alien romances: index

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Tuesday, July 29, 2014

Index to Theme-Character Integration Series by Jacqueline Lichtenberg

Index to Theme-Character Integration Series
by
Jacqueline Lichtenberg

Following is the list of posts in the general topic of how to craft Themes and Characters so the two elements become indistinguishable to the general reader.

"Integration" of two basic skills is the foundation of creating that "suspension of disbelief" that readers seek when entering a fantasy world, or when leaping into an adventure set in an impossible (but maybe desirable) landscape.

Part 17; Building a Lead Character From Theme

https://aliendjinnromances.blogspot.com/2021/04/theme-character-integration-part-17.html

Tuesday, May 13, 2014

Index to Marketing Fiction In A Changing World by Jacqueline Lichtenberg

Index to Marketing Fiction In A Changing World

Jacqueline Lichtenberg

It isn't enough to just write a great story, nor even to write a story that precisely fits what publishers want.

Today's changing world requires writers to do much more than write.

Some manage this problem by marrying or partnering up with someone with the requisite skills, and some hire an agent. Some get lucky and connect with the right editor.

Everyone else has to pay attention to Marketing, Markets, Publishing, video, advertising, PR, and branding -- all kinds of things that really compete with creative time.

Self-publishing is yet another whole set of skills that adds in book design, formatting, layout, cost-effective use of various online outlets, accounting, and a myriad secretarial skills.

We have not yet covered all these requisites in this blog series, even though I've been touching on this subject since 2009. Here is what we have so far in this series, with the newest at the top.

My series on Marketing Fiction In A Changing World:

Part 27 -
The Half Hour Drama Is Back
http://aliendjinnromances.blogspot.com/2017/08/marketing-fiction-in-changing-world.html
Part 26 -

Must You Compromise Your Art To Sell Big?

Jacqueline Lichtenberg
http://jacquelinelichtenberg.com

Tuesday, April 29, 2014

Index To Theme-Worldbuilding Integration Posts by Jacqueline Lichtenberg

Index To Theme-Worldbuilding Integration Posts
by
Jacqueline Lichtenberg

As readers of this Tuesday blog on writing craft have noticed, I focus on THEME as the bedrock of a writer's craft.

Most writers, especially the best ones, never think about or notice theme in their work because the underlying, cohesive and coherent theme is always supplied by the subconscious.

The Integration series of posts that discuss integrating theme into various other skills are designed to train your subconscious so that it will do this job for you, and do it without attracting your attention -- so you can just tell your story.

A lot of the posts on this Tuesday blog are devoted to, or just mention, Worldbuilding.

The single most necessary skill in worldbuilding (creating a fictional world against which to tell your story) is theme.

Even if you are working in contemporary settings, you are creating for the reader a "Hollywood-ized version" of their reality, a dedicand cut through the side of reality that reveals its internal structure.

That "angle" on reality, that cut through to reveal the inner mechanism, is the source of your theme. It is the show-don't-tell of your theme.

And it is subtle. One tiny detail of your worldbuilding out of place, one tiny thing that clashes with your theme, and the reader/viewer is thrown right out of the fictional world.

That foundation of suspension of disbelief is built upon a smooth, seamless integration of theme and worldbuilding.

The critical part of what a writer does to create verisimilitude in worldbuilding is done by observing what goes on in the real world, and noticing how it all might seem to their target audience. Studying the world from various points of view is the main exercise, and these posts walk you through the method of observing, then thinking through where these elements can go in a piece of fiction.

Dramatic effect and emotional impact is heightened without melodrama when your writing is done with the discipline acquired from such study.

