From the art perspective we already have a poorly done 3-d mesh of a woman. Her hair is being blown by some random physics engine. Her feet are not proportionate to her body and if you look closely you can see that her calf is really inside her thigh.

It’s bad enough the horrible name of vampire is being smudged by these little love story soap operas. But now we cant even manage to make them look halfway decent. Perhaps a figure drawing class is in order. And some sort of fashion class because that outfit is so last season.

The short of it is, no, character names are not copyrighted. You cannot copyright short phrases or names, and that of course extends to the names of characters. So you could use characters named Edward Cullen, Indiana Jones, or Luke Skywalker in a story about how Luke and Indy relentlessly poke fun at Edward.

However, the characters themselves can be copyrighted. So while the name of the character isn’t copyrighted, the character itself could be. That means that while I can use the name Luke Skywalker, I can’t really write about Luke Skywalker (or at least, I can’t profit from doing so).

As you can imagine, there are a lot of fine lines here. Firstly, not every character can be copyrighted; the character either needs to be described very specifically or one of the central characters. Secondly, what if I wrote a story set in 2560 AD about a war between Mars and Earth and one of the starfighter pilots is named Luke Skywalker? The connection between my character and George Lucas’ character is pretty obvious, but then again there are significant differences between the two. Still, I’d probably be okay doing that, unless George Lucas has trademarked the name.

See, while you can’t copyright a short phrase or name, you can trademark one. A good example is Facebook as they’ve trademarked the word ‘book’. Now, that doesn’t mean you can’t use the word book of course, or that you can’t use in a web domain name; trademarks are extremely narrow and the more common a word is, the more narrow the trademark protection for it. However, what it does mean is that I can’t create a social network like Facebook with the word ‘book’ in it.

So if George Lucas has trademarked the name Luke Skywalker, then I might run into trouble using such a character in a science fiction scenario similar to Star Wars. However, the trademark could only extent to that very limited area. I could still use a character with the name of Luke Skywalker in a Western or even another sci-fi story as long as it’s not reminiscent of Star Wars.

Yet, all the above really only applies if you plan on making money from your story. If all you plan on doing is making a fan-fiction about Luke, Edward, or Indy and posting it on YWS or another writing site, you’ll be fine. You just can’t try to get that flash-fiction published or try to profit from it.

Anyone can email me their work, and I’m open to absolutely anything as long as it’s PG-13 and, if it’s a story, 1,o00 words or less. To get a feel of what the magazine is like you can read it, because each issue is free to download. The magazine is currently on its fourth issue and has published over seventy writers, including some members of YWS, so you’ll be in good company. I love reading everyone’s submissions and choosing the best, and the submissions just get better each time. So far I’ve gotten more submissions with every issue and I fully expect to get even more this time, and I don’t want to be disappointed! So get over to http://www.blinking-cursor.co.uk , read the guidelines (in fact, read them twice), and send me your best work! And here’s a hint: I’m partial to a metaphor or two.

So, today the world is ending for like the billionth time. Fire is raining from the sky, demons or monsters are flooding the world, the earth is splitting, the sun is exploding, the oceans are rising, blah blah blah. The More important question is why. Why are all these things happening. Is it magical? Is it scientific?

Who doesn’t like a good doomsday book. I know I do, but I want some substance for my last few hours on Earth. I’ve read so many novels that face the extinction of all life on Earth and most of them seem to lack any real explanation as to why we’re facing the end of days. It’s not a difficult question to answer, but some stories seem to settle with simply saying “that’s just how it is.” Unacceptable.

If you have a super villain trying to destroy the world there had better be a very good reason why he’s trying to destroy the world. That was something I could never understand in the hero and villain apocalypse set up. There never seemed to be any real reason for the end of the world. Other than the fact that the bad guy was bad and all bad guys want to destroy the world. For a story to connect to the reader there needs to be something that makes sense. What deep psychological reason is there that causes this character to want to destroy everything.

If we’re facing a global natural disaster kind of end of the world there needs to be some moderately believable scientific basis in it. We see stories about all the volcanoes on earth erupting at once or massive earthquakes all over the world and I always ask why. And unexplainable scientific events really don’t fly with me. Cataclysmic natural disasters like that have warning signs. Research is required for this sort of end of the world. What’s a little research to an amazingly good story?

These are just two examples. The main point in this is simple. If you’re writing a story or novel on the world coming to a devastating end, make it seem real. Have possible reasons that the reader can believe. If you ever have an issue where you have trouble understanding why the world is ending then examine the situation. Look at the characters and follow the trail backwards to what is causing the conflict that is creating the apocalyptic event. Happy endings.

“You’re a writer?”

“Er… yes.”

“What do you write?”

“Poems and stories, mostly.”

“Oh really? What kinds of stories?”

“Well…”

It’s at this point someone, usually a family member or a close friend, will suddenly appear and say, “She’s written a novel too!”

“Oh, really? What is that novel about?”

Introduce: the awkward pause.

…sound familiar?

