Yes, Cowgirls get the blues

This journal now be friends only.

All previous entries will be changed in security to friends only. As part of this process I am unfriending everyone and I will not automatically friend back anyone who friends me. If you want to read the content of this journal you will need to post a comment here, introduce yourself, and start a conversation with me so I know who you are.

Sorry about this, but it's the only way to ensure my content will no longer be linked without my permission.

What is your policy on remixes, podfic, and other transformative work?

In short, I don't have one.

You'd think that with about a month of time to think about this question, I would come up with an answer. I didn't. Since I play in other people's sandboxes on a regular basis I feel it would be rather hypocritical for me to bash someone wanting to fanfic my fanfic. *g* On the other hand, I can't say I've ever had anyone ask me to do such a thing, so I haven't really given it much thought.

I suppose my feeling is that I'd like someone to ask me first. I don't throw my stuff out there for remix purposes because the stuff I have that is finished (or not part of an ongoing series) doesn't really fall into fandoms that are active and/or popular. Most of my pairings aren't popular either. As a result I can't imagine anyone wanting to podfic my work or transform it in some way. For now, I'm going to continue to have no policy on this subject aside from "talk to me first and we'll discuss it."

Do you like to tell stories orally as well as writing them down?

Not in an official "story telling" kind of way. I've been known to read aloud from books or my own stories. I even had a radio show where I read short stories and poems for a half hour. Still, I'm not what I would call a storyteller by nature. It's more of a matter of telling tales over dinner with friends kind of thing -- relating life stories instead of storytelling. Mind you, my friends all love it when I tell these kind of things at dinner -- particularly when they are about the cat -- but that's about the extent of my storytelling.

What do you do when the words just aren't coming?

This is happening right now in fact.

Most of the time if words aren't flowing it's because I, as the author, have done something that my characters don't agree and/or I don't have a specific enough situation/image to describe. There are several ways to get around this.

1) I go back to source material/do some research.
Overall, my writing base is from research. As a result, I tend to get my best ideas from researching a problem. If it is fanfic, I go back to the source material for inspiration. If that doesn't work I try to focus on character elements. If there is secondary canon (expanded universe) I will approach that next. 90% of the time this will work for me.

2) I try to get into a character's head/motivation.
Often, if a character stops "speaking" to me it is because he/she/they are unhappy with what I have planned. I may have a situation or plot point in mind and they really don't care much for it. It's too intimate. It's a fight they don't believe in. It's a situation that they feel they wouldn't participate in. There's an outcome they don't like. In most writer's circles this is called "writing yourself into a corner" or "writer's block."
Generally, the reason you block yourself has to do with making the characters you create try to do things they don't want to do. I will sometimes skip ahead in a story -- ignore the part that isn't coming -- and see if I can get back on track that way. Sometimes this works. Everyone once in a while I can change character perspective and get the story told that way. If one character doesn't like a situation that doesn't mean another won't find it perfectly plausible.
So I try to get into the mind of the character that won't talk to me (music, food, drink, whatever) and if that doesn't work I take a look at the other characters in the scene and see if one of them will tell me what's going on.

3) Force it.
Sometimes the words just don't come easy no matter what you do. This is when discipline as a writer shows up. I've had 10,000 word days and I've had 400 word days. Sometimes I just try to think of it in 100 word blocks. It's frustrating when it moves like this instead of flowing but just because you had to work hard for the words to come doesn't make them any less than when they come easy.

Currently, I've already tried shifting to a different scene, wrote that one, and now I'm really kind of stuck. Part of it is a lack of specificity. I know a pair of people need to have a conversation -- a very important one to both of them -- but the time line is unclear on when and where this could occur in canon. I have to make some decisions about timeline that may or may not contradict canon to affix the timeline and I really don't like messing around with canon. So I've been doing a lot of research to take away that ambiguity. Once I get the timeline part sorted I then have to make a decision about where the conversation takes place. This will also tell me the rest of the parts of the story that follow.

I'm trying, as I go forward, to ignore the time and place issues and to get part of the dialogue down. Dialogue is something I tend to hack about half of after writing. People tend to say more with their bodies and faces than with their words. And, when the people involved in the conversation know each other very well they actually say less because of assumptions and the ability to read body language. So I can count on cutting 1/3 to 1/3 of any dialogue I write.

Even the dialogue isn't coming easy. Neither of the two characters in this situation really WANT this conversation to happen because of the outcome. It's painful and momentous and it will mean the end of the story. I think, overall, as a writer I'm not entirely comfortable with that and neither are the characters so we're all putting it off. *g* Still, if I keep forcing things -- going a small bit at a time -- I'll make some progress.

And some progress is always better than none at all.

Overall, writing is a skill. Sure, inspiration and creativity fall in their proper places with a story but if you don't practice researching things and you don't work hard on your technical skills then all the creativity in the world won't make what you put down any good. And when you run into situations like "writer's block" and words don't come easy it is really more about your discipline as a writer to get out of the situation than it is the creativity. If you push long enough, you'll break through and come up with something. But if you don't try -- how will you get it done?

Do you visualize scenes when/before you write them or do you go by how the words sound in your head? Both? Something else entirely?

Generally I am a visual person when it comes to situations. I have a mental picture and then describe this on paper. However, the language I choose depends upon what kind of scene or situation I am write and the context of that scene.

For action scenes I tend to stick to shorter sentences with sharp, direct description. This keeps the reader focused on the action and not the language. It also helps with pacing. When you read long, descriptive sentences with lots of clauses it slows down the pace. If I'm writing a fight scene, this doesn't really jive.

If I'm writing a dream sequence, magic, or other type of other-wordly situation then I am much more likely to use a mix of longer and shorter sentences and to use a lot more description that of the metaphor/simile type. I am also likely to employ more alliteration in these situations. As a result, the language choices - how the words sound - is as important as the visual.

If I'm writing dialogue, I particularly pay attention to the sounds. In fact, I actually read almost all of my work aloud at some point. I particularly read dialogue aloud for pacing and voice. Each character has their own way of talking that is informed by who they are and what they do. If that voice doesn't ring true, the reader can tell. So I always make sure to read dialogue aloud and pay close attention to how it sounds coming out of my mouth. If it's tounge-twisty, melodramatic, or seems stilted I edit.

Do you have any works in progress (WIPs)?

Oh yeah. Story of my life.

The easiest way to break this down is by fandom:

Final Fantasy X : Braska's Journey, Bonds of Love -- at this point BoL will probably never get finished. I have to be realistic. But I really would ike to finish off Braska's Journey at some point.

Highlander: Everyone Goes to Joe's, Drifter -- Drifter and Joe's are both next on my list when I finish up what I'm working on right now. I'm hoping to crack my current WIP by the end of September and start on these in October.

Star Wars: Reconciliation (in progress right now with end September hope date), Disclosure, Exigency. At one point I also hoped to do one in the Emergence Cycle called Union but I have permanently shelved that one I can manage the important stuff in Exegency. -- When Reconciliation is done I move to Highlander to finish off the above two mentioned works and then I hope to get back to tying off SW.

In my original works I'm still tweaking one children's picture book idea but the rest are very much in the exploratory and/or research phases.

What story haven't you written that you would like to write?

Aside from finishing each open WIP of mine, all my other answers are original fiction. In particular a story regarding my father's side of the family -- Cherokee who fled into the Tennessee hills instead of being marched off on the Trail of Tears -- is high on my list. I also have a trillogy of books planned called "Three Sisters" based somewhat on the lives of my grandmother and two great aunts. I still have my two children's works I am tweaking and hope to publish some day. One is a picture-type book for youngsters and the other is not-quite-YA, set in Newfoundland, and focuses on a brother and sister pair and their unusual pet.

Give some examples of how various story ideas have come to you. What forms did they come in?

Some stories are prompted by, well, prompts from various challenges. However, that's really just a starting point. Generally, I am a visual writer. I see things happen in my mind and then try to write down what I see with varying degrees of success.

"Legendary Guardian" was prompted by the game Final Fantasy X but was partly "transcribed." I dreamed at night that Auron came, sat on the edge of my bed, and wanted me to tell his life story. Which was very strange. I tried to find a way to not do it. I trolled lots of Japanese language websites sure that this already existed. I checked fanfic. Nothing was really there. Finally, I gave in. Auron gave me in my dreams what amounted to a 35 chapter outline of birth through the start of the pilgrimage. The rest just kind of flowed out.

My Bail series was the combination of a desire to write something as a gift for a Bail/Obi-Wan fan and a 100 word prompt of "Water." I ended up with some images of Bail and Obi-Wan together doing things with water involved. None of them would distill down to 100 words and they became "Memories of Water." Then, I tried to write a pointless smut fic for Darth Myrrh and ended up with "Echo." It all just kind of tumbled along from there. Other stories, like "Trial of the Heart," were motivated by prompt and -- pardon the pun -- fleshed out by the artwork of my friend Ren.

"Pilgrim" started with the idea of Methos asking Joe to leave the Watchers and run away with him. I had the image of the pair of them at the airport in my mind, and that was about it. I intended Gen. Methos had something else in mind. All else followed.

My Kambei/Samurai 7 work is sometimes inspired by the show and sometimes by my friend Ren.

From an original work standpoint I am usually inspired by life situation, have some kind of mental image of a situation, and then write down that situation. The discovery for me is finding out how that image/situation occurs. My star-crossed/co-dependant pair Michael and Colin are based partly on a music prompt and the idea of New Year but also on a few strong images that came to me over time. The rest was (and is) pulled from people I know and/or relationship situations I've been involved in. At one point I took a trip to Scotland so I'd have a better idea of Michael's long-term life. I have a whole folder of photographs of Edinburgh and the surrounding area just for reference use when I write this couple.

My published poem is a work about the Vietnam War Memorial. I had some very strong feelings when I visited there when I was young and, over time, I translated it into a poem. Most of my poetry comes from strong feelings where my fiction comes from strong mental images.

What do you like most about writing? What do you dislike?

I like that writing allows me to explore ideas. I can go places, do things, and imagine whatever I wish with very few limitations. It often gives me an excuse to be obsessive about places and things.

There are two parts of writing I am not so excited about. 1) The editing process is tedious and I'm constantly figuring out exactly how crap I am at finding my own problems. 2) I sit on my backside far too much when I write. I get dialed in and then I don't get outside, to the gym, into the garden, or spend time with my family and friends. I like that I can write by myself -- that it is a creative work I can do alone but sitting in front of a computer for hours on end is bad for your health and your waist line.

Do you use unreliable narrators? Why or why not?

First, let's do a definition of an unreliable narrator. I've found that many who aren't up on writing terminology, and many who are beginning writers, have no concept of things like this or the distinction between a POV narrator voice vs character perspective. My answer to these questions really doesn't make much difference if someone has no idea what I'm talking about.

An unreliable narrator is a narrator in literature, film, or a play whose credibility is seriously compromised and is, therefore, untrustworthy for the audience. Their rendition of events, their point of view (BTW, an unreliable narrator is often written in first person POV narration style though it is also possible for a third person POV to be unreliable), is suspect by the audience/reader. The difficulty with an unreliable narrator is that their unreliability is not always immediately apparent and this leads to the "twist ending" when the character's perspective or story is revealed to the reader to be false.

While there are very specific permitters that define an actual unreliable narrator, I have a slightly different take when it comes to storytelling. Everyone is an unreliable narrator. Each person tells a story, even when they believe it to be true, with embellishments and/or a specific perspective that means their version is their own version of the truth. Just because a person believes something to be true doesn't make it true. The real difference, for me, between the literary use of an "unreliable narrator" and a character who is not is intent. A character who really believes what they are saying is true is not, inherently, unreliable but can still technically be an unreliable narrator. (Someone with a mental illness is a good example of this). On the other hand, someone who purposely tells falshoods to mislead (either the reader or other characters) is a real unreliable narrator.

Let's take a look at a rather famous film that uses the unreliable narrator concept: The Sixth Sense. Here's a cut for those who haven't see this movie because I'm about to spoil the whole thing. ( Read more... )
Personally, I think relying on the kind of "twist" Shyamalan does in The Sixth Sense is a cheep trick. I don't care for it as an author or as a consumer of movies and literature. As a result, I don't use this particular brand of unreliable narration. On the other hand, because I do think that all narrators have inherent bias that can be unreliable, I do use unreliable narrators. I just don't try to jerk my reader around with them in such a blatant fashion.

