Here's a bundle of writing links for you, all on the same topic. So here are three links about plotting, story, and getting started. Alexandra Sokoloff with a plotting checklist. I started doing this with one novel but didn't get very far. Maybe is I go through the list I could get the basic outline finished. Rachael Aaron with the difference between story and plot. And lastly, Chuck Wendig's 25 way to plot plan and prep your story (from before I started reading Chuck regularly). (Grokked from Miranda Suri)
Of some interest to my novel, Bladesman, the Japanese try to crack down on the yakuza. Unfortunately the Japanese organized crime syndicates are highly entrenched. A comparable event would be like trying clean up organized crime in America during Prohibition. (Grokked from Jay Lake)
And interesting (and quick) squib on the rise of the mass market paperback. Of general writerly interest, look at the numbers of books sold. Also notice the importance of the distribution channels to the success of the new format (and books in general). (Grokked from Jay Lake)
"Okay, fine, you can do this on purpose but really, you shouldn’t, because doing something like this on purpose means chasing trends and writing only to a market and becoming a brand and standing on a platform and cobbling together a product rather than a story and basically just, y’know, hammering a circle peg into a square hole — so don’t." Chuck Wendig on writing to the market.
New flexible batteries. What will they think of next? (Grokked from Jay Lake)
Going public with depression. Monsters are more scary in the dark than in the light. "Among a million other things I wish he'd lived to see is the community of souls online, generously baring and sharing their depression struggles with strangers." There's lots of links at the bottom of that page, in case you may need them. (Grokked from Jay Lake)
There was an interesting series on Marketplace this week about paychecks. That's a story on sharing what you earn (including who is sharing what about your salary). Also please note who objects to sharing salary information. There's also a part about how with Frank-Dodd publicly traded companies will need to share their salary ratio (what the top exec makes compared to what the rest of the people make). One of the interviewees says how embarrassing it'll be so we shouldn't do it. Um, no, that's exactly the point of sharing it.
Look, Aiken is just the tip of the iceberg. You know, like the old timey really big icebergs. "So when Republicans start kicking out members like Broun, Kingston, Bachmann, Shimkus, Barton, Gohmert and Allen West… I'll know they're serious about cleaning up their party… Until then, they should stop picking on Todd Akin. He's just playing by their rules. And they're only making noise about it because he may cost them the Senate." (Grokked from the Slactivist)
Also on Marketplace, as quick story on police using automatic license plate scanners.
And with other business news, sometimes tragedy is good for profits. It's one thing to position your company to make a profit, it's another to realize that someone's struggle for survival is your enhanced profit, it takes a sociopath to be joyful about it and shiver with anticipation. (Grokked from Jay Lake)
And just a final note of this week's Romney toe-tipping into birtherism, it's just another example of his dog-whistling. Dear Mitt, you can continue to jab in the spotlight and "clarify" off camera when nobody is really paying attention, and you'll continue to look like the despicable person you are. At least McCain had the decency to counter bigotry when he heard it, in the same room, and at the time it happened. You know, before the spotlight moved on.
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