Once Upon a Novel

Vonnegut's RULES FOR WRITING FICTION

2007-11-27T15:17:00.000-05:00

Mick Silva posted them in condensed form.

If you're not in a hurry, here's the regular version of Kurt Vonnegut's list:

Eight rules for writing fiction:

1. Use the time of a total stranger in such a way that he or she will not feel the time was wasted.

2. Give the reader at least one character he or she can root for.

3. Every character should want something, even if it is only a glass of water.

4. Every sentence must do one of two things -- reveal character or advance the action.

5. Start as close to the end as possible.

6. Be a sadist. Now matter how sweet and innocent your leading characters, make awful things happen to them -- in order that the reader may see what they are made of.

7. Write to please just one person. If you open a window and make love to the world, so to speak, your story will get pneumonia.

8. Give your readers as much information as possible as soon as possible. To heck with suspense. Readers should have such complete understanding of what is going on, where and why, that they could finish the story themselves, should cockroaches eat the last few pages.

-- Vonnegut, Kurt Vonnegut, Bagombo Snuff Box: Uncollected Short Fiction (New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons 1999), 9-10.

NaNoWriMo Has Begun

2007-11-02T15:10:00.001-04:00

My first day count of 862 is pathetic.

Today's goal: 2000+

If you're a Christian writing fantasy or science fiction for NaNo, drop by my thread.

Real Query Letters for Fantasy Novels that Snagged Contracts for the Writers

2007-10-27T22:44:00.001-04:00

If you write fantasy fiction--or even if you don't--you'll have an interesting time over at Fangs, Fur & Fey. Browse the entries for the past week or so. They've been posting the actual query letters that authors wrote for novels that ended up selling.

Check them out.

One Novelist's Novel-Writing Process

2007-10-27T12:00:00.001-04:00

The last line of the "process" below made me smile. But wait, don't read ahead.

Here's Sandra Glahn's novel-writing process, taken from an interview over at Jennifer Tiszai's blog:

Take us through your process of writing a novel briefly— from conception to revision.

Once I have a germ idea, I come up with the beginning, middle, and end. Then I figure out the in-between points. Next, I create the main characters. I have four pages of questions I answer for each. About thirty percent of novel-crafting for me is the pre-writing imaginative work on the plot and character sketches. Then I choose a setting. I ask myself how I can use setting to communicate something. Where was Jezebel when she stole the vineyard? In Jezreel. Where was she years later when dogs ate her? Jezreel. The setting tells more than a place. It says something about the character of God. So I try to choose a setting that communicates on a deeper level. All the time I’m making these choices, I deliberate about the best way to tell the story. First-person? Third-person? Who will be the main POV character? Why?

After that I craft a proposal. It starts with a one-paragraph synopsis. While my agent shops it around, I develop the summary into a chapter-by-chapter outline. And then I make a file for each chapter and start dumping in ideas.

When my agent has some success, he calls. Here’'s what happens from there…

Editorial person really likes it
He or she takes it to the marketing meeting
I wait forever for that meeting to happen
Marketing approves it
I wait for them to agree on an offer
They issue an offer
I reel from the shock of how low it is
I negotiate
I wait for them to draw up the contract
I receive and sign the contract
I write the book
I send the book to the publisher.
They send the first half of the advance
I spend it all in one place
I wait for them to edit it
I wait a while longer for them to edit it
They send back the manuscript with lots of changes needed immediately
I edit it again
I wait
And wait
They send a galley proof, which they need back immediately
I edit it yet again
I watch helplessly as the release date gets delayed--again
I wait forever for my progeny to arrive in the mail
Finally, I hold my masterpiece in my hands
I find a typo

What Monette Knows of World-Building and My Take on What's Infodump

2007-09-01T06:41:00.000-04:00

The "she" being Sarah Monette. If you subscribe to SF mags, you'll surely have come across a story of hers.

Here's the world-building blog entry.

One of the five things she lists--and one we've all got to watch for, right-- is this:

2. Never world-build through infodump.

(N.b., there is a difference between an "infodump" and "exposition." Robin McKinley world-builds through exposition at the beginning of Spindle's End; Diana Wynne Jones world-builds through exposition at the beginning of Howl's Moving Castle. These are both markedly different from the infodump world-building at the beginning of the book I'm reading right now, James White's Ambulance Ship.)

I will say that the difference between infodump and exposition may come down to the talent the writer has with prose and the voice used. I read and loved both Spindle's End (one of my very fave fantasy novels, and perhaps my favorite based on a fairy tale) and Howl's Moving Castle (which also made for a terrif animated film by Miyazaki).

Years ago, the first pages of Spindle's End captivated me in the bookstore and I hurried home to read it. That's exposition that grabs, not infodump that bores. But it may be subjective, too. What you find exhilirating exposition may make me yawn. Ultimately, any writer who really has a voice and a handle on craft should be able to make the delivery of narrative into exposition rather than infodump. :::shrug:::

I know when I'm reading stories as an editor, I look to see if the information is strongly attached to character. If I'm getting the sense of a person's POV, even if it's a longish stretch of narrative, if it has that personality filtering through, then I don't count that as infodump. And it could be the voice/personality of the author or of a particular character. But I need to sense LIFE.

Infodump has a flatness, a sort of, "Here it is: I think you need to know this, so there. Read it. Now I can go on with the interesting stuff."

If it's compelling exposition, it has a sense of vibrancy, of a living thing behind it. It has a bit of depth or snap or sparkle--something that says this isn't just a report for a teacher or dry information. The difference, say, between:

The planet Alomus, a vacation destination for that sector of the galaxy and known throughout the cosmos for its dyes, was an astonishingly vivid blue. The discovery of Alomus had changed human wedding traditions. Brides stopped wearing white and started wearing Alomus blue. Honeymoon bookings for trips to Earth plummeted and Alomus became the intergalactic Niagara. The riches that the dyes and tourism brought in turned the planet into something that an old historian might have termed a den of sin.

That's not utterly horrible, and it does convey information about the planet, as well as a bit about the voice ("astonishingly" and "den of sin"), but it's not all that vivid itself.

And this:

Alomus glowed the exact blue of Korina's grandmother's eyes on those days when her grandmother was up to no good. On the ultimate day of mischief for her grandmother--the day she married Korina's grandfater--the bride had worn a gown of Alomus blue. They'd had to sell one of their vacation homes to afford it. There was irony there. Alomus, pleasure planet, the number one honeymoon hotspot, and the provider of priceless blue dyes. Why did everything end up having something to do with her dead grandmother and the planet waiting for her to land?

Or this:

Alomus blue. Now, there was a color for dreaming. Deep and alive, so famous and coveted that a citizen of my home planet would happily spend five years of overtime pay to afford a robe dipped in the dyes only found within the sea-floating vegetation of the pleasure planet. So desired that the number one justification for murder on the planet was poaching of the dye-waters. The number two was seduction of a newlywed.

Three different ways of saying a planet is blue and three different voices used in saying it. Granted, none of those bits is long enough to really count as infodump, but it was for example. Infodump would go on in the manner of example one--just throwing stuff out there. The others hint at things pertaining to people. To the characters viewing the planet.

Anyway, go see what Sarah M. has to say.

Author Beth White on Characterization

2007-08-16T19:10:00.000-04:00

One of the people I met early on in my internet meanderings is author Elizabeth White, a Christian Women's Fiction/Romance author.

Pam Meyers has an interview with Beth, where she discusses how she develops her characters:

A lot of a novelist's job is armchair psychology. Why do people behave the way they do? I study and listen to people constantly. I find myself interviewing if I meet someone interesting. It's a lot of fun.

Read the entry at A Writer's Journey and even get a chance to win a copy of Beth's OFF THE RECORD!

A Pretty Nifty Tool: The Pitch Generator

2007-08-08T15:21:00.001-04:00

Author Kathy Carmichael supplies a pretty useful tool for generating a pitch--a pertinent encapsulation of your story--over at her website:

The Pitch Generator

Try it.

Kathy also has very good synopsis articles.

Coffee and Chocolate...Reconsider, Reinvent Your Character's Comestibles

2007-08-04T11:48:00.000-04:00

Dave Long, acquisitions editor at Bethany House, posted about characters and their coffee joneses:

What I See a Lot of in Proposals (and Novels)

He says:

I am well into my fourth year as an acquisitions editor and after all this time I feel compelled to mention that the amount of coffee mentioned in proposals (particularly in contemporary fiction) and CBA novels I've seen is crazy.

And often not just mentions, but eloquent raptures on the drink. Or, quite often, heroes and heroines who can't function without the stuff. Ah caffeine--the evangelical crack.

Don't know why I'm mentioning other than I've just looked at three proposals in a row that should be underwritten by Starbucks.

I'm gonna have to agree. I've seen more than one contest entry that makes a huge deal of coffee early on. I start to wonder if the writer was getting their first cup of the day and in raptures about it, ergo, it's on the page.

You've been warned. Watch that.

And I say that as gal who orders up several bags of fresh-roasted TORREO coffees every couple months, and who has sampled cups of excellence, who has Italian espresso, Greek, Colombian, Yemeni, and Kenyan coffees in her kitchen right now.

I'll also mention one more thing that's become rather cliche: chocolate in Women's Fiction.

It's gotten to the point that if I open a book to sample some pages and it mentions that tired old dependence on chocolate, I put it down. If the writer can't do anything but mimic a zillion Chick Lits or Women's Fiction chocoholics, then I don't expect much else fresh in the chapters thereafter. Ho-hum.

Now, coffee and chocolate are very important. I consume both daily. Both for pleasure and health reasons, believe it or not. The coffee to control the sugar issues and to help with the breathing issues. The ounce of dark chocolate for the arteries. (I used to only like milk chocolate, but I evolved into the healthier stuff.)

If you can do something unique and vivid with love for or addiction to either, then go for it. But try not to make it that prominent (unless you are a prose whiz who has endless knowledge of the stuff and can knock the socks off even the most jaded reader.)

Otherwise, you know, find something else. Be different.

I remember years and years ago (maybe late 80's), I read a romance where the hero goes to the kitchen and fixes himself his fave cup of...green tea.

That was BEFORE green tea was the rage. That was back when some folks might go, "What dat?" And it made the character stand out for me. Not a typical cup o' joe dude. No. GREEN TEA. (It made me think ninjas and stuff.)

In my WIP, my heroine has a thing for cherry sticks. Another sour lemon drops. And another character is a smoothie enthusiast. (As am I. I have five quarts of fresh smoothies and juices in my fridge RIGHT NOW.) I need to think of something else for the villain. :)

So, you've been warned. Coffee and chocolate...watch out. Be extra-creative or don't focus on it, at least on the early pages and your proposals.

And please, if you write Women's Fiction, don't make me put your book back on the shelf cause you mention chocolate on the first dang pages, and in no fresh way at that.

If you can find a new way to get chocolate in there, power to you.

That Freaky Subconscious Thing

2007-08-02T13:36:00.000-04:00

I can't remember which author I recently read talking about WHY it's important to write EVERY DAY, even if it's just a page or a couple of paragraphs: It keeps the brain active on the story.

Well, it's true.

On the way to my appointment with my endocrinologist yesterday, hubby and I were talking about music, listening to some alternative rock on XM's "Ethel" or "Fred" station, I forget which, and, when I went quiet for a second, it hit me. I said outloud, "THAT's why they're there."

Hubby, confused, asked why who were where?

I said, "I know now why those particular characters are there. It just came to me."

Now, I wasn't thinking about the manuscript. I was thinking about how we were gonna be about 5 to 10 mins late to the doc's, and about how I was digging that particular tune that reminded me of a Goth-Gary-Numan thing, of whether there was rain up ahead. I wasn't thinking at all about the work.

But something in my mind WAS thinking about the work.

Freaky. But cool.

Ever write stuff and you're not sure why it came out or what's the purpose of X character or Y setting? Well, your mind knows, even if you don't. And if you let it simmer and simmer, feeding it daily, it does come out. You will know why.

I had written several "mystery" elements into my early pages, without a clue why. My mind just insisted they went THERE.

And it finally told me the answer (in general) to one of those mysteries.

So, are you feeding your subconscious regularly? Are you feeding it today with paragraphs and pages and hours of pondering plot points?

Need Help With That Synopsis? Here Are Helpful Articles Online

2007-07-31T16:12:00.000-04:00

I am in the midst of my own synopsis-writing for my fantasy novel (and it's going...eh). I'm using these articles to help me get it done, and I'm sure you'll find them really useful:

Jeff Gerke's "For The Synopsis-Challenged"

Camy Tang's series of posts: Story Sensei: SYNOPSIS

Anne R. Allen's "Writing the Dreaded Synopsis"

Fiction Factor's "Mastering the Dreaded Synopsis"

SFF Online's "How To Write A Synopsis: FAQ"

And if you wan't to know what one looks like, here's eHarlequin's Sample Synopsis and one from P&E. Also, see these synopses at Charlotte Dillon's excellent site: Each synopsis did its job, since each story sold!

Family Guy - Brian's Novel

2007-07-21T08:45:00.001-04:00

hat tip to Chris Mikesell

Characterization: Exercises from Maass

2007-07-17T09:01:00.000-04:00

I'm working some of the exercises in the Donald Maass WRITING THE BREAKOUT NOVEL WORKBOOK in order to strengthen my protagonist.

