Craft | Guelph Write Now

Just One More Time

By Cindy on July 30, 2013

We’ve got an important post here on the GWN blog. Author Terry Shames talks about a great way to edit your novels.

Here’s Terry!

The last time I went through my most recent manuscript, I reported to my editor that I had found 25 last, tiny errors. There was a moment of silence on the other end of the phone, and then, “You mean before you sent it to the copyeditor?” No, after.

“But…” He wanted to know how the copyeditor had missed 25 errors that included missing quotation marks, misspellings, missing words and one quotation mark at the end of a sentence that wasn’t a quote. I hadn’t meant to get the copyeditor in trouble. What I meant was to tell him about a technique I discovered for ferreting out those last, pesky errors.

An experienced writer with many novels under his belt once told me that when my first novel came out, I’d open it and the first page I looked at would contain an error. I couldn’t argue with him because too often these days within a few pages of beginning a novel I run across errors, usually small ones; but sometimes glaring, impossibly bumbling errors that make me want to have a stern talk with whomever was given the task of ridding the manuscript of those glitches.

That’s the problem, though. Even the biggest publishers, and the most meticulous small ones have systematically ditched their editing staffs out of economic necessity. Content editors barely have time to help an author shape the manuscript, and it’s up to a harried copy editor and/ or proofreader to file off the rough edges and make the final product look professional.

Pulling hair out

That’s why an author is well advised to turn in the most pristine copy she can manage. Easier said than done. By the time you’ve read your 300-page manuscript what seems like 100 times for action or dialogue that doesn’t make sense, timeline errors, name switches; and then gone through it to correct what seems like endless typos, dropped or added punctuation, to have one more go at that paragraph that has never rung true, one more attempt to tweak that imperfect description, you’re sick to death of it. You’ve even read it aloud, and hated the sound of your voice by the time you reach the last chapter.

The mere thought of having to read through it one more time makes you have fantasies of calling the whole publication thing off and running off to join the circus. At that point you are ready to clean out your bank account to pay any amount of money for a professional to hunt down those last errors rather than having to do it yourself.

EV005170

That’s when you need to read it backwards. Yep. Backwards. I thought I had heard of every trick and then somewhere (I wish I knew where, so I could thank this unsung hero), I read that reading the manuscript backward is like a miracle. You read the last page, and then the page before that, etc., through the whole shebang. Oh, yeah, and you do it out loud.

The first time I did it, I felt like an idiot. I was sure I had caught Every Single Error the last time I went through the manuscript. There couldn’t be anymore. But the article about reading backwards said that I’d be surprised how many errors I caught. So I decided I had nothing to lose. At least I wouldn’t have to read it forwards again. And who knew? I might even catch a couple of things. 100 errors later I was a convert. Not only did I catch a lot of errors, but I caught a couple of places where I used a word too many times in one paragraph, and could take care of that before the public had to see it, too!

Happy editing, everyone!

Book Description:

Killing at Cotton Hill-3 In A KILLING AT COTTON HILL the chief of police of Jarrett Creek, Texas, doubles as the town drunk. So when Dora Lee Parjeter is murdered, her old friend and former police chief Samuel Craddock steps in to investigate. He discovers that a lot of people may have wanted Dora Lee dead—the conniving rascals on a neighboring farm, her estranged daughter and her surly live-in grandson. And then there’s the stranger Dora Lee claimed was spying on her. During the course of the investigation the human foibles of the small-town residents—their pettiness and generosity, their secret vices and true virtues—are revealed.

Bio:

Terry Shames grew up in Texas. She has abiding affection for the small town where here grandparents lived, the model for the fictional town of Jarrett Creek. A resident of Berkeley, California, Terry lives with her husband, two rowdy terriers and a semi-tolerant cat. She is a member of Sisters in Crime and Mystery Writers of America. Her second Samuel Craddock novel, THE LAST DEATH OF JACK HARBIN will be out in January 2014. Find out more about Terry and her books at www.Terryshames.com.

Cindy here again!

Great post, Terry! It’s a great idea to read it backwards! I’ll try that next time I’m revising my story.

Happy writing!

Cindy

Let’s talk about sex

By Cindy on July 24, 2013

Welcome to Wednesday on the GWN blog! We have a scintillating topic today. Mimi DiFrancesca talking about writing sex scenes.

Here’s Mimi!

Let’s talk about sex, baby… You’re writing a story and you know that your characters will eventually be getting physical together. Out of nowhere that makes any sense, you’ve begun feeling nervous about how to write this scene. It feels like the same kind of nervous you felt the first time you…ya know. (Insert covered mouth giggle here).

The weird part about anxiety over writing a sex scene is that we dive right in with enthusiasm when we kill off a character in a bloody and fantastically violent way. Chatting with another writer recently about what our search histories on our computers look like, we wondered if the NSA really is monitoring us, just what the heck they think we are actually up to. Maybe there should be a cyber-tag we can use identifying us as writers and not lunatics. I’ve researched some very weird things for my dark urban fiction novel. I can now hold a plausible debate over who would win a battle between a samurai or a ninja. It’s a ninja, by the way. I have also researched some extra steamy things for an erotica book and the research trail on my laptop even makes me blush, occasionally.

When we write about sex, we may fall into a few categories. We may choose to distance ourselves from the action by making it too technical and reducing a beautiful and sensual experience down to what reads like a medical report on a standard root canal. We may tell the truth and (maybe) expose some of our own personal preferences in the privacy of our bedrooms. Or we may embody our characters more completely as we write and allow some amalgam of the technical aspect and use of a poetic hand while fashioning the language of description.

Sex is a tactile experience like food preparation and consumption. We see it, we smell it, we hear it, we taste it and we touch it. Lips can touch in a kiss but who wouldn’t want a lover to desperately hunger for a taste of us? The scent of someone attractive to you registers even before your conscious mind has done all the calculating of their qualities. A cologne can override a logic switch and we forgive the one we haven’t spoken to all day because they smell…delicious. We hear sex words that drop like safety deposit keys into our ears and unlock a yes that we’ve been holding down inside of us like a protected heirloom. The silky texture of skin under our fingers makes us want keep touching until we have explored every curve, every surface and angle and every hidden cave of wonder. Our smooth instep as it grazes the hair of his calf when we run our bare foot up his leg can ignite a fire in us that can only be doused one way. Reading about sex should be a multisensory experience, with your character adding that elusive 6^th sense of knowing what comes next and showing it to us through their actions.

The words we use to describe body parts can be a stumbling point for some writers. Unless all your characters are Victorian era virgins, you are going to want to write a character one day that sounds more like the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and less like Jane Austen. And I’d venture a guess that in the throes of hot, steamy passion, even Jane probably let a few colorful words fly in her starched linen world.

Ironically, I am restraining myself in the use of “colorful” language as I write this blog post as I’m not sure what the reader’s reception is here for back room banter. In my own life, I could probably make a pirate blush and I do not refrain from using any word that my character might use just so I don’t shock readers. Those who know my work have come to expect the unexpected.

I’ll offer an exercise for any writer who is having a challenge at letting their keyboard create other words for penis, vagina, breast or any other body part; what can be done with them or to them. Get out a piece of paper and write down every single word that would have gotten you thrown out of school as a kid, grounded by your parents or had your mouth washed out with soap by your severely proper, Aunt Marge. (I write from experience. Newsflash: Gold Dial Soap is not a food option) Go for it. Think of subway walls and highway overpasses. Quote from rap music and movies that you had to turn off when your kids entered the room. I’m talking Saturday night and three tequila bottles later at the Jersey Shore set. Write them all down and then read them out loud, preferably to a few people like girlfriends who you shared that tequila with. Ask them to add to your list.

We’re trying to make all these descriptive words, dirty words, profanities and blue language a part of the costume and character of the people in your stories. The only way you can allow your characters to be real and three dimensional is by giving them permission to be themselves. After you’ve written them all down, read them out loud and have a really good laugh. Then, you need to get over it. They are just words and they are not “your” words. They are your characters words.

Herein lies the heart of writing a sex scene; it is not you having sex, it is your character. You, in this instance, are the accidental voyeur who is documenting the moment like an anthropologist/poet finding surprise and sensual wonder in the fierce beauty of sexual encounter. You will stand there in awe and tell us what you saw. And if you still shy away from using graphic language, there is poetry to be written in the thrusting gasps of lovers who take each other over the edge so many times that there is nothing left unknown between them.

By now, you have probably read some sex scenes in books that were gratuitous, silly and physically impossible or written like a marginally functional teenager’s MTV fantasy. You may also have read scenes that left you flushed and dreaming of deserted islands and all the time in the world. I hope that when you come to the moment when the clothing comes off and your characters get down to doing what brought seven billion people on to the planet in the first place, that you will take the writing on as a sacred challenge.

Someone out there in Reader World has never had it as good as your characters are giving it to each other. Someone out there is stopping their life for five minutes and living vicariously through your pages.

You have a choice to either button them up to their chins and or you can let him weigh her breast with his hand while the cool breeze from the open window sends a wash of goose bumps over their naked skin. Every time you write a sex scene, it’s the first time for those characters. Make it memorable even if your own first time was more like a Saturday Night Live skit, write the first time you wish you’d had.

Sex is real and honest in its urgency. Be exactly that through your pen or keyboard and you’re reader will be right there with you needing a cold shower or a hot encounter when they finish your story. Now get out there and write some smut. Make me proud.

About Mimi: Writer, Former Columnist, Poet, Blogger, Artist, Jewelry Designer, Event Planner, Ridiculously Good Cook, Animal lover, Traveler, Photographer, Metaphysics Guide and Connoisseur of Hilarity and a Certified Hypnotherapist. She is a published author, lives in Mid Michigan with her Great Dane and family and is currently working on a fantasy romance, an urban fiction novel, a sci-fi romance and erotica, under a pseudonym. Member of the RWA, MMRWA and CCWA.

Visit Mimi’s website: http://www.WordNinjaGirl.com

Cindy here again!

Great, informative post, Mimi. I don’t write many sex scenes but I will have to keep these tips in mind for when I do.

Happy writing!

