Jason M. Hough

Charity Auction

noreply@blogger.com (Jason M. Hough) — Fri, 04 May 2012 15:14:00 +0000

Want to name a character in my series? Or a vehicle maybe?

I'm auctioning off just that, plus a few other things like a query letter critique, here. All proceeds go to diabetes research!

Two tips for naming characters

noreply@blogger.com (Jason M. Hough) — Fri, 20 Apr 2012 12:41:00 +0000

Writing Status: DARWIN 2 first draft is almost done -- four chapters left.
Music I'm writing to: "MOON" Soundtrack by Clint Mansell

Here's two techniques I use when I need a good character name in a hurry. For some reason I find it hard to pull names out of thin air, and using my friends' names is a well that has nearly run dry.

Character Name if the person's birthplace and/or time are important:
Let's say I need a good name for a twenty year Scottish man. I go to Wikipedia and search for "Scotland National..." -- the autofill offers me a dozen completion options. Look for the ones related to sports. In this case I'll pick "Scotland National football team".
Now scroll down and look for the roster(s). Often you'll find the current squad, plus links or even lists of squads from previous years. There before you are the names of 10, 20... 40 Scots. I don't know what it is about athletes, but they seem to have consistently great names.
What I do next is start reading them, taking one player's first name and another's last. I basically do this until i find a new combination that has the kind of sound I'm looking for. For example, if I wanted a gangster type right now I'll go with... Tommy Roxburgh. Nice. If I was looking for a geek type, I might choose Dawson Bardsley. Villain? Lee Ormond.

There we go. Three good names in less than a minute. And none are stereotypical Scottish names, which I think is good but it might not suit your needs. You could always pick something like Iain MacNaughton. The point is you have choices.

Note you can can of course search for women's teams, or teams from many years ago (olympic lists are great too). And obviously just about every country will have multiple sporting organizations to pick from.

Character Name if something random will do:
There's plenty of random name generators out there, and some of them are quite good. My favorite for "real world" names is Kleimo, which uses U.S. Census data to randomly marry first and last names, and even includes an obscurity factor (picks names that show up more or less often in census data).

Being random, the names are all over the map, but remember as you read the results that you can create your own pairings. Don't limit yourself to the list it gave you, just start mixing them in your mind. The key for you is a pairing that sounds good off the tongue.

I just ran it and came up with Max Elsey, Kurt Bourland, and for a woman... Eve Valerius. Eve Valerius! Holy crap that's a great name. I'm going to use it. Back off, would-be thieves. Generate your own.

Last but not least
Lastly, its not a bad idea to google the name(s) you picked, or search for them on Amazon, and just make sure there's at least no one famous (or infamous) with the name you picked. Might save you some headaches later.

Now excuse me while I go write up a character profile for Eve Valerius.

Motivation

noreply@blogger.com (Jason M. Hough) — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 15:12:00 +0000

I thought I'd share my technique for keeping on schedule, which also serves as an extremely good motivator.

On Google Docs, I keep a spreadsheet that tracks my progress. Every morning, after my writing session, I hop in here and update my word count. The document automatically calculates a number of statistics that tell me where things stand:

All I have to do is update the "Current Count" column. Everything else is calculated automatically, and instantly I know how far ahead, or behind, I am.

There's something quite addictive about seeing the numbers climb, and not just my word count, which I can get within Scrivener very easily. What's more motivating is seeing that "ahead / -behind" field grow and stay blue. It turns red if I'm in the negative, and I despise seeing that color here. When it's blue, I know I'm ahead of schedule, and the translation into days is even more powerful.

On days when I'm struggling to get through a scene, I find myself updating the word count often. Like, every hundred words or so. Each little update is a reminder that I'm making progress, even if it's at a snails pace.

As you can see, right now I'm working towards a self-imposed deadline of May 15th to finish the second book in this trilogy. Contractually, the book isn't due until August 15th, but I'm striving to finish it early so that I have more time to work on book three. Even with my early May 15th date, I've managed to build up a nice bank account of days ahead. Seeing this number is a fantastic and tangible reward, because I know two things: first, I can take a day off here and there without stressing about it. Second, I know that every day ahead I get will be a day I can use to polish the manuscript even more. If I can keep up my pace, I'll finish a month ahead of my personal goal, a month I can use to go back and fix all the problems I've already noted.