I view more subtle use of unreliable narrators in the same way I do the idea of "good" or "bad" characters. A really evil guy doesn't think of himself as evil -- he sees himself as the hero. This is the difference between characters and caricatures. As a result, I think the limited use of unreliable narrators can be a good thing. I particularly think it works well when you set up your character as dependent upon a social system for their world view and then have them come to find out they have been told by that system is a lie. The entire plot of Final Fantasy X is based on this and I think it works wonderfully. But I'm pretty careful about making a narrator otherwise unreliable.

On a final note, unreliable narrators are a reason I tend to have a disconnect novels written in first person. This is particularly true of series books. When you have a single narrator over the course of many books telling a longer story, I automatically assume that there is a lot of untruth being told by the main character. It's not that I assume they are specifically unreliable but, as previously mentioned, in real life everyone has their own spin on things. So the longer I go reading a book or series without any other alternate POV character the more likely I am to assume the narrator is, intentional or not, unreliable.

Out of all the characters you've ever written, which one is your favorite? Which one has surprised you most?

I would have to say Sam and Tacat from Legendary guardian fit the bill on these two questions. Both of them (along with Kinoc) were meant to be externalizations of facets of Auron's personality - foils for him to brush against and use to grow from a boy into a man. I didn't expect them to grow so much themselves or to become as attached to them as I did.

Tacat is probably my favorite because he's such a jerk. He's a hedonist, misogynist, and sensationalist -- a lot of the things I can't stand in people. However, he's also very true to himself and has no artifice. The guy is who he is and makes no bones about it. This makes him very fun to write even though I can't stand him half the time.

Sam, on the other hand, is the one that surprised me most. He was an everyman -- the nice kid, the unambitious kid, the family boy. He is so earnest and trusting. I never expected him to go anywhere and then, suddenly, he became Auron's best friend. The really good one that you want to keep forever. He was just so GOOD. In the end, the disappointments he suffered really hurt me to write because I just plain liked Sam so much. I wanted him to have the things he wanted because he desired so little. His ambitions were to be a good friend, a good husband, and a good father. He just wanted to live his life. To be a nice guy. I hated it when I killed him off. I had to do it, it was really necessary for the growth of the other characters, but Sam kind of crept in there and turned into a sweetie. Not only that but I think my readers ended up feeling the same way.

Do you ever participate in writing challenges? Which ones?

Right now I don't participate in writing challenges. I'm far too knee deep in open WIPs to justify starting something new. My goal for the last couple of years has been to revisit my work and finish as much open stuff as possible.

However, in the past I have been known to do challenges. I've done lyric wheels, 100 word prompts, holiday exchanges, and other such things. Sometimes they are signup types and other times I just look at a running list, pick something, and go.

I have also done a couple of auctions. In addition to writing for these (which I'm behind on and feel horrible about) I also have offered things like icon or other fandom related work.

Is your writing generally plot or character driven? Why?

I had to think about this for a while. My knee-jerk reaction was to say "both" but it is probably more accurate to say character driven. I say this because my work always has a plot, and I am very mindful of the plot, but I have never started a story with a plot idea and no character to drive that plot. Sometimes my work is nothing more than internal self-discovery. As a result, those stories are all about character development and, therefore, are character driven. There are lots of stories out there that have some kind of action, a plot, but if you can't relate to the characters -- to their feelings, thoughts, and discoveries -- you won't care what happens. So, I'm character driven with a strong side of plot.

Do you write long stories, short stories, or both? What's challenging about writing a particular story length?

I write whatever form an idea takes. On the other hand, sometimes the idea has a word limit built in. Let me explain.

1) I participate in 100 word challenges. I haven't done this as much in the past few years but I quite like attempting to tell a story in 100 words. Word selection and editing are key in these cases. I even have a published anthology full of just 100 word stories. Instant gratification is the payoff with the super-short story. On the other hand, you can shoot yourself in the foot by not paying attention to editing or throwing something together slap-dash.

2) Laundry list stories are another type of challenge where the length comes into play. Another example is an exchange story. Most challenges have a word minimum. A few have a maximum. Almost all of them have a time deadline. Again, you're working with a given idea in a given framework. If my initial answer for the challenge isn't flowing properly or won't fit the time/space allowed then I put that one aside and start another until I get something that works.

3) I have written works for literary interpretation classes and journalism classes where word count is part of the assignment. In the case of your Lit Crit teacher, you can fudge via pages (I want 5 pages on this book for Monday). When it's a journalism assignment, you can't. If they say X characters they mean X characters. That's the amount of paper space they have for the story. These days, a feature can be longer and have additional material and they will note that it is online. Still, if you are doing something for a print newspaper or magazine and they want you to give them 1000 characters that's exactly what they mean. And when they say characters they include the punctuation.

4) Writing for an anthology or fund-raiser or 'zine also can come with minimum and maximum space issues. Most of the time you'll get an invite for something like this. If it's going to be in print, the editor needs to know about how long your story will be (give or take a couple of pages) so they can anticipate printing costs. If you are over or under in a significant way you can really screw things up for layout. As someone who did editing on a literary magazine for a couple of years I can tell you that I've read some great stuff I had to pass on because it was just too long. I would get submissions and in order to be fair you need to give a broad range of work. If you've only got 45 pages to work with and someone sends in the great American novel, it doesn't matter how good the work is. I can't just pick one artist or author and only print one piece.

Now, from the standpoint of an author, I do my best to have the length of something make sense. If the plot takes a certain amount of time then that's how long it needs to be. On the other hand, if you've got a quota to fill and your plot only takes up half that space -- I think you can see how you get "everything but the kitchen sink" syndrome. You start saying, "I want this to be a novella length. I want to try to send it in for X submission for X anthology or whatever. So you start trying to make it work instead of listening to the story and doing what it wants or needs. Conversely, it's easy to let the details and your little darlings drag out something.

For me, it really is a matter of putting on the editing hat. You can tell when something just isn't working at the length you're writing. If you have a reason it has to be X size, then you need to try again from scratch. Hold onto the idea and go with it. However, I can tell you that a good 1/3 of anything you write is probably bloat -- from unnecessary dialogue to telling instead of showing. A good 1/2 of your 1/3 of bloat will come from being "wordy." Until you start using a global search you just won't realize how often you type "that" "just" and other little pointless phrases. Trust me, you don't need them and you're reader will never miss them.

The biggest challenge in a long story is finishing. It's hard to keep all the threads and keep on task. I've got stories I've been writing for nearly a decade. I have to put them down for some reason, something shiny comes by, and . . . SQUIRREL! Look! I'm the dog from UP!

Yeah.

From a structure standpoint, long stories also have the challenge of knowing where to start and when to keep something as backstory. They say to start from the beginning. But where does the story begin? If you have a life you're working with, it's sometimes hard to know what you MUST tell and what you WANT to tell. Where something really STARTS isn't always the beginning. Sometimes it's better to leave things a mystery, to imply, to let the reader fill in the blanks. If your hero and his quest party all know one another do you have to tell how they all met to tell the adventure? No. And the fun thing is having all the in-jokes and just letting them happen like things do in real life. In a story you should start in the middle of the action and let the beginning and end unfold together while you tell the plot. Those are the best kinds of stories, but they are also the hardest to write.

What genres have you written in?

For the most part I'd say I run in the Speculative Fiction arena -- largely space opera with a bit of fantasy on the side. This is mostly true of my fan fiction work. I also focus more on action/adventure plotlines. I do some romance and, in particular, quite a bit of homoerotic fiction. I've also done some period work focusing on war.

Original work tends to be drama with a personal relationship focus. Some of it is homoerotic, some is romance, some is strict fiction. I have also worked on a couple of stories for children. One is targeted more toward the 3-5 age group while the other is more a 6-8 type thing. Both have animals as the main characters and focus on self-discovery and quest-style plots.

I've written poetry and had it published. Other pieces are non-fiction literary interpretation or journalism pieces that focus on technology issues and the general public -- largely privacy rights and copyright issues as they pertain to daily life.

What's the best piece of writing advice you've ever gotten?

From an editing standpoint I'll share two:

1) Read what you write aloud.
At some point after you're done working on something try reading it aloud. You will pick up things that are awkward really quickly this way. It also helps you to make dialogue a little smoother.