This is the series of posts illustrating what goes on inside a writer's mind when creating such an integrated set of ideas.

http://aliendjinnromances.blogspot.com/2012/09/theme-worldbuilding-integration-part-1.html

http://aliendjinnromances.blogspot.com/2012/09/theme-worldbuilding-integraton-part-2.html

http://aliendjinnromances.blogspot.com/2012/09/theme-worldbuilding-integration-part-3.html

http://aliendjinnromances.blogspot.com/2012/09/theme-worldbuilding-integration-part-4.html

http://www.aliendjinnromances.blogspot.com/2012/10/theme-worldbuilding-integration-part-5.html

http://aliendjinnromances.blogspot.com/2013/02/theme-worldbuilding-integration-part-6.html

http://aliendjinnromances.blogspot.com/2013/10/theme-worldbuilding-integration-part-7.html

http://aliendjinnromances.blogspot.com/2014/01/theme-worldbuilding-integration-part-8.html

http://aliendjinnromances.blogspot.com/2015/10/theme-worldbuilding-integration-part-9.html

http://aliendjinnromances.blogspot.com/2015/11/theme-worldbuilding-integration-part-10.html -- Is Government Form Irrelevant?

http://aliendjinnromances.blogspot.com/2016/04/theme-worldbuilding-integration-part-11.html -- Is "Why is it wrong to blame the victim?"
I may have to update this Index post with future parts listed

http://aliendjinnromances.blogspot.com/2016/05/theme-worldbuilding-integration-part-12.html

Theme-Worldbuilding Integration Part 13 Authority, Responsibility, and Power in Alien Romance
http://aliendjinnromances.blogspot.com/2016/05/theme-worldbuilding-integration-part-13.html

Theme-Worldbuilding Integration Part 14 - Selling The Happily Ever After Ending
http://aliendjinnromances.blogspot.com/2016/06/theme-worldbuilding-integration-part-14.html

Theme-Worldbuilding Integration Part 15 - What Is At Stake
http://aliendjinnromances.blogspot.com/2016/09/theme-worldbuilding-integration-part-15.html

Theme-Worldbuilding Integration Part 16 - Scientific Evidence For The Happily Ever After
http://aliendjinnromances.blogspot.com/2016/09/theme-worldbuilding-integration-part-16.html

Theme-Worldbuilding Integration Part 17 - Depicting Prophecy
https://aliendjinnromances.blogspot.com/2017/11/theme-worldbuilding-integration-part-17.html

Theme-Worldbuilding Integration Part 18 - Creating A Galactic History
https://aliendjinnromances.blogspot.com/2017/12/theme-worldbuilding-integration-part-18.html

Theme-Worldbuilding Integration Part 19 - A Stitch In Time
https://aliendjinnromances.blogspot.com/2019/03/theme-worldbuilding-integration-stitch.html

Theme-Worldbuilding Integration Part 20 - Why Love Matters (readers love a mystery)
https://aliendjinnromances.blogspot.com/2019/05/theme-worldbuilding-integration-part-20.html

Theme-Worldbuilding Integration Part 21 - The Couple's First Fight (privacy as key to HEA)
https://aliendjinnromances.blogspot.com/2019/06/theme-worldbuilding-integration-part-21.html

Here is an early post on Worldbuilding and Art:
http://aliendjinnromances.blogspot.com/2007/02/worldbuilding-and-art.html

Jacqueline Lichtenberg
http://jacquelinelichtenberg.com

Tuesday, January 28, 2014

Index to Story Springboards Series by Jacqueline Lichtenberg

Index to Story Springboards Series
by
Jacqueline Lichtenberg

Here is an index to the Story Springboards posts.

It starts with a guest post about Art Heists, and moves on into how to create the quality called "interesting" -- which is the vital core of the "episodic novel" or TV Series.

We will have much more to discuss about episodic structures.

There is a very fine line between frustration and intrigue. Episodic structures are prone to becoming boring (note how TV Series rarely last more than a few seasons because they get repetitive). "Interesting" is a learn-able technique -- but learning it can be boring!

Wars make a good framework for episodic structures. Episodes can be a few pages long, or the length of War And Peace. But a string of episodes does not make a novel, but a novel can house a number of episodes that illuminate the theme of the novel.

It is well worth the time and effort to learn to construct an interesting episode and to distinguish that from a genuine Short Story. The difference is structural, but not minor.

With the right Springboard, the Short Story, the Episode and the Novel can blend into an "interesting" tapestry. Each, however, requires a separate skill-set.

