This week's question is from Devon:
When creating characters or worlds, how do you avoid ideas from other stories?

That's every writer's greatest fear, even though there is no true original story (some say there's 7 basic plots). In a shared world, that's even harder, because so many people have written about this world and it's characters. It helps to know what's out there in your genre, which you should do anyway just to familiarize yourself with the tropes, cliches, and what separates the good from the bad. In the end, you just have to write something and pray that your editor or a friend catches it if there's an identical plot out there. But that's rarer than you might think.

I recently read "Looking for Alaska" and about halfway through I realized it was basically "Bridge to Terabithia," just for an older audience 30 years later. But that still doesn't mean it isn't a good book. What keeps this from being a rip-off, though, is the characters. You can have a story almost identical plot point for plot point, but your characters are what make it truly unique. Characters are as varied and diverse as all humanity itself. As long as your characters breathe, don't worry too much about accidentally pilfering an idea from another story.

A very happy BELATED birthday to venchue! Sorry!

Arion by kathleenfoucart
Rose Madder by Stephen King (reread)
The Singing by Alison Croggon (review)
Dragonsdale by Salamanda Drake
The Brothers Lionheart by Astrid Lindgren (reread)
Nothing but the Truth (and a few white lies) by Justina Chen Headly
The Vampire Tapestry by Suzy McKee Charnas
Prom by Laurie Halse Anderson
Girl Overboard by Maureen Johnson
George's Cosmic Treasure Hunt by Lucy Hawking and Stephen Hawking (review)
Nonfic Review
Roanoke Research

I swear I read more, but that's all I have recorded. Oh well.

slwhitman is plugging my previous request (thanks!!!) and asked for some more info. In one sentence: IAFA is a scholarly organization dedicated to the study of the fantastic in the arts. Let's break down those terms:

"Scholarly" refers to academic papers, most grad school level or above, although every once in a while there's some good undergrad papers.

"Fantastic" refers to anything outside the realm of reality. This includes high fantasy, urban fantasy, horror, science fiction, science fantasy, and basically anything that doesn't fall under realistic.

"Arts" refers to literature, film, graphic novels, picture books, fanfic, visual art.

Now for some some FAQs:

What do you do?
Currently I am head of the Children's and Young Adult division. This means I receive and evaluate scholarly papers and determine which belong in the conference (and some other boring behind the scenes stuff). Deadline for papers is October 31; official CFP will be posted here later. I am NOT in charge of deciding which writers get compensation for attending and how much; I'm just looking for names to pass along at this point.

I don't write papers, I write fiction. What can I contribute?
There are also author readings at the conference (usually one block of readings per session; there's about 4-6 sessions per day). I'd love to get some new children's and YA writer blood into those readings. In addition to readings, you can also do signings and book sales. A great chance to interact with people who have an academic interest in your genre (who knows, you may even get to meet someone who wrote a paper about your work; there's a lot on recent books!).

What do I get for attending?
Compensation varies and is, I must warn you, competitive. Later this summer the person in charge of arranging visiting writers will be emailing out conference info and what you need to send to get compensation. If you're interested, give me your name and contact info so I can pass it on to her.

Who else will be there?
This year the Guest of Honors are Lawrence Yep and Nalo Hopkinson. For an idea of other writers who've attended in the past, this past year's program is available at www.iafa.org (to find names quickly, just to a search on "Reading")

Why should I come?

Hear papers on current issues in children's literature such as "Twilight" or ancient issues relating to fairy tales, or anything in-between.

Talk with some amazing writers and scholars in a very friendly environment (I call this a "conference with training wheels" when encouraging grad students to attend).

It's in Orlando in March, so if you live in a cold climate it's a chance to warm up and maybe swing by Disneyworld.

It's a networking opportunity; I met slwhitman there and she ended up being the editor for my first book.

Because this is one of the most amazing, fun conferences in existence.

So, that's IAFA in a nutshell. If you have questions, please comment. If you've attended in the past and want to contribute information or your personal experience with the conference, please do so!

If you'd be interested in attending ICFA in 2010 (in Orlando, Florida) as a visiting writer, please contact me (either email arotruck AT gmail or comment below). Compensation for attending varies and it is competitive, but I'd love to get some more readings from children's writers. I'm not making the final decision, alas, but I will pass names and contact info of people who are interested on to the appropriate people and hopefully we can get a few more children's writers there next year.