2) Read everything on editing and writing by Noah Lukeman (but pay particular attention to The First Five Pages if you are looking to get published).

How do you support your themes? How do you make sure your language reflects them and how do you decide whether something belongs in the plot or theme category?

I'm going to start with some definitions. A plot is the action plan for a story. In other words, what your characters are doing is the plot. Are they stealing something? Are they on a quest? The things that happen and the response of your character to those events are plot.

The things they feel and think, the growth they do as characters, the repeated words and images -- those are themes.

When you take a look at those two definitions it's pretty easy to see what things are plot related and what things are themes. Overarching ideas you explore in a work that have little to do with the action? Theme. Getting people from one place to another and/or having them hack at each other with swords or lightsabers? Plot.

You can support a theme in a work in many ways. In some stories I do this by repeating a word or image. The work "Echo" is a strong example of this. Not only is "echo" the name of the story but I also used the idea of echos in several spots during the work, relating it to events or situations the characters participated in. A Jedi senses and "echo of evil" on a planet. Someone sick hears someone speak but the sound is muted and muffled like the echo of a stone dropping down a well. The idea is that events and actions ripple through time and space; that choices you (or others) make shape the lives of those around you, even when it is not intended. Someone being attracted to another person might follow that individual on an excursion only to have it save their life. Had they not been attracted they wouldn't have followed and would have died by staying where they were. Another person might discover something hidden that, if understood, could change the course of future events. What they do, or don't do, can shape the lives of millions. Thus "echo" becomes both the name and a theme within the story.

Other stories aren't so obvious. I have done a few works that ended up being coming-of-age tales. The events (plot) allow the character to move toward self-discovery (theme).

One of the other things I do, particularly when I have a series of works, is to have the titles of those works reinforce the themes and, also, build upon one another as a whole. Pilgrim leads to Drifter leads to Sojourner. Echo moves to Juncture to Homecoming to Disclosure to Exigency to Reconciliation.

I think one of the larger issues with theme is to watch that you don't grind your axe. There is a tendency when using fiction to make social commentary to get heavy-handed. The important thing is not to let your theme overshadow your plot. There should be a balance between the two -- one should not be subservient to the other. While a plot clipping along with little or no larger theme can be a rollicking good little read, a book that has a theme that is so didactic as to suppress or overshadow the plot can get slow, boring, and annoying. So, the thing I do is less trying to reinforce things and more trying to balance them.

What repeated themes do you see running through your work?

The biggest one is what one friend/reader called "the unspoken disagreement/conflict."

I tend to focus on relationships -- people to people and people to social systems. Within interpersonal relationships I normally have pairings that have basic conflicts of interest that they do not discuss. Both parties know there is a problem but they usually perceive that problem in different ways and, instead of facing the problem and fixing things they tend to feel that it is so insurmountable that to discuss the issue would mean the end of the relationship. So, instead my characters tend to choke down their worries or problems in favor of a flawed union instead of being open. In addition to any obvious issues that get addressed these larger issues weigh down the characters until a plot related reason finally forces them to open up. Sometimes the resolution is devastatingly simple and the characters wonder why they didn't just talk it out before. Other times it really does break them apart.

In the people to social systems area I tend to focus on political or religious strife -- how what people say and what they do conflict within a given moral or social code. Overall the social contract constrains individuals within any given society. It is when people refuse to accept parts of the social contract that things get hairy. I find they hypocrisy and good intentions in religion and politics to be endlessly fascinating.

I also seem to have a thing for writing journey of discovery stories. By this I mean that my protagonists and antagonists may physically or emotionally journey toward the end of a personal revelation that changes their world view. In fan fiction, I am attracted to canon that features flawed, broken, or marginal "heros." I like protagonists who have some grey to them, who operate from a non-fixed point with regard to their moral compass. Or, if I have a protagonist who has a very fixed moral compass I like to completely break that compass by the end of a story and leave the person adrift and in search of a new way of viewing themselves.

I may have other repeated themes, but I'm not sure I see any of them. *g*

Do you make literary or cultural references in your work? If so, what sources do you usually draw on? How do you decide whether to make (or keep when editing) a particular reference?

