Writing v. Writing

In a recent post on his blog, agent Nathan Bransford compared writing and storytelling, inspired by people who criticize best sellers for their poor writing. I won't repeat what he said (see the link in the first sentence to read it yourself), but his basic premise is that there is writing (mechanics, grammar, punctuation, sentence structure, etc.) and there is storytelling, and even if some find the writing of a popular book to be subpar, something in a best seller grabs bunches of readers. That something is the storytelling.

I'll admit there are times when I raise my high-brow literary nose at the writing in some books, but I have to agree with Nathan. His post got me thinking about why a good story trumps perfect writing mechanics.

The obvious reason is that your average reader goes to a book to be entertained. This reader might or might not be intimately familiar with the rules of "good" writing, but for a large number of readers, that doesn't matter, as long as the mechanics are not so awful that the book can't be read.

As writers, we're much more aware of the rules, so much so that we get caught up in them. When we're writing and revising, we're deep in the world of mechanics. We care deeply about how words fit together, how sentences are put together, how many adjectives and adverbs we have on a page, rhythm--all that stuff. As we should be. But if we do our job well, all of that is transparent to most readers. In fact, even if we mess some of it up, it's going to be transparent to readers who aren't as familiar with the minutia and just want to be entertained.

Of course, if we can't put a legible sentence together, we're not going to write a good story, so good mechanics are important. But if the reader is engrossed in a ripping yarn, they'll forgive some writing issues. This is especially true of younger readers, many of whom really just want a good plot with interesting characters. There are, of course, young readers who really care about the language and want books that are beautifully written as well as great stories, but few readers will stick with a dull story just because the writing is great. Some of us will, because we love language and admire the writer's abilities.

When it comes down to it, though, we'll forgive an average writer who is an excellent storyteller, but we'll have trouble sticking with a book full of lovely language that doesn't say much to us.

As writers, it's our job to learn all aspects of writing books that people want to read. That includes both the mechanics of sentence structure and the mechanics of storytelling. The structure of a good story (plot, scene structure, characters, dialogue, and all the rest) are enhanced by good sentence structure, strong nouns and verbs, rhythmic sentences, interesting word choices, good grammar, and the other things we learned in our comp classes.

Your chances of being published increase when you have the complete tools, not just some of them. When it comes down to it, though, reading is usally a form of entertainment, and entertainment equals story.

What Impact Do Your Words Have?

Have you ever wondered if the world would be different if you gave up writing?

No matter if you’re a published author or not, you may have questioned if anyone would care if you quit.

All the people who have read your words have been altered whether the words are in a post, Facebook status or on Twitter, poems for family or hand-written thank-you notes, someone is being touched.

There are over 6,600,000,000 people who live on planet Earth. In the Big Picture, we are but small drops in a big ocean.

Unless you are a world leader or some sort of celebrity, you will touch only a small number of people. BUT through that group, your posts, status, tweets or hand-written notes will spread through the universe with the potential to touch unknown thousands or hundreds of thousands of people.

Because of the possibility to impact so many, you have an amazingly creative choice about your writing.

Write about what you love and value.

A well-written book or poem doesn’t usually happen in one hour let alone one day.

It’s the process or journey that counts. The pay-off may be small, to you. But not to those who have been touched by your words.

Here is a recent example of an impact of words:

A friend sent an email to nineteen friends, including me. I laughed when I read it and let her know I was going to post it as my Facebook status.

Thirty-one people liked my status or left a comment. One such comment produced fun teasing the next night and eleven more people heard and laughed about the status.

That’s over SIXTY people who were impacted by one sentence in twenty-four hours. Who knows how many more passed it on?

The sentence?

I don't want to brag or make anybody jealous or anything,

but I can still fit into the earrings I wore in high school.

Celebrations: Ruth Sawyer

Ruth Sawyer was born on August 5, 1880.

Although perhaps not a household name these days, Ruth Sawyer was highly popular in her time, and has influences the following generations of picture book authors. I must have driven my grandma crazy with the number of times I asked her to read Sawyer's Journey Cake Ho (illustrated by her son-in-law, Robert McCloskey). She si perhaps best known for her 1937 Newbery Medal winner, Roller Skates. Her first book, 1915's The Primrose Ring became a film starring Loretta Young.

One of Sawyer's most influential works, still in print today, is 1942's scholarly The Way of the Storyteller. She also collected folktales during her many travels, and published them in her own books.

In 1965, five years before her death, she was awarded the Laura Ingalls Wilder medal for her contributions.

How to Understand Criticism

Writing Wednesday

A good friend was recently kind enough to read and comment on my manuscript. She also provided an editorial letter.

It's difficult, of course, to be told that your child isn't the most perfect in the world. It's equally difficult to hear that your manuscript could be improved.