Here is the list of entries in Story Springboards:

http://aliendjinnromances.blogspot.com/2012/01/story-springboards-part-1-art-heists-by.html

http://aliendjinnromances.blogspot.com/2012/04/story-springboards-part-2-tv-shows.html
(The TV Shows Fringe and Royal Pains)

http://aliendjinnromances.blogspot.com/2013/11/story-springboards-part-3-art-of.html
(The Art of Episodic Plotting)

http://aliendjinnromances.blogspot.com/2013/11/story-springboards-part-4-art-of.html
(The Art of Interesting Episodes)

http://aliendjinnromances.blogspot.com/2013/12/story-springboards-part-5-explaining.html (Explaining the popularity of zombies).

http://aliendjinnromances.blogspot.com/2013/12/story-springboards-part-6-earning.html
(Earning a Sobriquet).

http://aliendjinnromances.blogspot.com/2014/01/story-springboards-part-7-knack-of.html
(The Knack of Hooking Readers)

And I expect to add to this line of development.

Jacqueline Lichtenberg
http://jacquelinelichtenberg.com

Tuesday, November 05, 2013

Index Post to Art and Craft of Story and Plot Arcs

Index Post to Art and Craft of Story and Plot Arcs
by
Jacqueline Lichtenberg

Catch up on these posts before we launch into a wide discussion of constructing "story springboards" and focusing on the episodic structure of story and plot.

Put these posts together -- like the pixels of an image -- and you will find a 3-D image of how to manipulate the story inside your mind into a novel or series of novels (or a videogame) product that can be marketed by the existing marketing system.

(You can write about inventing a new marketing system that would accommodate your product without manipulation and sell that book to the existing market!)

Here is an index to 8 parts of the THEME-PLOT-INTEGRATION series:

http://aliendjinnromances.blogspot.com/2013/05/index-to-theme-plot-integration.html

For the Art of Arcs series pay particular attention to:

http://aliendjinnromances.blogspot.com/2013/05/theme-plot-integration-part-8-use-of-co.html

Here is the STORY SPRINGBOARDS series part 1 and 2 -- part 3 coming next week getting very deep into this subject of "potential energy" in a story concept. Part 4, the following week will discuss how to learn to write an "interesting" story.

http://aliendjinnromances.blogspot.com/2012/01/story-springboards-part-1-art-heists-by.html
http://aliendjinnromances.blogspot.com/2012/04/story-springboards-part-2-tv-shows.html

Master Theme Structure, The Camera, Nesting Plots and Stories is the title of the following entry in "verisimilitude vs reality" which covers point of view and shifting point of view.

http://aliendjinnromances.blogspot.com/2011/09/verisimilitude-vs-reality-part-2-master.html

Part 3 "The Game, The Stakes, the Template continues the point of view discussion.

http://aliendjinnromances.blogspot.com/2011/09/verisimilitude-vs-reality-part-3-game.html

Remember, to create CONFLICT you must be able to speak FOR the side of any issue in your reader's daily news feed that you deeply, personally, and adamantly disagree with as you present the side you do agree with. Otherwise, any characcters you set up as adversaries for your Main Character will tend to be "paper tigers."

For the time you are writing the deeds, thinking, motives and dialogue of the adversary, you must become that person -- believing in your gut all the things you, personally and in real life, abhor.

That is why Alma Hill taught that WRITING IS A PERFORMING ART -- it is. You must be an ACTOR to pull off characters Point of View with verisimilitude.

Now the THEME-WORLDBUILDING series -- not yet ready for its own index post but germain to the Art and Craft of Story and Plot ARCS -- the "arc" is built into story/plot at the point where theme and worldbuilding intersect, which is the story-springboard that manifests as conflict.

http://aliendjinnromances.blogspot.com/2013/02/theme-worldbuilding-integration-part-6.html

THEME-WORLDBUILDING has 7 parts so far:
http://aliendjinnromances.blogspot.com/2013/10/theme-worldbuilding-integration-part-7.html

Part 6 of Theme-Worldbuilding is about the use of Media Headlines -- and reveals the ART OF THE MISNOMER (which is headline writing, and "tagging" complex issues with misleading but short nicknames.)

"Fast Food" as unhealthy because of its speed is a handy example of a misnomer since no food is "faster" than say picking an apple and chomping into it. Few foods are as healthy as an apple or a handful of fresh-picked blueberries. So the faster the food, the more healthy it is.

The MISNOMER is all about misdirecting the attention away from the actual issue.