A spreadsheet like this is especially useful when you're behind. Primarily so that you'll simply know you're behind. It can be difficult to gauge something like that on a project lasting many months. But not only will this tell me I am behind, it'll tell me what my "new average target" needs to be if I want to finish on time. It can be unnerving to know you're behind by 6000 words, but when you see that all you have to do is up your daily goal from 600 to 650 words to finish on time, the obstacle doesn't seem so daunting.

Every project I actively work on goes on the sheet, and I used this even before I had an actual deadline to worry about. You may have noticed there's a column for "writer" here, too. This sheet is also used, on occasion, by members of my writing group, and the multi-user aspect is a great way for us to keep each other honest. Praise when we see progress, and encouragement when we're lagging.

Since I started writing, I've always set myself a date to finish something by. Even arbitrary dates serve as a great way to give yourself a path forward, and the spreadsheet acts as a visual way to wrap your mind around the enormity of your project.

As they say, nothing spurs creativity like a deadline.

Del Rey's newsletter

noreply@blogger.com (Jason M. Hough) — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 23:04:00 +0000

The latest issue of Del Rey's newsletter features an article by my editor concerning the series. Have a look:

http://www.suvudu.com/enewsletter/

Progress

noreply@blogger.com (Jason M. Hough) — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 20:04:00 +0000

I just received word that THE DARWIN ELEVATOR has been approved by my editor at Del Rey!

Now it's off to layout design and copy editing, then proofreading. After that, the fun stuff like cover design, marketing... I can't wait!

I also can't rest. BOOK 2 (that's just a working title) is about one-third of the way done, and on schedule. It's nice to know that I can focus solely on that now, as I've been bouncing between the two manuscripts for the last month or so.

RIP Kip Williams

noreply@blogger.com (Jason M. Hough) — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 19:27:00 +0000

In August of 2008, a few months before Nanowrimo would begin, I had dinner with my friend Kip. We sat under the stars at Jayne's Gastropub, and over gourmet burgers we each shared the various ideas we were thinking of tackling for our november novels. I pitched three projects, one of which was The Darwin Elevator. Personally I was hotter on a different idea, but Kip looked me square in the eye and said, "If I were you I'd drop everything else and work on nothing but that." He went on at length about the merits of the idea, and that encouragement and confidence served as a constant motivator to me during my path to where I am now.

Kip was one of the first writers I met when I started writing in 2007. He became the heart and soul of our informal writing group, the Cosmonicans, and served as a constant source of stories, jokes, and advice. The man had more talent in his little pinky than the rest of our group combined, in my opinion, and it saddens me that he spent so much of his time and energy battling cancer over the last few years, time I'm sure he would have loved to devote to writing.

Last year I told Kip I'd named a character after him in the book.

"Not the hero, I hope," he said.

"Oh, no. This Kip's a total weasel."

"Perfect," he said, with his signature grin.

He passed away on November 23rd, losing a fight with leukemia, and he'll be sorely missed.

You can read some of his short fiction on his blog.

Book two progress

noreply@blogger.com (Jason M. Hough) — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 16:26:00 +0000

A quick update: I'm about 20% of the way through book two of the DARWIN series (still working on an over-arching name for the three books). I'm very excited about how it's shaping up. The outline has been through a few rounds of brainstorming and feedback with my editor at Del Rey, and is so much better for it.

The second book isn't due until mid-august, but I'm shooting to finish the first draft by May 15 so that I have three months to revise. Hopefully I won't need all of it, and can get cracking on book three early. We'll see!

A three book deal with Del Rey

noreply@blogger.com (Jason M. Hough) — Mon, 31 Oct 2011 17:24:00 +0000

"Everything went better than expected."

Like any good drama, the submission process did not go as I thought it would. Everything I heard leading up to Submission Day was that I'd be in for a 4-to-6 month wait, filled with nail-baiting silence occasionally broken by terse rejection.

Instead, three weeks in, our first offer arrived.

Two weeks after that, another offer. And then a third.

Amazingly, they all had different sets of pro's and con's, and in the end I simply chose the one that I thought offered me the best catapult into a career as an author. Del Rey won out, and it helped that they showed a ton of enthusiasm for the book and its sequels.