As with most difficult things, one tends to go through the five stages of grief:

Denial - That's not a problem.
Anger - They missed the point.
Bargaining - If I made this small change, would that fix it?
Depression - I can never give them what they want.
Acceptance - Maybe I can if I work at it.

Others have observed the same pattern. What I want to point out is that understanding is usually a part of acceptance. I had a hard time reaching the stage of acceptance with some of the criticism because I didn't understand. Oh, I understood the words and the concepts behind them, but I didn't understand how to make the suggested changes.

And then, on the third morning, I woke up, reread the letter, and I understood. It felt like a miracle.

Source: Wikimedia Commons

Writing is the process of encoding thought with marks on a page. Reading is the process of decoding marks on a page into thoughts. There's plenty of room for error in both processes. Because of that, understanding the thoughts of another and how they apply to your own thoughts is hard work. Fortunately, it's the perfect sort of work for your subconsciousness.

So, after all of that, here's the punch line: the best way to understand criticism is to study it and then sleep on it, perhaps for several nights. I suggest three nights because, according to School House Rock, three is a magic number.

Deren blogs daily at The Laws of Making.
Image: Simon Howden / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

The Marketing Clause of Your Publishing Contract

In spite of many classes, emails and speaking personally with agents and publishers, this area of publishing is still a little undefined for me.

The very first conference I attended, an author told me her publisher did absolutely no marketing for her--she had to do it all herself. She made school visits, spoke at conferences, hired someone to do a book trailer for her...it all sounded time-consuming and exhausting. As a result, she threw out a number somewhere between ten and twenty thousand copies sold.

This was all very depressing for me. I hadn't anticipated that much work AFTER all I'd finished my book. I assumed the publisher took over that part for me.

This summer, I had the priviledge of speaking with the editorial director of Little Brown books. She told me that for their authors, they have two marketing people that tackle each book: one works with libraries, the other with book stores. They come up with a plan and budget for each book. Of course, I loved the sound of that.

Where do most authors fall? Somewhere in between? Most seem reluctant to give specifics.

When it comes down to the wire on a contract (if I ever get there), I'll fight for every marketing dollar I can get, and I'll want a specific plan to be communicated to me. (I'm have a business background and will make it work for me)

Are you willing to sacrifice a marketing clause in your contract (i.e. no marketing budget) to get published? Leave us a comment and let us know.

Review: Homer Price

I read Homer Price over and over when I was just a wee bairn. Now, about 40 years later, I picked it up again. The stories are still delightful and funny, told in an engaging, childlike manner. They are everything I remember.

But wait, there's more. Where did all that social satire come from? I don't remember that being there when I was nine. "The Case of the Cosmic Comic" is dark, showing the shattering of a young boy's dream of his hero. "Wheels of Progress" is still as pointed a commentary on the demise of craftsmanship in a mass-produced world as it was in 1943, when the book was published. This ranks up there with the brilliant political satire hidden in Oliver Butterworth's The Enormous Egg.

If you haven't read this since you were a kid, pick it up. It'll bring back great memories of your childhood reading, but will be much more than just a nostalgic trip back to your old bookshelf. These stories are fun and imaginative, but they also have teeth.

Mark Twain's Ten Rules for Writing: A Reader's Manifesto

Writing Wednesday

I came across Mark Twain's Ten Rules for Writing on Gretchen Rubin's The Happiness Project some time ago. I recommend "the rules" to all writers, not on Mark Twain's authority as a great writer, but on Samuel Clemen's ability to understand and articulate things that frustrate readers.

"Mark Twain divides his rules into large rules and little rules—all violated by James Fenimore Cooper:"

Large Rules

1. A tale shall accomplish something and arrive somewhere.
2. The episodes of a tale shall be necessary parts of the tale, and shall help develop it.
3. The personages in a tale shall be alive, except in the case of corpses, and that always the reader shall be able to tell the corpses from the others.
4. The personages in a tale, both dead and alive, shall exhibit a sufficient excuse for being there.
5. When the personages of a tale deal in conversation, the talk shall sound like human talk, and be talk such as human beings would be likely to talk in the given circumstances, and have a discoverable meaning, also a discoverable purpose, and a show of relevancy, and remain in the neighborhood of the subject in hand, and be interesting to the reader, and help out the tale, and stop when the people cannot think of anything more to say.
6. The personages of a tale shall confine themselves to possibilities and let miracles alone; or, if they venture a miracle, the author must so plausibly set it forth as to make it look possible and reasonable.

Little Rules

1. An author should say what he is proposing to say, not merely come near it.
2. Use the right word, not its second cousin.
3. Eschew surplusage.
4. Not omit necessary details.

Deren blogs daily at The Laws of Making.
Image: Michelle Meiklejohn / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Imagery: Beyond the Simile

I recently read a book laden with abrupt and belabored simile. The author constantly used the phrases seemed as if it was, and it was as if. You might say, “Ah, a newbie writer!” Not so. It was a Pulitzer Prize winning author. She’s the exception. For the rest of us, we might need help digging our way out of the simile rut.

So I want to talk about other forms of imagery besides the overused simile.

Metaphor: Quick review—the difference between metaphor and simile is that simile states the comparison overtly. In metaphor, the comparison is absent and the similarity of the two elements is simply implied.

Simile: He had a mouth like a leech. Or, Morning fog covered the city like a blanket.

Metaphor: He had a leech’s mouth. Or, A blanket of morning fog covered the city.

In both examples fog is compared to a blanket. But in the second, the likeness is implied and morning fog simply is a blanket.

Watch out for mixed metaphors. Shakespeare got away with it: To take arms against a sea of troubles (Hamlet). But for us lesser geniuses, editors don’t really like it. For a funny list of mixed metaphors, go here: http://therussler.tripod.com/dtps/mixed_metaphors.html

Analogy: When the metaphor or simile is explained or drawn out. This example begins with a metaphor: She was the sun, then continues to explain, brightening everyone’s existence and dazzling them with her radiance. But she’d burn anyone who came too close.

It could also begin with a simile, She was like the sun.

Synecdoche: This is one of my favorites because it can be very powerful, but must be used sparingly. This is when a part of something stands in place for the whole. Here is an example: The Commandant gave the signal, and a circle of dark helmets closed in around me.

Everyone knows that helmets can’t move by themselves, they must be attached to a body. But the meaning is clear; the helmets stand in place for the soldiers. Using this kind of imagery creates an added dimension of fear and tension.

The opposite is also a form of synecdoche—when a whole stands in for a part.

Personification: Everyone knows this one and we use it without even thinking about it. It’s when human characteristics are given to non-human elements. Example, The morning chill wrapped a blanket of fog over the city.

The morning can’t really wrap anything, but this sounds much better than The morning chill caused the moisture in the air to condense and form into fog that affected the entire city.

Metonymy: When the name of one thing is replaced by something else closely associated with it. This is a useful way to avoid repetition. Example, The students anxiously awaited the outcome of the voting. When the winner was announced, the entire campus breathed a sigh of relief.

The campus can’t sigh, but readers understand that it is used in place of students, which would have sounded awkward and repetitious (and boring).

Oxymoron and Paradox: Images that are so contradictory they stick in our minds. Examples: painfully beautiful, deafening silence, alive with emptiness, visible darkness.

That’s probably enough for one post. Just keep in mind that by using these devices, it allows us to go beyond the real and draw in those things that are thousands of years old or as present as anthrax in your mailbox. (The Creative Writer’s Style Guide) It creates in the reader an intense connection that ignites their imagination.

So, my suggestion is, whenever we, as writers, include a simile in our work, stop and think. Ask yourself, would this be better as a metaphor? Is there another type of imagery I can use to enhance my meaning in this instance besides the haggard simile?

Julie Daines
www.juliedaines.com

Query and Cover Letters with VS Grenier

We all have written at least one version of a query letter or cover letter. In my opinion, there isn’t much of a difference between the two; except one is sent with your manuscript and the other is sent before a manuscript is sent to an editor. Either way, what you write on that one page will make a big statement about who you are as a writer.

With this in mind, let’s talk a little about what is important to list on your one page selling sheet (i.e. Cover letter or Query Letter).

I call cover and query letters a sales sheet because . . . basically we as writers are trying not only to sell our manuscript, but the fact we are the best person to be writing about this particular subject matter or concept.

There is no magic formula on how you should format your letter, but you do want it to look professional. One of the best books I read about query letters was, You Can Write Children’s Books by Tracey E. Dils. In chapter 7 Give Your Manuscript a Fighting Chance, Tracey says, “A query letter describes your project and your credentials and asks an editor if she would like to see the rest of the manuscript.”

I do not think I could put it any better than Tracey on this one when she says, “Your credentials.” That right there should tell you . . . you’re not just selling your manuscript, but you as the writer as well. Your background in writing is very important when it comes to selling your skills as a writer to an editor. I know we all start off with no writing credits, but does that mean we don’t have experience?

Think of your letter as your interview with an editor. When I first started writing for children’s magazines a little over two years ago, I had no writing credits to my name. Instead of saying this on my sales sheet (cover letter), I listed what experience I did have as a Cub Scout Leader in putting together the Pack Newsletter each month, my background in catalog copy, my help in writing training manuals, etc. These things showed that I had experience in writing and editing. It showed I was able to learn different writing styles and I had some writing background. I also listed all the writing courses I have taken and workshops I’ve attended.