In the case of "fast food" the issue is complex, artificial additives that are manufactured by slow, arduous and expensive chemical processing, as well as fats and oils that have nutritional values tediously processed out of them. The faster the food, the more healthy it tends to be -- so the correct nomenclature for "Fast Food That Is Bad For You" should be "SLOW FOOD." Would "Slow Food" make a selling headline?

It's all about MARKETING:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_public_relations -- details the development of a mathematical model for controlling the behavior of large groups of people (e.g. MARKETING). This mathematical model has been the primary mover of modern civilization since the successful application to shoring up the price of bacon for farmers by creating the myth that the "bacon and eggs breakfast" is the path to success in life, starting with commissioning a scholarly study about breakfasts paid for by the firm hired to publicize the health benefits of bacon (because pig farmers were losing money.)

Much of our current culture is based on manipulating people. So the misnomer "interesting" is attached to novels, movies, non-fiction subjects, and news broadcasts, as if the attribute "grabs attention" is an attribute intrinsic to the Event or the Report of the Event rather than to the person whose attention has been grabbed.

Of course, if everyone understood what "interesting" really means, no commercial would ever be profitable, and none of our current politicians would be elected. Public Relations (as a mathematical model of how to manipulate behavior) only works because the public is ignorant of how and why it works, but Public Relations is what the big Publishers have whole departments of experts to do for writers -- that Indie Writers don't yet know how to do for themselves. (yet, mind you! yet!)

The "arc" techniques we'll be discussing are much like building a bridge -- whether it can carry the traffic depends on the anchor points and the suspension cables. It is a structure and the load capability of the structure depends on the materials used and the design of the intersecting points that bear that load. Arc techniques are all very much like engineering, and also resemble "Public Relations."

Story and Plot are like the pylons and cables that support the roadway. There is a science to the engineering -- the choice of materials, location the bridge, design of load-bearing angles -- but there's an "art" too because it matters how the thing looks, how it fits into its surroundings, blends with the scenery and at the same time stands out as elegant and beautiful in its own right. There is also a political component to bridge building in getting the permissions, clearances, contracts, etc. That political component is analogous to "selling" your story to a "publisher" who will turn it over to their staff of experts in the Publicity Department -- people whose schooling is in Public Relations not story-craft.

Here are links to Astrology and Tarot posts just for writers:

Here is an index to Astrology posts:
http://aliendjinnromances.blogspot.com/2010/03/pausing-for-you-to-catch-up-with-me_30.html

And here is one that carries that subject on a bit farther:

http://aliendjinnromances.blogspot.com/2011/11/astrology-just-for-writers-part-11.html

Here is are index posts for the 20 posts on Tarot for writers:

http://aliendjinnromances.blogspot.com/2010/03/pausing-for-you-to-catch-up-with-me.html

http://aliendjinnromances.blogspot.com/2010/03/pausing-for-you-to-catch-up-with-me_23.html

Jacqueline Lichtenberg
http://jacquelinelichtenberg.com

Tuesday, October 08, 2013

Index to Targeting a Readership Series by Jacqueline Lichtenberg

Index to Targeting a Readership Series
by
Jacqueline Lichtenberg

The Targeting a Readership Series can be found here:

Targeting Readership Part 1 is:
http://aliendjinnromances.blogspot.com/2009/09/targeting-readership-part-one.html

Part 2 is inside this post:
http://aliendjinnromances.blogspot.com/2009/10/astrology-just-for-writers-pt-6.html

Part 3 is inside and woven into the following post in my Astrology Just For Writers series which by mistake has the same number as the previous part but is really Part 7:
http://aliendjinnromances.blogspot.com/2009/11/astrology-just-for-writers-part-6.html

Targeting a Readership Part 4 is:
http://aliendjinnromances.blogspot.com/2012/06/targeting-readership-part-4.html

Targeting a Readership Part 5 is:
http://aliendjinnromances.blogspot.com/2012/07/targeting-readership-part-5-where-is.html

Targeting a Readership Part 6 is:
http://aliendjinnromances.blogspot.com/2013/04/targeting-readership-part-6.html

Targeting a Readership Part 7 is:
http://aliendjinnromances.blogspot.com/2013/04/targeting-readership-part-7-guest-post.html A guest post by Valerie Valdes on use of setting

Targeting a Readership Part 8 is:
http://aliendjinnromances.blogspot.com/2013/06/targeting-readership-part-8-anne-pinzow.html

In which Anne Pinzow directs our attention to THEME via the difference between 1955 and 2013 in terms of the themes exemplified in film:

Fifty's movie glorifies honor.
2013 TV series glorifies, well, Machiavelli and the uselessness of honor.

