Writing 101: Mapping Your Books

 Every book has a setting. Some might be incredibly specific -- a certain house on a certain street inside a certain town in a little hamlet in Scotland. Other settings might be a bit broader. Tony Hillerman, for example, writes exclusively within the Native American reservation spreading across the four corners. This region covers four different states, a huge are filled with canyons, cliffs, mountains and people. No matter where your book is set, it never hurts if readers can picture that setting. Readers want to know where it is, what it looks like and what else is nearby. The best way to show them all of that is to give them a map. 

And making maps isn't easy. If it was, we'd all do it.

I'm a Writer, Not a Cartographer

Like writing isn't already hard enough, right? But sometimes, even the best and most descriptive authors need to add a few visual aids to hep their readers out. If your setting plays a big role in your book, a map is probably the perfect aid for your story.

And you're in luck -- I know how to make them. In fact, I did it; one of my earliest blog posts was a modified version of the map I personally use to keep my locations straight while I'm working on the books in the Deck of Lies.  It's not easy to make a brand-new map to bring your stories to life, but it's probably not as hard as you think. In fact, map-making is a favorite practice of brides and event planners. Nothing brings your event book to life quite like a custom map.

...Or Maybe I'm Both

Whether you're using a real setting or a fantasy world, there is a fairly simple way to create a custom map that you can add to your book to help bring the story to life.

• Find your setting. 

Go to Google maps, Google Earth, or whatever online mapping software suits you best. If your book is based in a real place that you can find on a map, the battle's half-over. Just type in the city you're looking for and find it on the map. Zoom in and out until you get a view of the exact area you wish to display on your map. 

If your book is based on a place that only exists in your mind, don't fret. You can still find your setting. Pick a place on the map with the same general climate and geographic features as your made-up setting, and zoom in exactly on the area you'd like to use. If your book is based on a fantasy forest located on Venus, find yourself a nice, green spot in the Amazon somewhere. If your book takes place in a major city, pick any one of several around the globe. 

The beauty of making your own map is that you can change anything and everything at will, but you do need to start with a firm foundation (unless you're a gifted artist or you actually have experience in map-making).

• Capture it.

Grab a screen cap of the map (at this point, you should have it framed up exactly as you want it). Open up Photoshop or your photo-imaging program of choice. If you haven't one already on your computer, it's no problem. You can go to the online image program I use if you like, Pixlr. It has some Photoshop-like tools, and for our purposes it'll do just fine.

Load the screencap you took and crop the image so that only the map itself remains. Save the image again, this time under a new name (like map). Select the entire image, and then cut it (trust me). Now, and this is very important, add a new, transparent layer to the image (look for the option under the Layer menu). Use the copy function to replace the map that you removed; it should be added to the new layer. Add another new layer (again, very important) and you're ready to start making maps.

• Draw on it.

Select one of the drawing tools from the toolbar, and pick the color you want to use for highways. Start tracing the highways on your map. Select a new color, go down a size on your tool to draw in smaller lines, and begin tracing the major roads. Repeat this process to trace all the smaller roads. Use a new color and a different tool if you want to make marks for various locations on the map (such as character houses, or places where the characters go in the book). Go crazy, and mark off whatever you like. Add your text to make note of your locations and your roads, and use the tools to do whatever you like. 

Remember to keep everything clear and neat. Readers aren't going to work at reading your map, so don't make them. Also remember to trace only the roads and landmarks you want to use, and the stuff that's relevant to your story. Your map will still be accurate even if you leave off many of the secondary and tertiary roads that don't appear in the book. There's no reason to junk up your map with a bunch of unnecessary stuff. Again, don't make your readers do too much work.

• Finish it.

When you're good and done with the map you captured off your screen, and all the details you want to add are in place, simply remove that original map. View the image's layers, and delete the layer with the old map you no longer need (it should be layer 2). Once that's gone, all that will remain is the stuff you drew and your original background. If you like, you can now add color to that background with the paint bucket tool. Just select the background layer from your layer list, paint it, and move the layer you drew on (probably layer 3) so it rests on top of the background layer.

Be sure to label your map with the name of your setting, and add a legend if needed so readers can decipher your symbols. If you don't want to cover up all your great mapping, just increase your canvas size to give yourself a little more room. You'll have to paint the expanded background before you start adding your new stuff. Once everything looks perfect and you're perfectly happy, save your map and you're done!

