Shortly after the two of them first meet, Shrek tries explaining to Donkey that ogres, like onions, have layers. Novels have layers, too. As I mentioned the other day, I’ve been writing some of my scenes in almost a short hand style of writing. Something like: Skip pours a drink. Monica stares at the sea. Skip does something. Monica throws her glass out into the ocean. Usually this happens when either (a) I’m tired, (b) I’m not really in the mood to be writing, or (c) I’m writing an action scene, and my fingers can’t keep up with my brain.… (read more)

One of the things we’ve learned in class is that character names matter. Imagine two princesses, one named Priscilla and the other, Ivana. Chances are, you didn’t imagine identical twins. George Lucas may be the master of obvious names. The lone smuggler’s last name is Solo, and the alien who shows up to collect money from him is Greedo. One particularly nasty enemy is named General Grevious. Luke comes from the Latin word for light, and may be related to Rey (of light) as well. The overweight X-Wing pilot was named Porkins. You get the idea. Here are the character… (read more)

A couple of years ago, I got assigned to a couple of projects at work where I ended up writing a lot of code and scripts. I didn’t know a lot of the commands I needed off the top of my head, so often I wrote what we called pseudo-code before writing real code. Pseudo-code isn’t real code that a computer can understand, but rather a summary of what you want the code to do. For example, if I were quickly sketching out what I needed a script to do, I might write something like “do SQL database query here,”… (read more)

Many years ago (back in the mid-90s), a friend of mine and I started a monthly electronic magazine. The magazine consisted of original short stories and poems. Along with copy editing everybody else’s submissions and assembling all the electronic code, I was also on the hook for contributing a few original short stories of poems each issue. After only a few months, “the well was dry,” so-to-speak. I had already printed all of my previously written stuff, and began to experience writer’s block. And so, late at night, I would go for a walk.

Yesterday in class our professor returned the synopses we wrote for our novels. I got a “B,” along with a few suggestions and critiques. Not so many years ago, I would have flared up after receiving comments on something I had written, but not anymore. Over the years I’ve learned a few techniques that help type A people such as myself handle critiques. Off the top of my head, here are a few things that help me deal with criticism: