Book and Links

"Wolffy, aren't you doing arbitrary novel editing November? Presumably this means you have less books and links than usual." Uhhh.

Books

The Truth, Men At Arms and Feet of Clay by Terry Pratchett

I fell on a bunch of Terry Pratchett audio books these past few days. I don't have much to say about them as individuals? They're Terry Pratchett books.

But. Reading them has reminded me of a bug bear I have about the Pratchett fandom.

( 90s British Author Compare and Contrast )

On Editing by Helen Corner-Bryant and Kathryn Price

This is a book about the persnickety details of line editing, things like not head hopping and avoiding homoerotic POV weirdnesses (no, really, that's an example they used) and showing not telling. It's a lot of fairly standard advice, in an exhaustive and methodical manner.

Plot and Structure by James Scott Bell

This is one of the plotting books I've read recently that I've found the most useful. I should warn that Bell is really obviously a Thriller author, and it shows in his advice? He treats 'everyman' protagonists as a viable option, and does not really grok Romance which makes his advice for it a little weird.

But overall, it's a good broad scale overview of plot structure, and also has some good technique advice. There's a whole chapter on different outlining method for various levels of plotting and pantsing, which I cannot summarise that would be too close to just copying chapter. But it's really good. (Also, the method I use is described as 'The Borg Method' which, fuck you, Bell [affectionate.])

There's also some really good writerly psychological advice. I'm putting his advice for getting past the Mid Point Blues, because it is really good:

1. Go somewhere quiet and just chill for half an hour. No writing, no talking, no reading. Just chill, alone
2. Do something fun. Go to the movies! Go window shopping! Do something of some sort.
3. Fall asleep with a warm glass of milk and your favourite book.
4. and when you wake up, IMMEDIATELY WRITE SOMETHING. DO NOT STOP. DO NOT PASS GO. WRITE

Which I can see working on me.

Links

• Bret Devereaux is [annoyed at oaths in fantasy literature]( https://acoup.blog/2019/06/28/collections-oaths-how-do-they-work/)
• K Klein defends linguistic prescriptivism as good, somethimes
• New AcapellaScience song! About eels!
• and a spoileriffic Baldur's Gate 3 video, that I am sharing in the spirit of the laugh rule, because these are some very funny animation crimes

But, like. If I had to pick a genre to get plotting advice from a successful writer of it from, thriller is at the top of the list.