I'll admit there were a few rejections mixed in there, too. But nothing disheartening. I think the 'worst' complaint we received was that the book was too fast paced. I can live with that!

Now comes the hard part: sequel deadlines. I'm on the hook for two, and both need to be delivered in less time than it took me to write the first book.

][+

noreply@blogger.com (Jason M. Hough) — Thu, 06 Oct 2011 16:10:00 +0000

In 1981 my father brought home a computer. A f*cking computer, in our house. I was nine years old.

The little beige machine, replete with dual disk drives, 64k of RAM and a black-n-white 9" monitor, cost over five thousand dollars back then (I found this out later). It was called the Apple ][+. In hindsight, it was an amazing investment for my dad to make in us. I say us because he never once tried to keep the kids away from it. Quite the opposite! He let us claw and drool all over the thing. And that we did.

There were some drawbacks. We fought over who got to use it, and for how long. I think ultimately my grade-school years suffered for it, too, because I was always too preoccupied with what program I was going to write next. I remember in math class looking at every homework assignment and thinking about how I could totally write a BASIC program to solve this. An hour later the plucky little computer was spitting out my homework answers, complete with the "work" I needed to write down so that it would appear to my teachers as if I'd really done it. I wrote games and made endless password systems to try and keep my siblings out of my disks.

Like a lot of computer nerds, I moved on to other platforms. An Atari ST, dozens of home-built PC Clones, linux machines, gaming rigs, you name it.

But I'll never forget that little beige box. It opened my mind in ways that school never could. It was science fiction made real, something Apple still provides today.

I can thank the Steve's (Jobs and Woz) for inventing it. And my father, for having the foresight to buy it and let me hack on the thing.

It's the very reason I had no qualms whatsoever in handing my drooling toddler an iPad. He's not even two yet and can dance around the thing like you wouldn't believe.

Cheers, Mr. Jobs. You didn't cure a disease or win a nobel prize, but you pioneered a world where imagination could flourish, and amazing power could be placed in the hands of a kid like me.

The problem with "read & critique" groups

noreply@blogger.com (Jason M. Hough) — Fri, 30 Sep 2011 14:47:00 +0000

Actually, I have no problem with read & critique groups in and of themselves.

My problem is that I think many aspiring writers put to much focus and energy on this path to improvement, and totally neglect an equally important one: the plot they start with.

Reading five pages aloud to a group can yield fantastic revelations about how to properly string words together. What concerns me is that, as aspiring writers, we seem to think this is the only form of feedback we need. If all you focus on is the quality of writing, as judged in five page chunks, you're missing half the picture (if not more). Imagine trying to improve your filmmaking skills by showing people one 30 second scene taken out of context.

Why are there no "plot & strategize" groups? How about getting together with smart, diverse people and brainstorming your ideas, honing your structure, pace and scenes. Then start writing?

My cohorts and I held brainstorming sessions like this before they started Nanowrimo last year (I skipped Nano to keep editing Darwin). I found it to be an amazing experience. It's a wonderful thing to see an idea floated before creative minds, watch it get pushed and prodded and bloodied. I think everyone in the group left with a much stronger story, or at least a fat list of interesting ideas.

Now, I'm well aware that some writers prefer to start with a blank page and see where the muse takes them. I wish them all the luck in the world, because I think they're going to need it. For anyone who likes to at least roughly plan their story before writing word one, consider getting some friends together (they don't have to be writers, just trustworthy creative people), and have them hash it out with you.

If you don't take their ideas at face value, that's okay. That is the great thing about ideas: there's no such thing as a bad one when you're in brainstorming mode. Because even a bad idea can spark a good one.

