Monthly Archive for July, 2008

In this digital age, we all do much more writing with a keyboard than with pen and paper. It’s possible to know and correspond with people for years without having any idea what your friends or associates’ handwriting looks like—something that would have been inconceivable even a couple of decades ago.

Writing is a different experience than typing. It feels different to your hands, it looks different to the eye, it requires different posture and a different set of behaviors. Some authors say they can’t write on paper. Some say they can’t write on a keyboard. It’s an individual choice, but if you’re feeling stuck with one, you may want to give the other a try. You may be surprised by what comes out.

I have a particular fondness for fountain pens, for their sleek appearance and the smooth way the ink flows out of them. I own three of them, at present, representing a wider range of cost and function than you might expect.

For everyday use, I have a Lamy Safari Vista Fountain Pen. Defying the convention that fountain pens are a formal, stuffy indulgence, the Lamy Safari is inexpensive and sturdy plastic, and comes in many bright colors and, as mine is, clear. Not only is it casual, whimsical and fun to look at, but it also makes it easy to see at a glance how much ink you have left.

Rotring’s 600 Series are the military tanks of fountain pens. Made of chrome-plated brass that sits heavily in your hand, they are eight-sided to prevent them from rolling off the table and crushing your toes. No… seriously, they’re not quite that heavy, but they do feel pleasantly indestructible. And they still write very smoothly and cleanly. They’re discontinued, from what I’ve read, and might be difficult to find, but they’re definitely worth a search.

Finally, my third recommendation is the kind of higher-end pen that most people think of when they think of fountain pens, but it still manages a fun twist on the classic: Pilot/Namiki’s Vanishing Point Fountain Pen has a retractable point, combining the smooth elegance of a fountain pen with the convenience of a ballpoint. It writes beautifully, though it does feel a little more fragile than the others, and it’s better suited to some types of paper than others.

You don’t need a fountain pen to write your next masterpiece, but don’t forget that hand writing is a skill like any other, and the old skills still have their place. Sitting down with a beautiful blank journal and a well-crafted instrument can create a different frame of mind, and those changes might reflect in your writing. Something to keep in mind the next time you’re feeling stuck, or just needing a break from the keys.

A manuscript is not a linear creature. We go back and change. We revise a sentence. A paragraph. A concept. We reorder chapters. New content integrates with old. Ideally, it does this seamlessly.

However, a manuscript is also not a body of water. The changes made to the early pages don’t ripple naturally through the rest of the text. (If only they did!) They need to be caught, by careful eye and hand. The mind is a tricky thing, and it often sees what it expects to see. When your eyes are so familiar with the words that you’re not entirely reading the page anymore, gradual or minor changes are very easy to miss.

Keeping aware of the tendency toward these kinds of mistakes is the best defense against them. Since they tend to creep stealthily into a manuscript, I call them creeps. This post will introduce you to two types of creep and discuss how you can guard yourself against them. Watch this spot—future posts may warn against more!

1. Creeping names.

You know this one. Your town starts out as Sullyville and changes to Sulleyville at some point halfway through the book. Character names, place names, and any other invented words are equally susceptible to the mid-manuscript creep.

Simple words, complex words, words with odd uses of apostrophes or hyphens, are all vulnerable! With complexity, however, comes increased vulnerability. You’re more likely to reproduce your choices correctly if you leave little room for variation. This is an especially sticky trap for science fiction and fantasy writers, whose texts are almost certain to be sprinkled with many invented words and unusual character and place names—if not a sampling of an entire invented language!

My defense against the creeping name is two-fold, but simple: I drop any invented name I expect to be seeing frequently into my spellchecker’s dictionary. That way, I’ll have a built-in notifier if any of them decide to evolve and change. I also keep a paper list of character and place names, for quick reference. Sometimes a name will creep to a valid name or word, so the spellcheck method isn’t guaranteed, but it is a great first line of defense. If I’m unsure, I can always glance down at the list on my desk for confirmation. You can avoid creeping names in your writing by doing the same. A written list that you can check at a glance is a simple tool, but an effective one.

2. Creeping NPCs.

NPC stands for “Non-Player Character”. In gaming circles, it’s a term used to indicate those incidental characters who exist only to forward a plot or facilitate a goal. The merchant from whom your characters buy their adventuring supplies, for instance, is probably a walk-on role. Once your characters leave his shop, the reader will likely never see him again. The character’s unseen brother back home, former roommate, ex-girlfriend or old high school teacher, whom he speaks about a few times but who is never seen, is also an NPC for our purposes.

The rule for NPCs is an obvious one: Name them once. However, several chapters and several months may go by while you’re working on your manuscript. As you’re working on chapter twenty, you may forget that Jane Doe was mentioned by name in chapter two. Or, conversely, as you’re adding a personal touch to chapter two, you may forget that you named her in chapter twenty.

Again, a separate list comes in handy. At whatever point in the story you give them a name, jot it down. Add their title or relation to your primary characters, as appropriate. If you give them any notable characteristics, note those, too. You can even start written biographies of sorts, of your characters, and profiles of your towns, adding to them as you name or describe relevant family members or neighbors.

Many of us keep our characters’ backgrounds in little capsules in our heads, pulling out strands or facts as needed. Setting those facts down in an easily referenced way can help the writer, and even inspire ideas for character development or transitionary scenes, and it can help the editor as well. Forward your lists along with your manuscript! If your sister is Jane in chapter two and Susan in chapter twenty, it’ll save both of us a query later on if I already know which name she prefers to go by. Not that your sister is, you know… a creep.