I think every writer goes through this.  Mind you, I do like talking about my novel to the right people. To the right people, talking about writing is an absolute joy. But this?  This is asking for an instant query letter, made up on the spot without notes. Plus, not only do we have to make an instant query letter, but we somehow have to animate the story through our gestures and face as we talk to you while making it sound like that, yes, we aren’t just spouting off the novel summary that we’ve sent out to agents that have subsequently rejected us.

But it only gets worse.

You see, some of the time, people just say, “That’s nice” and then the conversation is blissfully changed to a relaxing topic, such as the underlying political economy motivating environmentalism. That’s good! I love it when that happens. Rarer times, someone will actually be one of those right people to talk about writing with. I really love those times. It’s fun to talk about writing! But, I swear, my heart drops when I hear someone say, “I’m a writer too!”

I swallow the lump in my throat. “So, what do you write?”

“Oh, anything, really!” And then, this new acquaintance, who just so happens to be a writer, decides that you need to see her work. Now.

Once, I had someone recite to me for the next three days her couplets, which she made off the top of her head.  Another writer decided that I needed to read her story. And, when I protested at reading her handwriting in her notebook, she read her erotic fantasy story to me. All four chapters of it. And then there was that one guy who decided to give me his story that “just wrote itself” when it had, for the cover, a hypodermic needle. Never mind that I don’t like that stuff. And I can go on and on.

Awkward, much?

Lately, I’ve been refusing to admit that I am a writer. So when somebody mentions the novel, I’ll laugh and say that it’s currently being revised (it is!) and that it’s rather terrible and that maybe it’ll finally be published on December 21, 2012, which is conveniently the day the world will end. That stops the writers, mostly. But, I have to admit, it made me feel absolutely ridiculous when I realized I was speaking with a soon-to-be literary agent.

Oops.

And so now, I wait for the moment in which I am awarded my engineering degree with hopes that, one day, I can say with certainty that, no, I really only write on the side and that I really don’t have time to hear their newest erotic novel that they want to read me.

Hopefully, that’ll stop them.

–

What do people do when they hear you’re a writer? What do you tell them?

Things aren’t that bad, but the Associated Foreign Press has a news story about how teenagers and 20-somethings in China are forgetting many of the thousands of characters in their language.  Overblown?  Yes.  Distressing? Not so much.  Learning Chinese character writing is one of the hardest writing skills to learn in the world, and until very recently, the domain of the elite.  Excerpt follows after the break.

Like every Chinese child, Li Hanwei spent her schooldays memorising thousands of the intricate characters that make up the Chinese writing system.

Yet aged just 21 and now a university student in Hong Kong, Li already finds that when she picks up a pen to write, the characters for words as simple as “embarrassed” have slipped from her mind.

“I can remember the shape, but I can’t remember the strokes that you need to write it,” she says. “It’s a bit of a problem.”

Surveys indicate the phenomenon, dubbed “character amnesia”, is widespread across China, causing young Chinese to fear for the future of their ancient writing system.

Young Japanese people also report the problem, which is caused by the constant use of computers and mobile phones with alphabet-based input systems.

Full Source

There are over 40,000 characters in the Chinese alphabet, although most of these are hardly ever used by anyone.  Still, forgetting a few is probably fairly reasonable.  Heck, I’ve forgotten how to write a ‘Z’ in cursive:

This past Thursday, the Wall Street Jounral’s Ron Adner and William Vincent wrote:

With e-reader prices dropping like a stone and major tech players jumping into the book retail business, what room is left for publishers’ profits? The surprising answer: ads. They’re coming soon to a book near you.

Source: WSJ, Get ready for ads in books

Paul Carr of TechCrunch summarizes their argument nicely:

The crux of the argument is this: books are the only word-based medium currently free of advertising (unless you count the pages full of ads for other books at the back of most mass market paperbacks). This isn’t – as you might think – because ads kill our enjoyment of literature (many magazines publish fiction surrounded by commercial messages) but rather because until now it’s been difficult to sell ad space in books. The lead times in publishing – and the shelf-life of paperbacks – are simply too long to deliver timely commercial offerings: who hasn’t experienced the amusement of picking up an old paperback and being invited to send off for the previous title in the series for just 25c?

But now, thanks to e-readers, all that is changing. With electronic books, ads can be served dynamically, just like they are online – not only does that remove the problem of out-of-date ads being stuck in old books, but it also allows messages to be tailored to the individual reader. Those reading the Twilight books at the age of 14 can be sold make-up and shoes and all of the other things teenage girls need to attract their very own Edward. Meanwhile, those still reading the books at 35 can be sold cat food. Lots and lots of cat food.

Paul Carr goes on to say that the real danger isn’t advertising per se in e-books, but product placement.  For example, consider the flying car Harry and Ron took for a joyride in one of the Harry Potter novels.  What Rowling could have done is given it a specific brand name – maybe Ford, Renault, or Nissan.  You can do that already with books, but with e-books, you could easily change the brand of the car every 10,000 copies.  So Ford buys the naming rights for the flying car, and does so for the first 50,000 copies.  They either renew after that, or Rowling asks another company if they would like the naming rights after those first 50,000.