Consider reading Edward de Bono's 'Lateral Thinking' if you want some great tips on how to effectively brainstorm. There is an art to it. But if you don't want to read up on the topic, let me suggest a few simple guidelines:

Keep the sessions short. 20 to 30 minutes is ideal. In our group, we go round-robin. Each person had 20 minutes. The first minute introduced the basic idea they wanted to brainstorm. Then for ten minutes the group rapidly voiced ideas as they came. The owner of the idea says nothing during this time (unless the group has a clarification question). At the ten minute mark, stop and let the owner of the idea decide how to spend the next ten. Maybe they want to focus in on a specific idea, or switch gears altogether. It is their choice.
There's no such thing as a bad idea. Meaning, discourage the group from critiquing anyone's thoughts. No one should say "that's dumb" or "that won't work because...". Either move on, or try to morph the bad idea into a good one (this is often where the best stuff comes from, which is why you don't want to stifle "bad" ideas). It's up to you, the owner of the idea, to sort good from bad after the session. The key is: you want everyone to feel free to say whatever come to mind.
Whoever "owns" the floor owns the ideas being voiced. This is why it is critical your group is trustworthy. The last thing you want to do is get some great idea from the group, only to find six months later that someone else in the group decided to start writing about the same thing. If someone hears something that they truly want to use when it isn't their floor, they must ask permission of the owner. We did this and it worked out just fine.

"Yer done"

noreply@blogger.com (Jason M. Hough) — Sat, 27 Aug 2011 23:33:00 +0000

That was the subject of Sara's email to me Friday. The book is ready to submit!

I've posted part of my original query letter as a way to introduce the story, and an excerpt.

Pins and needles time!

Tell a ten year old

noreply@blogger.com (Jason M. Hough) — Mon, 15 Aug 2011 14:16:00 +0000

Disclaimer: Until I'm published, take any writing advice I give with healthy skepticism.

This morning I started to think about how I arrived here, days away from finishing a novel. Of the many things along the way that helped me, one stood out:

I told my ten-year-old cousin about it.

Aspiring writers, if you want to make sure you've got every corner of your world figured out, every facet of your plot bulletproof, tell a kid about it. You'll get an endless stream of questions, some so obvious that you would have never thought to ask them yourself.

Not only that, but every time you see them after that they'll ask for updates, or attack you with a new line of questioning they hadn't thought of before.

Now that I think about it, this strategy would work well if planning a jewel heist, too. I'll have to remember that.

Update on my novel

noreply@blogger.com (Jason M. Hough) — Mon, 18 Jul 2011 03:34:00 +0000

I thought it might be time to log an update, for the historical record.

I've been hard at work on a number of revisions since I signed with Sara. Most of these were born from her feedback, which has been fantastic and insightful. Right now I'm putting the finishing touches on the final chapter, and in a few days I'll finally be able to hand her the full manuscript.

Line edits are next, and then, fingers-crossed, submission! We're shooting for Sept. 1st, which is a deadline I set for motivational reasons more than anything.

Final word-count, for anyone interested in such things, will be roughly 145,000.

Random plotting tip

noreply@blogger.com (Jason M. Hough) — Wed, 11 May 2011 13:34:00 +0000

Try to turn your coincidences into conspiracies.

Some thoughts on the revision process

noreply@blogger.com (Jason M. Hough) — Wed, 09 Mar 2011 18:11:00 +0000

I'm amazed, here on my 4th draft, how much the plot is still evolving. It's almost comical to look back on my first draft now, and the outline that led to it.

To you aspiring writers out there, slogging through that first draft and feeling down on your story, all I can say is... plow forward. If your outline is as weak as mine was (in hindsight), it's still good enough to hammer out a first draft. I'm convinced now that only after doing that can you see where the flaws are, and where the diamonds lay.

Revising is hard work, and not nearly as fun as the first draft, but I think it's where the real magic happens.

iPad writing tools, revisited

noreply@blogger.com (Jason M. Hough) — Sun, 13 Feb 2011 22:37:00 +0000

Back in June, I posted about the writing tools I use on the iPad. Well, things have changed!

There's no shortage of good options around for the iPad now. And, when combined with the wonderful Scrivener 2.0, and its ability to sync with Dropbox, it is now possible to edit a current Scrivener project while on-the-go. It's still a little fussy, but ten times better than it used to be.

I'm primarily using two tools on the iPad now:

First is PlainText. It's a simple text editor, with a beautiful streamlined interface, and it can be tied to your Dropbox account. Offline editing is possible (some will only work with Dropbox when you're on the network). Folders are supported. It's minimalist and it's fantastic. When I write on the iPad, this is what I use. Best of all, it's free, though I think it's worth the few dollars in order to remove the ads.
Second is neu.Annotate PDF. This is a free PDF viewer that lets you make annotations. Hightlights, scribblings, text -- whatever you want. It's fast and, though a bit quirky at times, does what I need. Can't beat the price, either.