Also, if you know of an author who might be interested in attending or just have a wishlist, let me know too!

This is such a great idea! I don't know if they did a contest for Bronze and the others, but they're doing this for Green Dragon Codex.

R.D. Henham now has a FB fan page!

Also, don't forget to check out Green Dragon Codex, assisted by Clint Johnson. Congratulations Clint! He DID write it, not me, as Jacketflap, oddly, claimed (since been fixed, fortunately!). Weird.

Today's question comes from Jack: Where did you derive your inspiration? Are the "good dragons" or Tatelyn's response to them perhaps a symbol for your own frustrations?

This was one of the most thought-provoking questions I've been asked. For basic story inspiration, I found that flipping through the other Dragonlance books did a lot to get the wheels turning (not to mention having a deadline; I tend to respond very well to deadlines). For other work, I tend to like flipping through history books or fantasy art books. For example, last night I was reading something about Roanoke colony and how one of the native American's thought that the Englishmen were already dead. I need to delve into this further and find out what exactly was meant by that, context, perhaps legends surrounding that, but that fell into place in the existing story so well I gasped. That happens a lot to me, actually, especially when I'm working with historical fantasy.

As for the good dragon issue and Tatelyn's take on it, that comes DIRECTLY from my own frustrations. I have a low tolerance for people who adopt black and white viewpoints about issues, on either side of the spectrum. Tatelyn's response definitely comes from this. I don't like being didactic in my stories, but I did want to show characters learning that their hard and fast beliefs and convictions aren't always the right ones and you should consider all sides of the issue.

I got the following wall post from kathleenfoucart on Facebook:

"So last night I got this image from the beginning of a book stuck in my head & I was going nuts trying to remember what book it was, looking at all my shelves... And then I realized it was TT. :)"

TT refers to Tapestry Threads, which she's read in workshop and other forms. That was SUCH a great comment to see!

And, hm, I just realized when tagging this that I have 3 tags for TT, because 2 are misspelled. Oops.

Just had an amazing time at ChLA with a lot of Hollins folk and other friends from the Children's Lit world. I presented my paper on Anne Lindbergh's "Three Lives to Live" (more specifically, the use of food and eating and dining as a reflection of the plot and character issues). I think this could grow into a larger work on the work of Anne Lindbergh (yes, the daughter of Charles and Anne Morrow Lindbergh). I really enjoy her children's fantasies and her realistic fiction is fairly decent, and there's probably a LOT that could be done with her biography as well.

I drove further at one time than I'd ever done in my life (7.5 hours) and it actually wasn't that bad, as I had mja700 for company, and on the way down we stopped at Wildflour (I refuse to call it Hollywoods!) for lunch (missed seeing kathleenfoucart, unfortunately, but I'll be back there in July). I roomed with ayelle and mja700 and we had a grand time. Got to hang out with a lot of old friends, made some new ones, had a blast at the banquet, dance, and hanging out in the bar afterward. Best of all, I heard the announcement that ChLA will be HELD AT HOLLINS IN 2011!

From Lizz: When writing a story, do you prefer to handwrite using pen and paper, or type on a keyboard at a computer? Why do you prefer to work this way?

TYPE, hands down, now and forever. My handwriting is truly atrocious, plus I can type much faster than I can write. One of the best inventions is cut and paste; I often find myself rearranging scenes. Also search and replace for when I decide to change a name. I'm also a firm believer in saving multiple drafts. Hard drive space is so cheap these days that you can keep a copy of every single draft you'll ever do. Just don't forget to back up!

I recommend developing a naming system if you're keeping multiple copies of your drafts. For example, I usually add a _00 to the end of every file name and use that number for revision versions. I also keep copies from things like changes from my critique group. I've recently started taking my computer to critique group, turning on "Track Changes" and just write all their comments as side comments. This has been a GREAT help. Those files I save as book_title_crit_notes_00 and then once I have a chance to go through and implement their changes, I save it under book_title_crit_changes_00. I also keep a running master copy of a manuscript, which is usually book_title_entire. Then if I've done things for a certain class, I add the class number or name to the file extension. My process could probably stand some streamlining, but I understand it, so it works for me.