If you've never read the book on which the workbook is based, don't worry. You can get by without the main text. The workbook alone has valuable exercises and examples, and you won't feel lost.

I did a couple of the exercises yesterday, but this is the one that really helped me clarify some fuzzy bits about my main character:

Step 1--What is the one thing that your protagonist would never, ever say?

Step 2--What is the one thing that your protagonist would never, ever do?

Step 3--What is the one thing your protagonist would never, ever think?

Step 4-- find places in your story in which your protagonist will say, do and think those very things. What circumstances? What consequences? Make notes on this NOW.

I didn't find it agonizingly tough to come up with the answers. Just a little hard. :) I think that's cause I've spent three months thinking about my main character--even when I wasn't writing about her.

Yep, I already knew enough about my main character to know what her past has been like and why she was in the situation she was at present and what she feared. That's a good basis for figuring out the answers to the say/think/do questions.

Do this with your protagonist(s). I think it will help you come up with ways to add not only depth, but conflict. It helps with characterization AND plotting. If you can come up with situations where theu have to think/say/do things they never thought they would, then you'll have thought up plot complications, events and situations that stress your character and make them act like real people--who sometimes do things they never imagined they would.

If you can't afford to buy the workbook (tight budget?), then consider visiting Bonnie Calhoun's blog archives. She covered the entirety of the workbook on her blog last year. You can start here:

Bonnie Writes, June 2006

If you'd rather have your own copy to scribble in, use this link and support my blog:

Thanks. Happy exercise-ing.

Changing Perspective is Hard Work

2007-07-12T21:32:00.000-04:00

Okay, after writing six chapters in third person, I came to the reluctant (at first) conclusion thatI needed to switch to first person. (I had trepidation, since I'd gotten some really righteously encouraging feedback from folks with the 3rd.)

I thought it would be a snap, given that I wrote it in a very deep third person,which isn't all that much different from first in the actual flow.

Oh, silly me. How naive.

It took me two hours just to switch FOURTEEN PAGES.

On the plus side, I like it much better. I really do. And I learned something new about my character because I used that 1st voice, and that revelation let me add a few new pages of conflict-riddled scene-ing to the front end.

On the negative side, I did have to chop out two short chapters. Ouch. Bye-bye. (Even knowing it's gotta go, it hurts. I mean, that was HOURS of days worth of work I had to ditch.)

So, anybody else on for the 70 Days of (Fictional) Sweat? Anybody had to backtrack and change POV? What did you learn from making the change? Did it end up working better or worse? Ever change POV more than once? (Lawdy, I don't wanna do this again.I'm staying with first. Well, 99% likely.)

~

Signed up--LATE--for the 70 DAYS OF SWEAT Writing Challenge: Join Me!

2007-07-12T00:08:00.000-04:00

If you need that little extra push to get you to the finish line of your rough draft, why not consider throwing in with the SEVENTY DAYS OF SWEAT challenge? Allison Kent has posted and invited you to sign up. She writes:

I’m sure you’ve all heard of the National Novel Writing Month where the goal of the participants is to write 50,000 words during the month of November. You’ve probably also heard of the Book-in-a-Week first draft blast, and may have heard of the Book in a Year challenge at eHarlequin, or simply the One Page A Day method to getting a book written in 365. How ’bout a book in seventy days? Doable? You betcha.

Say you’re writing a 100,000 word single title. 70 days at 1500 words per day (approx 6 pages) is 98,000 words total. Say you’re writing a 60,000 word series romance. 70 days at 900 words per day (approx 4 pages) is 63,000 words total. Writing 4 - 6 pages every day for 70 days is a schedule anyone who calls themselves a pro can handle easily!

GO HERE TO SIGN UP

I just signed up, so I'm starting late. I'll do my 6 pages tonight, and this will count as day one (ie, Wednesday).

I don't want to freak about the lag. I've got several chapters done, so it's not like I'm all that behind.

Let me know if you're getting on board, too.

On Chapter Five: Archangel Arms

2007-06-26T11:27:00.001-04:00

Hmmm...well, some of six is done, but I may be chopping one of the chapters out.

I get to chapter five/six (depending) and realize that maybe I do need to switch to first person. This is is not what I want to hear from myself. I want to hear, "Yes, this is so wonderful I could swoon and leave it as is."

Well, no. Can't do that. I tried adding a "villain" POV in one of the scenes/chapters, and it feels a tad melodramatic. And maybe I should just stay with heroine's POV as intended. Only, yeah, maybe first pov. I'm gonna write a chapter or two more in third and see if it continues to feel too distant.

A crit pal had asked me why it wasn't in first. Basically, I wanted the freedome to move into other POVs and I wanted the distance, the "fairy tale fantasy story" feel of third.

But I'm willing to be flexible.

I did figure out one plot hole (of two vexing ones) that was making me a crazy woman with a sharp pencil, stalking blank pages in hopes of a plot clue. So, one down, one to go.

I still like this story. I still want to know my heroine better. And I'm still not sure how this ends, which is also vexing me, as I wanted to have a synopsis written out by now (so I can send to helpful editor offering advice).

I do have more of my world details (not all). Yay.

I do have that plot hole sorted out sort of. Yay.

I do have a sense of what my heroine's true mission is. Yay.

And I've added a bit more conflict to an opening scene. Yay.

I'm still psyched! Yay.

But I have a long ways to go.

And I may be doing it in the "I" mode.

So, any of you had to switch POV's? How much of a pain was that? Or was it rather thrilling to make the change?

One Editor's Breakdown of the Weeding Out Process In the Quest To Find Manuscripts to Buy

2007-06-26T11:21:00.000-04:00

Want a a terrific look into the rejection process? Teresa Nielsen Haydn (if you read sci-fi, you may be familiar with her and hubby Patrick) lists the reasons why subs don't make it, and the upward trajectory in quality says something about why some subs do make it.

I tried posting the list, but it comes up unformatted. See it here.

Good Exercises from Lit Agent X

2007-03-17T04:32:00.000-04:00

Lit Agent X has been examining hooks and critiquing them. She's completed those submitted and suggests some exercises for fiction writers:

Curious about how a writer can build a complex plot and escalate the tension? Outline the plot of one of your favorite novels in your genre. Yep, you heard me. Outline it or put it in a synopsis format. This isn't a book report, there's no grade attached to it, but follow the main plot and subplot. Write the main character's goal and obstacles and what tension is driving the narrative forward. Write down the sequence of events and see how they relate to the character. Are the characters active or passive? How do their goals clash? Do their goals change or become more complex as the plot progresses? How do the main characters change internally as the plot progresses? What intensifies their emotions or conflict along the way? Are there deadlines? What obstacles get in their way and how do the characters confront those obstacles?

Outline some "fake" plots for yourself. Practise writing hooks and only hooks. Write one a day. Write 20. Then pick your favorite or combine a few. Keep working in elements that intrigue you. Do this even if you don't write with an outline, because once you train your brain to invent complex plots, it will start becoming 2nd nature.

Now for that first page. Pick your favorite hook and write a first page. Hint at the complexity underneath. Hook an emotion from the reader. Grab attention. It's up to you which emotion you're trying to invoke in the reader, but pick one and then mull over the times you've felt that emotion yourself. (Even if it was from reading rather than living.) Then induce it with your words. (HINT: Do not attempt to induce boredom or disgust.)

I've Got a List on Amazon For Writers: "Write Your First Novel!"

2007-03-04T22:22:00.000-05:00

Read the list for some great craft books that will help you with your novel writing journey:

"Write Your First (or second, or third) Novel!"

These are some of the books that have helped me get better at my fiction. Now, if I would just get my butt in the chair and finish! Is there a craft book for procrastinators?

Planning a Novel: Up to Part Four Now

2007-02-03T02:53:00.000-05:00

Visit Jackie Castle over at Journey to Grace blog. She's doing a series on "Planning the Course of Your Novel"

I've been lax here, but I hope to rev up again soon. In the meantime, visit Jackie, whose latest post is on your writer's notebook for your WIP.

For Writers In Search of Agents: Don't Be Scammed. Learn to Google, Already!

2006-12-12T20:01:00.001-05:00

You have a manuscript. You're hungry for an agent. Behold, an agent says, "Hey, I'll represent ya."

Unless it's a reputable agent that any writer in your genre would recognize as totally legit and top-notch--and maybe even then, cause, hey I'm one of those gals who checks every day that her wallet is in her purse in case wallet gremlins came by in the night--check them out.

Don't sign anything until you research the agent. Google them in every way you can. Read whatever you find on them, positive and negative, from writing and publishing sites. Make sure the consensus is: They're professional, responsive, legitimate, and they make sales.

Making sales. Lots of scammers don't actually do that, ya know? That's why they gotta ask for money up front to represent you. They're not gonna make the 15% (or 10%) commission on talent and hard work, so they gotta get it from your checking account.

And never sign without familiarizing yourself with this page:

Warnings & Cautions for Writers: LITERARY AGENTS

Read it all.

Don't be lazy. Do your homework. Take the time now to study, research, read, ask, and learn, or pay the price later with heartache, disappointment, loss of moolah, and maybe, a lot of lost time. Maybe worse.

And NEVER, NEVER, NEVER, NEVER, NEVER sign with any of the agents on the TWENTY WORST LITERARY AGENCIES list. NEVER! Got that?

One example of an agency on that list that people still get tempted to sign with: Desert Rose Literary Agency. If you've signed with them, given them money, believed their emails, click that link with their name and READ ALL THE PAGES OF THAT THREAD. I'm serious. Get informed, then do something. In fact, listen to the advice Victoria Strauss and the other AW regs give to the folks asking questions about DRLA.

Be smart. Be informed. Make pals with Google. Check in with Absolute Write. and Preditors & Editors. Become familiar with SFWA's Writer Beware. Keep tabs on writer alerts at writing forums and your organization's newsletters (if they offer such). Blog about what you find on these sites (as I am doing) to warn newbie or naive writers.

And when one of the agents on that WORST list says it's a conspiracy against independent agents, the writers are out to get them, blah blah, take it as a tip-off that something's rotten in, if not Denmark, then perhaps San Angelo, Texas. Oh, and don't sign anything with an "interminable agency" clause. Well, unless maybe they give you one billion dollars up front and the check clears. :)

And pay attention at conferences or when listening to agent interviews or workshops. Example:

About two months ago, as I was showering, I was listening to an audio of an agent panel from a well-respected writer's conference. I was mid armpit soaping when I stopped cold. One of the agents on the panel, in response to a moderator's question, said, in effect, that she couldn't answer a particular question because she was terrible at keeping records and didn't know the particular numbers. The other agents answered the question, each quickly and confidenty tossing out a number.

Maybe in other respects, this agent is fine. But that alone would make me NOT sign with them even if they offered representation. I want an agent to keep very, very good records. This is a business. Monies have to be paid out. Things have to be sent and responses recorded. Yes, I want squeaky clean and diligent record-keeping. And I want an agent to know what's what in their agency. An agent should know how many sales they've had in the past X months or past year, or how soon they plan to get back to clients (on average), etc. It's THEIR business.

So, keep an eye and ear out. Small slips from a very own agent's lips can be a clue that they are not right for you.

Or, worse, scammers.

Don't be scammed.

If you'd like to visit some agent blogs (I make no claims about the agents themselves, just passing along links), visit some of these. I check out Jennifer Jackson's and Miss Snark's regularly, and I used to visit Kristin Nelson's a lot:

Agent 007's blog: http://agentoo7.blogspot.com/

BookEnds blog: http://bookendslitagency.blogspot.com/
(Jessica Faust, Jacky Sach, Kim Lionetti)

Nadia Cornier's blog: http://agentobscura.livejournal.com/

Full Circle Lit blog: http://fullcirclelit.blogspot.com/
(Lilly Ghahremani, Stefanie Von Borstel)

Dystel & Goderich: http://dglm.blogspot.com/

Barry Goldblatt's blog: http://bgliterary.livejournal.com/

Jennifer Jackson: http://arcaedia.livejournal.com/

John Jarrold's blog (UK agent): http://jjarrold.livejournal.com/

Knight Agency blog: http://knightagency.blogspot.com/
(Deidre Knight, Judson Knight, Elaine Spencer, Julie Ramsey, Nephele Tempest, Pamela Harty)

Kristin Nelson's blog: http://pubrants.blogspot.com/

Jenny Rappaport's blog: http://litsoup.blogspot.com/

The Rejecter's blog: http://rejecter.blogspot.com/

Miss Snark's blog: http://misssnark.blogspot.com/

Rachel Vater's blog: http://raleva31.livejournal.com/

Matt Wagner's blog: http://www.fresh-books.com/blog/

Wylie-Merrick blog: http://wyliemerrick.blogspot.com/
(Robert Brown, Sharene Martin)

Andrew Zack's blog: http://www.zackcompany.blogspot.com/

(Hat tip to 'Nancy" at Absolute Write for the list.)

Mir's Reality Check and Contest Prep Tips For the Unpubbed Fiction Scribbler

2006-10-31T02:44:00.000-05:00

Most contest entries are crap, they say. Sturgeons's Revelation, they claim.

Who are they?

I hear the indignation in your tone. Okay, get ready for the Mir rant and ramble. But I think some of this will be useful to you.

They. This is who they are: Assorted authors who've had to weed through sample chapters to 1. select writers for prestigious fiction workshops or to choose the finalists in a writing contest. Agents and editors who will, now and then, let it slip in an interview or on a forum that they had to wade through totally unacceptable, ungrammatical, uninteresting dreck to find something readable or with a glimmer of talent to which they could attach the blue ribbon.

A few submissions or contest entries rise above crapdom to acceptable and readable levels, they go on to say. The rest...feh.

Sometimes, nothing, NOTHING, is sparkly or exquisite. That's the truth.

Ah, but sometimes they get good or really good or blow-the mind great stuff that suits the imprint or line or category the judges edit. That's when they request a manuscript or accept the author into a select fiction workshop or refer the writer to an agent pal. That's when first place has real force behind it, real meaning.

Make a note: If you place in a contest, but the judge didn't ask to see the full manuscript, that's kinda equivalent to saying one of two things:

1. It's not good enough to request. Or, more bluntly, it's a REJECTION.
2. It's good enough for someone to request, but it doesn't suit that judge's fiction line, so they don't request it for that reason. Good enough, not right.

Being number one is not joyful. Being number two is disappointing, but promising. However, you never know which one you actually are unless the judge makes that particular note on a score sheet: "Very good. I'd read more. Too bad it's not right for HeartThrob Cozy Mysteries because of the grim tone."

In which case, you know it's good enough for one editor to get perky about it, so send it off to a line that's similar but darker. Good luck with that.

Oh, where was I? Yes, I remember...

Trust me. If your contest entry chapters are 1. wowing the editor or agent final judge and 2. the material is right for their publishing house's needs, they will request you send more.

(They are judging contests to find the next Secretariat for their stable, dontcha think? Trust me. It's not just about giving back to the writing community. It's not just about P.R. It's also about finding the next Nora Roberts or Dee Henderson or John Grisham or J.K. Rowling or Diana Gabaldon or C.S. Lewis or Janet Evanovitch or Helen Fielding or Jeffrey Deaver.)

Now, if the final judge is an agent, and if your sample chapters don't move them to seek you out for a full submission on which to decide whether you'll be their next fresh face-- they're not interested. Yes, that's right. That too is a rejection. You didn't wow that agent with that contest entry. If you had, they'd have made sure to get word to you that you should send them a full proposal. If they think you'll sell and make them beaucoup bucks, you will be pursued.

Here's the hard fact:

What I call the shiny ones--those contest entries that just gleam and dazzle-- are rare. Yet most contests are set up so winners must be chosen. Tell me: What happens if no shiny ones have entered a particular contest category, and a final judge still has to choose first and second and third place winners?

Well, the winner is the best of a not-very-shiny lot.

Here's the danger to the human ego: A winner assumes the writing is fabulous because, yep, it won.

This is not a wise assumption to make. Nor a logical one. All that says is the particular work that won was the subjectively judged "best" of the lot. But the lot could have been a collective pile of manure. Conversely, it might have been a pile of staggeringly proficient submissions, and by golly, the winner is a dazzler.

The latter case is not, however, typical. I've judged contests. I know.

Poetry Note: One exception is our latest poetry contest at DKA, where we're in the final stages of picking a winner. We actually got quite a few "shiny" poems and picking a winner is tough. What a deliciuos problem to have: an abundance of versey riches.)

Personal Note: I re-read my Genesis Contest SF winning chapters and, while not thinking "utter Sturgeonian crapola," I did see flaws. Several flaws. I did cringe in spots. Typos, too, made me go hissssss. No, not crap, but not a diamond, either. A raw diamond. I still saw good ideas. Some good characterization. Some good conflict and dialogue. Some good, even very good prose. It's got some luster, but it's not blindingly bright. It has to become shinier. I have to work harder at getting it to reflect light.

I want to produce diamonds of the first water, as my Regency reading pals might say.

So, take your contest wins and placements with a grain of salt. Then consume the nutrients they offer and get more writing muscle.

Contests are tools. I've seen some lovely fellow Christian writers (and some non-Christian ones) use them as tools. Some for feedback. Some to get in front of a desirable agent or targeted editor. Some enter to learn the discipline of deadlines and formats and what-not. Some have gotten contracts from the exposure in a contest.

Know why you enter. Be humble enough to accept the possibility that you may be submitting non-shiny crap and don't know it. Listen to feedback. Listen really hard to feedback that meshes with other feedback, ie. many judges saying you have no conflict, or poor dialogue, or stilted prose, or jarring transitions, or horrible grammar.

Then, take action as needed: Buy craft books. Take classes. Analyze talented writers. Read more. Write more. Join a critique group. Listen more. Learn to take criticism well. (You'll have to do that when you sell, anyway, and your editor sends you a two- or five- or ten-page revision request sheet.) Use every hammer and nail and wrench and roll of duct tape in the writer's toolbox.

I'm a better writer today than I was 15 years ago. I'm a better writer today than I was five years ago. That's not nothing. That's progress. I've learned and I'm learning still.

And contests are useful if you're realistic about them.

As long as you keep perspective. As long as you grow a tough skin. As long as you grasp tightly to a good measure of humility. As long as you don't think, "Stupid judges. What do they know?" As long as you don't think, "I'm horrible and I'll never learn to write." As long as you don't think, "I've won. My manuscript is perfect!"

As long as you stay focused on the why and what of contests, they'll serve you well.

Anyway, all that because soon it will be a new year, and you will be able to submit to lots of contests with the advent of 2007. And even sooner if you follow RWA romance-related contests. Come January, you'll be able to enter the Genesis contest of the ACFW, which has stringent and as-objective-as-possible judging guidelines and judging criteria. This is a helpful contest for someone who really wants to see where her strengths and weaknesses are as a writer. You may unknowingly submit crap, but at least you'll be told why and where it's stinky to help you in the cleaning up process, the diamondification of poop process.

And you may submit shiny, and you'll be able to see how to make it shinier.

Now...to someone less ranty than I:

To add to the cache of agent/editor/publisher/author anecdotes of crap contest entries, I give you this from agent Jennifer Jackson's livejournal blog, and ask you note the final paragraph with special attention if you're gearing up to enter the contest circuit come 2007:

So, I was judging the romantic suspense category. One of the things that struck me was that in five entries only one of them did not feature a member of law enforcement as one of the protagonists. Perhaps it's an obvious thing to do in order to set up a suspense plot. If either the hero or heroine (or both) are assigned to the case then it gives them an easy motivation to be there. But it did make me want to give that one other person points for originality. Plus, easy motivations don't always make for complex and compelling characters. Also, I've read many other proposals for this subgenre and keep finding a lot of projects in which the research, or rather the lack thereof, is going to contribute to making it an easy rejection. I went through a big forensic interest phase a couple years ago which included reading a book on the history of fingerprinting as well as textbooks regularly assigned in forensic courses. I know less about actual department procedures and I haven't yet taken one of those citizen police academy tours. But one tends to notice when L&O or CSI have more realism and internal consistency.

Nearly every time I sit down to read for a contest, I remember this one time when I got a set of finalists and was just stunned that this was the best they could offer. I actually wanted to not give an award in that case because I didn't think any of the entries were even close to publishable. People sometimes use contest wins as credits in queries. This experience made me feel a bit dubious about that prospect.

Ms. Jackson works at the Donald Maass Literary Agency. She is a real, authentic, good agent. She represents SF, which endears her to me right off the proverbial bat. If you're into female-focused SF, you'll recognize many names on her client list: Anne Bishop, Elizabeth Bear, Laura Anne Gilman, and C.E. Murphy. And if you're in ACFW or read Christian Women's Fiction, you'll recognize award-winner Shelley Bates. Romance readers will recognize Patricia Rosemoor, Donna Ball (who I used to read faithfully when she wrote as Rebecca Flanders), and Brenda Hiatt (yes, that Brenda, Show Me the Money girl.)

Finally...

Mir's Contest Prep Tips for the Coming Year of Contest-ing:

~Don't be lazy. By that I mean: Don't enter rough drafts. You can't really learn much from entering what you dashed off with little sweat and sacrifice.

~Before entering, get some feedback from knowledgeable folks who'll speak honestly to you about your weaknesses, which is always more important than folks yapping on endlessly about your strengths. (I did say grow a tough skin, no?)

~Make your story different from what is expected, but in a good way, not a whack-job way. Although, some contests need whack-job ways of storytelling, yes. If you're entering in a genre with some well-worn plots, try to be the special one.

~ Don't make your hero or heroine seem like every other hero or heroine in your genre, especially if it's a genre known for having stock characters. Learn to write full, well-motivated, strongly conflicted, deep characters who can surprise us.

~Do your research.

~Do the work it takes to infuse your story with your own, special, original voice and attitude. Don't offer the judges flat prose. Zap it with your own brand of electricity. That may mean talking your story cold into a tape or digital recorder in as natural a voice as you can. (This is a good method for folks who are told they write with too much formality or in a stilted manner.) This may mean reading aloud as you type to see if you're coming across flat and droney.

~Unless your sister or spouse or best pal are editors, agents, or writers, don't assume that when they say, "It's terrific," it actually is terrific. People we love may not have a discerning bone in their bodies. And they usually want to support us and not hurt our feelings. Find the person who will lovingly hurt your feelings for the good of your craft.

~Get a Chicago Manual of Style. (Costly, awkward to use at times, but worth it) Read up on dashes and commas and compound sentences and lay/lie and who/whom and dangling participles. If you don't have some grammar and style manuals by your computer or your writing pad or on your desk, then you aren't yet really serious about fine-tuning your prose, are you?

(Confession: I get lazy with blog posts and go hog wild with dashes and parentheses and sentence fragments. I breathe a freer air here in the Queendom of Mirathon. When I submit something to a contest, though, I keep my style manuals nearby.)

~If you're broke and can't afford the Chicago Manual of Style, then get a cheap used copy of Strunk and White's for a buck or less. They're everywhere. It's also free online. Use it. Google up usage issues. I've always (almost) speedily found an answer to some vexing question by just using a search engine. USE THE SEARCH ENGINE BEFORE YOU ASK ON A WRITING LOOP. Don't fill up the inboxes of your fellow writers when you can get the answer yourself. That's kinda rude.

Or you can simply marry an English major, since we always have grammar texts handy and a tottering pile of style manuals at the ready. Or make best friends with a proofreader/copy editor. Talk the fine points of grammar over a latte and biscotti every Thursday evening. Make it fun.

~If you have a few minutes, read Mir's Non-Comprehensive Tour of Trouble Spot Tip-Offs. Even the very schmart Jon Mark Bertrand thought this was worth recommending. It's the single Mirathon post that's gotten the most feedback and thank yous and Lawdy-I-needed-thats. Just another tool for your shed.

~Choose your contests with care. Know before you enter how it will serve you. Is the editor or agent one on your short-list of desirables? Does the contest offer solid, detailed feedback? Does winning allow you to get a full critique from a bona fide editor or agent? Is it pretigious? Don't just enter blithely and blindly. Strategize.

~~After the contest is done, send THANK YOU NOTES.

I'm a bit of a doofus about remembering to go out and buy the things, but I finally bought ones for the final round of the GENESIS (I got my scores back a week or so ago.) See, I'm a reclusive sort, and I'll go a week or more without leaving the house. I pile up errands for one massive to-do day about once every 10 days. (Yes, I'm a freak, I know.)

I will be mailing them out tomorrow. I mailed out the first round ones ages ago. It's not necessary, no, but it's a courtesy.

If you haven't judged a contest with a detailed score sheet and rules, then you have no idea how hard it is. How tough to be as fair as possible and as honest as you can. I actually wept with pain that I had to score some contest entries very low. I even asked the regional coordinator of that particular contest if the kind of score I felt was warranted was out of whack and I was being too hard. She, to her and the contest's credit, said no. She'd judged lower herself. She said: Be honest. Judge genuinely. I have to admire any contest that encourages tough fairness of that sort. Even if it has to be heart-and ego-lacerating for the person getting the low scores. Trust me, that's why I pray over and read entries over and over. Some as many as six times. To do justice according to the rules. To be honest for their benefit.

So, appreciate your judges. Even the brutal-scoring ones. They may have wept for you.

And send those thank yous off.

I've received two thank yous. Two. In toto. Ever. And to my shame, I didn't know in my first contests that I was supposed to send thank yous. I figured it was anonymous, so who the heck would I send thank yous to?

Ask your contest coordinator what to do about the notes. But send them. It shows you're not an ingrate for the time and trouble of many, many volunteers.

Personal Anecdote To Keep You From Screwing Up As I Did: I placed third in one particular contest with a coveted editor. Third. But the editor requested the full. On a third placer. No other category had that happen. Made me feel, "Okay, I am not a total loser." Of course, I then went on to prove I was a total loser by not finishing the novel and sending it off. I might have been published 4 years ago. (I am vast and full of flaws. Sometimes, I'm just a damned, lazy idiot.)

Go ye and conquer. And may the writing force be with you.

Originally posted on Mirathon blog.

writing and poetry, writing, fiction contests, contests,agents, editors, Jennifer Jackson

You Writing A Christian SF Novel? Join me!

2006-10-23T12:25:00.000-04:00

Since I wanted my rough draft of my novel done by December 31st, I've committed to NANOWRIMO.

If you don't know what that weird word stands for, it's actually National Novel Writing Month. They've got a site, a system, and they're ready for you. 50,000 words in 30 days. Can you do it?

They say we can!

I've started a forum thread under "Fantasy" for anyone who's writing Christian speculative fiction. Here is my profile, in case you're curious. And this is my siggie:

If you have been struggling with your perfectionism, that internal editor, laziness, procrastination, a disorganized schedule, or whatever, but you want to write that novel before you die...well...register for NaNoWriMo. It's easy to register and it's free. (Although the Mir suggests you put some money in their kitty. 50% of proceeds go to a worthy charity.)

I'll be at the support lounge for CSF. If you do CSF, drop by. Meet the guys and gals of similar vision.

And let's pray we don't all get a terminal case of carpal tunnel syndrome.

So, starting November 1st, at one second past midnight...everybody NANO!

Good Tool For Your Agent Search

2006-10-23T12:06:00.000-04:00

Trying to figure out what agent handles your genre of fiction?

Do a search at AGENT SEARCH.

You can also search there to see if an agent handles Christian fiction, not just "Women's Historical" or "Mystery."

Also, according to Miss Snark, this place may not be the best idea. If they annoy her, trust me, they're annoying other editors. And that's not good. (Annoying editors, that is.) That place charges $150 (or $75 now that they have a half off thingie) for email queries. That means, they're charging you to send emails (er..spam?) to editors in your name. That costs them, what, pennies?

So, don't be lazy. Buy plenty of stamps, buy a box of envelopes, and go create your query.

All you have to do is write it up once in a WORD document, then change the addresses, right? Then you print out your dozen or more copies, each addressed to one reputable agent that accepts unsolicited queries Here's where you check AGENT SEARCH, to find out if they do, in fact, accept email queries. If Miss Snark doesn't accept them, but these guys send her email queries, then they aren't even bothering to check who accepts what. And that's not good business practice. It'll cost you in total less than 150 or 75 bucks, and you won't be pestering the wrong agents with emails that have YOUR name on it.

Note: You can do your own email queries for bupkiss money. Gather a list of reputable agents who DO take email queries and DO handle the type of material you write, and have clients with books out in your genre, and do actually make sales without asking you for fees and what-not up front...and just email them yourself. No money. No hassling agents who aren't into being spammed.

The other thing you need to do is always check Preditors and Editors, Writer Beware, and writing forums that keep tabs on the crap agents. Always drop line into the email loop or forum of whatever writing organization(s) you belong to and ask about your prospective agents (and publishers, too). Make sure they don't have a bad reputation. Google them up. Do legwork...er...fingerwork.

You don't want to snag a BAD agent. That's nothing to celebrate. It's better to be without an agent, than be contracted with one that will totally screw you over or mismanage your career or haunt your fortunes for years, cause your contract can link you to them even after you move on.

Writers beware, indeed.

Agent X: Query Tip for SF Worldbuilders

2006-10-04T01:56:00.000-04:00

First the writer and the asking part:

Q: My question is--if you've written a story (say an urban fantasy) with a complex mythology that is highly unique and integral to your characters and plot, how do you convey that in a query without overwhelming an agent? I don't want to include a glossary of terms and an explanation of the different classes of the characters' society in my query just so the agent understands what I'm talking about! (Not that I would ever really do that.)

But I also feel the intricate worldbuilding is part of what makes the story stand out--part of its hook. What's the best way to blend that into a query?

How should a writer go about balancing the details of the world they've created with the basics of their story?

For the agent and the answering part, visit Lit Agent X.

originally posted at Mirathon blog

The Ending that's in the Beginning

2006-09-17T18:02:00.000-04:00

Apologies for neglecting this, but I have similarly been neglecting my novel. Bad, bad, bad Mir! Yes, I've been distracted and poetry and comics obsessed. And that was amazingly weird to type. Hm.

So, getting back on the novel horsie (as the year's end is closing on me fast), I'd like to post something for those of you who may be still at the opening of your work, or who are revising it:

Drop by Deep Genre to read Kate Elliot's Sept 12, 2006 post called "Craft: Openings (Part One, Begin as you mean to End)":

Openings are part of the overall plot arc, the overall narrative. The opening carries within it the ending, it can foreshadow, reflect, parallel, hint at, paint the mood of, contrast with, or lay the groundwork for the ending. Openings should not only engage the reader by hook or by crook; they should be consistent in tone in relationship to the ending.

Next week will find me furiously wrestling to make my middle work. But sometimes, the middle flops cause the beginning doesn't work. You may have started in the wrong place--ie, at the wrong time, or with the wrong event, or with the wrong character.

novels,writers,writing

Michelle Tagged Me: Novel I'd Like To Write?

2006-08-18T04:22:00.000-04:00

I'm the blog-by victim of a tagging by the Edgy Inspirational Author blogger. Part of being a taggee is that I introduce the blogger-tagger and their blog and why I read it:

Michelle Sutton is a writer I met through the ACFW. She's also an avid reader. (I can't possibly keep up with her pace. My middle-aged, lousy eyes can't, just can't!) I visit her blog to see what new books are generating blog talk. I've bought several on the basis of her reviews, even if I haven't read them yet! If you want to see what's fresh to read in Christian fiction, hers is a good place to drop by. Her blog's also loaded with links to authors--for your perusing pleasure.

The rest of the rules, per my assailant:

1. Answer one of these questions(see below) on your blog.
2. Link back to whoever tagged you.
3. Tag 5 (or more) other female bloggers.
4. Plus, check out previous responses, and if you know of a novel that pertains to the subject someone wishes they could write or would like to read about, suggest the novel to them in a comment.

The questions in play are:

(1)If you could write a novel about any subject, what would it be (Just the subject—don’t give away your plot idea.)
OR
(2)If just the thought of having to write anything gives you hives, what would you like to read about in a novel that you’ve never seen done before?
OR
(3)If you hate reading fiction what subject might make you change your mind or try it anyway?

I'm going for question 1. Like, duh, right? Numbers 2 and 3 don't apply to The Mir.

Dang, there are so many. I suppose I'd go for the one I'd like to write that seems impossible and unmarketable and pie-in-the-sky and it will never be written, unless I decide to start tripping on LSD in the future, which, well, ain't likely, given my sneering loathing of recreational drugs:

It's the fantasy romance one with the deformed, horrifyingly ugly but virtuous hero and the heroine who is apotheosizing into pure omnipotence and who loves him too much to beautify him because she sees all possible consequences of doing this, and all the consequences would alter his inner being too much, and all the ensuing spiritual and interpersonal and, hey, global and cosmic conflicts involved.

Well, now you're all running away from me screaming, "She's gone mad, completely mad! And she may be a heretic!"

Oh, poop. Everyone's left the building.

Your fault, Michelle.

If you are female and you are reading this, consider yourself TAGGED.

: : : evil laughter echoes off the walls of the uninhabited blog : : :

novels,writers,writing

Just For Fun and Self-Revelation: Fifteen Comments On Books

2006-08-14T18:36:00.000-04:00

originally posted on Mirathon on December 2005

Comment on books #1: G.K. Chesterton said, "fiction is a necessity." This statement sums up a good portion of who I am. I exist, in part, to read. Another part exists to consume enchiladas and chocolate mousse and lasagna. Yet another part exists to gaze worshipfully upon my husband and bestow smooches upon his rosy cheeks. The best part exists to love God. But, oh, a good third of me--more some years, depends--exists to read stories. I have a sneaking suspicion heaven will be full of amazing storytellers telling amazing stories.

Comment on books #2: Books feel good. I like holding books. I shudder with pleasure over beautiful fonts, quality non-glossy paper, and well-designed covers. I will sometimes buy a book simply for the beauty of the binding and the artwork, and may never even read it, content with the pure physical pleasure of the object called "book." My husband is very good about not making jolly fun of me for this.

Comment on books #3: I like to sleep with books under, over, and around me.

Comment on books #3: "In the beginning was the word." The word is also omega. All that exists, other than God, began with words and ends with the Word, and is sustained by words from the Word. That tells me that books, the holders of words, are more important than many of us realize, and the importance defies technology and time. And maybe, when I take pleasure in a story, God is right there, reading along with me, taking pleasure, too, because, after all, he's the Master Storyteller and World-builder.

Comment on books #4: I really, really like that books are so flexible, so fluid, that they perfectly adapt themselves to my pace. They are as fast as I am fast, and as slow as I am slow, and sometimes, we both take a nap. Amazing, isn't it?

Comment on books#5: My favorite romance novel is THE SHADOW AND THE STAR by Laura Kinsale. My favorite Christian romance novel is REDEEMING LOVE by Francine Rivers.

Comment on books #6: My favorite science fiction book is DUNE by Frank Herbert (with MORE THAN HUMAN by Ted Sturgeon close behind and DANGEROUS VISIONS edited by Harlan Ellison trailing Teddy S.) My favorite Christian science-fiction story is FIREBIRD by Kathy Tyers.

Comment on books #7: My favorite fantasy book is too difficult to choose, because fantasy delights me and is my favorite genre. Try a Tanith Lee novel of Flat Earth, or a Jane Yolen, or a Robin McKinley, or a Patricia McKillip, or vist Middle Earth, or pick up one of Datlow and Windling's anthologies of grown-up fairy tales, or read the SANDMAN stories by Neil Gaiman, or get to know McCaffrey's dragons, or Ursula K. LeGuin's wizards, or Aslan. The pickings are too beguiling to narrow it down to one.

Comment on books #8: My favorite religious novel is FATHER ELIJAH by Michael D. O'Brien.

Comment on books #9: I think I would like to be buried in a crypt piled high with books, and me somewhere deep within the lovely clutter, a copy of the book of Psalms lying over my eyes.

Comment on books #10: The best book in the whole universe is The Bible, which is really a collection of pretty impressive books, which cover the span of time from zero to endgame and even touch the hem of eternity, which is an amazing bit of scope, and which was written by God himself. It's kind of hard to ignore a book written by God, but people do, which says more about how dumb people are, than about how good a writer God is, dontcha think?

Comment on books #11:
There once was a reader named Mir
Who found being bookless her fear,
So she filled up her purse,
Her car trunk and, worse,
All her bathrooms with tomes old and dear.

Comment on books #12: A room without books is a space that is in danger of falling into the void.

Comment on books #13: There is a name for people like me who love books and reading: bibliophile. It is composed of the Greek words for book (biblion) and love (philos). I like this word, but not as much as I like books, cause I love books, which is why I'm a bibliophile. So, is a person who hates books a bibliophobe?

Comment on books #13: I've heard that the word book comes from the Old English word bok, which stands for beech, and that beech bark was used as paper. I haven't verified this. Feel free to research the matter.

Comment on books #14: Have you ever had a fantasy of being a great scholar who time-travels to ancient Alexandria to peruse the literary treasures of the Great Library, all those priceless books consigned to flames by the conquering Caliph?

Oh, you haven't? Never mind.

Comments on books #15: Once upon a time, there was a perky, sweet, and very cute writer-damsel named Camy, who knew an equally darling writer-damsel named Dineen, who, in tag team fashion, conspired to provoke an obscure, but occasionally fetching and interesting blogger-princess, one not famed for humility, mind you, by name of Mir, to post fifteen comments on her blog on the subject of books.

Princess Mir, who lived in a cluttered and dusty kingdom ruled by herself and Prince Charles (the hunky one with engineering prowess in Miami, not the smug twit in London), pondered this demand for, oh, eleven seconds tops, and decided, "Why not?"

With tools in hand, Princess Mir was able to build up a great heap of comments without undue stress or perspiration, and even was reputed to have slain two dragons in between comments #2 and #3, causing the whole of the kingdom to rejoice, and enacting the fourth clause of the thousandth-and-one decree, that states unequivocably and irrevocably that there shall be a bonus comment #3 created as part of any dragon-slaying celebration. (No, really, the decree sayeth so.)

While writing comment #12, Princess Mir talked the great and toothsome prince with the sleepy eyes into putting himself to bed. The sheer beauty of the prince so delighted Princess Mir, that she added an extra comment #13 to mark the joyful Moment of Beholding.

Ultimately, in the dark, wee hours of night, when fifteen comments are prone to expanding into seventeen, came a sudden moment of great wisdom. Princess Mir realized that there was truly only one comment that was needed to be said on the subject of books, one remark that loomed above all comments as truth unvarnished. So, Princess Mir, glowing with illumination, decided to conclude her list with the comment that should have sufficed from the start, and for all time to come:

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Books rule! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

For Fiction and Non-Fiction Writers: Some Tips

2006-08-08T19:55:00.000-04:00

Visit Seth's Blog for his ADVICE FOR AUTHORS post. Here's a taste, but you should head over there for the whole enchilada:

1. Lower your expectations. The happiest authors are the ones that don't expect much.

2. The best time to start promoting your book is three years before it comes out. Three years to build a reputation, build a permission asset, build a blog, build a following, build credibility and build the connections you'll need later.

3. Pay for an eidtor editor. Not just to fix the typos, but to actually make your ramblings into something that people will choose to read. I found someone I like working with at the EFA. One of the things traditional publishers used to do is provide really insightful, even brilliant editors (people like Fred Hills and Megan Casey), but alas, that doesn't happen very often. And hiring your own editor means you'll value the process more.

:snip:

5. Don't try to sell your book to everyone. First, consider this: " 58% of the US adult population never reads another book after high school." Then, consider the fact that among people even willing to buy a book, yours is just a tiny little needle in a very big haystack. Far better to obsess about a little subset of the market--that subset that you have permission to talk with, that subset where you have credibility, and most important, that subset where people just can't live without your book.

:snip:

8. Your cover matters. Way more than you think. If it didn't, you wouldn't need a book... you could just email people the text.

9. If you have a 'real' publisher (#7), it's worth investing in a few things to help them do a better job for you. Like pre-editing the book before you submit it. Like putting the right to work on the cover with them in the contract. And most of all, getting the ability to buy hundreds of books at cost that you can use as samples and promotional pieces.

10. In case you skipped it, please check #2 again. That's the most important one, by far.

11. Blurbs are overrated, imho.

12. Blog mentions, on the other hand, matter a lot.

So, with an eye to #12, you should build friendships (or at least blogships) with folks who have interesting and well-visited blogs, so that when YOUR magnus opus comes out, they'll be happy to interview you, plug you, post an excerpt, review your book, and otherwise help you along.

And you should be building up YOUR blog as a marketing and promotional tool. Your book won't be out for a while. You have time. Blogger is free. Get to it.

(And me, I gotta get back to my neglected novel, since I only have 4 months left to get a COMPLETE draft down. Ow.)

BTW, Seth offered 19 points in all in his post.

novels,writers,writing

Associate Publisher Chip MacGregor's Tips For Writers Who Want To Be Great, Not Bad or Just Okay

2006-07-19T14:00:00.000-04:00

Today concludes Gina's terrific three-part interview of Hachette Group's Associate Publisher Chip MacGregor. Find it at Novel Journey. This is a guy who doesn't mince words and who has sass to spare, but he knows his job and you would do well to listen.

Here are his tips (from part two) for writers who want to take their work from ewwww or blaahhh to oooooh:

1. Improve your vocabulary. (It’s okay to find your readers occasionally have to get up and go get their dictionary while reading your book. Growth is a good thing.)

2. Find your voice. (This is my favorite writing topic, of course. Most writers seem to be pretending they are still writing an English paper. Kill the teacher in your head. You’re writing your life. You’re writing to a friend. You are NOT writing for a grade. You are NOT writing to show off. You are revealing yourself via verbs and nouns.)

3. Get organized. (Every book requires research and planning. EVERY book.)

4. Know your topic. (If you don’t, you’re wasting your time. And if you send it to me, you’re wasting MY time. I won’t waste it on you again.)

5. Learn to set the mood. (Your emotional tone should shine through your writing.)

6. Develop a sense of rhythm. (Short sentences speed up your pace.)

7. Refine your ability to use imagery. (Your images should be…as clear as a Siamese cat wearing a red coat and dancing the Highland Fling. Or something.)

8. Be clear.

9. Don’t belabor the obvious.

10. Learn to create strong leads and stronger closings. (Grab me. Then send me off to ponder.)

11. Meet great characters and reveal them on the page. (If you don’t know these people, if you don’t know their setting, you’re about to write a crummy book.)

12. Read your dialogue out loud to yourself. (Your ear will catch anything dishonest.)
13. Make sure you have a story to tell. (And remember that every story has conflict.)

14. Write in scenes, and let every scene raise the stakes. (Every story has beats to it. Learn to think in paragraphs.)

15. Show us the journey. (I want to be moved. I want to read your story and be changed.)

16. Write with verbs and nouns. (Stolen from ELEMENTS OF STYLE. Still the best writing advice I know.)

17. Work as hard on every sentence as you do on your lead. (Don’t get lazy.)

18. Shut up and listen to your editor.

19. Write every day. (Nothing will move your career forward faster.)

20. Read widely. (And read something different from your own stuff.)

21. Go back and rewrite. (Don’t assume it was perfect the first time.)

22. Depth is found when multidimensional characters that I can relate to face timeless questions in complex circumstances, then make decisions that are open to interpretation…so they may not be right. (THAT’S what causes me to learn, what helps me to understand myself, what leaves me thinking about your book. And this can’t be faked – so don’t write with an agenda. Nothing is more boring than to read a polemic. We’re tired of both Rush Limbaugh’s outrage and Al Franken’s posturing. They’re going to spend hell together, arguing their points.)

The "It was" and "There was" Brouhaha

2006-07-10T14:39:00.000-04:00

Discussion erupted on one of my writing loops about the rightness or wrongness of using the terms "there was" or "it was" (or variations thereof) in writing. I take the side that such constructions are fine. They serve a purpose, more than one even. They can work as placeholder pronouns (the "dummy pronoun"). They can be phrases that refer to an existential condition that doesn't require a clarifying antecedent.

Since the matter arose on a loop of fiction writers, I decided to take a tour of the canon of literature and see how the masters of the art--Dickens, Twain, Bronte, Crane, Conrad, Eliot, Tolkien, Woolf, etc--side on the matter. Do they use "there was" and "it was" in those problematic ways.

Yes. Yes. Yesyesyesyesyes. Yes.

(With no apologies whatsoever to Joyce.)

I hereby offer the examples I gleaned from the classics:

First Line of JANE EYRE (my fave classic novel):
There was no possibility of taking a walk that day.

First sentence of LORD OF THE RINGS by JRR Tolkien:
When Mr. Bilbo Baggins of Bag End announced that he would shortly be celebrating his eleventy-first birthday with a party of special magnificence, there was much talk and excitement in Hobbiton.

From the first page of CONNECTICUT YANKEE IN KING ARTHUR'S COURT by Mark Twain:
It was a soft, reposeful summer landscape, as lovely as a dream, and as lonesome as Sunday. The air was full of the smell of flowers, and the buzzing of insects, and the twittering of birds, and there were no people, no wagons, there was no stir of life, nothing going on.

From the opening pages of ETHAN FROME by Edith Wharton:
It was during their night walks back to the farm that he felt most intensely the sweetness of this communion.

From page one of THE RED BADGE OF COURAGE by Stephen Crane:
There was much food for thought in the manner in which he replied. He came near to convincing them by disdaining to produce proofs. They grew excited over it.
There was a youthful private who listened with eager ears to the words of the tall soldier and to the varied comments of his comrades.

From the opening page of THE SECRET GARDEN by F. H. Burnett:
There was something mysterious in the air that morning.

From the opening page of THE TURN OF THE SCREW by Henry James:
It was thrown in as well, from the first moment, that I should get on with Mrs. Grose in a relation over which, on my way, in the coach, I fear I had rather brooded...
...But it was a comfort that there could be no uneasiness in a connection with anything so beatific as the radiant image of my little girl, ...

From the first page of HEART OF DARKNESS by Joseph Conrad:
On the whole river there was nothing that looked half so nautical. He resembled a pilot, which to a seaman is trustworthiness personified. It was difficult to realize his work was not out there in the luminous estuary, but behind him, within the brooding gloom.
Between us there was, as I have already said somewhere, the bond of the sea.

From the first paragraph of MOBY DICK by Herman Melville
With a philosophical flourish Cato throws himself upon his sword; I quietly take to the ship. There is nothing surprising in this.

From page two of THE ADVENTURES OF PETER PAN by J.M. Barrie:
For a week or two after Wendy came it was doubtful whether they would be able to keep her, as she was another mouth to feed...
...There was the same excitement over John, and Michael had even a narrower squeak; but both were kept, and soon, you might have seen the three of them going in a row to Miss Fulsom's Kindergarten school, accompanied by their nurse.

The first page of THE WONDERFUL WIZARD OF OZ by L. Frank Baum:
There were four walls, a floor and a roof, which made one room; and this room contained a rusty looking cookstove, a cupboard for the dishes, a table, three or four chairs, and the beds. Uncle Henry and Aunt Em had a big bed in one corner, and Dorothy a little bed in another corner. There was no garret at all, and no cellar--except a small hole dug in the ground, called a cyclone cellar, where the family could go in case one of those great whirlwinds arose, mighty enough to crush any building in its path.

From the first page of THE ADVENTURES OF TOM SAWYER by Mark Twain:
There was a slight noise behind her and she turned just in time to seize a small boy by the slack of his roundabout and arrest his flight.

The first paragraph of A TALE OF TWO CITIES by Charles Dickens:
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair...

From chapter one of ROBINSON CRUSOE, by Daniel Dafoe:
It was not till almost a year after this that I broke loose, though, in the meantime, I continued obstinately deaf to all proposals of settling to business, and frequently expostulated with my father and mother about their being so positively determined against what they knew my inclinations prompted me to.

From the first page of MIDDLEMARCH by George Eliot:
It was hardly a year since they had come to live at Tipton Grange with their uncle, a man nearly sixty, of acquiescent temper, miscellaneous opinions, and uncertain vote.

From the first page of THE CASK OF AMONTILLADO by E. A. Poe:
It was about dusk, one evening during the supreme madness of the carnival season, that I encountered my friend.

From the second page of FRANKENSTEIN, by Mary Shelley:
There was a considerable difference between the ages of my parents, but this circumstance seemed to unite them only closer in bonds of devoted affection. There was a sense of justice in my father's upright mind, which rendered it necessary that he should approve highly to love strongly. Perhaps during former years he had suffered from the late discovered unworthiness of one beloved, and so was disposed to set a greater value on tried worth. There was a show of gratitude and worship in his attachment to my mother...

From the beginning pages of DRACULA by Bram Stoker:
I did not sleep well, though my bed was comfortable enough, for I had all sorts of queer dreams. There was a dog howling all night under my window, which may have had something to do with it; or it may have been the paprika, for I had to drink up all the water in my carafe, and was still thirsty...
...It was on the dark side of twilight when we got to Bistritz, which is a very interesting old place.

First page of ANNE OF GREEN GABLES by L.M. Montgomery:
There are plenty of people in Avonlea and out of it, who can attend closely to their neighbor's business by dint of neglecting their own; but Mrs. Rachel Lynde was one of those capable creatures who can manage their own concerns and those of other folks into the bargain.

First sentence of THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS by Lewis Carroll:
One thing was certain, that the white kitten had had nothing to do with it: -- it was the black kitten's fault entirely.

From page one of ALICE'S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND by L. Carroll:
There was nothing so very remarkable in that; nor did Alice think it so very much out of the way to hear the Rabbit say to itself, `Oh dear! Oh dear! I shall be late!'

From page two of MRS. DALLOWAY by Virginia Woolf:
For it was the middle of June. The War was over, except for some one like Mrs. Foxcroft at the Embassy last night eating her heart out because that nice boy was killed and now the old Manor House must go to a cousin; or Lady Bexborough who opened a bazaar, they said, with the telegram in her hand, John, her favourite, killed; but it was over; thank Heaven-over. It was June. The King and Queen were at the Palace. And everywhere, though it was still so early, there was a beating, a stirring of galloping ponies, tapping of cricket bats;

From page one of RAVELSTEIN by Saul Bellow (Nobel Laureate):
I filled up a scribbler with quotes from Mencken and later added notes from spoofers or self-spoofers like W. C. Fields or Charlie Chaplin, Mae West, Huey Long, and Senator Dirksen. There was even a page on Machiavelli's sense of humor.

From page two of HALF A LIFE by V.S. Naipaul (Nobel Laureate):
There was a lot more about the temple and the crowds and the clothes they were wearing, and the gifts of coconut and flour and rice they had brought, and the afternoon light on the old stones of the courtyard. Everything the maharaja's headmaster had told him was there, and a few other things besides. Clearly the headmaster had tried to win the admiration of the writer by saying very good things about my various vows of denial. There were also a few lines, perhaps a whole paragraph, describing--in the way he had described the stones and the afternoon light--the serenity and smoothness of my skin.

From the first page of A GRIEF OBSERVED by C.S. Lewis:
There is a sort of invisible blanket between the world and me. I find it hard to take in what anyone says. Or perhaps, hard to want to take it in. It is so uninteresting. Yet I want the others to be about me. I dread the moments when the house is empty. If only they would talk to one another and not to me.
There are moments, most unexpectedly, when something inside me tries to assure me that I don't really mind so much, not so very much, after all. Love is not the whole of a man's life.

From page one of ZLATEH THE GOAT AND OTHER STORIES by Isaac Bashevis Singer (Nobel Laureate):
Somewhere, sometime, there lived a rich man whose name was Kadish. He had an only son who was called Atzel. In the household of Kadish there lived a distant relative, an orphan girl, called Aksah. Atzel was a tall boy with black hair and black eyes. Aksah was somewhat shorter than Atzel, and she had blue eyes and golden hair. Both were about the same age. As children, they ate together, studied together, played together. Atzel played the husband; Aksah, his wife. It was taken for granted that when they grew up they would really marry.

A teeming chorus of literary masters answers from within the pages of their beloved works: Yes. Use "there was." Use "it was." Don't be afraid. If the telling of your tale calls for it, use these language tools.

On my desk at this very moment is my copy of WINTER'S TALE by Mark Helprin, which begins thusly: "There was a white horse..."

On my nighttable at this very moment is a King James Bible, whose first page speaks in an English that pre-dates the Brontes and Dickens, and it says:

And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Originally from Mirathon, Nov. 30, 2005. But I figured it bore repeating

Contests For You Fiction Writers--Various Genres, Most With Terrific Prizes in $$$

2006-06-16T23:18:00.000-04:00

If you write short stories or have a novel in progress, and if you have a raging talent aching to be praised, you may get a heaping helping of kudos from one or more of the following contests. Many have truly fabulous prizes. Some of the judges are top-notch.

Time to sample the goodies:

The 12th Chiaroscuro Short Story Contest will accept entries until June 30th, EST. They have an impressive list of judges, including Ellen Datlow and Brian Hodge. If needed, the tie-breaking judge is NEIL GAIMAN. (Oh, oh, crush-ing here!)

First prize includes publication in ChiZine at 7 cents per word, plus a choice of 8 Leisure horror titles. ALSO, the winner's bonus prize is this: The opportunity to pitch a novel directly to Leisure Senior Editor, Don D'Auria. If he requests a synopsis and sample chapters from that pitch, he will respond WITHIN THREE WEEKS.

Second prize is publication in ChiZine at 7 cents per world and 6 Leisure horror titles. 3rd place gets the same pay rate for publication and 4 horror titles.

NOTE: If you write a 4,000 word story (the maximum story length accepted for the contest) that wins one of those slots, that's a $280.00 payment.

Plus, let's face it, ELLEN DATLOW! If she thinks your story rocks, then it rocks!
~ ~ ~

The Writing Show is holding their first contest. Is your novel's first chapter up to the challenge?

First prize is $150, and two second prizes get $50 each. Go to the link for the 5 judging criteria. The chapter may not exceed 3,000 words. July 6 is the deadline. The panel of judges includes a publicist, an editor-in-chief, the founder of NaNoWriMo, and several authors.

~ ~ ~

Write horror or dark fantasy? The Harrow's Annual Short Fiction Contest has a deadline coming up soon: June 30. The final judges are authors Brian Keene and Ramsey Campbell. Entry fee is $3, and first prize is $300 and publication in The Harrow Annual 2006 anthology. Second prize is $50 and eight finalists will receive $10. No reprints. Word count may range from 750 to 7,500 words.

~ ~ ~

The Storyglossia Fiction Prize 2006 Contest offers a $1,000 prize and publication in the October issue. Entry fee is $10 per story, and the deadline is October 1. The judge is Steven J. McDermott, editor of Storyglossia

~ ~ ~

The Emerging Writers Network Fiction Contest offers a $500 prize to the winner, along with publication in the Spring 2007 issue of Frostproof Review. Entry fee is $10, and the submission deadline is August 15 (postmark). Stories may range from 3,000 to 8,000 words. The guest judge is Charles D'Ambrosio.

~ ~ ~

The First Annual Verb Fiction Contest is accepting unpublished stories of up to 5,000 words. Winning prize is $1,000. Entry fee is $15. Submissions must be postmarked on or before July 1. Submit as a Word attachment, if you wish.

~ ~ ~

The 2006 Cooper Prize of $1,000 plus publication will be awarded by the Ontario Review. Submissions will be accepted through September 1. The story cannot exceed 25 double-spaced pages. Entry fee is $15.00, and that includes a 1-year subscription to Ontario Review.

~ ~ ~

Glimmer Train's Very Short Fiction Contest (up to 2,000 words). The Summer part of the contest accepts submissions through July 31st. Reading fee is $10. First prize is $1,200 and publication in Glimmer Train and 20 copies of that issue. Nice cash prizes for 2nd and 3rd prize, too.

For longer stories (up to 12,000 words), try their other contest, the Short Story Award for New Writers. Entries are accepted from August 1-September 30.

~ ~ ~

La Belle Lettre is running a mystery contest for stories up to 10,000 words. Deadline is August 1. Entry fee is $6. The prize? First place gets $100 and a critique.

You may also enter the Holiday contest, which is non-fiction or fiction.

~ ~ ~

River Walk Journal is accepting entries to their fiction contest: short stories up to 15 double-spaced pages. No erotica or genre. (You may also enter their essay contest.) Entry fee is $10. Postmark deadline is August 31. Prize is $500 and publication.

~ ~ ~

If you write crime fiction, consider the Fish Knife Award competition. Submission is electronic for stories up to 5,000 words. Entry fee is 20 euros (your credit card coverts). Deadline is September 17. Top prize is 1,500 euros (which as of today is about 1,900 US dollars.)

~ ~ ~

Did you write a fantasy or science-fiction story that got longer and longer, and now you've got a speculative fiction novella of 15,000-40,000 words?

Good. Cause the 2006 Bards and Sages Writing Contest wants just that. Grand Prize is a $500 US Savings Bond, publication, and membership for one year in the Speculative Literature Foundation. Entry fee is $15, and the deadline is October 1.

~ ~ ~

Kalliope Short Story Contest offers a $1,000 prize and publication in Kalliope. Stories must be no more than 3,000 words, and the entry fee is $15. The deadline is November 1.

~ ~ ~

Mirathon

Mir's Non-Comprehensive Tour of Trouble Spot Tip-Offs

2006-04-27T02:21:00.000-04:00

I think this blog entry from my main blog will prove helpful to beginning writers. Let me know if these tips help you.

Mir

Originally published over at MIRATHON:

Madam Mirathon (aka me) has done a fair bit of editing and contest judging this annum. Know what I've noticed? Certain writing gremlins multiply faster than a blue pencil can tame them. They're all over the place.

It's terrifying.

No, okay, it's not terrifying. It's vexing. (Especially when they show up on my pages!)

Perhaps Sturgeon's Law is as reliable as the Law of Gravity. (I prefer not to dwell on what that says about 90% of my output. Yoiks!)

Let's be brutally truthful: Few submissions or entries or critique samples shine. Sparkle and vivacity and depth and freshness--all of those are rare qualities in beginner fiction. I get it--totally!--when editors say that the first page, even the first paragraph, clues them into the quality of the rest.

Can you fault them? If the prose doesn't cut it on page one, why should it inspire faith that it'll sing to us on page two or five or ninety-nine? Admit it. Those opening pages are the most polished section of your work. (I obsess over them, and I'm never satisfied. Maybe cause they stink. Always a possibility.) If page one showcases flat or ungrammatical or awkward or cliched prose, the story should be cast aside. Editors have hundreds, sometimes thousands, of other submissions to peruse. Shine or die!

Now, the situation of a contest judge or critiquer is different. To properly score entries and/or offer feedback, they must read it all. Trust me, that's not always a joy. It sometimes requires a massive exertion of will and gallons of caffeine.

Let's dive into the main course.

All the examples I offer below sprang outta my noggin. I didn't swipe them from real stories. I promise, however, that they offer a true representation of the types of pernicious weeds that infest the works I've edited/critiqued/judged. And, in the spirit of, "Gardener, prune thyself," I confess freely that I struggle with these myself. A rough draft is a messy, pest-ridden yard.

Let's begin, shall we?

Poorly Constructed Sentences:
Does it drive you nuts when a critiquer or judge writes one of the following in the margin of your manuscript?

~Wordy
~Awkward
~Confusing
~Cluttered
~Odd phrasing
~Unclear

If you see those terms, then this is the bottom line: The prose is not smooth. Rewrite those sentences. Eliminate useless modifiers. Improve the flow.

Well, rewrite them if you believe the judge or editor scribbled a true remark. If more than one person points out the SAME problem, that's an area that ought not be ignored.

Here is Mir's Non-Comprehensive Tour of Trouble Spot Tip-Offs (ie, words that might tip you off to a problem with poorly constructed sentences):

As:
This little word holds a world of trouble for newbie writers. If you use it more than once in a sentence, really study it. If you use it more than once in a paragraph, you should see if you're trying to cram a lot of unnecessary description. In a recent contest I judged, I noticed that the ones exhibiting excessive "telling" also suffered from an overuse of "as."

Examples:
As I got up, I plucked my iPod out of my purse as I told him to leave.
I squared my shoulders as I turned around and frowned.
He came at me as I grabbed a bat as well as screamed.

You can see these sentences are dreadful. I'm not exaggerating for effect. I've seen sentences comparable to this. And, hey, I've written sentences comparable to this, then promptly screamed and changed them before anyone noticed.

You don't have to scream, but do change them.

Looked:
(glanced/watched/saw/studied/etc)
"Look" is not a verboten word. All those words in the parentheses are serviceable. Do watch for them as you revise. however. If your POV character is often described as looking or watching or seeing, you may have wandered into the Wilderness of Wordiness.

Here's what I mean:
Aurelia watched as Henry drove a knife into Benito. She saw him do it again.

If the writer has set the scene in Aurelia's POV, whether first or third person, we don't need to read, "Aurelia watched" or "She saw." Sure, she did. She's the perspective character. All you need focus on is how the person Aurelia is would relate what she sees. Different "voices" would describe the same action differently.

Aurelia 1: Henry stabbed Benito twice.
(Concise. Perhaps emotionally removed or reserved.)

Aurelia 2: Henry drove the knife into Benito's chest. Twice!
(A bit more emotion. Is that excited "Twice" showing shock or a gossip's delight? Depends on who this Aurelia is.)

Aurelia 3: Henry plunged the knife into Benito's heart, and then the fool did it again.
(Perhaps resignation in that initial formality, combined with the later judgment of someone who knows Henry is impulsive and violent?)

Aurelia 4: Henry carves a path into Benito's pumper. He goes in a second time, just to make sure, ya know?
(Slang, more colorful, not formal at all. Gangbanger?)

Aurelia 5: How can Henry slice Benito like that? One time. Two times! And he's doing it with his own ma's kitchen knife.
(Disbelief, a bit of shock. And the dark humor. Says something about the POV character's ideas of mothers/family.)

Aurelia 6: It's cool when Henry double-dips Benito's ticker with that blade.
(A hip psychopath?)

Realized:
(Wondered/Understood)
Same deal as above. Nothing wrong with these words, just make sure they're not fillers, red flags of weak prose.

Example:
Teofilo realized that he was in love with her.

If we're in Teofilo's POV, then we can get right to it in his own voice:

Teofilo A: Madre mia! When did I get it so bad for that crazy mami?
Teofilo B: Love had finally smacked him between the eyes and blinded him.
Teofilo C: He sure picked a helluva day to fall in love.
Teofilo D: How could I, Tay-O, the supadupah Mac Daddy, be fo-shizzle in love?
Teofilo D: His head wobbled, his stomach flipped, and his neighbor's Barry
Manilow music sounded pretty good today. Oh, man. It's love.

To:
Remember the problems with "as"? Well, if you use this word two or more times in one sentence--or repeatedly in a paragraph--you should check thoroughly for cluttered passages or awkward phrasings.

Examples:

She told him to go to the store to get milk to give the baby for breakfast.
John left it to Janet to decide how to proceed.
To leave is the only thing left to do to save my pride.

If you tell me they all sound fine to you, I'm gonna thwap you on the nose. (Or I'll go to the medicine cabinet to get valium to put in my juice to drink. Urp.)

I'm not even gonna give examples of reworded sentences. You have the power to create better sentences than those.

Turned:
(Twisted/Spun/Whirled)
I've been guilty of misusing these. So repent along with me.

When turned and the related words are overused or misused, they may be substitutes for getting deeply into character. If you're penning lame stage directions, check your depth of perspective. If you visualize scenes, you could be tempted to describe the physical movements as if you were a camera. Don't. Write it as the persona whose POV is used.

Example:
She turned and looked him in the eye. He turned away. She glanced away, embarrased, then twisted her head so that he couldn't see her. He spun on his heels and left. She whirled and almost called him back. She moved to the window, instead, and looked out at the street.

All right. Lots of movement. No POV depth. No real action. Ergo: It's clutter. (I've also shown some more misuses of the whole looking/glancing thing. Did you see that?)

Get into a character's mind.

I'm not Updike, but let's try to improve the above passage:

She closed the distance between them and offered her unshielded gaze, wordlessly confessing her betrayal. He gagged and covered his mouth with the back of his hand. The shame dragged down her head. He staggered. She bent lower. He whimpered, and then he ran from the room without cursing her or forgiving her. If she believed he might call her whore or, impossibly, darling, she'd follow him through every street in the city to atone. She'd kneel before him and beg. But he'd heaved like a man ridding his body of something rotten. She'd killed the part of him that loved her. He would never speak to her again. She dropped to her knees and prayed to die.

Maybe a bit hyper-emotional, but it's better than robots moving jerkily on a stage.

Pet Words:

We all have them. Here are a few common offenders:

~just
~very
~really
~so
~always
~never
~some
~totally
~completely

So, I'm one of those just totally addicted to just and so.

What are your pet terms?

I'm done with word tip-offs for the moment. I want to address...

Monotonous style:
Do vary your sentence structure and length. It's truly heinous to force a fellow human being to read something as choppy as the following:

I liked him. He liked me. We liked each other. We went out. We saw everything. We met everyone. We liked pizza. He left me. He kept the pizza. I kept the dog.

(Actually, that might work in some freaky experimental theater.)

Or this wordier sort of monotony:

He said he would be right back, because he had something to do. I said he should hurry, because the show was going to start. The usher led me down to my seat, because the orchestra was starting up. I sat down and opened my program, because I wanted to see who would sing lead.

(I've seen that sort of repetitive use of clause-"because"-clause structure dominate numerous paragraphs in several WIPs. First cousin to this structure would be the clause-"and then"-clause, the clause-"but"-clause, and the clause-"when"-clause.)

That concludes this portion of The Mir's Non-Comprehensive Tour of Trouble Spot Tip-Offs.?

(To Be Continued . . . perhaps)

Mirathon

novels,writers,writing

Turn this Key: The Basic Unit of Novel Writing

2006-02-19T23:44:00.000-05:00

What is the basic unit of a novel?

Did you say, "It comes down to individual words, Mir." Or did you bump it up a level and answer this way: "The sentence is the basic unit of a novel." Or maybe paragraphs is your preferred response. I'm sure at least one of you ventured the chapter.

One expert I've read says that the smallest unit is a beat. I'm certain he's right from a detailed, technical standpoint.

Without rushing to any of the books on my reference shelf, I'll give the answer that I'd go with: a scene. (It's my answer. Don't argue with me. Write your own answer on your own blog.)

I have been very intimate with scene creation in the past couple of weeks. I entered a contest--mailed the entry on Valentine's Day, no less--and my entry contains three scenes. I revised quite a bit to make the scenes work harder in each revision-go-round.

It's a revision of the initial 50 pages of my apocalyptic urban fantasy. It looks very, very different than it did. It's down to 25 pages. It's crisper than the first draft, the one my c.p. said was VERY good, which one writer pal said was fantastic.

I disagreed. I felt it was too dense, with too much interior monologue. My prose tended towards the self-conscious and melodramatic. I judged my heroine too introspective and passive. (Although, granted, I need her somewhat trapped and passive in Act 1 in order for her to break out--and have something to break out from--in Act 2 (aka the middle).

So, I went back and changed it. A lot. A really, whole lot.

And I started really looking at those scenes.

Then I read pages 33-34 of Robert McKee's STORY.

I still haven't gotten past page 35, because what I read in those mere two pages pulled me out of sleep to make revisions--the words really did roll around in my head and wouldn't let me doze off. And...scene two bothered me. It was a static scene. Yes, informative. Yes, it introduced the hero--the protagonist is a she, but this will be her love interest and mentor and ally and...other things. Sure, it showed some secondary characters who would be key in the battles of good vs evil, etc. It even contained strong emotion, some humor, and a bit of conflict. It added some fantastical elements to show this was a different sort of world. (Chapter one had done this also, be assured.)

But it sat there, static.

So, I changed it using the information in pp. 33-34. It's better now. That insight from those pages let me add a dimension of threat, a component of suspense: It adds a change.

I lost 25 pages in toto. That hurt. Some of them have bits I can use in future scenes, but still, it's like sliding backwards on ice. I console myself with the sense that the 3 scenes I have left are tighter, stronger, and raise more reader questions than the first draft, where I had a lot of dumped answers. Not perfect, no, but improved. I'm happier with it, and that's something.

Thank you, Mr. McKee.

I plan to read his rather large craft book from cover to cover. But perhaps you can benefit from bringing your attention now, while you are still in the early stage, in the opening chapters, to what's happening in the smaller level of story.

My previous posts (with the exception of the hook) have focused on big picture issues. Motivation. Conflict. That stuff.

Now, get down on your knees with me and look closer:

What is happening in your scenes? Is there a mini-story in each, with goal, motivation, conflict and change in each.

Change is the key word. If nothing has changed by that scene being in that chapter (or comprising that chapter), then that scene may need to go. Change moves the story forward, gives it drive and purpose--gives the reader the urge to keep going, too.

So, what, Mir-baby, you ask, did McKee say in those two pages that dragged you out of bed to revise?

Buy the book and find out.

Well, really, you should. ::grin::

But let me say it has to do with STORY VALUES. I found a website online with McKee's definition of both scene and story values. Here they are:

Story Values: Universal qualities of human experience that may shift from positive to negative, or negative to positive [e.g. love/hate, loyalty/betrayal], from one moment to the next.

Scene: A scene is an action through conflict in more or less continuous time and space that turn the value-charged condition of a character’s life on at least one value with a degree of perceptible significance.

Please notice that last bit of what a scene does: turn the value-charged condition of a character’s life on at least one value.

This is what I had neglected to do in scene 2. It was a continuous time/space, it had action through conflict, but I had left out that turn. That's why it felt static. IT WAS STATIC.

Now, read your first few scenes. Does each one of them turn the value-charged condition of your character's life on at least one value? Does your hero go from free to imprisoned? Or from enslaved to liberated? From confident to insecure? From rich to poor? From strong to weak? From feeling wise to realizing she's an idiot? From fearful to bold or from bold to fearful? From thinking they know the truth to realizing they fell for a lie?

What changes in terms of these contrasting values in your scenes?

In my first scene, my heroine goes from the (admittedly awful) normal condition of her work/life to news that surely means her life is about to be upset. She's also realizes she can't do what she's doing much longer without actually having it kill her. She ends the chapter-scene with a sense of instability and dread.

Scene two switches to the hero--romantically and literally, as he is out to rescue her from a harm she does not foresee--and he's confident his mission will go well. I had let the scene end on that confidence. That was the problem. I changed it so he learns something we the reader know will slash his sense of confidence.

I know I can go back later and refine, making the turns stronger. At least now I know why I had a sense of something essential and basic not being right.

Now, go work on your scenes. Work on those crucial turns. Don't be satisfied with static scenes. Fix them or ditch them.

Later...

Rocking Sites for Writers AKA Everything You Need to Outline, Format, Start, Finish, and Submit Your Novel

2006-02-02T14:58:00.000-05:00

My apologies for not posting in MORE than a MONTH. I've had to totally revamp AGE'S END and it's been giving me fits. (My heroine was too passive and my prose was too dense, for example.) But the year is young, my hope is strong, and my vision and drive are undiminished.(Although I am, by 13 pounds since last I posted.) (Pray for me!)

I hope to begin very soon to blog on my progress with greater regularity and usefulness. Bear with me. Write with me. Let's get our novel done in 2006.

In the meantime, I offer these in the spirit of apology, education, and encouragement:

Holly Lisle is a well-known SF/F writer. Her website, Forward Motion, serves up lots of articles for writers on both the craft and the business of writing. Inspirational. Useful. She also has a peek-in-the-life-of-a-fulltime-writer blog that I visit regularly called POCKET FULL OF WORDS.

Alicia Rasley's Writing Corner is not a fancy, eye-catching site, but the content more than makes up for that. Make sure to check out OUTLINE YOUR NOVEL IN 30 MINUTES, which can be found in the treasure trove that is her archive of articles.

Brenda Coulter is a first-class soul-sis whose bright mind and restful garden (when she posts pics) make my day.I recommend both her website and her blog to anyone interested in popular fiction, especially romance, especially Inspirational/Christian romance. Go here to find her insider tips on how to do all sorts of useful stuff, such as writing a synopsis or a query letter, or formatting a manuscript. If you've ever wondered exactly what happens when an editor rings up a writer to say, "We want to buy your book," then read "What's it Like to Get the Call" and find out.

The official site of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America is fully loaded with goodies. Even if you don't write SF/F, you can get great tips there. Please don't skip the why-doesn't-every-writing-site-have-this-kind-of-thing pdf file by award-winning Vonda N. McIntyre that SHOWS YOU exactly how your manuscript should be formatted. For all novices, this is key. Sometimes, the rules just go, phoof, right over our heads. SEEING is not just believing, it's understanding. You'll want to browse and bookmark this site.

If you're one of those delightful, asset-to-humanity type people who want to write spiritually relevant stories of the Christian sort, then hurry over to the site of the American Christian Fiction Writers. Sorry, but if you want to reap the goodies at ACFW, you gotta join. It's not a helpful site to non-members. Once you learn the secret handshake and hula dance (oh, it's easy!), however, you gain access to some keen minds and kind hearts, as well as workshops, fora, newsletters...well, the goodies abound. ACFW is worth the not-steep-at-all investment of its membership dues for the chance at being mentored, critiqued, and encouraged by bestselling pros, midlist pros, nouveau pros, and unpublished non-pros. A wonderful organization for Christian scribes of both genders and various denominations.

Okay, I'm about to mention the H word, and no one is allowed to sneer, snicker or otherwise behave in an unseemly or judgmental manner. You have been forewarned, and I've got my eye on you. Good. Keep that decorum for the rest of this paragraph. Harlequin, the megapublisher of women's fiction, has a site that brims over with concise articles for anyone interested in writing books aimed at a female audience (ie, romance, Chick Lit, female-lead fantasy, suspense, Christian romance and women's fiction, etc). Drop by their LEARN TO WRITE section and scout around for grammatical help, writing classes, the critique service, message boards (I've been known to pop into the Steeple Hill boards), writing guidelines, submissions guides, and a page that offers links to samples of a query letter, a synopsis, a manuscript page, and even a list of proofreading marks.

The Desert Rose Writer's Guide is a great resource for anyone who's beginning their journey in writing romance. Just go see if I'm fibbing.

Best-selling suspense author, Lisa Gardner, has a web page full of links dedicated to TRICKS OF THE TRADE You'll find the Seven Secrets of Romantic Suspense and The Villain: Developing the Diabolical Prima Donna, plus an in-depth guide on plotting your novel. Delve and delight thy mind.

And if you want to discover some site I haven't recommended here, or perhaps even visited, feel free to browse the "Best Websites for Writers for 2005" in the category of writing tips as compiled by Writer's Digest

Now, if you will excuse me, I must take some of these tips and APPLY them to AGE'S END before my online writing pals gather round and group-bop me on the noggin for procrastinating.

God bless your creativity today.

Mirathon

You ain't got conflict? You ain't got readers!

2005-12-27T00:40:00.000-05:00

So far, you've hooked me with an interesting opening that raises a question or a problem or a goal, and you've got someone who wants something desperately (or several someones).

Now think about this: What's in their way?

People and circumstances and all manner of things must get in the way of your character and their goals, including, very often, themselves.

No obstacles, no conflict...big yawn. You'll lose your readers that way.

Conflict is of prime importance. I'll be staying on the subject of conflict for a spell. Several entries worth, I'm thinking, because this is a tough craft issue for me. I like my life secure, stress-free, dreamy and nice, full of rest and smooches and people telling me they love me. My life, that's how I want it.

AND YET...I like my fiction full of danger and drama.

What I want for ME constantly bashes into the reality of what I must have for my CHARACTER. In other words, I'm an obstacle to myself. Get it? I'm conflicted about conflict.

But I must get over it! And so must you if you are a kindred spirit in this regard. Forget easy. Forget instant fulfillment. Forget your own desires.

Make them suffer.

Don't mix up your life with your character.

As soon as you're done with this entry, I'd like you to rush right over to Mike Duran's Swell Blog and read his current post--at least current as of this writing. Read every word of his rumination on conflict and plot points. I offer this snippet as incentive:

Donald Maass, author of Writing the Breakout Novel, puts it this way:

Every protagonist needs a torturous need, a consuming fear, an aching regret, a visible dream, a passionate longing, an inescapable ambition, an exquisite lust, an inner lack, a fatal weakness, an unavoidable obligation, an iron instinct, an irrisistible plan,a noble ideal, an undying hope...

These are the internal time bombs that make characters interesting. Of course, we can identify with them because most of us burn with angst and regret and disillusionment, to varying degrees. When we combine these volatile people with difficult situations, things get interesting. The writer's job is not just to create explosive characters, but to place them in contexts where their volatility is tapped.

Remember that wonderful phrasing as you plot your story and develop your characters for that first novel...and your second...and your third... "The writer's job is...to place them in contexts where their volatility is tapped."

Do you like stories that are all hunky dory and sugarpie? Or do you like to be at the edge of your seat wondering how your beloved protagonist will survive and succeed?

In his post (the one you're just about ready to go over and read), THE BOMB UNDER THE SOFA, Mike writes: "Conflict has a way of making even the most mundane activity more intereresting."

Can you disagree with that? No, you can't. Have two kids eating ice cream on a porch and saying nothing...ho hum. Have two kids eating ice cream on a porch as a serial axe murderer lurks nearby in the bushes and--bammo!--you're paying attention and can't stop reading.

I know where I stand as a reader and where I want to live as a writer: At the corner of Nailbiting Street and Can't-Put-It-Down Avenue, where every day is a morning full of tension and an afternoon of surprises and a night of ever-escalating trouble.

For my characters, that is.

(to be continued...)

"GIVE ME THIS OR ELSE I'LL DIE"

2005-12-10T13:49:00.000-05:00

I wish I could remember what fairy tale that comes from. I just remember the refrain, "Give me this or else I'll die." Some spoiled, drama queen Queen, no doubt. The requests are always outrageous in such tales, but they are passionate.