I'm using neu.Annotate more than PlainText right now, simply because I am in revision mode. The iPad seems good for writing new stuff, but when it comes to editing I'm much more efficient when I have my Mac handy and Scrivener front and center.

A novel approach

noreply@blogger.com (Jason M. Hough) — Tue, 08 Feb 2011 16:37:00 +0000

Recently I switched mind-mapping tools -- from Freemind to MindNode -- and in doing so I happened to open my original outline for the novel I'm working on. I thought it'd be fun to share it, at least in visual form (I'll probably share the actual content of it later, when the book is done).

So, for anyone who may be interested, this is what my outline looked like before I started my first draft (click for full size -- warning, large image!):

The three big chunks on the right are Act 1, Act 2, and Act 3. The chunks on the left are things like characters, settings, and misc world-details.

It's fun to re-read it now, after three drafts and so many changes. Once I imported this info into Scrivener, I abandoned the mindmap file, so it truly is a snapshop of what I'd planned to write. I'm happy to see that the meat of my story has remained the same through all the revisions.

As I said, I'll share a detailed version later for anyone who might be interested in how things evolve from outline to final product. If I'm allowed, I'd also like to post a PDF of the first draft -- I think it would be useful for fledging writers to see just how crappy a first draft can, and perhaps should, be.

When time permits

noreply@blogger.com (Jason M. Hough) — Wed, 05 Jan 2011 19:05:00 +0000

My schedule is all out of whack, lately.

With our toddler, the little bundle of raw energy that he is, wanting to play late into the evening, I can no longer get writing done at home. I'm simply too tired after work, dinner, and playtime. Besides, I wouldn't trade that precious few hours hanging out with my son for anything.

So I've taken to writing early... really early. These days I get up at 5am, shower, and then go find somewhere to write. My new favorite spot is the beach. This morning I parked my car, shifted to the passenger seat, and proofread about 50 pages on the iPad (thanks to neu.Annotate PDF, a wonderful free app). The window was down, and despite a cold breeze, the sound of the ocean made the perfect backdrop for a productive session.

Just what I needed to get back on track.

An image inspired by my book

noreply@blogger.com (Jason M. Hough) — Mon, 06 Dec 2010 21:52:00 +0000

A friend of mine, the talented artist Kelli Davis, created this painting for me. It's inspired by the novel I am working on, and I think it's fantastic.

The image depicts my main character looking up in wonder at a space elevator. I think it does a great job of capturing the mood of the book -- the mixture of a post-apocalyptic world existing in the shadow of awe-inspiring technology.

Thanks, Kelli!

Agent!

noreply@blogger.com (Jason M. Hough) — Wed, 01 Dec 2010 04:43:00 +0000

I'm thrilled, honored, and humbled to say that I've been signed by Sara Megibow at the Nelson Literary Agency. Sara was my absolute first choice, and I couldn't be happier that we're now working together.

I may be the only signed writer in modern history to say it, but I only ever sent one query letter. I have to--have to--pat myself on the back for that accomplishment.

As they say, watch this space. More news as things progress. My focus now is squarely on revising, revising, revising...

Scrivener coming to Windows

noreply@blogger.com (Jason) — Thu, 23 Sep 2010 17:10:00 +0000

I'm happy to see that Scrivener is finally making its way to Windows.
Previously Mac-only, this wonderful writing tool is the main reason I own and use a Mac. It will be nice to have options in the future. And, even better, my Windows-using friends will now be able to benefit from Scrivener's capabilities.

You can read more about it here, or watch the video.

(full disclosure: I'm not affiliated with Scrivener in any way, I'm just a satisfied customer)

Clarion's write-a-thon

noreply@blogger.com (Jason) — Mon, 31 May 2010 14:28:00 +0000

This summer the wonderful Clarion Foundation school at UCSD is hosting a write-a-thon. This is a great way for writers to support the school and participate as well.

