Extra Hour

Even with the extra hour, from Daylight Savings Time, I'm once again off to a slow start.

Fighting a stomach flu, I can sit at my desk for only a few minutes and sit up in bed to work on the Chrome Book from maybe a half hour at a stretch.And I don't think I want to do another zombie book. Which means a month of research down the shitter.

More Basics

http://cluelessink.blogspot.com/2010/07/techniques-of-selling-writer-by-dwight.html

http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/index.htm

Stoned to Death

I may be stoned to death for saying this but I think 'how to write fiction' books are worse than useless. It sets otherwise good to fair writers feet on the wrong paths.

I've spent time this summer running refresher courses for David's sock puppet stable on sentence structure and building paragraphs. Bought internet content requires a minimum level of quality control.

He thought hiring writers would be a great idea, however these are fanfic writers who can discourse character development, plot construction, and other abstractions of the art of writing and know bugger all about the nuts and bolts of grammar and composition. In fact they consider such practical knowledge the nitpicking of little minds.

Almost all my remedial efforts consisted of composition basics: sentence variety, paragraphing, with transitions and signpost, and scene structure, which is similar to paragraph structure. Most of the problems could have been done away with if the writers had read the following;

Writing the Perfect Scene. A streamlined take on Swain's classic 'scene and sequel'.

Purdue's Online Writing Lab. Yes, academic writing; the basics are there, concise and accessible.

Also the mechanically inclined books:

The Elements of Style by Strunk and White

The Lively Art of Writing by Lucile Vaughan Payne

Thinking on Paper by V.a. Howard and J.H. Barton


Yes all three deal with essay writing; practical concerns to get words on paper with unity and clarity.

To concede the need for 'how to write fiction', I include the three most cynical books on fiction writing ever. Airy fairy abstractions need not apply.

Techniques of the Selling Writer by Dwight V. Swain


How to Write a Damn Good Novel 1 & 2 by James N. Frey

Lord of the Flies

I've opted not to reread LotF. When I steal from other works I pick up odd syntax and it stays with me for a while as I use the material.

I'm going with lifting from Sparknotes and some quick overviews on Youtube, such as the Great Book narrated by Donald Sutherland.

Character cross reference

I could start back at the highway, after read through the trilogy material, there seems to be only a single longish novel from the useable bits.

LotF cross reference

Andre is Jack

CJ is Ralph

Bart is Roger

Nicole is Simon

Steven is Piggy

Michael and Ana have no c/r they are more the conch and glasses.

Dead End day 28

Now that I've been turning it over in my mind the trilogy is based on the Lord of the Flies.

The theme is civilization vs savagery as well as old world vs new world.

Both Andre and CJ are leaders of the old world.

Michael and Ana are the conch and fire making eyeglasses.

Dead End day 28

And scene.

Didn't figure out the end. So it will be a quartet or the fourth book will be a summary of the trilogy written right instead of as an apocalypse travelogue.