Targeting a Readership Part 9 - about Creating a Market
http://aliendjinnromances.blogspot.com/2013/07/targeting-readership-part-9-creating.html

Part 10 of Targeting a Readership about the Sad Puppy Hugo Controversy:
http://aliendjinnromances.blogspot.com/2015/08/targeting-readership-part-10-sad-puppy.html

Part 11 of Targeting a Readership, about noting and using the connection between SCOTUS decisions handed down at the end of June 2015.
http://aliendjinnromances.blogspot.com/2015/09/targeting-readership-part-11-futurology.html

Targeting a Readership Part 12 -- may be missing

Targeting a Readership Part 13 - Motivating Your Readers
https://aliendjinnromances.blogspot.com/2018/11/targeting-readership-part-13-motivating.html And readers of this series on Targeting a Readership will probably want to look at:

Theme-Plot Integration Part 13, Superman: Man of Steel scheduled for October 15, 2013 discussing a 4-way skills integration.
http://aliendjinnromances.blogspot.com/2013/10/theme-plot-integration-part-13-superman.html

Targeting a Readership Part 14 - Readers Are A Moving Target (but so are you) (Aug 6, 2019)
https://aliendjinnromances.blogspot.com/2019/08/targeting-readership-part-14-readers.html

Targeting a Readership Part 15 - Why Readers Feel They Have Outgrown a Genre (Aug 13, 2019)
https://aliendjinnromances.blogspot.com/2019/08/targeting-readership-part-15-why.html

Targeting a Readership Part 16 - Plotters, Pantsers, and Game of Thrones
https://aliendjinnromances.blogspot.com/2019/08/targeting-readership-part-16-plotters.html

Targeting a Readership Part 17 - Original Production Wars (Nov 12, 2019)
https://aliendjinnromances.blogspot.com/2019/11/targeting-readership-part-17-original.html

Jacqueline Lichtenberg
http://jacquelinelichtenberg.com

Tuesday, May 07, 2013

Index to Theme-Plot Integration

Tuesday, October 30, 2012

Index to Dialogue Posts

Index to Posts on Dialogue

Tuesday, August 28, 2012

How To Use Theme In Writing Romance

Since I'm about to leap into a series of posts on integrating two big writing skills, worldbuilding and theme, I'm listing here previous posts involving discussions of Theme from various angles.

Theme is one of the items usually listed in English course final exams, or required in various English course papers. In these posts, we've discussed the use of "theme" in a very different (perhaps opposite) way than it is approached in English courses.

A writer does the exact opposite of what a reader or literary analyst does when creating a story from scratch. And so "theme" means, mechanically, something just a little different, but also the same, as it does in English courses.

If you can't identify a "theme" in a novel read for an English (or any other language) course, then you probably won't be able to handle it well when you write.

But if you're very good at identifying and discussing "theme" for Enlgish classes, you probably will have a really hard time using it the way a writer must.

Language classes teach you to understand story on a conscious level, but writers for the most part, (not everyone!) need a much more unconscious understanding of the working parts of a story -- theme being one of those components.

Theme is considered boring because it's all about philosophy, but CONFLICTING PHILOSOPHIES is what generates the kind of conflicting characters who live for generations in the classics.

To write a story with conflicting philosophies, a writer must understand both those philosophies from the point of view of a true-believer in those philosophies.

That means, to be a productive commercial writer, you must be fully conversant in more than your own philosophy - you must be spokesman for opposing philosophies. If your work is not to become repetitive (and boring), you must have mastery of at least two philosophies that are not your own (total of three) -- and then as you go on through life, you must acquire facility in many more philosophies from all kinds of points of view.

The subject of the following posts, taken together, can be summed up as "How to acquire and bespeak the advocacy of all kinds of philosophies that are not your own."