One nice thing about new phones is many of them have programs that allow you to sync manuscripts in word to a word processing program on the computer. I have a fold-up keyboard that's just a little smaller than standard size that I use for some writing. I don't do this often, though, as I'm at my computer much of the time (sadly!), but it's a good solution if you're on the go and want to write when you have some free time. They come in handy other times, too; I would use mine in classes and meetings and just take notes as an entry in my day planner software.

I do handwrite in my personal journal. Other than that, I'm addicted to my computer (and Palm Pilot, if an idea strikes when I'm away from the computer).

Now that the True Blood DVDs are out, I've been thrilled to see how many people are watching them and are now converted. There were wonderful posts from both negothick (who dubbed it the "anti-Twilight) and mja700 as well as numerous Facebook statuses. mja700's is friend locked, but maybe she'll consider making it public once I tell her that seeing a "Why True Blood is better than Twilight " top 10 list from a former Twilight junkie is as thrilling as when an alcoholic you know finally admits they have a problem.

Oh, see my shiny new icon? It's kind of hard to see as an icon, so here's more detail:



I absolutely love it. My husband (who also loves the show) has a Harley and since I can't drive (I'm dying to learn though, just need the time and to brace myself for finding out that my back probably won't LET me drive), I am officially "his old lady" hanging onto the back of the bike. I've been riding on the back of bikes since I was 7 and am so glad I can continue to do that as an adult. My cousins had them; growing up I was always annoyed that, since the next youngest is 5 years older than me, by the time I could ride one of the bikes they'd had, they'd gotten bigger and gotten rid of a too-small bike in favor of a new and bigger one that I couldn't control.

PSA, all those movie and TV shots with the girl cuddled up to the guy on the bike? Big mistake. If you are clinging to the driver, it means they can't move as fast should they need to make a quick maneuver. You should sit up straight and brace yourself with your hands on the seat or back of the bike. And while I'm into motorcycle safety, WEAR A HELMET, even if your state doesn't require it.

While I'm on the subject of bikes and TV shows, Sons of Anarchy is also worth checking out. Think Sopranos meets Hamlet, only with bikers. Ron Perlman and Katy Segal (Peg Bundy) have leading roles, Mitch Pileggi (Skinner from X-Files) is a recurring character (and he's NOT cuddly like Skinner!), and next season Henry Rollins of the Rollins Band is joining the cast.

Seeds of Yesterday by V.C. Andrews
City of Glass by Cassandra Clare
The Curse of the Blue Figurine by John Bellairs
The Mummy, the Will, and the Crypt by John Bellairs
The Spell of the Soceror's Skull by John Bellairs
The Revenge of the Wizard's Ghost by John Bellairs
The Exorcist by William Blatty
The Diamond of Drury Lane by Julia Golding
Season of Secrets by Allizon Hurzig
Truth or Dare by Susan Pfeffer
Phantom by Susan Kay
Ivy by Julie Hearn
Alice, I think by Susan Juby
Blackthorn Winter by Celia Reese
Ronia, the Robber's Daughter by Astrid Lindgren
The Rope Trick by Lloyd Alexander
Loserville by Peter Johnson
The Game of Silence by Louise Erdich
Voracious Kids: Who Eats Whom in Children's Literature by Carolyn Danie,
Critical Approaches to Food in Children's Literature, ed by Keeling and Pollard
Various books on Roanoke Colony
Various nonfic for reivew

My cousin Jenny just launched her online quilting store, SewFabulous Quilt Shop. Stop by and take a look if you're in the market for quilting supplies!

Seeing this reminded me of how Jenny was the person who taught me cross-stitch. I think I was 9 and she was 10 and we were staying at our Grandparent's house for a few days. She was really into needlework at that time, and I thought it would be neat to learn. So I bought a kit at a store in town and she taught me. Many, many years later, I still do cross-stitch and other needlework, although my main craft is crocheting and I dabble in scrapbooking, stained glass, beading, and some others. I like to think that between Jenny and myself, we have all the crafts our grandma would do covered.

I learned crocheting from my other grandmother (the one Jenny and I don't share) when she was staying with us one winter when I was in 4th Grade. I was home with strep throat and she taught me a basic stitch. When I was well, I didn't want to go back to school so I could keep crocheting! For many years I could just do a basic stitch (what I now know is a double crochet), until my friend Jess taught me how to read a pattern in 2006. Wow, what doors that opened! I went from only being able to do potholder, scarves, and afghans (ones where there aren't any fancy stitches), to dolls, doilies, snowflakes, and all sorts of things. It's rather neat, looking back, to think of the people who taught me the crafts I love (such as sunrising, who taught me stained glass, which I really miss and hope that soon I can set up a workstation in the house).

