Monthly Archives: March 2012

Mar 27 2012

Field Trip: to Hunting Lake

The last field trip I got distracted by water, but on this trip I got distracted by snow.

I hadn’t been to the snow in years.

I was rather gleeful to finally see snow. I wanted to dig my hand into it.

This is Shaver Lake.

From Wikipedia: Shaver Lake is an artificial lake on Stevenson Creek, in the Sierra National Forest of Fresno County, California. At elevation 5,500 ft (1,700 m), several smaller streams also flow into the lake and receives water from the underground tunnels of Southern California Edison’s Big Creekhydroelectric project.[1] The town Shaver Lake is located on its south-west shore.
Here’s my husband saying, “I’m freezing!”

This is me, imagining where my alien compound will be.

You see a bit of Shaver Lake in this photo. The water level is still really low because they were working on the dam.

Lovely view of a snowy hill though. Parents were taking their kids here to slid down the snow.

A better shot of the snowy hill.

I might use this shot for a Christmas card.

Here’s my husband again. He’s pretending his hand is caught in the crack.

Don’t worry, he’s okay.

This is me again with that same boulder behind me.

Hubby takes one last look at the lake before we leave.

Took this photo on the way up to Huntington Lake.

Snow on top of the mountain.

Hubby pulled over so I could take this photo.

More snow.

Believe it or not–this is a creek.

It’s just buried under snow.

At last we made it to Huntington Lake

I posted this one larger so you can see the ice sheet over the lake.

Amazing isn’t it?

This is the snow covered mountain behind us as we stood looking at the lake.

Dock at Huntington Lake.

Here we turned around and headed back home.

With all the snow and ice we were afraid we’d hit a patch of black ice and slid right off the road.

I like this cabin. I think I’ll have it in one of my Arcon Alien Stories.

This is how high the snow was along the side of the road.

We noticed this mountain on the way back down. This photo was taken from the car. The little droplets are water on our windshield.

I’m not sure if you can see it or not, but there are grooves in the snow from skiers.

I hope you enjoyed my field trip.

The infromation that I gathered from this trip will be in my Arcon alien stories or Exodus Arcon Series, which will be a SF romance series that I hope to launch sometime this year.

For more information on my Arcons, check out my free read.

Mar 26 2012

Writer’s Hint: #1

When working on revisions on your manuscript, setup a file with the title of your ms and the words “deleted scenes.” Copy and paste the scenes you’re removing into this file for pain-free revisions.

Then reread your ms. If the chapter reads better without that scene, then leave it in the file.

Janice~

Mar 2 2012

Revision Hell by Janice Seagraves

 Revision Hell

by Janice Seagraves

1) Do a read through. Read your manuscript like a reader. Either print it out, load it into your ereader or change the font and read it on your computer. Note: changing the font will make your manuscript look different and you can see it with fresh eyes.

2) Keep a note pad by you as you read. Take notes, but keep it simple: Ch. 1 needs a better opening hook. Ch. 2 starts out too slow.

3) After you do your read through, go through it again, but this time write each scene down.

I won’t kid you, this is the hardest part of revision, but it is the most rewarding. Write it simply, Ch. 1: scene 3: the scene where the hero and heroine meet is too slow.  Ch. 2: scene 1: the wake up scene is too cliché.

4) As you write each scene add a number from 1 to 10 for its importance to your story. Note: Don’t revise until you write all the scenes down.

5) After you have all the scenes down, you will be able to look each over each scene in your story to see which ones you want to delete. This step helps you see the bigger picture, so to speak.

6) But don’t delete yet!

7) Open a new file on your computer and name it “deleted scenes” with the title of your ms. In this file you’ll paste in the scenes you are taking out. It makes taking out those scenes nearly painless, and when you reread your ms you can see if your ms flows better without them. If it doesn’t then you can always put it back in.

8) After you have taken out the scenes that slowed your prose, reread your entire manuscript like a reader. If it flows, you’re done.

9) Send it to a beta reader, or if you’re feeling really confident sent it to a publisher.

Mar 1 2012

Watch Those Tenses

Watch Those Tenses
By Janice Seagraves
 
What are tenses exactly?
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There’s the past tense, the present tense and the future tense. There are more of course, but for this lesson I’m keeping it simple.
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Have I lost you?
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To put it simply: Past tense is things that have already happened. Present Tense is things happening right now. Future tense is things that haven’t happened yet.
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Example Past Tense: Sally went to the store to get some milk.
Here I used the past tense: went
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Example Present Tense: Sally is going to the store to get some milk.
Here I used the present tense: going
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Example Future Tense: Sally will go the store to get some milk.
Here I used the future tense: will go.
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What tense should you use for writing?
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In most fictions such as romance, suspense, paranormal, fantasy etc., I suggest you use past tense as most editors (not all) will prefer it. It was explained to me this way:
“When you tell a story, you tell it like it has already happened.”
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But there will be times when you’ll need to use another tense: when something hasn’t happened yet or when someone is doing something right this moment in your story.
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Here’s an example from Lord of the Ring:
[Galadriel descends to a glade and fills a silver pitcher with water from a stream. She stands before an ornate stand with a shallow silver basin upon it. The Lady turns towards Frodo.]
Galadriel: “Will you look into the mirror?”
Frodo: “What will I see?”
Galadriel: [stepping up to the basin] “Even the wisest cannot tell. For the mirror… shows many things…”
[She begins to pour the water into the silver mirror.]
Galadriel: “…things that were… things that are… and some things…” [She empties the ewer and steps back] “that have not yet come to pass.”
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Past tense: –ed words, had, was/were, gone, done, finished, verb forms ending in -ing.
Example: I had already studied tenses for writing.
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Present tense: am/is/are, going, doing, verb forms ending in –ing.
Example: I am studying tenses for writing.
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Future tense: will be/shall be/will have, verb forms ending in –ing.
Example: I will be studying tenses for writing.
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As you can see –ing words work for all tenses, but –ing can weaken your prose, so don’t use them too often.