So, what does your character want that, if they don't get it, they will surely die? Well, maybe not die literally, but death will come in some way: death of a dream, death of a hope, death of an illusion, death of a desire, death of a career, death of a love.

Previously, in discussing hooks, we saw that it mattered that something happened to somebody, and that the opening of your novel should hint at or directly address this. Whether it's loss of fortune, whether it's meeting someone who knocks your socks off, whether it's finding the body in the den with the crowbar, whether it's becoming a deity after exposure to holium rays, whether it's finding a treasure in your back yard, whether it's finding out your husband is cheating (or your wife), or whether it's overhearing a conversation that reveals a family secret that will change everything. Something must happen to somebody, and you should hook with that.

But this somebody must want something desperately. They must have a goal.

Does the plain Jane want to be beautiful to snag her attractive boss in an ugly duckling to swan story? Will she be willing to do nearly anything to get that makeover?

Does the detective want to solve this crime more than anything because he messed up his last case and has to redeem himself to his superiors, and himself? And will he be willing to go without sleep, skip meals, lie to loved ones to do it?

Does the eldest son of the king want to be a wandering minstrel, and will he defy all authority and abandon all loved ones in order to sing his songs on the road?

What does your character want BADLY?

Sit down and examine the possible goals you might have, and which one you and your character can feel most passionately about:

Example: If you're penning a romance, the goals of your hero and heroine should lead to conflict, either by being directly opposed (she's a conservationist and he's a developer) or similar in some ways but not all (they're both after the same treasure, and cooperate to find it, but she wants to build a hospital in Mozambique and he wants to buy back his father's business and rebuild his family's position in society), or completely compatible but they have other obstacles, personal ones, that keep the romance on edge (they both are out to save the President from an assassin, but he left her at the altar years ago, and he never told her why and has a dire secret reason that keeps him from being honest).

Go through various possible goals. Can they sustain the character through the book? Will it change? Goals that change in some way can be very interesting.

And does this goal fascinate you, the writer? You have to live with this for months or years. Can you feel a strong emotion for your character AND THEIR GOAL?

Your protagonist should be riddled with need for this goal. Make it compelling. Write it with intensity. Feel the passion for it yourself.

Yes, you want it. You want it bad for the character. Then the reader will want it, too, and will turn the pages to see what happens.

"Give me this or else I'll die."

Hook, Hook, Hook Your Readers...Drag Them Down The Page...Scarily, Warily, Merrily, Airily...

2005-11-28T22:03:00.000-05:00

...A tale is but a dream.

Are we done singing along now? Good. Are you ready to go fishing for a reader's attention? Excellent.

First, you'll need a hook.

What, you ask, is a hook?

It's that enticing snippet that opens a novel (or story, etc), that sentence or paragraph that immediately snags you as a reader and keeps you on the line. You must go on, must read more. You're...hooked.

You've certainly read books that start with a highly intriguing first sentence or paragraph that makes it impossible to shove it back on a shelf, right? They gotcha!

Examples:

Gynecologists lie.
(Gail Parent, THE BEST LAID PLANS, 1980)

They say I'm dead.
(Herbert Lieberman, THE CLIMATE OF HELL, 1978)

The winter before he was sixteen, Pup sold his soul to the devil
(Ruth Rendell, THE KILLING DOLL, 1984)

Cassie Raintree was dying of cancer every afternoon at 2:30.
(James W. Hall, BONES OF CORAL, 1991)

They found her in the trash.
(Julie Garwood, FOR THE ROSES, 1995)

Olivia was four when the monster came.
(Nora Roberts, RIVER'S END, 1999)

It is Nathan's fault that I became God.
(Andrew Greely, GOD GAME, 1986)

And the opening line of one of my all-time favorite novels:

The idiot lived in a black and gray world, punctuated by the white lightning of hunger and the flickering of fear.
(Theodore Sturgeon, MORE THAN HUMAN, 1952)

Note: You can find a treasure trove of opening lines in the very enjoyable tome HOOKING THE READER: OPENING LINES THAT SELL by Sharon Rendell-Smock. Or you can peruse your own bookshelf and see what was on that first page that got your attention.

Fine. Back to our hooks.

Notice that they all fit into the Provost Paragraph's first issue: SOMETHING HAPPENED TO SOMEONE.

We're wired to be interested in what happens to people. So, if your story starts with something intense happening or about to happen to a person, we're going to be hooked. (Naturally, this is not the only type of hook, but it is a good one.)

What is your opening line? Do we see a person in a strange situation ("They say I'm dead") or one that elicits sympathy ("They found her in the trash") or one that puzzles us ("I became God"). Raise a question in the reader's mind about a human being's situation, and you may get them to read a bit more to find the answer.

I'm no master "hooker"--er, that didn't come out right!--but I do raise questions about my protagonist in my very brief first paragraph:

Because it was her last night in their apartment--Caro and Tonio's ghastly and most recent stab at creating a life of casual urban chic--Riela knew the hour had come to break the rule. Her rule, not theirs.

It ain't gonna win a Pulitzer, but it does make a reader wonder (I hope) what this rule is and why she's going to break it and why this is her last night in this apartment. Character on the brink of change. I always find that interesting.

Raising a question hooks readers. Characters in peril hook readers. Characters in weird situations hook readers.

Look at your opening. Read openings of novels by bestselling writers, award-winning writers, and classic novelists. What's there that kicks off a story and grabs the reader?

Write your hook now: Try several opening lines, try openings that seem bizarre, put a new spin on the beginning you have now. Brainstorm a few minutes. Scribble nonsense on a page, words you like, concepts, names. Let your imagination go wild. Come up with something fresh.

I leave you with an opening line from one of the best SFF writers ever from a very cool story (find it, read it!) and you tell me if you don't want to read what follows this hook:

I know an old couple who live near hell.
(Gene Wolfe, BED AND BREAKFAST, 1995)

Happy hooking!

The Paragraph That Helps You Write Your Whole Novel

2005-11-24T00:01:00.000-05:00

I'm not a great plotter. I have to really work at taking that germ of an idea or that scene that pops into my brain and turning it into a whole story--beginning, middle end--with those essentials of full characterization, internal and external conflict and transformation.

If you're like me, if plotting leaves you sweating and screaming sometimes, then this tool by the late, great Mr. Gary Provost may help you. You will find it in HOW TO TELL A STORY: THE SECRETS OF WRITING CAPTIVATING TALES, a nifty bit of writing assistance written by Peter Rubie and Gary Provost. Here is the Gary Provost Paragraph for plotting, without the politically-correct, genderiffic pronouns:

Once upon a time, something happened to someone, and he decided that he would pursue a goal. So he devised a plan of action, and even though there were forces trying to stop him, he moved forward because there was a lot at stake. And just as things seemed as bad as they could get, he learned an important lesson, and when offered the prize he had sought so strenuously, he had to decide whether or not to take it, and in making that decision he satisfied a need that had been created by something in his past.

There you have it. The template for a story...a film...your novel.

Do you have all these "elementary" elements? If not, what's missing? Start brainstorming. Add what's missing, in basic form, and then spread out from there to develop your complex, emotional, satisfying tale.

I've been working out difficult issues of character, motivation, background and conflict these past couple of days, while wheezing with a new asthma aggravation--drats!--but I am going to print out a large-font copy of this paragraph to make sure I keep my eyes on the overall structure of traditional story.

It's easy for me to wander, ya know? ::::::::::wink:::::::::::

For You To Do Now:

~Copy and paste the Novel Paragraph to a new document or AOL file. Leave spacious blanks after the italicized portions.

~Print out a large font version of the Gary Provost Paragraph.

~Sit in your fave comfy chair and use those blank spaces to fill in your particular story elements.

~Use the margins and surrounding blank areas of your print-out to expand on the basic story elements, brainstorming new ideas for conflicts, characters, background issues, black moments.

~Examine your paragraph, scan your notes, and ask yourself if you've got your own novel's structure and important elements completely covered, even in a sketchy form.

*If you do, shout "Hurrah!" Now, go write.

*If you don't, do not worry. I'll have more tools in posts to come that will help all of you who, like me, are not genetically wired to plot instantly and brilliantly. Guess what? You may not be hurrahing, but you need to go write something, too.

Excuse me while I take my own advice.

Where Do I Begin To Tell The Story...?

2005-11-18T02:50:00.000-05:00

I'm old enough to have been young enough (eleven) when LOVE STORY came out to have fallen under the spell of that sappy movie. I memorized that title song. "Where do I begin to tell the story of..." Man, I hated that she died. I still feel disappointment with love stories where one of the lovers dies.

Which is partly why I spent more than a decade devouring genre romances. Happy endings--guaranteed!

I'm a Christian. We Jesus People believe in an ultimate outcome of "happy ever after." (Okay, not for all maybe. I'm not universalist. But for many.) So, theologically, cinematically, and literarily, I'm wired to want a happy ending.

However, before we get to that joyous conclusion, I want plenty of strife and worry and woe. Happy endings are only really satisfactory if the characters have to really work for them.

I know how I want to end my story: Good will triumph (mostly), evil will be punished (grimly), love will conquer all with hope and faith, and the world will be better for the main characters having undergone change.

But where do I begin? How do I know where a story should start?

Let's start with the negative. This is how I don't want it to start: With a long-winded description of a house, furniture, clothing, or a gal's beautiful face or a guy's gorgeous torso. I don't want it to begin without conflict. I want to know changes are afoot and trouble is bubbling in the cauldron.

Perhaps I should ask myself, "How do I like stories to begin?"

Answer: With a person on the brink of something new and frightening. With a dilemma. With danger or fury or passion of some kind that bodes ill for boredom. Or, if the story is not one of suspense or romance, then I like it to start with wit or sass in a voice that's distinctive, that has verve.

My novel-in-progress has the working title of AGE'S END: Children of Sorrows. That may change. But it gives a sense of a time of turmoil--which I hope to adequately depict. It sets the expecation for an apocalypse of some sort, an ending age, a time of transition for a civilization or a planet. Bad things will happen (ergo, all the sorrow). It doesn't give a sense of the romance, and this will have a strong romantic plotline.

This is where I've started:

My heroine is coming of age in a city and time that is not our own. It has much in common, but it's askew. Coming of age for her is perilous: Something out there wants her. Something only she has been able to see since childhood. Emissaries from a cloistered group of gifted religious folk come to bring her to a sanctuary, where the man who has had visions of her (and who undertands something of what she is capable of) waits, already in love with her. She will be an outsider here, but also the ultimate insider: The group will need her gift if they are to overcome a dark threat. The man who loves her will have his loyalties tested. And the heroine will have to make a fateful decision as to which side she takes, a decision which will make a difference not just to her, but to every person on the planet.

So, I start the very midnight she comes of age, on the night she starts to understand that her premonitions and visions are not the product of some mental defect, but rather that she is someone with a special purpose. On this night, she confronts her greatest fear and begins an adventure.

How have you begun your novel? Is it a pivotal moment? Are things about to change drastically for one or more people in your story? Do you introduce a vivid character with a real problem? Do you start with dialogue or action? Does your first page carry the proper tone for the type of story? Is the first line in deep POV or omniscient POV? Why have you chosen this perspective?

Ask yourself questions to learn where your story begins.

Don't be afraid to start deeper into the story. Sometimes, we start prematurely. (If anecdotes are trustworthy, most of us start too early, and our chapters two or three are better openings.)

The beginning I have today may not be the one I have when the story is fully told. Only during revision of a complete story may we find the true opening scene.

Just write the beginning beginning. Start SOMEWHERE...change it later.

So, You Wanna Write A Novel

2005-11-17T20:54:00.000-05:00

Well, I sure do. I've started and stopped many times. Usually around chapter three or four. Why is that? And why can't I rid myself of the procrastination curse?

Hell if I know.

Actually, while I don't know, heaven does know, God being ominiscient and all. My guess: the deadly sin of sloth. My other guess: total terror of failure.

But there may be something else in there I can't even guess at. Oh, well.

I do know this: My own lack of persistence in the face of blocks, plot obstacles, and a general desire to nap irks me. So, I'm hoping this blog will motivate me. It's just one tool to try and get my lazy butt in gear and FINISH A NOVEL.

If you've dreamed of writing a novel, if ideas crowd your pretty little head (or big head, depending on hat size), then maybe we can roll through this project together. I hear mutual support is a thing that can move mountains. Or put backsides in chairs and hands on keyboards.

We're on a quest. A quest to set down a complete story. A long journey to "the end." And, if we get our happily-ever-after, a book contract.

Since many folks around the globe are more than half-way through their project time for National Novel Writing Month--although, not me, as I haven't written a word since Hurricane Wilma threw me off my stride--this seems like a great time of the year to start.

What should you expect to find on this site:

~~My writing triumphs and travails, and my progress reports.
(The travails list is longer so far.)
~~Tips and links and creative prods that will help you (and me) on the quest to hold a finished, revised, and submission-ready manuscript in your (my) hands.
~~Possibly book reviews and reading recommendations.
~~Ultimately, I'd like to have a regular contest or book giveaway.

I guess this is where we begin this particular story, the novice writer's story.

Once upon a novel...