Intentional or otherwise, authors cannot help but make cultural references. We absorb our culture through daily life as well as through education and it impacts how we write, speak, and interact. However, it is important when writing to keep in mind the genre and/or time period of the work.

Characters in historical or period pieces need to use language in a manner consistent to the time they live. They also must speak with the accent of the location and in a way that matches their education level. While today we have access to a vast amount of news and information instantaneously due to television, radio, and internet, this was not always the case. In point of fact having an educated population -- one that could read -- is relatively new. As a result making literary references or having villagers talk about issues that do not directly effect their surroundings isn't always appropriate.

When it comes to literary references I use these only when it directly applies to a character. If a character is well read, educated, and has a reason to be making reference to some historical event or literary work then it is appropriate. If not, then it shouldn't be there.

When working in "space opera" such as Star Wars the lines are a little more fuzzy. The "Galaxy Far Far Away" is not our own. In theory, there was no Shakespeare, no Ovid, no Aristotle, no Sun Tzu. However, because of the way SW is set up (and because of the expanded universe setup) I think it is reasonable to conclude that someone came up with similar stories and/or ideas and communicated them on a planet or galaxy-wide. In those cases I take the basic idea, shape it and/or reform it as necessary for my needs, and re-present it to the reader in a different form. It is clear the concepts are based in "Earth" ideas but they are attributed differently. I cover these kinds of things, when necessary, in author's notes.

For myself, my works tend to focus on political intrigue and religious politics. As a result I fall back on the classics quite a bit. I have a few books on ethics, logic, and rhetoric from my undergraduate days that still see plenty of use. In addition I have found that my copy of Bullfinch's Mythology and Great Classical Myths by FRB Goldphin are quite helpful. Action scenes benefit from my personal experience with martial arts and also from a basic understanding of anatomy. Budo Training In Aikido and Anatomy of the Moving Body are both quite helpful.

My largest reference collection outside of editing and grammar books covers world religions and philosophy. Sartre, Nietzche, Aristotle, handbooks on Catholicism and its rituals, various religious texts, and most of the basic works of the great Chinese and Japanese warriors and historians are all included.

Finally, I have copies of etiquette books, cookbooks, and bar manuals from the last 250 years. How we eat and drink, what we eat and drink, and the manner in which we interact are all a big part of daily life. From how we serve food to how we make a bed it is the little things that make up our days. Attention to these kinds of cultural items is part of what makes fiction real to us and lack of attention to these things makes the difference between fair prose and excellent work.

--In thinking about this a little longer this might be a good spot to also note that tropes, cultural insensitivities, and bigotry (intentional or otherwise) can also show in a work and can be problematic. Sometimes using formulaic or archaic models for characterization can be helpful but it can also be a very bad thing. This is where your beta reader and/or editor(s) should come into play. If you have blind spots writing a type of character, a bias, or other problems in your work this will sometimes be picked up by your beta and noted. Appropriation can be a huge problem for authors and comes, for me, partly under the heading of cultural reference. Be aware of what you are writing and be sure, if you are using characters that are from different ethnic or social backgrounds, that you touch base with a member of that community (if possible) for input regarding your work. You might be surprised at the triggers you set and/or the offense you cause unintentionally.

Optimally, how many times does your work go through the revising process?

I do at least 4 passes on my own work for editing purposes after I finish writing. If the piece is longer, I tend to edit as I go quite a bit. I re-read what I have and edit before I start a new section. Sometimes, if the work is under 3k words, I'll let it go at that. However, anything longer than 3k words and I really like to have beta and editing process involved.

I prefer to have at least two editors for a piece in addition to a "beta" who checks for overall characterization and continuity. Each person has their own blind spots when it comes to grammar. Some are better with spelling and commas, others are good with things like ellipsis and emdash use. If you have at least two editors aside from yourself you can pick up most of the problems.

Even after I've put something out there I sometimes edit. This is particularly true of some of my older work when I didn't have any editing help available. Every so often I go back over old stories for various reasons and will tweak them if something jumps out at me.

Overall, at some point you just have to tell yourself that nothing is perfect. Sooner or later you just have to give up and call something done. This is the method I've come to find works for me.