So, if you're in need of a writing prompt today, what hobbies do you have, who introduced you to them, what memories do you have of your first time?

I've already posted about how I just don't get Twitter. I'm on it (same username as this LJ if you feel like following), I participate, I have plenty of real-life friends on there, I follow lots of authors and editors and some odd sites I like. I just do not get it. I've been wondering about this a lot, as I'm an LJ/Facebook addict and I've come up with a couple reasons.

1) It re-creates the feeling I get when I'm trying to have a conversation in a noisy environment
I just realized this recently. We went to a club to see a band on Friday and I was reminded, once again, how difficult it is for me to carry on a conversation in places that are really noisy. There's a reason why my preferred pubs have outdoor seating and I go there more often in warm weather. Most of my conversation consisted of "What?" and drawing upon my limited knowledge of sign language to follow my husband (who used to be fluent enough to carry on a conversation with a gorilla at the zoo) signing at me. I've always had this problem; I like clubs (as long as I'm not being approached by strangers) but I just can't talk. Twitter, for me, is like trying to follow a serious discussion where everyone can hear but me. I catch snippets, but I can't figure out enough of what's being said to say anything useful.

2) I'm a victim of having the latest and greatest technology.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but Twitter grew out of text messaging, right? I only started texting when I realized it eliminated the need for a phone call, which I will avoid at all costs (boy, I'm really revealing some weird trivia about myself here). I had internet access on my phone for a while now, so I've been able to access Facebook and LJ for about 3 years from anywhere, as evidenced by my Facebook status AND relationship updates during my wedding. I also work from home, too, so I never really suffered from lack of internet. I just don't get having to sift through all these post-it-note entries when I can get a more thorough picture by going on FB or LJ, and I certainly don't want my phone chirping at me every time someone tweets.

3) The format doesn't fit with my brain
I love LJ entries and Facebook statuses because I can actually follow the conversation. I like the thread format of LJ, and FB statuses are now getting to be just as thorough and the conversations just as entertaining. Rather than an outline format, I feel Twitter is a random chaotic mess that is impossible for me to follow.

Example. On Twitter, I see kathleenfoucart (using her because she gets Twitter in a way I do not. Them kids today!) post about her writing. tltrent responds, which works for me, as I also follow her on Twitter and I can see both sides of the conversation. But then a person I don't know and don't follow responds to kathleenfoucart, and she responds in turn. Now I'm missing a piece of the conversation and am stuck with all these questions. Should I add this person I don't know just to follow a conversation? Do I go online and go through a lot of clicks to see what is going on? Do I just give up and wander over to FB to see if what kathleenfoucart is saying on Twitter is important enough that she cross-posted? Confusion ensues, and I end up sulking and playing YoVille on Facebook.

On LJ or FB, though, same post (albeit probably longer, especially if on LJ) occurs. I can now do something very novel: SEE THE ENTIRE CONVERSATION! I don't have to know all of a person's friends in order to follow and participate.

4) If you're a speed reader, Twitter is NOT faster
I can skim an LJ page very quickly. Same for FB. Both are linear and if I want to read more, I click ONCE and can see the whole story. Twitter involves a lot of bouncing up and down and back and forth and slows me down to mere mortal speed. Screw that.

5) I don't just want to see one-sentence blurbs about what my friends are doing
I want to read more of their thoughts on their writing, life, family, school. I want to see cute pictures of their kids and tag them in photos (FB has the BEST photo uploading software I've EVER run across) and play Scrabble and go clean up friend's farms. And throw sheep. Come on, throwing sheep? Top THAT, Twitter!

This is not to say that Twitter doesn't have it's perks. Since I discovered TweetDeck, I can now update both Twitter and Facebook at the same time. I'm also able to separate my followings into groups similar to the way I do on LJ. And my first (and only to date) Twitter addiction was following Maureen Johnson's posts daring her fans to make her book crack the Amazon 1000, and her amazement and horror when it did. Because, you see, she'd told people that if that happened, she'd take trapeze lessons.

I'll keep using Twitter, for now. Enough people I want to follow are there that I will continue to try to keep up. But I can't shake the feeling that a) I'm missing out on huge chunks of conversation and b) it's far too inefficient.