But of course, in the process of walking this trail into other people's philosophies, your own grip on your own philosophy may become dislodged, you may experience uncertainty. Keep notes. That's what your characters must go through in any Romance novel -- Romance is mostly signified by transits of Neptune which often brings confusion as well as burning idealism, and the espousal of new philosophies.

People do fall in love, and convert to another religion in order to marry the love of their life -- then have further adventures in uncertainty because of that conversion.

It is really all about philosophy, and philosophy is the material we mine to discover themes that fuel the conflicts that Love must Conquer.

So here is a list of links to explore on the use and abuse of THEME in Romance:

http://aliendjinnromances.blogspot.com/2008/09/what-you-can-do-in-novel-that-you-cant.html

http://aliendjinnromances.blogspot.com/2008/09/how-to-learn-to-use-theme-as-art.html

http://aliendjinnromances.blogspot.com/2009/01/shifting-pov.html

http://aliendjinnromances.blogspot.com/2009/08/plot-vs-story.html

http://aliendjinnromances.blogspot.com/2011/10/believing-in-happily-ever-after-part-1.html

http://aliendjinnromances.blogspot.com/2011/10/believing-in-happily-ever-after-part-2.html

http://aliendjinnromances.blogspot.com/2011/10/believing-in-happily-ever-after-part-3.html

http://aliendjinnromances.blogspot.com/2011/10/believing-in-happily-ever-after-part-4.html

http://aliendjinnromances.blogspot.com/2012/03/soul-mate-characters-heroic-villainous.html

http://aliendjinnromances.blogspot.com/2012/04/story-springboards-part-2-tv-shows.html

http://aliendjinnromances.blogspot.com/2012/05/theme-element-giving-and-receiving.html

http://aliendjinnromances.blogspot.com/2012/06/targeting-readership-part-4.html

http://aliendjinnromances.blogspot.com/2012/06/finding-story-opening-part-1-action-vs.html

And Part 3 of a 3-part analysis of a failed historical/romance trilogy
http://aliendjinnromances.blogspot.com/2012/02/research-plot-integration-in-historical.html

Jacqueline Lichtenberg
http://jacquelinelichtenberg.com

Tuesday, March 30, 2010

Pausing For You To Catch Up With Me Part III

Parts I and II of this series of pauses are found on this blog for the Tuesdays March 16 and March 23. They list the 10 posts on the Tarot Suit of Swords, the Tarot Suit of Pentacles, and a few reviews looking at trends in the SFR and PNR fields of Romance.

This list of posts is in response to the question of what is Magic Realism (a sub-genre of Fantasy) and how do you write Magic Realism which appeared on Twitter in February 2010 during the #scifichat.

The first part of my answer is that you study the worldview through the eyes of the real-world history of the Magical View Of The Universe. This is in contrast to the view of the Magical View Of The Universe you can see through the eyes of The Scientific View Of The Universe. It's all about Shifting Point Of View, an exercise writers do everyday, three times a day at least.

I believe that the Magical View Of The Universe is most easily accessed by the science-trained writer of today via the study of Tarot and Astrology.

This study is not about discarding the scientific view of the universe (do that and you lose your readers) but rather about incorporating the scientific view of reality into the (older and larger) magical view of reality.

The two views are not incompatible but complimentary. The scientific view drives Science Fiction and the magical view drives Fantasy genres. But in the current marketplace, the two views are starting to blend into one, producing some remarkable fiction, SFR being one example.

So over the last few years, I've done a series of posts here giving an overview of Astrology, singling out the least technical premises that can be of use to writers building a world for characters and readers to romp around in.

This series is called Astrology Just For Writers. It can also be used to start learning enough of the magical view of the universe, and how it differs from and incorporates the scientific view of the universe, to create a Magic Realism story.

