If you clicked thinking this post was going to be about developing a magical system for your novel, sorry for the tease. As I was driving to the Friday morning write in, my son, who has a cold, tells me, “Mommy, I just want to stay with you today, cause when I’m next to you I almost forget I’m sick.” wow. I couldn’t possibly put the feeling of being someone’e whole world in better words.

Speaking of world’s….

I hadn’t planned to go to the geography of world building at Norwescon because I write historically based fiction. I’m not inventing a world, heck I don’t even invent my own plots. History is ripe with situations just waiting for me (and I suppose you as well, if I must share) to adapt into an amusing little vignette. But somehow Saturday night I found myself with a gap in my planned schedule and I decided to pop in and check it out because after all you never know what’s going to be useful, someday.

Flipping back through my notes what stood out to me most was this:

-Good geography should be like sound effects in a movie, seamless when done right, very jarring when out of place.

-Changing some of the givens like gravity, metals, or water to land ratio can adjust the entire world while still giving you the base of an Earth like world.

-Populate your world with the resources that meet your needs or don’t meet your characters needs, as suits your novel. i.e. conflicts over resources.

-In general, the harsher the environment, the harsher the people.

When in doubt build only what you need. No point in building a 7 planet system when your characters will never leave the valley they are born in.

let’s talk about tab a and slot b, let’s talk about all the good things

and the bad things writing smut can be,

let’s talk about sex….

Saturday night instead of going to the masquerade, I kept on at panels. I wanted the most writing advice one human could absorb in 3 short days. But I have to be honest “Beyond Insert Tab A into Slot B” was pure entertainment. And to ice this highly amusing panel I got the pleasure of coaxing my very sweet friend, who was mildly embarrassed the whole time but willing to suffer on the off chance she might someday need to write a sex scene, into coming along with me.

Like almost every other panel I went to at Norwescon these writers all brought something unique to their craft. They were all well versed in the ins and outs (pun intended) of publishing porn. They were all just smart and very comfortable with their subject matter.

This was also the one panel where I actually asked a question in session. (I am not big on attention and so mostly snagged panelists afterwards for a quick question.) I prefaced my question like this, “Having been previously told I had too much plot in my porn…” (the looks on their faces at this moment could not have been more horrified than if a man in a balaclava and an AK had just burst into the room) “How do I make sure I don’t have too much porn in my plot? How much is too much? How long should a scene go on?”

Of course I got two answers to this question.

Answer A: Look at publications by the publishing house you want to pick up your book and match your smut content percentage those books because that is clearly what that publisher is comfortable with.

Answer B: Sure you could do that but if you change your sex scenes to match a publisher your audience will know. Your sex scenes will not feel authentic to them. Write until you feel it’s done. Write what you think the book needs.

Guess which answer resonated with me? Thanks, Elliot Kay.

(if you want to check Elliot out here’s his blog. http://elliottkay.blogspot.com/)

But back to Authentic. For some reason this word has been peppering my life for months. I will definitely touch more on this in the coming days. But for now I will leave you with the one piece of standard advice I wrote down at this panel. Nothing is as dull as too much detail when writing sex.

One of the most contentious panels I attended, the debate over whether or not you would have a fool for a client if you acted as your own agent was pretty drawn. Some of them hands down loved their agents and credited them with their careers, others, not so much.

If I take all the things I wrote down, but them in a blender and consume only that which is unlikely to poison me this is what I come up with.

-If you want a traditional publishing contract with a big publishing house, you need an agent.

-However, you are paying the agent for the relationship they have with the editor at that big house. Which means if push comes to shove, despite the agent’s paid role as your representative, they are going to protect the relationship they value the most. And it isn’t you. 1000 debut authors hit their desk every week.

-So to protect yourself on the above two points, always have an IP lawyer (Intellectual Property) who is familiar with the publishing world review any contact with the big houses before you sign. Maybe even consider this before signing with a small house depending on how the contract is written. Although I have heard from  many people the small/indie houses use short 3-5 page written in English contracts.