Today's questions come from Chloe:

How do you come up with the names of the characters and locations in your novel?
See previous entry.

What inspired you to make the dragons evil instead of good?

When I was asked to come up with an idea for a dragon codex, my editor told me to read the other Dragonlance: The New Adventure books and look for a minor character that interested me. I found Tatelyn in a brief scene (written by jeffsampson) when an evil sorceress possessed the body of a dead copper dragon, who attacked Tatelyn's village and killed her brother. I thought that given Tatelyn's age, it would be easy for her to adopt the "all dragons are evil" stance. This coincided with the reappearance of dragons in Krynn; in the original books, dragons have not been seen for thousands of years and most people think they're a myth...until they start showing up. The first dragons to appear were evil, and when the good dragons showed up people had trouble trusting them, so I thought it was plausible that a movement against all dragons would exist.

Once I had Tatelyn's motives figured out, I thought it would be a good story if she met a good dragon who thought humans were evil. I made Simle a very young dragon because if she was too old and powerful, it would be too easy for her to just go on a killing spree; plus I figured that the good dragons were taught by their parents to some extent to be good and Simle's parents would eventually teach her to be a good dragon. Once I'd decided to make Simle very young, then I needed motivation for her to really despise humans. This was another time that knowing the backstory of Dragonlance helped. The draconians were the primary bad guys in most of the original books and they were created from good dragon eggs. I thought that if there was one very young dragon who survived this theft, and knew humans were to blame, it would make sense for her to grow to hate all humans, especially before she matured enough to understand that what one member of a species does isn't always representative of a species as a whole. Something I think all humans ought to learn....

alemya! Have a wonderful day!

So here's my first. It's for "Broken" by UNKLE, from the closing credits of X-Files: I Want to Believe. Great song, and the fan art is spectacular.



And with that, have a great Memorial Day Weekend for those of you in the States!

Today's questions come from Christina. Open to other authors to answer as well!

How do you come up with character names and/or kingdom names?
Do you draw inspiration from people around you for characters?

I heard once that the best way to create fantasy names is just randomly hit keys on your keyboard. That does actually work on occasion. Some of my characters already had names by the time I started writing BDC. I was asked to take a minor character from Dragonlance: the New Adventures and build a story around him or her. Tatelyn first appeared in Dragonspell by jeffsampson. Something about her brother being attacked by a dragon that was supposed to be good (the body of a copper dragon was possessed by an evil sorceress) sparked an idea for me (thanks Jeff!). Other minor characters were ones I liked from the original Dragonlance books and I gave them cameos or at least had a brief mention of them (such as Elistan, Crysania, and Huma). Simle and most of the other main characters I was able to name. What was funny is I realized after I was well into the project that the name "Simle" probably came from my dog, "Salem." Also, if I knew a character was a certain race, like elf, I'd try to give their names a similar sound to other elves in the Dragonlance world.

Kingdom names I had a lot less flexibility with, as there are piles of maps of the Dragonlance world, so geography was almost as fixed as if I was writing historical fiction. I have a huge map of Krynn on my desk that my editor slwhitman sent me, as well as the Dragonlance atlas which I already owned and was told under no circumstances to let go because they're hard to find! Another time when being a long-time fan came in handy. The town of Forestedge was already invented (by jeffsampson I believe), and I thought Mountainhome had a nice, similar feel to it. I had to show where it was on a map at one point so my editor slwhitman could check to make sure there wasn't another village already there! I think all the other places I mention already existed in Krynn.

I probably do draw on people I know for characters, but I don't set out to do it. I usually realize it after the fact if I notice it at all. There's probably some of my husband in Elrit, as he's rather good at picking locks (random talent #43). My husband, incidentally, could not read the book without picturing Simle as a greyhound with wings for some reason. I also honored a request from my friend Jim, who, when he heard I was writing a book in the Dragonlance world, asked me to "kill a kobold for him" as we'd had one memorable Dungeons and Dragons game where his character got really beat up by kobolds.

Probably not. I'm sure the skills one learns in an MFA program do make it easier to get published. However it is rather timely that I get another contract 2 days after graduating, and get a full MS request from an agent 4 days after. Said agent, btw, gets a prize for quickest request ever: sent query at 12:50, received reply at 1:08. Now I better quit basking and a) review the contract that just arrived and b) give my ms a quick once-over and send it off.