Here is a list of the URLS for the Astrology Just For Writers series.

http://aliendjinnromances.blogspot.com/2008/07/astrology-just-for-writers.html

http://aliendjinnromances.blogspot.com/2008/07/astrology-just-for-writers-part-2.html

http://aliendjinnromances.blogspot.com/2008/10/astrology-just-for-writers-part-3-genre.html

http://aliendjinnromances.blogspot.com/2008/12/astrology-just-for-writers-pt-4-high.html

http://aliendjinnromances.blogspot.com/2008/12/astrology-just-for-writers-part-5-high.html

http://aliendjinnromances.blogspot.com/2009/10/astrology-just-for-writers-pt-6.html

http://aliendjinnromances.blogspot.com/2009/11/astrology-just-for-writers-part-6.html (This is actually Part 7)

http://aliendjinnromances.blogspot.com/2009/12/astrology-just-for-writers-part-8-beat.html

http://aliendjinnromances.blogspot.com/2010/01/astrology-just-for-writers-part-9-high.html

http://aliendjinnromances.blogspot.com/2011/08/astrology-just-for-writers-part-10.html

http://aliendjinnromances.blogspot.com/2011/11/astrology-just-for-writers-part-11.html

http://aliendjinnromances.blogspot.com/2016/02/astrology-just-for-writers-part-12.html

http://aliendjinnromances.blogspot.com/2016/02/astrology-just-for-writers-part-13.html
That is obviously not all I need to say on the subject of using Astrology as a worldbuilding tool. With time, I hope to cover the whole subject and show how it can be used to increase the regard the ordinary reader has for the field of Romance, particularly SFR and PNR.

http://aliendjinnromances.blogspot.com/2016/06/astrology-just-for-writers-part-14.html Science Catches Up.
To do a large job, you need large tools - and Astrology is the John Deere of Soul Moving Equipment manufacturers.

How To Use Tarot And Astrology In Science Fiction Series:

Part 1 Real History
https://aliendjinnromances.blogspot.com/2018/12/how-to-use-tarot-and-astrology-in.html

Part 2 Now Speculate
https://aliendjinnromances.blogspot.com/2018/12/how-to-use-tarot-astrology-in-science.html

Part 3 Suspend Reader Disbelief
https://aliendjinnromances.blogspot.com/2019/01/how-to-use-tarot-and-astrology-in.html

Part 4 Explore Solutions New To The Reader
https://aliendjinnromances.blogspot.com/2019/01/how-to-use-tarot-and-astrology-in_22.html

Part 5 - The Story of a Life
https://aliendjinnromances.blogspot.com/2019/04/how-to-use-tarot-and-astrology-in.html

Part 6 - Confronting Change
https://aliendjinnromances.blogspot.com/2020/03/how-to-use-tarot-and-astrology-in.html

Part 7 - Creating Charisma with Verisimilitude
https://aliendjinnromances.blogspot.com/2020/04/how-to-use-tarot-and-astrology-in.html

Jacqueline Lichtenberg
http://jacquelinelichtenberg.com

Tuesday, March 23, 2010

Pausing For You To Catch Up With Me, Part II

Last week I listed the 10 posts I've done here on the Tarot suit of Swords. That's a lot of reading, but if you've managed to get through it all, and maybe some of the review style posts I've done here, you might be ready to absorb the following posts on the Tarot Suit of Pentacles.

This is all drill for building a world in which to tell a story using Magic Realism -- really making the magical view of the universe sound and feel "real" to a reader who is predisposed to disbelieve any of these ideas.

http://aliendjinnromances.blogspot.com/2007/10/ace-of-pentacles-setting-up.html

http://aliendjinnromances.blogspot.com/2007/10/2-pentacles-affairs-of-wizards.html

http://aliendjinnromances.blogspot.com/2007/11/3-pentacles-doctorate.html

http://aliendjinnromances.blogspot.com/2007/11/4-pentacles-almighty-cliche.html

http://aliendjinnromances.blogspot.com/2007/11/5-of-pentacles.html

http://aliendjinnromances.blogspot.com/2007/11/6-pentacles-social-contract.html

http://aliendjinnromances.blogspot.com/2007/12/7-pentacles-right-answer.html

http://aliendjinnromances.blogspot.com/2007/12/8-pentacles-kavanah.html

http://aliendjinnromances.blogspot.com/2007/12/9-pentacles-youve-made-your-bed-now-lie.html

http://aliendjinnromances.blogspot.com/2007/12/10-pentacles-cake-comes-out-of-oven.html

Soak up all that, and next week we'll tackle Astrology. I haven't finished talking about all the aspects of astrology that can be useful to a writer (or reader for that matter), but this is a pause for catch-up and I don't want anyone to be lost as I forge ahead into deeper discussions.