Scary Story: one of the panelists used an IP lawyer who caught a clause the agent had slipped in stating any book the author ever sold to this publisher garnered the agent 15% whether the agent was still repping the author or not. Yikes!

-Most agents will let you call their current clients before signing with them, however, that might not tell you anything useful as no one bad mouths their agent publicly unless they want to get black balled.

-Always employ the expert. Foreign rights, movie rights, merchandising rights. There is more to a publishing contract than just how much will your advance be.

Scary story: this was told ala urban legend but…a debut author took their contract to a lawyer (not IP and not pub savvy). The lawyer told the author the publishing house was trying to cheat them, the author sued. Of course they lost because it was a standard practice contract widely accepted in the publishing world but the author also tanked their career. They were black balled. Always employ the expert.

-Most of all, educate yourself about what is going on behind the scenes in the publishing world. As a debut author be prepared to give up something you might want to get that big publishing house contract. Compromise will be the name of the game.

There really was no consensus on agents. The two poles went something like this.

-Without an agent I would not have books coming out this year or next. My agent made my career.

-self publish, make a name for yourself, then agents will be lining up to rep you for those large house contracts and you will have bargaining power.

Both sound like valid paths to me. So choose your own adventure.

Yesterday I threatened to post every day until I got bored or you did. I make good on my promises, which is really all a threat is. goofy grins.

One of the many, many panels I attended at Norwescon was one on different forms of plot structure. At the end of the panel, during Q&A another attendee asked for advice on her plot. The moderator gave the best answer ever. He said it sounded like she was trying to learn to juggle and had started out with 5 chain saws. He suggested she go back and work with silk scarves for a bit.

I don’t think I heard anyone else’s answer to her question because immediately I was sucked into my own mind processing this idea. And it made total sense. My spy novel is 3 chainsaws. That romance I wrote last nano, that was my silk scarves. The novel I was to do, rewriting world war 2, that is my five chainsaws.

Wow.

So what does that really mean for me? It means this year for nano I need to find something between silk scarves and 3 chainsaws. What’s the writing equivalent to like 3 foam bowling pins?

As a side note on this panel was a gentleman who writes choose your own adventure novels for adults. Bad Ass!

Matt Youngmark is his name, I add a link for him in case your are interested. I have not yet read any of his books but I will.

http://www.chooseomatic.com/

Not headin’ out to Seatac

for the norwescon day,

got my robe and slippers on,

For today I was not meant for sci fi fantasy con,

but honey I didn’t know I’d be missing you so

Come Monday, I thought I’d be alright

Come Monday, I’d sleep in after a long night

It was three very long days in a norwescon daze

and the truth is I miss it so….

(My apologies to all parrotheads reading my blog.)

Con was FABULOUS!

ok the parking situation sucked but I can fix that next year by staying at the hotel and I might just do that.

I went to 20 panels in 3 days, it would have been more but I had to coach soccer Friday afternoon and missed a couple of things I wanted to see in consequence. I learned sooooo much. Seriously, even the panels where it didn’t “apply” to what I am currently writing, I jotted down a nugget or two of really cool information.

So onto my top three highlights of the convention:

A) Getting to be me, the writer for three days.

B) Realizing as much as I might bitch, moan, and whine about how hard it is to write with a five year old demanding every moment of my day, if it wasn’t for my sprocket, I wouldn’t be a writer. I hadn’t written in more than ten years and had no idea of picking it up again. But in the terrible twos and the even worse threes, I needed something for myself. Something that would get me away from the house and engaged with adults. Nanowrimo was that something(undying gratitude to my cuz for introducing me to Nano). I don’t think I would have had the guts to do it if I hadn’t been so desperate for some much deserved space. So thanks kiddo. (and Dave)

C) having a working senior intel officer with Special Operations call one of my tactical ideas the best thing he had heard all weekend. Huge confidence builder. I’ll finish my spy novel one of these days.

I could make this list go on for days, I could. But you don’t want to read that. So I think instead I will post one informative, thoughtful, or empowering thing I heard from con every day til I am bored or you are.

Cheers from my couch where I am still drinking coffee in my robe.