So, does anyone ever play something like the "6 Degrees of Kevin Bacon" game with things in their own life? I'm constantly amazed at how things intersect and double back; such as my husband working on trails in the area my family lives in West Virginia, or meeting my high school English teacher at ICFA. I had a fun mental game yesterday where I connected my interest in children's literature to my love of riding motorcycles.

Brian and I love the show "Sons of Anarchy" (think Sopranos only with a biker gang, plus with some Hamlet thrown in). Brian was reading an article in HOG (Harley Owners Group) magazine about the show. He was surprised (as was I) to find out one of the lead actors is from Newcastle-upon-Tyne. I remembered that name because it's one of the places I visited on the Hollins Abroad trip because Seven Stories, an amazing Children's Books museum, is there. This also ties into our Ren Faire interest, as mja700 and I were once looking up Mediaeval Baebes performances and found that they were going to be singing at the castle she and I visited in Newcastle.

I'm just rambling. But I'm having fun. And procrastinating.

I was SUPPOSED to be doing these every month but July just got away from me!

Today's question comes from Mac:
How does the process of transplanting yourself* change when writing science fiction and fantasy?

Surprisingly little for me and, I think, most writers. I love rambling around in the woods, so I tend to set fantasy worlds in forest areas similar to what I'm used to. So I'm more likely to write a fantasy where most of the action takes place in a forest rather than in a desert or arctic area. There's a scene in the book where Tatelyn is flying on Simle's back, and I used an event from my own life there. I was on a roller coaster once and my vision blacked out at one point. I went on it again (because I'm masochistic like that!) and it blacked out at the same spot, probably from the G-force at that point. I think if an author isn't transplanting themselves even just a little in their work, no matter what the genre, the work won't seem real.

*Mac encountered the term transplanting yourself in Hemingway’s A Moveable Feast. It is the process of being in one place and writing about another, but incorporating pieces of the place of your real existence into that of your fictional world. Thus, if it is raining in Pittsburgh, Mac’s story about a distant planet might include a rain storm.

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.

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.

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).

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....

Wow, what a week. Everything went great, no major problems at all. I was able to get up and make it to the 8:30 sessions every day and I believe I met everyone who was presenting in CYA. Also met lots of new people, some of whom I've friended on LJ (helloooo there!). Got to see many, many good friends, including Alaine, who I haven't seen since my wedding (in addition to me not making it to ICFA last year, we seem to have started a trend that whenever one of us is within easy driving distance of the other, the one who lives in the area is vacationing in England). And I also got to see my High School teacher, which was both wonderful and surreal (especially when I introduced him to my thesis adviser at Hollins). Hopefully I'll be able to do a more thorough recap later, but for now I need to catch up on work, nurse the sore throat I picked up (likely from talking nonstop for 7 days!) and, of course, post pictures on Facebook!