You'll note that these posts date back to 2007, and I post here once a week. That's a lot of very long posts, but they are all connected to the theme of Romance, SF and Paranormal Romance, the entire field of the Romance novel and the SF novel (perhaps most all genres, certainly including Westerns, maybe not Mysteries), and how these genres are regarded by the general public.

The objective is to solve the puzzle of why such genres are held in such unmitigated disrespect. And to consider what we can do about that.

Jacqueline Lichtenberg
http://jacquelinelichtenberg.com (currently available fiction)
http://www.simegen.com/jl/ (complete index of all works)

Tuesday, March 16, 2010

Pausing For You To Catch Up With Me

I have a lamentable habit of writing posts which would be long even as a book chapter.

Nothing I can do seems to mitigate that habit. Every time I write something really short, I read it over and it gets longer and longer.

I know there are readers here who save these posts intending to read them later, and then just don't have time.

So I'm pausing to let you catch up.

Someone turned up on twitter recently discussing "Magic Realism" and I said that it was basically how magic really works in the real world, instead of the broad, dramatic and melodramatic strokes used in most Fantasy works.

I have said on panels at conventions that Magic is to Fantasy as Science is to Science Fiction, and I think that sums it up. "Magic" as handed down from the dawn of time, the pre-scientific, pre-Aristotelian view of the world is the source material for Fantasy.

Much of what I present here, especially "Love Conquers All" and the HEA ending thesis, is predicated on the assumption that you've read and absorbed the material presented in these very abstract posts that I've done on this Alien Romance blog on the magical view of the universe.

One of the big problems with writing by USA natives is that we have mostly grown up with a mono-lingual tradition, speaking reading and writing only English, and American Standard English (or a dialect of it) at that.

We are mono-cultural and wear blinders so dense that we don't even know what that means. It gives the fiction we write a false note heard only by members of other cultures.

To break through that and build fantasy worlds that ring true, we need to step into a world view that includes but is not limited to or by the scientific view of reality.

So you might want to read or re-read what I've said about the world as viewed through the eyes of that tradition which includes a magical view of the universe and which can be used to generate "Magic Realism" worldbuilding suitable for PNR and other genres:

On Tarot:

http://aliendjinnromances.blogspot.com/2007/08/folks-first-i-have-to-say-that-at.html

http://aliendjinnromances.blogspot.com/2007/08/two-of-swords.html

http://aliendjinnromances.blogspot.com/2007/08/three-of-swords-commitment.html

http://aliendjinnromances.blogspot.com/2007/09/4-of-swords-gestation.html

http://aliendjinnromances.blogspot.com/2007/09/5-of-swords-co-dependence.html

http://aliendjinnromances.blogspot.com/2007/09/six-of-swords-love-conquers-all-as.html

http://aliendjinnromances.blogspot.com/2007/09/7-of-swords-conflict-avoidance.html

http://aliendjinnromances.blogspot.com/2007/10/8-swords-yes-but.html

http://aliendjinnromances.blogspot.com/2007/10/9-swords-nightmares.html

http://aliendjinnromances.blogspot.com/2007/10/10-swords-your-chickens-come-home-to.html

Read those in order and it can leave your mind stunned and unable to absorb another word of these far-out abstractions.

So to lighten things up, take a forray into some of my reviews and discussions of worlds others have build - not necessarily Magic Realism!

http://aliendjinnromances.blogspot.com/2010/02/tv-shows-leverage-and-psych.html

http://aliendjinnromances.blogspot.com/2009/11/doubleblind-by-ann-aquirre.html

http://aliendjinnromances.blogspot.com/2009/12/recommending-devon-monk.html

http://aliendjinnromances.blogspot.com/2007/02/happily-ever-after.html

http://aliendjinnromances.blogspot.com/2007/04/dresden-files-interview-with-jim.html

Next week, we'll review the Suit of Pentacles and explore some points of view even more mind-boggling than that.

Jacqueline Lichtenberg
http://jacquelinelichtenberg.com (for currently available novels)
http://www.simegen.com/jl/ (for total index of my work)