In any case, whether it’s product placement or a more traditional ad, it’s still advertising and it’s coming to e-books.

For sale: Baby shoes; never used.

- Ernest Hemingway

Legend has it that Hemingway wrote the above when his colleagues bet him he couldn’t write a story in just six words.  After winning the bet, Hemingway called it his best work.

Whether that’s just an urban legend or has a basis in fact, it’s useful to analyze why Hemingway would call it his best work.  In fact, I could think of three reasons.

Reason #1: Simplicity of language

American author William Faulkner once famously disparaged Hemingway by saying Hemingway “had never been known to use a word that might send the reader to the dictionary.”  Hemingway’s even more famous response?  “Poor Faulkner.  Does he really think big emotions come from big words?”

Examine the six word story.  Just two of the words have more than one syllable, and those words are the rather simple “Baby” and “never”.  In fact, it’s a story that even most Kindergartners could read and not have any trouble with.

Reason #2: It’s concise.

There are no dangling participles or extraneous nouns, articles, adjectives, or verbs in the six word story.  In fact, with the exception of ‘For’, each word tells a story in and of itself.

By being concise, the power of the words can shine most clearly.  Hemingway could have written a short story on the subject, but why write 10,000 words when just six will do?  Use too many words, and the soul of the story is lost.

Reason #3: It’s emotionally captivating

Brevity may be the soul of wit, but wit isn’t known for its emotional qualities.  Here, though, Hemingway combined brevity with an emotionally capitivating story.

He did this by carefully selecting each word.   Take “used”.  One common variant of Hemingway’s six word story is to accidentally substitute “worn” for “used”.   Yet, compare those two words.  Which do you think conjures up greater emotion?

What this means for you

A careful analysis of Hemingway’s six word story shows us that simply writing and editing a story isn’t enough.  Rather, we must examine each word carefully.  Can I say it simpler?  Can I get rid of it?  Is there a better word?

By going through your own stories in such an exhaustive manner,  your writing will be clearer, your words will have more power, and your readers will be more appreciative.  In the meantime, why don’t you leave your own six word story in the comments?

So that’s all well and good, but how does it apply to you?  Well, the article got me thinking how you could take advantage of human psychology in your writing.

Tip #1: Remove Distractions

One of the points about the Wired article is that while using a computer, our brains get flooded with information leading to cognitive overload.  Since our brain can only take in so much information at a time, we either slow down or we simply skim whatever we’re reading.

So in your writing, the goal is clear: get rid of meaningless distractions.  That means phrases that aren’t necessary, descriptions that wander off, and explanations to dialogue that are merely redundant.

From a technical viewpoint, it also means not resorting to bolded words or italics in your writing.  It especially means not to resort to “artistic” grammatical styles, or unusual words.

Tip #2: Short Paragraphs

When people skim a page, they’re usually skipping from paragraph to paragraph.  Take advantage of this by keeping your paragraphs short.

However, it is okay to have the occasional long paragraph.  Length indicates importance, so any long paragraph should be something vitally important to read.

Tip #3: Don’t do anything unexpected

In the Wired article, Nicholas Carr shares a study where people were given something to read.  In the first group, they were able to go to the next page by pressing “Next” at the end of the page.   In the second group, they were able to to to the next page by clicking on a hyperlink in the text of the page.

The result?  The second group felt the piece they were reading was more confusing and harder to understand.

So, if you want to improve comprehension of your work, stick to standard grammar.  And if you’re posting a novel online and you wish to include a link to the next chapter, label the link “Next Chapter”.

Tip #4: Use Visual Cues

The one thing the Internet really helps with is our visual-spatial capacity.  You can take advantage of this by being clear when you’re switching scenes in a story (such as a line between the two sections).  And as I said before, only make important paragraphs long.  Otherwise, keep the paragraphs short.

Also, look at the way this article is written.  The meat of the article, the tips, is clearly spelled out.

That’s it for now.

For one, an author may have a perfectly good reason for not following the proper style rules.   The Pursuit of Happyness by Chris Gardner is one such example.  There, the author based the title of the book off the name of a daycare, which misspelled ‘happyness’ in its name, that he used to leave his son at during the day.

But for another, the title is a good indicator of how an author feels about his own work.  Whenever I see a literary work on the Young Writers Society with a shoddy title, I know the author does not care about the work he posted.  Plus, if you can’t bother to write a proper title – something that only takes a minute – then what does that say about the likely quality of the work?

And that is why the title is so important: it’s the first indicator to the reader of how the author feels about his work and about the quality of the work.  That indicator is extremely important as it lets the reader know whether or not to spend the time necessary to read and review the work in question (which is why YWS doesn’t actively enforce rules concerning titles of works).  So if you’re not spending time on your title, you may want to rethink your priorities.