Inkabout L. Darby Gibbs

Science Fiction & Fantasy author

process

Reference Advice: Grammar and Punctuation — the Bane and Benefit

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Every writer’s frustration is getting the grammar and punctuation
correct.  Without it, our readers can’t follow the road we have prepared
for them.  Even a grammarian/English teacher needs to check her work
regularly and review rules.  One of the best books for assisting both
the conscientious beginner and the experienced writer is a text that was
on the recommended list for a college class I took:  Diana Hacker’s A Writer’s Reference.  I have returned to college several times picking up
different certifications and degrees, but this is the best writing reference text I came
across over the years.

  • Looking to track down the list of
    the words most confused by writers? Check A Writer’s Reference.  
  • Want to
    understand the ins and outs of the semicolon vs the colon?  Check A
    Writer’s Reference    .  
  • Document design harassing you? Check A Writer’s
    Reference    .  
  • Have to give proper documentation for research you have
    done?  A Writer’s Reference supplies formats for MLA, APA, and CMS.  
  • Are
    you an ESL individual still dooking it out with prepositions and
    articles?  A Writer’s Reference has a section on that.  
  • Need more
    practice than is in the text? It also has an online presence with plenty
    of practice sets and explanations.

This is a compact
text, about 6 1/2 x 8 inches, held together by a comb binding, so it
travels well and lays flat.  Cost is a bit steep, ($50.00+ on average),
but grammar evolves quite slowly, so you have time to wear it out.  So
dictionary (or word book: see my previous post on spell friendly dictionaries, July 11, 2012), thesaurus, A Writer’s Reference, if you
write anything and care about writing well, have them in easy reach.

What do I want in the books that I read & write

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I am at the beginning of redrafting my second book in my Students of Jump series.  In the process, I started thinking about what it is I like about the books I like to read.  Knowing that will help me make sure my book has those qualities.  So what is it that holds my attention when I read a science fiction novel?

1. depth of humanity:  I like my characters to show their fears, joys, fellowship to other characters
2.  activity:  I don’t mind a lull especially after a heavy action or emotional scene, but I don’t want the lulls to last too long, and they must have purpose.
3.  well-developed characters that I can sympathize with even if I don’t like them.  I understand why they are doing what they are doing.
4. humor:  life always has moments of humor, and I want any stories I read to have it, too.  Silly moments, puns, laugh instead of cry, etc.
5.  emotional involvement: some catharsis for at least the main character
6. connection to other characters:  relationships that show the main character has family, friends, co-workers, enemies, pets.  I don’t like when they exist in isolation.  Everybody has backstory and forward reconnections to others
7.  I want to see (hear, smell, touch, taste) the environment, things, actions described.
8.  Sense of local: where are they, where are they going?
9.  the fiction of science: space travel, technology in every day life, the stuff that is related to but not of this contemporary time.
10. I like to get lost in the story: (I don’t mean the author dropped me off a cliff, and I have no notion of where the story is going and has gone).  I want time to go by that I didn’t notice because the story caught me up and carried me away.

After looking at my list, it is clear I have set myself up for a challenge.  I had better get onto it.

Writing and kayaking: where worlds overlap

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Meandering rivers & minds

This past weekend I went kayaking with my husband and daughter.  We parked by a little lake and proceeded to launch our kayaks. Ready to go exploring, we had all been eying the source creek to our left. 

We didn’t get far into the creek before the lake disappeared and all sounds common to a lake full of campers were so dimmed that only the birds, movement of water and occasional flying wasp were heard.  I had deliberately let my husband and daughter slide on ahead of me and pass beyond the next curve just so I could take in that feeling that I was somewhere far from civilization. 

Along the banks were tight growths of trees, many of which have been undercut by resent high water flow, some having fallen partially across the creek added to the untouched feel of the place.  The cardinals and black ducks complained at our presence, and the fish were well camouflaged by the turbid water. 

I allowed the pretense of being utterly alone soak in.  Much of the sky was blocked by the canopy of trees overhead, but what showed was pale blue with occasional slashes of white clouds.  We had set out on a windy day, yet on that creek, no breeze stirred the trees, and along some lengths of the meandering river even the water was torpid and silty, where slender, curved leaves floated in stillness.

This same sense of being alone and in a untenanted place happens when I write.  The rest of the room I am in disappears and just the images filling the screen in front of me and the soft clack of the keyboard are my world.  I suppose that is why I enjoy kayaking alone so much, even if only a turn in the river up ahead creates the illusion.  The two experiences mirror each other.  I am exploring an unknown space of my own creation, my imagination building up a world.  But like the turn of the river ahead, a turn of my chair brings family up close again.