonde hair.

15.   The opening had a character do something that characters only do in book, not in real life. Specifically singled out: a character who shakes her head to clear an image, “he shook his head to clear the cobwebs.”

16.   The opening has the protagonist respond to an unnamed thing (e.g., something dead in the bathtub, something horrible in the closet, someone on the other side of the peephole…) for more than a paragraph without naming it, creating false suspense.

17.   The characters talk about something (a photo, a person, the kitchen table) for more than a line without describing it, creating a false suspense.

18.   The unnamed protagonist cliché: The woman ran through the forest…

19.   An unnamed character (usually she) is wandering around in the opening scene.

20.   Non-organic suspense, created by some salient fact being kept from the reader for a long time (and remember, on the first page, one paragraph is a looooong time).

21.   The character spots him/herself in the mirror, in order to provide an excuse for a physical description.

22.   The first paragraph was narration, rather than action.

23.   Too much physical description in the opening paragraph, rather than action or conflict.

24.   The opening spent too much time on environment, not enough on character.

25.   The first lines were dialogue. (To be fair, only one of the agents seemed to have a problem with this.)

This is why they would read beyond Page 1:

1.      A non-average character in a situation you wouldn’t expect.

2.      An action scene that felt like it was happening in real time.

3.      The author made the point, then moved on.

4.      The scene was emotionally engaging.

5.      The voice is strong and easy to relate to.

6.      The suspense seemed inherent to the story, not just how it was told.

7.      Good opening line.

8.      There was something going on beyond just the surface action.

As I said before, it was a great workshop and this was just a part of the pile of information that she shared.  I am glad I went outside my comfort zone and attended a class that I normally would have overlooked.

I just purchased one of her books to read. Hopefully I’ll be as impressed with her writing as I was with her as a teacher and person.

I Didn't See That Coming!

I commented a while ago (see post from 29 July 2011) on how reading extensively can make you a better writer.  I've just finished the second book in an unnamed fantasy series, and I've been spending some time analyzing the characters in the series.  Overall, the characters are well-developed; having unique traits and histories to which they remain consistent, while still having a growth arc through the story.

This particular author is writing at the top of his craft, and there are many things I can learn from how he handles his characters.  There were, still, several places where the I-wouldn't-have-written-it-that-way lights started flashing.  I'm not sure if this is more plot-related or character-related, but here's what I noticed:  Things seemed very predictable.

As soon as two characters come into conflict, I could see how that was going to build, and how it would eventually have to be resolved.  I did a quick count, and there were 21 such situations in this book.  Sixteen of these played out exactly (or almost exactly) how I thought they would.  Four of them remained unresolved at the end of the book.  The last remaining conflict involved revealing something that had happened in the past.  Whathad happened was what I thought it would be, but the how was completely different than I had predicted.

What I'm pondering on now, though, is whether or not it's better to set things up in a story and then deliver pretty much what the reader is expecting, or to have the plot twist and turn and keep the reader guessing?  While my personal preference is the convoluted didn't-see-that-coming option, there's no arguing with the fact that the author of the book I read has multiple NY Times bestsellers, while I…do not.  So, should I change my writing approach in order to be more commercially successful?

As an example of what I'm talking about, I can think of a number of instances in the Reckoning series we're working on where the characters will analyze the existing situation in an attempt to figure out what is going on.  In almost every case, they make logical, well-reasoned analyses…and then come up with the wrong answer.  The reader already knows what the right answer is, so the expectation is for each side of a conflict to respond to what is, but instead both sides are responding to what they think is going on, making the response something other than what would have been predicted.

As I said, I personally like this approach to plotting out a story, and keeping the reader guessing a little.  As I also said, as a writer, I tend to read a book differently than most people.  Please add comments with how you feel about stories you've read, and let me know if I'm going down the wrong path.