Writing 101: Accept vs. Except

Accept and except are spelled differently, but they're pronounced the same. That makes them difficult to write with, a problem that's further complicated by the fact that they have so many different meanings and forms of use. But if you put one in the wrong place in your book, you're going to greatly confuse your readers and totally change your own plots. 

Accept

Accept basically means to take or to agree. The word can also be used to show a response or an answer (Sally accepted Luke's invitation to have lunch). Synonyms for accept include gain, obtain, welcome and acquire. You can also accept a burden or a responsibility, maybe even unwillingly (I accept blame for all my wrongdoings). It's used in a lot of different ways, and that's what makes it so hard to use properly.

In spoken English, accept sounds like another word with a lot of definitions: except.

Except

Basically, except just means but. A fancier definition for the word is other than; you can also use the synonym unless. Other synonyms include excluding, save and without. Everyone was standing, except me. You could just as easily write Everyone was standing, other than me. But put accept where except ought to be, and you end up saying something like Everyone was standing, to take me. Doesn't make much sense, right?

• Expect

It's worth noting that expect is also a word, and it's one of those tricky typos that's so easy to make because the hands know how to move faster than the brain. It's very easy to type expect instead of except, and the meanings are wildly different. Expect means to anticipate. So suppose you type expect instead of except, and you really should have typed accept in the first place? You might end up with a sentence that says something like Bob expected the job with a great sense of joy. 

It actually makes sense, and that's why these words are so dangerous. You meant to convey that Bob accepted the job with a great sense of joy. In other words, he got the job and he's happy about it. You went to type except and typed expect instead, and no grammar checker in the world is going to flag you for it. It's not enough to scan through your book to make sure it's grammatically correct. You've got to make sure it's readable, too, so you avoid errors like this. Because if you get that sentence wrong, readers won't understand that Bob actually did get the job -- and who knows what sort of plot holes that's going to create?

Knowing the Difference

It's much easier to avoid problems with common typos if you're avoiding grammar problems in first place. Knowing how to easily tell the difference between accept and except will only save you trouble in the future.

Remember that we someone is accepting anything, they're essentially saying yes. Becky accepted the gift. Joe accepted the advice with a nod. Joe accepted his defeat like a man, and stepped forward to shake hands. 

When something is being excepted, you're basically saying no. Everyone except me understood. Did I understand? No. I liked all of them, except the red one. Did I like the red one? No.

If that only gets you more confused, just go back to your basic parts of speech. Accept is almost always a verb, an action. Except isn't action, it's used more like a conjunction.

Or, you can match letters. Accept means agree, A and A. Except is excluding something, EX and EX.

Get Thrilled in The Tower

"If I could describe this book in one word, it would be EXCITING."

"I was left surprised, shocked, and blown away!"

The Tower (Deck of Lies, #2) has been reviewed at Little Book Star. Read the review before you get your copy from Amazon, B&N, Smashwords or Kobo. The Tower is also available in paperback!

Jade on Advertising

 I discuss book marketing in my newest interview at Verdict Book Reviews. Go check it out, and feel free to use the comments section to share your own thoughts on book marketing!

Books on Film: The Legend of Sleepy Hollow

Teachers all across the United States whip out The Legend of Sleepy Hollow towards the end of the every October and read the rich, poetic language aloud to the class. It's hard to understand; that why my teachers also showed an animated version of the story. I'm pretty sure the Disney version starred Goofy. The more famous film version of the story, Sleepy Hollow, is even more farfetched than the cartoon. 

The Story

To be technical, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow isn't a book. It's a short story, and it's so old that you can read the whole thing for free any time (public domain). It was written by Washing Irving, and first published in 1820. Irving is well-known for another short story, Rip Van Winkle. Though Irving wrote them both in England, Sleepy Hollow is considered to be American fiction because it's set in what would become New York state.

It takes place in a Dutch settlement named Tarry Town, in an area called Sleepy Hollow. The hero of our tale is Ichabod Crane, a skinny and lanky Connecticut teacher. He would like to court Katrina Van Tassel, daughter of wealthy farmer Baltus Van Tassel. Abraham Van Brunt, known as "Brom Bones," would also like to court her. They each attempt to woo her at a party inside the Van Tassel home. 