Your sales sheet (query or cover letter) also needs to be engaging, you want to hook the editor just like you need to hook your reader in the first couple of sentences of your manuscript. An editor when reading a query or cover letter will only skim over it. If you can’t grab their attention in the first line or two . . . then how can they expect you to grab a reader’s attention?

The Writer’s Institute Publication says in their Children’s Market Guide, “A good query letter is short and to the point. If you can’t get your idea across in one page or less, your manuscript may not be as tightly focused as it should be.”

I know it is hard to write everything wonderful about your manuscript and you on one page, but think of a sales sheet (query or cover letter) as a test on how tightly you can write.

One more thing, DO NOT forget to read, read, read, and read out loud your letter. As writers, we spend so much time revising, reading, revising, reading aloud, and revising our manuscripts that sometimes we forget to do the same thing with our sales sheets. Remember this is your interview and you want to put the best foot forward and make a good lasting impression.

Below are the key steps in writing this one page sales sheet:

• Direct your letter to a specific editor (if you can)
• Lead with a paragraph that grabs the interest of the editor and conveys your slant.
• Give a brief description of your manuscript and its central idea.
• Show how your idea fits with this publisher or editor’s needs.
• Give approx word length and readership age (if writing for children).
• Cite sources, research, and/or interviews.
• List your publishing credits, refer to resume, writing clips or samples (if requested in guidelines from publisher), and writing workshops and/or experience. Make sure to emphasize relevant or unique writing experiences you may have in regard to the subject.
• Note any published titles you have read by this publisher and why you chose them.
• Close by letting the editor know if this is a simultaneous submission and that you look forward to hearing from them.

I feel writing a sales sheet is the hardest part of writing. I would rather write 20 short stories, articles, or even five books in a month over a query/cover letter. But the fact remains . . . it's part of process to becoming a published writer. So what do I do when I've finished writing my manuscript and it's time to write that dreaded letter? I do a couple of things:

1st- I find at least three different publishers I think my manuscript fits with.

2nd- I write a letter for each one and read them over a couple of times. Then I have my critique group look my letters over. This helps because they always ask me questions as to why this publisher or these publishers. Why do I feel this really fits with them, etc. These questions allow me to go back and relook at my letters to see which publisher is the best fit.

3rd- I revise my letter to reflect the new questions I asked myself or my critique group asked.

4th- I let the letter sit a day or two before reading it over again.

5th- I make final revisions and send the letter with or without the manuscript based on the publishers guidelines.

Okay, now it's your turn to sit down and write your sales sheet using this tips.

To learn more about VS Grenier visit her sites at

http://vsgrenier.com or http://thewritingmama.blogspot.com

Writing Site Analyzes your Style

by T. Lynn Adams

Sachiko, another blogger here, connected me with a fun site called “I Write Like...”

It is a simple site for a simple purpose. You paste or type in an excerpt of your writing, hit “Analyze” and the site tells you, in seconds, the name of a famous author who shares your writing style. (You will have to scroll down a bit to find the name.) There is nothing to buy and no information required. (You can close the information box that pops up and still do the analysis.)

It is fun and fast. I would recommend doing it with as many different excerpts as you like, until you find a pattern emerging.

For my pattern, I found myself writing like men-the same three men: Arthur C. Clarke, the scientist-author who is best known for writing 2001: A Space Odyssey; James Fenimore Cooper; and Jack London.

I don’t mind writing like a man since most of my characters are men and I tend to hang out with the men at family reunions and social events. However, try as I might, I couldn’t get the site to compare me to Anthony Horowitz. He knows how to keep action flowing across the pages in YA novels.

Then an unlady-like thought crossed my mind (probably because I do tend to hang out with men at family reunions and social events). I decided to see what would happen if I typed in an excerpt from an Anthony Horowitz novel. Would it say he writes like Anthony Horowitz?

So, I typed in two pages from his YA novel, The Skeleton Key.

Guess what? The site says he writes like--Rudyard Kipling!

If you want to have some fun and maybe a name or two to brag about with your writing style, just go to http://iwl.me/

And if one of you writes like Anthony Horowitz or Rudyard Kipling, you probably have a fast adventure style I would like.

Celebrations: The Lord of the Rings

The first volume of The Lord of the Rings, The Fellowship of the Ring, was first published on July 21, 1954. It's difficult to think of a more influential book in the last 60 years, one that completely transformed (reinvented?) its genre.

Love it or hate it, it's hard to imagine a world with no Lord of the Rings. Without it, there'd likely be no fantasy genre as we know it, no Star Wars, no a lot of things.

(Note: This is the first of a series of Celebrations that will be posted on this blog over the next several months, marking birthdays or death days of favorite children's writers, or the publication date of important books. Other UCW bloggers are welcome to write their own Celebrations of their own favorites.)

Clever References

Writing Wednesday

I once heard of a study which claimed to show that modern children were much smarter than their ancestors because of The Simpsons. Okay, it wasn't simply because of that one program. The study tracked the number of reference to things, ideas, or events outside of the immediate story. They found that number increased over time. In other words, what the average viewer was expected to "get" moved in the direction of more and briefer references to a broader background of common knowledge.

Working references to popular culture into MG and YA work is tempting because it shows that you're oh so clever. But it's difficult enough to do that you should probably avoid the temptation.

First, there's the practical matter that most references will date your story. [Don't believe me? Find a picture of yourself twenty years ago--the trendier the better. How proudly would you display that picture now?]

Second, and more importantly, references to popular culture will almost always pull your reader out of the story, either to shake their heads if it's clumsy or in admiration if it's clever.

Consider the following lines from Phillip Reeve's Starcross. Together with Larklight and Mothstorm, the three MG books tell rollicking tales of daring-do in the space-ways of the solar system in a steampunk world where Isaac Newton's discovery of the alchemical secrets of spaceflight propel the British Empire across the stars. In that world, the American Revolution was only the American Rebellion (thanks to the Royal Navy's aether ships). In the midst of a series of adventures, a French agent, who has just revealed her plans to relaunch the Liberty (the one American aether ship from the rebellion) says,

"My grandfather hoped that he might capture a British warship or two, and set up a free American settlement upon one of the outer worlds ... He dreamed of founding a Rebel Alliance which would strike at your empire from a hidden base ..."

This is perhaps the best embedded reference to popular culture I've ever read: every single word in the sentence is both completely consistent with and fully motivated by the story. It's beautiful because it works on so many levels. And yet when I read it, I dropped right out of the story in admiration.

You're probably on less shaky ground if, like Reeve, you're working with comic material. That said, I still think the best advice is to minimize your references.

What do you think?

Deren blogs daily at The Laws of Making.
Image: Simon Howden / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Using the Senses in Writing

I'm currently reading, "Make a Scene" by Jodan E. Rosenfeld, and in one chapter, she describes the importance, and effectiveness of using the senses in writing. I'm going to summarize some of her points here, which I found immensely helpful.

"...the senses are a part of everyday life, so they should, in fact, be blended into your scenes as an integral part of the stage you set."

Sight: "The more you can place the readers inside the vision and point of view of your characters and remove the Iof them seeing, the more directly the reader will interact with sights, smells and other senses in the scene."

For example, rather than saying:
"Celeste saw..."

You say:
"The romantic, red field was blanketed with yellow-centered poppies."

So, rather than using the act of seeing, you just get straight to the point!

Touch: "In fact, a character won't get more than a couple of minutes into the day before he begins to interact with the world by touching things."

Touch should be one of the most often used senses. There are many ways of touching--nervous, fidgeting, practical and strategic touch, and, of course, personal touch. I know very few people who don't do something with their hands when nervous or excited. Touch will help reveal a lot about your characters.

Smell: "If you need to go back in time to a scene from your character's plast and you can use the smell of peaches at a grocery store to drop Becky into the peach orchard where she first met Eduardo, the love of her life, by all means use it."

Smell should also be used often, in nearly every scene. It can be used to identify the presence of another character, reveal the difference between hero (smells like roses) and villain (smells like sewer), and evoke memory.

Taste: "Taste provides a fabulous opportunity for feelings and interactions between your characters to arise. Through the simple act of lifting a fork to mouth, your characters can come to epiphanies, exalt in simple pleasures, and enact conflicts that enliven your scenes."

Food is an important part of our lives and it can reveal much about your character. Don't skip meals or you miss out on an opportunity to show us something about your character and their relationships with others. For example, depressed characters can't finish meals, a lover might spend hours preparing meals for their loved one, or a mother's dinner might fail because she has a lot on her mind.

How do you use the senses in your writing? What is your favorite example of using senses in writing?

A Peek into Joanne Rowling’s Genius

Despite the current Twilight franchise many of us believe that J.K. Rowling still wears that crown; today I’m going to do some analyzing of what got her the amazing product she has today.

First of all we know how amazingly well her characters were done; the first step in a great novel. They each had their own personalities born from their pasts even though some of the specific information didn’t make it into the book. Their strengths and weaknesses were very well defined and easy for readers to relate to. A great thing that helped her bring them to life was relating them to people she knew; for example Hermione was based off of herself as a teenager and though I don’t know for sure but I believe that some of Harry’s traits came from his namesake; her childhood friend.

The thing that really hit me about her characters was Harry’s significance. We all know that in the end the hero has to showdown with the villain; I often have trouble giving my villains reasons to confront my main characters. Rowling did a wonderful job giving Voldemort reason to hate Harry in particular--not just attacking him for being a person on the opposing team--; which also rose the danger for Harry.

Another great aspect I have personally had problems with is the audience analysis. Everyone wants to read about people their age. Even when watching a movie I find myself searching for someone my age; they then become my favorite character—it really sucks when that character happens to be the villain in disguise though… Harry Potter was written for the MG community but I see people of every age reading it. That’s partly because there are the teens like Harry and his friends, the still important middle aged characters like Hagrid, and the seniors like Dumbledore. Taking that to the next level Rowling gave certain characters the type of adventure that audience is looking for. Older fantasy readers are usually more into intrigue and mystery—Dumbledore got the largest share of that--, on average teenagers more into adventure and romance—Plenty of both for the teens in the story.

Just these little things helped a lot in forming the successful series.

The other thing is merely just the great story and writing. It was very well done and the characters are whisked into a world that I’m sure barely anyone hasn’t wished they could visit. I find myself wishing all the time for someone to take me away from the muggle world and educate me in magic.

I believe it is nearly impossible to become as great a writer as she was but we should keep working and not get discouraged. It helps me to know that even that amazing book was rejected about 150 times. It’s saddening to see writers giving up after a single rejection; especially knowing the possibility that the book is wonderful and just needs a different publishing company or more critique.

As you can probably see; I also have problems dragging on and on after the manuscript should be done; I’m doing that here too and am just going to stop…now.

I’m The Personality Type That Likes Reading About Personality Types

I blame Dialogue. It’s one of the How To Write Great Fiction series. In it, the author explains that dialogue needs to not only move the plot but also reveal character, and different characters speak and act differently because they are innately different people.

Then the book summarized an ancient personality typing system called Enneagrams. There are 9 types: Perfectionist, Helper, Achiever, Romantic, Observer, Questioner, Adventurer, Asserter, and Peacemaker.

(and Grumpy, Sneezy, Doc, the Indian chief, the construction worker--oh, wait, wrong lists.)

Since I’m of the famously narcissistic Facebook generation (of course you’ve heard of us), this intrigued me.

First I typed myself: I’m an Enthusiast, which means I’m having a lot of fun writing this blog post but we’ll all be lucky if I actually finish it. Oh, and, can I have that lollipop?

Then I typed my WIP’s main characters and noted what they want and fear.

What do you know? It helped me a lot in getting to know them better. There were some personality traits I had always suspected of a few of them—particular kinds of selfishness, innate talents with people or ideas—but having things articulated in detail helped me immensely.

Even when I didn’t agree with the type descriptions, then I was able to see where my characters diverged from type and were unique.

I also took another test on my characters’ behalf—behalfs? behalves?—the 4-letter personality test sometimes call the Jung 16-type test. This test measures extroversion/introversion, sensing/intuition, thinking/feeling, and perceiving/judging.

http://similarminds.com/embj.html (this is an enneagram + Jung test)

My husband is an introverted sensing thinking judger, or an ISTJ. I always test these personality tests on real people to calibrate my gullibility; this system pretty much nailed my husband on his innate ability with information systems, detail, and dislike of crowds and personal, emotional demands.

Again, this told me a lot about my main characters, especially when I cross-referenced the information with their Enneagram results. This took a bit of time, but I don’t have TV so I have to come up with other ways to waste my time.

My dear dear friend T. Lynn Adams (aka The Amazing Sister T) gave me this linky to personality-specific advice on how to fight writer’s block.

http://www19.homepage.villanova.edu/karyn.hollis/prof_academic/Courses/common_files/personality_types/Types%20and%20Writing.pdf

I read it, and once I stopped laughing at myself copy/pasted some sections for my writer friends to read.

Then they laughed, too, because the descriptions of my personality type’s common writing pitfalls were like a summary of all my writing ailments over the past year.

So what’s your personality type?

Book Review - Write from the Heart

Many people are very private in their personal lives, and so developing details of conflict that engage the reader is difficult for them because who would ever admit that life is full of serious problems? Especially people who only show their most proper side in public. For example, would you publicly admit that you have ever had a mental melt down and gone completely nuts, yelling at your spouse or your kids, or that you may have possibly done anything sneaky or subversive or in any way unflattering or immoral? Like stealing extra napkins and hot sauce packets from Taco Bell, or acting smug and superior about something and then realizing later you were wrong, but then still refusing to admit it? Ok, maybe you would admit that you have done some of these things, but would you actually want other people to be there to witness the scene as you are experiencing what could possibly be your worst Rumpelstiltskin moment ever?

It may feel like your characters' behaviors and attitudes are a reflection on who you are as a person. This isn't really true though, because I can tell you from personal experience that characters take on a life entirely their own and do or say things that you would NEVER do! (Either that, or maybe I'm just a tad schizophrenic.)

I once edited for a woman who wanted to write a YA novel about a young girl who ended up pregnant after date rape, but she was unwilling to make her character do or say anything that would be inappropriate in any way, or make her experience anything that would have led up to the conflict that she wanted to portray in her story. This could have been done very effectively without even taking the reader into the actual date rape scene, just by developing the story that unfolded around it, but this writer had a very hard time dealing with some of the events that would have led a girl into this situation, and she would not allow herself to take her character through the necessary pain. This left a lot of unanswered questions, for example, how did her character, who was a good girl with high moral standards, put herself into a situation where this could happen? How did she end up dating that kind of boy in the first place? Did her character do anything, even something small and seemingly innocent, in a moment of weakness that may have started a chain of events that took her down this path? How did she break the news to the boy, and how did he react? How did she break the news to her parents, and how did they react? I find it ironic that writing this kind of heartbreaking prose in a sensitive way requires a certain amount emotional toughness that if done without, your writing falls flat.

I found Leslea Newman's book, Writing from the Heart: Inspiration and Exercises for Women Who Want to Write, on one of my regular visits to the library. In the front section there is a quote:

What would happen if one woman told the truth about her life? The world would split open. ~Muriel Rukeyser

My question is, what would happen if all of us began to tell the truth about our lives? I think that the world would figuratively 'split open.' We would have to face the truth and realities of our lives in a way that would be life changing. The writing exercises in this book are mostly geared toward women, but could really be useful to anyone who wants to write about the details of life in a heartfelt and honest way.

This book has warm up exercises, exercises for writing setting, action, character, monologue, dialogue, point of view, the "elusive plot," and poetry. In the back there are appendices that have information on publishing, additional writing resources, and recommendations for further reading. Each exercise has a short example that you can read through to see how she handled each aspect in her own writing. And each exercise is directed at making an emotional connection between your characters and your reader.

I can't help but think that this book would have been a very helpful tool to the writer I spoke of earlier, and may have helped her to progress from an unpublished hopeful to the novelist that she wanted to be. I know these will definitely help me.

One Useful Editing Technique

By Scott Rhoades

I do most of my writing and editing on my computers. I use the computer when I'm planning, and stay on the computer clear to the submission process, which is also mostly done on the computer these days.

But at some point, usually as I near completion, I print out the entire manuscript. The text looks and feels different on a printed page than it does on the screen, and I can use a little technique that I have found works well for me.

Here's what I do. I get some markers, at least three different colors. You might want more, if you need to look for more things. Then, with the manuscript printed out, I choose one marker and start skimming the manuscript, looking for one thing, and only one thing. For example, on the first pass I might look for either adjectives or adverbs (but not both). If I have noticed another frequent flaw, such as a word I use too often, like maybe a character's name, or dialogue tags, or filters like "felt," "thought," "saw," "heard," and so on. (I'll blog more about those some other time. Maybe I'll look for typographical errors, but I've probably found most of those with spellcheck. The key is, I only look for one of those problems in a single pass, and use one color to mark every place where one of those words appears.

It's important that I don't actually read, or I'll get caught up in the story. For this edit, the writing doesn't matter. I'm looking for a single thing. If I find myself wanting to read, I'll skim the page from bottom to top, right to left.

I take a separate pass over the manuscript for each thing I want to look for. For example, I'll make one pass, marking adjectives in yellow, then a second pass, marking adverbs in blue, and so on.

Focus is the key. I avoid reading, and if I see something other than what I'm looking for, I ignore it. If I'm making an adjectives pass, nothing else on the page matters but adjectives. After that pass, I have a bunch of yellow marks that clearly show me whether I used too many.

But I don't fix them yet, or even go back and try to figure out whether they even need to be fixed. It's not time for that. It's time to skim through the whole piece again, looking for the next thing I want to identify, such as adverbs.

Sure, I could do this on the screen, using my word processor's marker tool. However, because I usually work on the screen, I'll see the same words and sentences I always see. Printing it out forces me to look at each page a different way than I usually do, so I'll find things I might skip over on the screen. If you use the familiar view, you'll see what you think is there, or what you meant to say, rather than what's really there. And, you'll be tempted to read because you haven't changed your process.

I can't say this too often: it's critical that I don't read, and that I look for only one thing. If I lose focus, I can guarantee that I'll miss stuff. I'll probably miss a few anyway, but if I stay focused, I'll catch nearly all of the instances of whatever I'm marking this pass. It sounds time consuming to make so many passes, but it's really not that bad. Because you're not reading, you'll find that you spot whatever you're looking for pretty quickly and it won't take long to finish a pass.