Cindy

The Happy Hooker

By Cindy on July 19, 2013

It’s not what you think! Today on the GWN blog we’ve got agent and author Lois Winston talking about the importance of the first page of your manuscript.

Here’s Lois!

No, this is not about the world’s oldest profession. It’s about the first page of your manuscript. Do you know how few seconds an author has to hook an agent, an editor, or a reader? Precious few. Attention spans just aren’t what they used to be. If you don’t hook a reader (and by readers, I mean agents, editors, and the reading public) with the first page of your book, chances are, she won’t read the second page.

Too many writers make the mistake of opening their books with long passages of description and back-story. So not a good idea! Especially when you open with a description of the weather. There’s a reason Snoopy kept getting all those rejection letters whenever he submitted his novel that opened with, “It was a dark and stormy night…”

It’s also the reason that a well known annual writing contest for the worst opening lines is named for Edward George Bulwer-Lytton, the actual author of that famous line. It appeared in his 1830 novel Paul Clifford. Ever read the complete opening sentence? Most people haven’t. Here it is:

It was a dark and stormy night; the rain fell in torrents–except at occasional intervals, when it was checked by a violent gust of wind which swept up the streets (for it is in London that our scene lies), rattling along the housetops, and fiercely agitating the scanty flame of the lamps that struggled against the darkness.

Pretty bad, right? The sad truth is that too many authors open their books in a similar manner. That’s why I’m a firm believer in hooking a reader with the very first line of my books. I want my readers to be intrigued enough by that first line to continue reading.

A book’s hook doesn’t have to be defined by the first sentence, but that first sentence should make the reader want to read the next. And the next. Those first sentences should form a paragraph that makes the reader want to read the next paragraph. And the next. And the next—until the reader has read a complete page that makes her want to turn the page and read the next page. And finally, those first pages should create a first scene that has sufficiently hooked the reader so she can’t put down the book. She has to keep reading to find out what happens next.

The opening of a book should suck the reader into the world the author has created. Back-story can come later, trickling in to tease the reader to continue reading more, not as information dumps that pull the reader from the story. A good opening will include only the barest minimum of back-story that is essential for that moment.

As for description, it should be woven into the narrative and dialogue. Nothing bores more than long paragraphs describing everything from the length of the protagonist’s hair to the color of her toenail polish. It, too, pulls the reader from the story. And pulling the reader from the story is a bad idea. It adversely affects the pacing of the book, and good pacing is something that is important to a well-written novel.

“If that damn woman doesn’t shut up, I’m going to strangle her.”

rejected_v002_x1000 That’s the first line of Revenge of the Crafty Corpse, the third book in my Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mystery series. Reading that sentence, the reader knows something is about to happen. Hopefully, she’ll keep reading to find out just what that something is, why it happens, what sort of impact it has on my protagonist, and how it drives the plot of the book.

Do you open your books with dialogue and/or active narrative that hooks the reader right from that first sentence and makes her want to keep reading? If you don’t, you’re most likely committing one of the top ten reasons your novel will be rejected by agents and editors. If you’d like to find out what the other nine reasons are and how you can avoid committing them, check out Top Ten Reasons Your Novel is Rejected http://www.loiswinston.com/bookstop10.html, available as an ebook from all the usual sources.

I wrote this book after too many years of having to write rejection letters to authors. I hate writing rejection letters. All agents do. Many authors think agents and editors take perverse pleasure in rejecting them. Nothing could be further from the truth. We don’t make money rejecting novels; we make money by discovering and selling them. Every time we begin reading a manuscript, we’re hoping to find something fabulous. Unfortunately, it doesn’t happen often enough.

BIO: Lois Winston is both an agent with the Ashley Grayson Literary Agency and the author of the critically acclaimed Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mystery series. Assault With a Deadly Glue Gun, the first book in the series, received starred reviews from both Publishers Weekly and Booklist. Other books in the series include Death By Killer Mop Doll, Revenge of the Crafty Corpse, and the ebook novelette Crewel Intentions. Lois is also published in romance, romantic suspense, women’s fiction, and non-fiction under her own name and her Emma Carlyle pen name. Visit Lois at http://www.loiswinston.com, visit Emma at http://www.emmacarlyle.com, and visit Anastasia at the Killer Crafts & Crafty Killers blog: http://www.anastasiapollack.blogspot.com. You can also follow Lois on Twitter @anasleuth.

Cindy here again!

Excellent post, Lois. I also try to make that first sentence a great hook.

Happy writing!

Cindy

Creating subplots that work

By Cindy on July 17, 2013

Hi everyone! Welcome back to the GWN blog. Today we have Lyncee Shillard talking about subplots!

Here’s Lyncee!

Most writers don’t have a problem coming up with the ‘bare’ bones of a plot – something happens, it’s resolved. Nice and neat but will only result in about 100 words. The hard part is developing valid subplots. Not just really cool subplots that don’t move your bare bones plot or contribute to your main character’s growth (those have to go into the ‘cool subplot’ file).

What makes a ‘good’ subplot? A subplot must fit into two slots to stay. Some authors live by the rule if a subplot can be taken out and your bare bones plot doesn’t fall apart it should be cut. I believe a good subplot can involve your main character’s growth and not the bare bones plot and it would still benefit your story.