Ichabod leaves the party alone and finds himself being chased by the Headless Horseman, an enigmatic figure who is supposed to be the ghost of Hessian (German) trooper whose head was shot off during the Revolutionary War. Every night, the Headless Horseman rides through Sleepy Hollow in search of his missing head.

The reader learns that Ichabod disappears after the night of the party, and from then on out Brom Bones has a "knowing" expression on his face whenever the man's name is mentioned. Brom Bones goes on to marry Katrina, as he wished. 

The story never tells us who the Headless Horseman is, exactly, but seems to imply that it was Brom chasing after Ichabod that night.

The Film(s)

It's a very old story, and naturally The Legend of Sleepy Hollow has been adapted many, many times. There are several animated versions, but even before these were viewed it became a silent film in 1922. Re-titled The Headless Horseman (because he's the best part of the story), it had Will Rogers in the role of Crane. I haven't seen it, but a few summaries point toward a fairly faithful adaptation. Crane is indeed a teacher and he does fall in love with the girl, but in this version Bones isn't his only enemy. In 1922, the whole town despises Crane, so no one knows who was really the Horseman.

By far the most well-known adaptation of the story is Tim Burton's 1999 joint Sleepy Hollow, which is probably the most unfaithful version you can find (but what else do we expect from Tim Burton?). Ichabod Crane becomes gorgeous Johnny Depp instead of a lanky teacher; he's also turned into a police investigator. 

This time around, there's a definite supernatural quality to the Horseman (played by the scariest actor ever, Christopher Walken). Christina Ricci is Katrina, and Capser Van Dien is Brom Bones. Crane is in town to investigate a series of strange murders, perpetrated by the ghostly Horseman.

Ichabod is highly skeptical of the villagers' explanation. He becomes a guest of the Van Tassels and becomes attracted to Katrina, like he's supposed to. He travels into the woods and finds the Horseman's grave and the Tree of the Dead. Eventually, he discovers that Lady Van Tassel, Katrina's stepmother, is controlling the Horseman for a revenge plot involving land. Crane has to find the Horseman's skull to end his reign of terror, which he does. Crane lives in this version, and takes Katrina with him back to New York.

What Got Adapted?

It might be easier to tell you what didn't get adapted in the transition between book and film for Sleepy Hollow. The most accurate part of the book is the setting, and even that's questionable. Obviously, some of the additions are necessary. Irving's story is pretty short, so it's understandable that characters had to be invented and new back stories revealed...but there were huge changes from the story in the Burton version, and I don't really think they were necessary.

Burton does include the party that's at the heart of the original story, and the tension between Crane and Brom is briefly touched upon. But stunningly, Brom dies in this version. He does dress up as the Horseman to frighten Crane, and ends up being killed by the real Horseman. This gigantic diversion from the original is only the tip of the interpretation iceberg.

Crane blacks out several times in the flick, and in this version the Horseman is well and truly the ghost of a soldier who has indeed lost his head. Walken is fantastic on film as the Horseman, because he's frightening no matter what he's doing, but it's a big deviation from the original tale.

Irving's story is filled with color. He describes food and clothing, and paints his world in bright hues. Tim Burton does exactly the opposite. Even the trees in Sleepy Hollow look gray, and honestly no one would live in this horrible place. Everything is dull and dirty and terrible-looking, and yet we're supposed to believe it's farming country. The ending is quite different, and there's nothing mysterious about it at all. In the story, Crane dies and we're never really sure who killed him (but we think it's Brom). In the film, Brom is dead and Crane actually gets the girl -- but with Depp playing the leading man, moviegoers surely wouldn't accept anything else. 

And besides, it wasn't even an original story when Irving wrote it. The Legend of Sleepy Hollow is based on an even older German folktale that was set in New York state, and recorded first by Karl Musäus.

Seeking Secrets in The Tower

"The story seems straightforward, but then it curves and twists so [it] continually surprises."

"I really enjoyed going down the rabbit hole with Rain as she discovers secret after secret."

The Tower has been reviewed at Quirky Girls Read! Go and read the whole thing before you buy your copy of the book, and see if you can find the truth in the Deck of Lies.

Who Even Needs to Know Grammar, Anyway?