When you've finished all of your passes and your manuscript is loaded with colors, you'll be able to quickly identify anything that's a problem for you. If you're anything like me, you'll think you used a few well-placed adjectives, but when you've marked them all, you'll see that the story is drowning in them. There's nothing wrong with an adjective, but if you've used a lot of them, and especially if you've stacked them two or three deep on a single noun, it's an indication that your nouns might not be as strong as they can be.

Next, you go back to the 'puter to make your changes. Again, change only one thing at a time and avoid reading. Look at each adverb carefully and decide whether it can be eliminated by using a stronger verb. Can "Jack said softly" be replaced by "Jack whispered" or "Jack mumbled"? Can you replace "the green grass" with "the grass" or "the lawn"? After all, "grass" usually is green, so the color is only important if it's not green. Can you say "the well-manicured, soft green grass" another way that shows it better than any chain of adjectives can?

You don't have to change everything you've marked. There's nothing wrong with adjectives is they are the best way to show what you want to show. But you should consider each one and decide what to keep and what to change, and stay aware of how many you use.

This is my technique. Try it. It might work for you, or you might discover something better for the way you work. But if you look at the pages a different way than you usually do, and if you mark potential problem items in a way that they jump off the page and flick you on the tip of your nose, you're much more likely to find problems you might otherwise miss. Or, you might happily discover that you really don't have any problem with adjectives. Either way, you win and you can feel more confident in your work.

Start A Book Club

Its summertime and I have a big pile of books to read. It helps me when I belong to a book group or on a blog tour because it forces me to read (not that I need much motivation!).
There are many book clubs that are going on right now and my favorite one meets by the pool.

There are a number of different ways to start a book club. Book Clubs shouldn’t be hard or stressful. It’s a way to get together and discuss books and ideas! Above all else, have fun!

Some Ideas to Get Started:

* Number of people to invite-Too small of a group stifles discussion; groups that are too big can become chaotic and members can feel they can’t contribute.
* Day and time- Try to hold your book club the same day and time every month. Once a month is usually good. Some book clubs have found summer is too hard and busy to hold book clubs.
* Place- Home or library or somewhere everyone can sit comfortably and hear well. Also, a place that allows food is a good idea! Everyone can take a turn hosting as well. The host can pick the book and be in charge of the treats.
* Book- Give everyone a chance to choose a book. The first meeting could be to discuss rules, ideas and make a list of the books everyone wants to read.
* On time award- This gets everyone there on time so there are fewer interruptions. Everyone likes to win something!
* Review Author- Find a picture and short biography of the author. Authors’ stories of how they started writing and why they wrote the particular book are usually very interesting.
* Review and discuss book-Find questions and trivia on internet or the back of the book. There are many sites devoted to understanding books better.
* Treats- Have book related game and treats if possible. It’s a fun way to wrap up your book club!

Book Club and Book Ideas:

* Mother/daughter book club: Stargirl, Ella Enchanted, Princess Academy, Frog Princess, Yellow Star, Wednesday Wars
* Teens: It’s a Mall World After All, My Fair Godmother, Fairest, Keturah and Lord Death, Princess of the Midnight Ball
* Women: Austenland, These is My Words, The Guernsey and Potato Peel Pie Society, Scriptures, Host, Pride & Prejudice
* Father/son: Fablehaven, 13th Reality, No Talking, Rangers Apprentice, Farworld, Alcatraz and the Evil Librarians, Thief of Attolia, Wednesday Wars, Harry Potter, Dangerous Book for Boys

Do you belong to a book club?
What has been your favorite book club read?

Me-too vs. Something New

Reading thuRsday

I finished a recently published YA paranormal and was underwhelmed. The twist I thought I saw coming never materialized and instead I was left with a me-too after taste. It's not that the book was bad--far from it. It's that the story followed well-trodden paths and felt like more of the same.

In contrast, I also recently read The Cabinet of Wonders, by Marie Rutkoski. The world, the magic, and the characters all felt fresh. It's a charming story whose Bohemian setting and sensibility take you off the beaten path.

Moonrat, the blogging editorial assistant,  posted a recent note about Laura Miller's "The Magician's Book." She wrote:

"Laura Miller says that, for us, you know, us kids who read constantly and obsessively when we were kids, we've spent our entire lives trying, like Lucy, to resuscitate that feeling of total immersion we felt when we read our Magician's Books when we were kids. We read things and like or enjoy them based on to what degree they can recall that ancient, complete escapism"

As a reader, I love the idea of "comfort" books--books we go back to again and again because they've become old friends.

As writers, I think we need to take care that we're producing something new instead of a "me-too." There's nothing wrong with loving a book and wanting to do something like it, but before you take the trouble to draft an entire novel, ask yourself whether you have something to add to the conversation.

Deren blogs daily at The Laws of Making.

Image: Michelle Meiklejohn / FreeDigitalPhotos.net