For example, you’re writing a romanctic suspense.

Bare Bones Plot ~ Jane finds a dead body in her apartment elevator. She falls in love with the victim’s brother. They catch the killer.

Examples of possible sub-plots ~

Jane’s brother is arrested for a throwing rocks through a local gay bar. This adds tension between the hero and heroine because the victim was gay. So when Jane goes and bails her brother out, the hero views it as supporting her brother’s views. Then the hero learns Jane and her brother grew up in foster care. Now the plot would chug along fine without this thread but it adds conflict between the hero and heroine and reveals a piece of Jane’s character – while she is appalled at her brother’s actions she can’t abandon him like their mother did.

The victim is a relapsed gambler. Was he killed for his gambling debt? No but this makes a valid subplot (the investigation) as a red herring.

Examples of non-useable sub-plots~

The building is being bought out and will be torn down. Unless the victim’s murder is directly related to this it won’t add to your plot. Yes Jane will be stressed about having to find a new place to live but it doesn’t add to her character like the brother’s arrest.

Remember subplots can’t just add pages and characters. They need to reveal something about the main character or add a piece to the bare bones plot.

Thanks for stopping by!

Kick Start is my lastest release ~

Jada Anderson had known from the beginning it would only be a three week hook-up. Nothing more than twenty-one days of great dirt bike riding, nights spent drinking bat bites, and making awesome love. So she left without a word on the twenty-first morning.

Dezmond Blance has the chance to take his career as a motocross rider to the next level. He’s been invited to compete for a spot on one of the national top ranked teams. After a great ride, he’s ready to celebrate but he’s missing one thing – the woman who stole his heart weeks earlier. To his surprise Jada is there to congratulate him.

When he wakes the next morning to find her gone, he thinks she’s done another vanishing act until his mechanic’s wife comes up missing to. Now both men must race to find the women they love before the next try-outs.

Available at…http://jupitergardenspress.com/shop/hot-rods-hot-bods/—

Cindy here again!

Thanks for being here, Lyncee! Great post on subplots. I will keep these points in mind when I’m writing.

Happy writing.

Cindy

It’s a puzzle

By Cindy on July 15, 2013

Welcome to the start of another week on the GWN blog. Today we have Agatha nominated author Kaye George talking about the differences between writing short stories and novels.

Here’s Kaye!

What’s the difference between writing a mystery short story and writing a mystery novel? A mystery is a puzzle, right? They both contain a puzzle to be solved, so they’re basically similar.

However, you can’t put as much into a short story as you can a novel, obviously. There’s not enough room! I know some writers do only shorts and some do only novels, but a good number of us want to do both.

Here’s what I do. I have to switch my mindset when I change forms. Short story writing comes more easily to me. I’ve written short stories most of my life and only came to novel writing about ten years ago. Maybe it’s because I’ve done a lot more of them that I find short stories simpler to write. Not simple, just simpler!

I can hold an entire short story in my head. I can plot the whole thing, think up the characters, picture the setting, and get it from my brain to my computer without intermediate notes and scribbles. I’ll tweak it, of course, sometimes for quite a while after I’ve set it down, but I still have the whole thing in my mind at once. I liken it to fitting together a game of Tetris, or solving a Sudoku puzzle.

When I write a novel, however, I have to do a bunch of planning. It’s more like a chess game. I will note here that I don’t play chess well. The characters usually come easily and I can remember them. Likewise the basics of the plot. But the subplots and secondary characters have to be written down and kept track of. I can’t remember who is tall and who is short. Who is bald and who has flowing locks. I’ll forget what some of the settings look like. Then there’s the problem of what everyone is doing.

I’m somewhat of an outliner. Okay, I am an outliner, in that I make an outline before I begin writing a novel. That’s essential for me, even if the outline bears little resemblance to my finished book. I like to note, on a spreadsheet, the description of each character, their age, what vehicle they drive, and if they have any peculiarities. I also keep the plot on a spreadsheet, but more after the fact, to keep track of what I’ve written and what happens on which day and at what time–and to whom.

If I didn’t keep track of everything on a spreadsheet, a character might fall down a well in the afternoon, spend the night at home in bed, then discover the well the next morning. I could easily have a character drive up in a red pickup and go home in a beige Honda.

So, when I switch from one to the other, it’s a matter of resetting my thinking from small to large, from cinematic to TV episodic, from Tetris to chess.

About Kaye: Kaye George is a short story writer and novelist who has been nominated for Agatha awards twice. She is the author of four mystery series: the Imogene Duckworthy humorous Texas series, the Cressa Carraway musical mystery series, the FAT CAT cozy series, and The People of the Wind Neanderthal series.

Her short stories can be found in her collection, A PATCHWORK OF
STORIES, as well as in several anthologies, various online and print
magazines. She reviews for “Suspense Magazine”, writes for several
newsletters and blogs, and gives workshops on short story writing and
promotion. Kaye lives in Knoxville, TN.

Visit Kaye’s website: http://kayegeorge.com/

About Eine Kleine Murder – When aspiring conductor Cressa Carraway arrives at her grandmother’s resort home, she finds Gram dead. When Gram’s best friend drowns in the same place, Cressa knows something sinister is at work in this idyllic setting.

Cindy here again!

Thanks for being here, Kaye. I find it difficult switching back and forth myself but I need to get used to it. I like the way you look at them.

Happy writing!

Cindy

The importance of critique partners

By Cindy on July 11, 2013

Welcome back! Today we have Alexa Bourne talking about how important it is for improving your craft to have good critique partners.

Here’s Alexa!

I signed my first writing contract back in December 2011 and I can honestly say I NEVER would have gotten there without my critique partner. Yes, having people tell you how great your story is and how awesome you are is very important, but a true writer needs the person (or people) who will tell her what’s wrong with a story.

My road to my perfect critique partner (CP, for short) wasn’t always easy. In fact, more often than not I had a BAD experience. I had a woman who told me what was wrong and how she would fix it (basically rewriting my story). I had good critiquers who stayed with me through one book but then realized they didn’t want to be writers anymore. I had another critique partner who worked with me during one book and then she and her family moved away and she didn’t want to keep critiquing by email. I had critique partners who didn’t really know how to write (and we didn’t stay partners for long). But I knew I needed someone to help me so I kept looking until I found my perfect critique partner.

Now some people could say they don’t need a critique partner. I’m here to tell you a CP can be crucial to success. Is it possible to get published without a critique partner? Of course, but I honestly believe a good CP is worth her weight in gold. A writer might not be able to step back far enough to view her work professionally or objectively. She could be submitting manuscript pages to friends to read and, while the friends may be willing to help, they may not understand the details included in becoming a professional writer. A good critique partner can be those eyes and that professional guidance.

Silent Surrender Cover What is a perfect critique partner? A perfect critique partner is the writer who is right for you at that specific time. It is a person who can give you guidance, who can point out what does and doesn’t work. It is someone you trust to be honest with you and someone you know who wants what is best for you and your work. It may seem simple, but we’re asking people to tell us what is wrong with our babies. We’re asking them to rip apart something we feel great pride and joy in. Hearing your baby is ugly isn’t easy, right? So we need to totally believe in the person giving us that difficult news.

It’s also important that you and your critique partner talk about what you both want in the relationship. The key, as is with most relationships, is communication. If you can’t ask for what you need then you won’t grow as a writer. Some partners only brainstorm with each other and read sections of manuscripts that aren’t making sense. Other partners want to meet or exchange work each week. It’s good to find a partner whose strengths as a writer are different than yours that way you can help each other even more. For example, pace is a main issue for me in my drafts. My CP is excellent at pinpointing where the story begins to drag and when I repeat myself too much. At the same time, I’m really great at catching grammar issues for her, and when the story just doesn’t gel I can usually help her figure out why.

Sometimes a CP can be helpful in another way. When I’ve had a rough writing day, a rejection or a bad review, I’ve sent her some work and asked her to just tell me everything that’s awesome about it. J Do I really believe there’s nothing wrong with that piece? Of course not, but sometimes we just need an ego boost. My relationship with my critique partner is solid enough that she’ll tell me all that’s right on that day and then save all that’s wrong for another round of critiquing.

The right critique partner is invaluable. You can help each other, grow together, and back each other up. It may take quite a while before you find the perfect critique partner for you, but keep looking. Remember how many toads I had to dance with before I found my perfect partner? I guarantee when you do find that perfect partner (or partners), your writing and your future readers will thank you for taking a chance on the partnership!

Be sure to visit Alexa:

Website: www.alexabourne.com

Blog: http://alexabourne.blogspot.com

Twitter: https://twitter.com/AlexaBourne

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/AuthorAlexaBourne

Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5818611.Alexa_Bourne

All Romance Ebooks: https://www.allromanceebooks.com/product-silentsurrender-1228388-177.html

Cindy here again!

Thanks for being here, Alexa. So true about finding a critique partner. I don’t know what I would do without mine.

Happy writing!

Cindy

Excuse me – Where did you find that world?

By Cindy on July 3, 2013

Welcome to the GWN blog! Today we have David O Smith talking about one of my problem areas, world building.

Here’s David!

Fiction writers whose works take place in the here and now have it easy. They have a complete, ready-made world in which to set their stories. Those of us who write speculative fiction have extra problems. We not only have to write the story, we have to build a world in which to set it. A world that may be marginally different from the one we live in, or a world that might be totally removed from ours.

Simple, you say. Hie thee off to the nearest library and get yourself into some research. Find the nearest appropriate period in history and learn all about it. So, I’ve got Noggin Halfaxe bouncing around in my skull screaming “Write about me, write about me”. That name sounds like a Viking name so should I spend the next six months studying life in Viking times to give me some grounding for his world? Noggin’s gone off in a huff by then and will never get his story told. Not by me, at any rate.

And how much research can you do for something set in the future, or in somewhere totally different from this world? Anne McCaffery’s “Pern”, say, or Aldous Huxley’s “Brave New World”.

But you’ve still got to build that world. There will need to be a consistent, cohesive stage for Noggin to strut his stuff on. How do we do that? Ask questions of your characters, something all writers should be very good at. “Well, why the heck do they call you ‘Halfaxe’?”

We still have to answer those story questions, but there are others that we must ask, as well. Start from very basics – “What’s that axe made from, Noggin?”

Beware – world building can be addictive. Yes, another good excuse to do something other than writing – as if we needed one. It’s fascinating to settle down and draw up all the details of a world. I could spend a year or more, full time, creating the planet Noggin lives on, and masses of information about where it is in space, what its sun is like and so on. By that time, of course, poor Noggin has got fed up with waiting and stalked off to raid someone else’s brain, and my work’s wasted. If I put in that much detail most of it will be wasted anyway, because it’s not relevant to Noggin and his life.

Let me give you an example. In one novel I have in progress the world has two moons. One goes round the world in 10 days and the other in 40. It so happens that the world goes round its sun in 400 days (yes, all right, I chose figures to make it easy. You don’t have to make everything hard for yourself, you know). So their calendar divides the year into 10 circuits of one moon (which they call months – I wasn’t feeling very original that day) and that is subdivided into 4 periods of 10 days corresponding to the circuits of the other moon. They call these “Lights”. How long is a day you ask? Sunrise to sunset, and back again. That’s all you (and your characters) need to know.

See what I mean? Build those parts of the world that will affect the life of your characters, your story, but don’t waste time on things that don’t matter.

Noggin’s a sea raider. He spends part of his life sailing over the seas raiding other people’s homes. So the weather, ships and seafaring are going to be crucial things to know about in his world. For one quarter of his year the sun beats down from a cloudless sky, there is no wind and no rain. For another quarter there are violent storms, and the rain comes down in stair rods. For the other two quarters there are steady breezes, the sun is warm, but not blazing hot, and there is a certain amount of refreshing rain. So when will Noggin do his raiding? And how does he tell when the seasons are changing? Does he care if there’s a vast country on the other side of his world that is ruled by Amazons who make Ann Robinson look gentle, and polite, and have only one use for men? Not unless he gets blown there, at which point it becomes part of the story.

It needn’t all come from your brain, of course. If Noggin’s Gods are similar to those of the Vikings that were in this world then, yes, off to the library you go. Be prepared to do some tweaking. If it doesn’t fit, change it. After all, it’s your world. You are the great creator.

Don’t feel you have to do it all at once, tying young Noggin into a corner until you have his world all polished and sparkling new for him to go raiding. You can – but don’t be so drawn into creating his world that you never actually get round to his story. Or you can be like me, start telling the tale, and build the world around it as you go.

And above all – have fun!

Visit David’s Website: www.davidosmith.co.uk
Follow David on Twitter: https://twitter.com/BigBassDave

Cindy here again!

Great tips, David! Thanks for sharing your world building techniques with us.

Happy writing.

Cindy

What do you mean?

By Cindy on July 1, 2013

Welcome to the GWN blog and Happy Canada Day! Today is Canada’s 146th birthday. We’ve got Lynda Kaye Frazier talking about writing communities.

Here’s Lynda!

What do you mean I don’t know how to write?

When I decided to write a book, I did just that. I sat and wrote a book. Easy, right? That’s what I thought.

I had written 137,000 words in two months, I was so excited to write the words ‘The end’ that I sent it right out to friends to read. I felt accomplished, but my balloon burst pretty quickly after a few eye opening critiques. It didn’t take me long to realize that those two little words really meant the beginning. I had no idea where to go but I knew what I needed, help, and lots of it.

I stared at my story and was so lost. I didn’t want to box it up, start over. I worked so hard and my readers said they loved the story line, just not my inability to write. I had no direction on where to get help so I asked my critique partners and after a few weeks I had a list of online writing groups. I quickly researched and realized that there were so many things I needed help with, but I didn’t have a big savings account set aside for my workshops, and some of those sites were expensive. I was heartsick but knew there had to be some groups that were for the struggling writer, eager to learn. I polled a few of my yahoo groups and found Savvy Authors. It was the one that was recommended for a POV, grammar and punctuation class that quite a few of my critique partners said I needed. And yes, they were right. My grammar sucked. : )

I went to their site and found an amazing amount of useful information. They had workshops, seminars, online chats and even pitches with editors. I felt like it was Christmas and I just opened my big gift. They had so many workshops that I wanted to take so I joined the group and started to sign up. I have to say I was in heaven. I took classes, met new friends and formed a bond with this group that has helped me battle through every obstacle that got in my way as I fixed all the mistakes in my book. And let me tell you there were quite a few. My 137,000 words are now 86,742. It took me six months but my book, Rescued from the Dark, is now a published novel and I owe a lot of my success to the help I received at Savvy Authors.

Now for a little humor. I never realized I had to know how to write before I could write a book. I had no idea what POV meant and didn’t know whether I was writing in first or third person.

Just a little example of how inexperienced I was:

Now don’t laugh

I watched the mist clear as the sun came up. Walking through the streets of Dayton was eerie in the morning for me. He moved up the street as the hooded figure moved closer.

I stopped at the corner and waited as he moved closer. “What do you want?” His face was covered as he talked.

“I want you to stop interfering. Leave my family alone.” Because if you don’t leave us alone you will be the next to die.

I know, cringe, I did.

I have mixed in first person, third person, head hopping, telling instead of showing. I could go on, but you get the idea. To think, I had 27 chapters written like this. And you wondered why it took me six months to fix what I did wrong. I commend my instructors for their patience.

So If I were to give any advice to someone who was thinking about writing a book I would tell them to make sure they knew how to write and send them to the Savvy Authors site. It has everything they will need to make their first story one that others will enjoy reading and not cringe after the first page. : )

Bio: Lynda Kaye Frazier is an avid reader of romantic suspense and started her writing career with a dream. A cliche, but it’s true. She works full time at a Cardiology clinic, while writing her own novels at night. She grew up in Pennsylvania, but now lives in Arkansas where she enjoys the four seasons without a long, cold winter. She has five children and three grandchildren that she adores. Other than spending time with her family, her favorite things to do are writing, reading and listening to music, but her most favorite is going to the beach. Surf, sand and a good book, her stress relief.

Join the Savvy Authors admin and volunteers as we tour the blogosphere in anticipation of the launch of our improved and updated website. We are excited to share our love of Savvy, and all writing communities, with each of you during the summer months. Below is a list of stops we’ll be making – please feel free to stop by and say hello! (and definitely check out the new look of our site)

May 27th – Melinda B. Pierce on Author’s For Life http://authorsforlife.org/under-construction-by-melinda-pierce/

June 10th – Ella Gray on The Speculative Salon http://speculativesalon.blogspot.com/

June 12th – Elizabeth Gibson on Maggie’s Meanderings http://maggiemeandering.blogspot.com/

June 19th – Sharon Pickrel on Pen of the Dreamer http://calisarhose.com/chit-chat/

June 21st – Riley Darkes on Writing Secrets of Seven Scribes http://secretsof7scribes.wordpress.com/

June 25^th – Leslie Dow on A Writer’s Musings http://constancephillips.com/blog/

June 24th – Angel on The World in My Hands http://angel-leigh.com/blog/

June 28th – Marilyn Muniz on http://www.marilynmuniz.com/

July 1^st – Lynda K. Frazier on Guelph Write Now http://guelphwritenow.com/ <– You are here!!

Rescued From the Dark

She has no memory of their love…

Kidnapped by terrorists and sent into a drug-induced coma, FBI intern Mercy Kingsley awakes with no memory of her ordeal—or the intimate interlude that got her pregnant. Convinced her child was fathered by her ex-fiancé, she walks away from the only man she has ever loved, determined to make things work with her ex, a man the FBI suspects is implicated in her abduction.

He knows the truth, but no one will listen…

FBI undercover Agent Jason Michaels remembers what Mercy can’t and those memories are breaking his heart. Forced to keep his distance from his lover and their unborn child, Jason risks his life to protect Mercy from a cell of international terrorists who want the secrets locked in her memory and have vowed to get them, no matter the cost. Can Jason convince Mercy to trust him until she remembers their past, or will he lose her to a man who’ll trap her in a nightmare world of darkness from which there is no escape?

Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00BFYANMK
B&N: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/rescued-from-the-dark-lynda-kaye-frazier/1114500674?ean=2940016369129

Cindy here again!

Thanks so much for being here, Lynda! I’m afraid to go back and look at the first book I wrote. I know it’s horrible and needs a lot of work. But this convinced me I can fix it, even if it does take me six months.

Happy writing!

Cindy

Engaging your reader

By Cindy on June 28, 2013

It’s Friday! Welcome to the GWN blog. Today we have Mary Marvella talking about engaging your reader.

Here’s Mary!

I gave my first ever workshop to a group of writers early in June. I did my first ever PowerPoint presentation. I do not play well with computers or other technical stuff, but I managed to create slides of participants’ beginnings with my comments and suggestions added. Most of the writers made the same mistakes. They summarized. They didn’t draw me in or make me care. When I explained they needed to create scenes so I could experience them with their characters, the writers seemed surprised.

When you have a story to tell you need to decide who is telling the story and how that character feels. Then you must show me how that character feels, hears, smells and tastes.

Example:

Billy was always in trouble. Telling.

When Billy wasn’t tying his daddy’s shoes laces together while he slept, he tormented the cats by tying bells around their necks. Showing some.

Billy crept up on his daddy sleeping in his recliner and snoring away. Daddy smells like cigarettes and sweat. As carefully as he could, Billy tied the stained tennis shoe laces, glancing up to make sure no one was watching him. His stomach did a funny dance until he finished. Still silent but laughing inside, he slipped around a corner and waited.

Do you want to know what happened? Not telling.

Even memoirs needed scenes.

Stories and nonfiction books must have take aways to make me want to read. If I can’t relate to the feelings of the characters or the author in some way, I will stop reading. I must feel there is a message for me somewhere in the pages, even with children’s stories, or especially in children’s stories.

As an editor, I need to feel something as I read. Let me into someone’s head or I’ll be bored. Engage me and I’ll read all night!