Clearly, I have strong feelings about the importance of good grammar, proper punctuation and well-crafted writing. But am I wasting my time, and yours, by blogging about it? In a world where word processing software highlights misspellings, underlines bad grammar and comes with a built-in thesaurus, besides, just where exactly do people like me fit in? Why do you need me, if you've got software that does it all for you?

 Oh, You Need Me

You can't even compose a tweet without getting spelling help nowadays, and every time I screw up during a blog post a helpful red line pops up to guide me. I don't even have to hit backspace and re-type the word; I can just right-click my mouse and magically fix the problem. That's the wonder of technology, and it's easy to grow incredibly complacent (lazy) when it comes to good writing. What's the point of knowing all this grammar garbage when any half-decent software program will do the job on its own? 

Because it can't read, that's why. I know that computers are cool, and iPhones can do darned near anything. I'm a big fan of streaming video and satellite radio and all the awesome extra stuff you can find in MS Word if you start looking (and I do go looking). But no matter how great your system happens to be or how wonderful your software is, it cannot read. It will never read your story and cry, or laugh out loud, or feel shock or surprise. It has no idea what you're writing about, and it never, ever will. Your word processor doesn't even comprehend that you're creating a book, and doesn't care. No computer can ever have the understanding and recognition that a human being has...that you have. 

And that's just the first problem, though honestly that's all you need to know to know that you've got to make good grammar decisions. The second problem is that word processing software is often wrong. It probably won't recognize most of the first and last names you give your characters, it'll flag place names all day long, and there are all kinds of foreign phrases it's going to pretend not to recognize (and we all know it's fluent in at least a gagillion languages). 

Forget about using it to double-check dialogue. If you're breaking your sentences up to make them interesting and actually writing the way people talk, chances are pretty good that you're getting an error line on every other line of your book. I've personally been waylaid by the built-in grammar checker on numerous occasions; once, my laptop even had me questioning my own sanity. It's a computer program that's trying to make sense out of something it cannot possibly understand, and if you rely upon it to write your book you are going to be led astray.

Only you can read your book the way actual reader are going to be reading, and only you know the story you want to tell. It's your job to tell that story in the best way possible, and that means knowing how to correct your own grammar. You wouldn't let someone else choose your book cover or name your protagonist, would you? Would you let someone else choose the price or pick the title for your book? 

Then why would you leave the writing of it in the hands of a machine that has no idea what it's doing?

Writing 101: The Joy of Templates

I've made it clear that I'm a big fan of staying organized during the writing process. I create outlines, character sheets, the whole ball of wax. But sometimes, you need something more than the standard blank document to keep your plot organized and all your thoughts straight. I'm talking about the joy of templates. 

Let's Hear it for Templates!

I've advocated using templates to keep your manuscript properly formatted; this will save you a ton of frustration and time when you convert your work into an ebook-ready format. But templates serve another important function: they can help you keep all your book notes organized. 

Plots can get pretty complex, particularly if you've got a lot of characters interacting or a big event happening. I'm usually pretty straightforward when it comes to writing outlines for my stories; in the past, a blank Word document has always been good enough for me. But lately I've been working on a novel that's extremely involved. There's a special event going on over multiple weeks that involves all sorts of information and characters, and frankly it's incredibly confusing. 

To keep the days of the event straight, I pulled up a calendar template that fits right onto my computer screen. It's possible to set the calendar to any year and month, so for me it worked out perfectly. I used another template to keep some very extensive notes organized and categorized (it's basically a list of objects with brief descriptions, and information about who's bringing each object -- sort of). 

The point is, I'm pretty sure my book would be an utter mess without these templates. When I need to know something specific, I can just glance at a single document to find what I need. Otherwise, I'd have to crawl back through the book to find out what I want to know (and I don't need that kind of hassle). 

There are dozens and dozens of templates available for a variety of word processing software. Microsoft Word, by far one of the most commonly-used processors, makes it incredibly easy to find templates. There's a built-in list of what's available, and if that isn't good enough you can always type something in the search bar to seek out the proper template online. MS Word will find the template and allow you to download it without ever leaving the program. Other word processing programs offer similar features, so you should never hesitate to look for a template if you want to get all your important notes and information well-organized.

Writers need tricks, help and props to survive, because writing is hard. Create as many documents as you like and write all the notes you need to keep your plot, characters and other pertinent information organized. The more organized you keep all your information, the less editing and re-writing you'll end up doing later.