If you're unfamiliar with the Clarion Foundation, it's a summer learning program at UCSD, where they've been teaching Science Fiction and Fantasy writing to promising writers since 1968. They bring in an amazing group of instructors every summer (the lucky lil bastards get to learn from George R.R. Martin this summer).

I've signed up. You should, too!

iPad apps for writers

noreply@blogger.com (Jason) — Mon, 31 May 2010 14:12:00 +0000

Last weekend I participated in the San Diego Writers, Ink "Blazing Laptops" write-a-thon, which raised over $16,000 for the non-profit.

I took only my iPad and portable keyboard to the 9-hour event. By the end, after using the device the whole time, I still had 75% of my battery left. Color me impressed.

Granted, I turned wifi off, but still... it felt great to be untethered from the wall outlet.

Until I can get Scrivener (or something similar), here's what I've been using for writing on the iPad:

MyWritingNook: This is a rather simple app, which is a good thing. It's a full-screen, few frills editor. There's no formatting to speak of, and little in the way of file management. What you do get is a nice, fast editor that syncs with google's cloud, allowing you to return to the same documents via the website of the same name. 5$
Corkulous: There are many apps out now for organizing ideas, but I like this one the best. As the title suggests, it's a big cork board upon which you can attach post-its, pictures, strips of paper... even other cork boards. I've suggested to them they add a "yarn" feature, so you can draw lines between post-its. 3$
Penultimate: Drawing/Sketching apps are another crowded field in the app store. Most of them are geared toward actual artwork, however. Penultimate is more like a simple pen-and-paper moleskine (or rather, as many of them as you want). Very handy for just making quick sketches of ideas, and keeping them organized. 3$

The iPad as a writer's tool

noreply@blogger.com (Jason) — Wed, 21 Apr 2010 16:19:00 +0000

Well, well... Apple certainly has released a polarizing device. And while I can't argue with those who question the average consumer's need for an iPad ("it's just a big iPod Touch"), I find it very compelling as an average creator.

From a pure writing standpoint, it meets most of my needs as a portable tool (when combined with the keyboard dock). The battery life is excellent -- I estimate I can get 20 hours. It has no noisy fans, it's light, it's "always on" (no boot up time), and the screen is in a portrait orientation (again, when combined with the keyboard dock) . I find that more conducive to writing, especially in lower resolution displays. Netbooks are all wide-screen, useful for watching video but not so useful for the vertical display of text.

There's other benefits as well. It's a great reading device. Perhaps even better than the Kindle, since the screen is lit. The Kindle's main flaw, to me, is that it's a single-tasker, which makes it hard to justify the expense. For roughly two times the price, an iPad can do the same stuff (there's even a Kindle app for it), plus so much more.

Now, don't get me wrong. I'm still a big fan of physical books. But a lot of writer's don't realize one of the great features of the Kindle book store (and, now, Apple's iBooks): you can get a free sample of any book in there. Usually about 50 pages. Anytime I hear someone say "oh, you should read so-and-so, she's great", I don't have to jot that down and, sometime later, pick up one of their books at the bookstore and read a bit of it. I can download 50 pages right there on the spot. Enjoy it, study it, and annotate it. Download enough samples and you've created for yourself a compendium of writing examples from published authors, all available to you at any time.

The iPad is also a sketchbook. There's a bunch of drawing applications available.

You can do mind maps, take notes, create outlines, do research (via the web). There's even a free version of Dragon Dictation, allowing you to voice your ideas (or dialog!) and have it captured as text. I could go on.

I guess if I had one wish, it would be for an iPad version of Scrivener. That qualm aside, it's the best portable writing device I've used. It will definitely replace my netbook, Alphasmart, and Kindle.

Edit or rewrite?

noreply@blogger.com (Jason) — Mon, 29 Mar 2010 18:10:00 +0000

I'm starting to think there is validity to the concept of wholesale rewriting.

My feeling up until recently was that anything could be salvaged with enough finessing. But today I reached a chapter that I knew needed massive changes. I knew the ending it needed to come to, so I deleted almost the entire thing and re-wrote it from scratch. It felt liberating -- challenging even -- to start with a fresh page and come up with something better.

In a way it feels like the first draft was really just a way to figure out how the thing should end. Once you know your ending, you can go back and figure out a more dramatic way to get there.