Check out Mary’s website: www.MaryMarvella.com
Mary blogs here: www.pinkfuzzyslipperwriters.blogspot.com

Cindy here again!

Thanks for being here, Mary! The third example was definitely more engaging.

Happy writing!

Cindy

Stories with spine

By Cindy on June 25, 2013

Welcome to the GWN blog! We’ve got a great post today from guest Jayne Barnard about stories with spine.

Here’s Jayne!

Any story, whether long or short, literary or genre, staged or sung or read aloud, has a plot. The plot, or the dramatic action, is composed not only of actual actions, but also the motives for those actions. Motives arise from inside characters; actions take place outside them, in locations. Organizing characters, actions, and motives into suitable locations, and then setting them in the highest-impact order, can seem confusing and overwhelming.

Think of the story as an animal: a hamster if it’s a flash fiction, a brontosaurus for a very long novel. What the shortest and longest of animals have in common is a spine, a series of vertebrae, through which the nerves flow as one continuous unit. In a story, the nerves are the through-lines: characters and questions that draw the reader along from beginning to end. The vertebrae are individual scenes in that longer story, protecting the through-lines while presenting the necessary actions and motivations to readers in a logical and entertaining order.

So what is a scene? At its most basic, a scene is action that takes place at one time, in one place, and moves the story along convincingly to the next plot element. It is, in effect, a single small story in a stream of small stories, each revealing an action, one or more motives, and something of the characters.

As a complete story in itself, a scene has a beginning, a middle, and an end. A vertebrae has a beginning (flanges), a middle (the smooth ring of thick bone), and an end (different flanges that interlock with the beginning of the next vertebrae). The story’s beginning flange is a reason for the characters to be at that place at that time. The action in a previous scene (or in off-page back story) brought these characters to this place at this time; the action in this scene will bring the same characters, or other ones, to a new place and/or time where a new scene will start.

In a beginning, some small action or line of dialogue raises a question in the reader’s mind, gives the characters a reason to interact with each other, and sets the scene rolling. The action might be as small as Character A ringing a doorbell. As over-used as this example is (much like answering the telephone or waking from sleep), it instantly raises two questions: what Character A is doing at this door, and who will answer the bell?

The middle of the scene advances and protects the core of the story. What grows the strong middle is conflict. Each character wants something, even if it is only to be left alone by another character. The conflict between their wants knits the scene together. Assume Character A wants answers to a question. Character B doesn’t want to give them. B evades or lies. A presses. B repeats or changes his earlier response. Sometimes one of them appears to be gaining, only to have a reversal occur that puts the other ahead.

The beauty and challenge of the middle is not to make it too easy, either for the characters or the reader. Keep the reader guessing. Entice them to use all they have learned about the characters and the core story up to this point, to try to figure out who will win this small struggle. The more the reader invests in an outcome, the stronger the middle will be.

The end is the payoff for the character’s – and the reader’s – efforts. Did A get his answer? Did the reader guess right, or wrong? Perhaps neither A nor B achieves their goal. That type of ending is the most frustrating for readers, but can be the most compelling. Use it too often, or too obviously, and the reader’s frustration will outweigh their engagement with the larger story. However it ends, there must be flanges to hook onto the next scene: new questions arising from the answers received, new places to go, new ideas to be incorporated or old ones eliminated.

At its simplest, a scene is action that takes place at one time, in one place, and moves the story along convincingly. At its most complex, a scene also sets a mood, reveals hidden aspects of character, delves deeper into the larger story’s central question, and has enough dramatic tension to draw the reader’s eyes forward almost without their conscious awareness. In theatre, the writer provides the dialogue and a few action cues; the rest is provided by actors, set designers, lighting and costume technicians. In prose, the writer provides all of the above. The intensity or apathy with which the point-of-view character notices his surroundings can incorporate all the work done by set and lighting on a stage; the clothing a character wears reveals much about them to the other characters and to the reader. Light, dark, sight, sound, scent, texture, and colour all help to evoke a mood, reveal a character, and enhance awareness of the central story question.

If you can build a single solid scene with a beginning, middle and end, you can write any length of story. Make each scene, each small story, as strong as it can possibly be, linking it to the one before and leading to the one following, and there is no limit to what you can achieve: flash fictions with a single strong vertebrae, short stories with four to ten, novellas and novels with as many as you need. They’re all built on the length and strength of the spine.

Photo credit: Cliff Erasmus

Calgary author Jayne Barnard has been writing award-winning short fiction for more than twenty years. Recent stories, such as the Bony Pete-winning “Each Canadian Son,” focus on mystery and suspense, often with a historical setting. A BA in Theatre and three summers writing and acting for children gave her a deep appreciation for the power and beauty possible in a single scene. Stringing many scenes together gave rise to “When the Bow Breaks,” a novel-length crime manuscript that was shortlisted for the Unhanged Arthur in Canada and is now shortlisted for the Debut Dagger in the UK. Like her Facebook page for a chance to win dagger-themed prizes. https://www.facebook.com/pages/Jayne-Barnard-Author/466822683406124

Cindy here again!

Thanks for being here, Jayne. Great post. I’m going to have to go take a look at my scenes again.

Happy writing!

Cindy

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