Ira Glass on Storytelling

Hello to all of you fabulous people!
Today I thought I'd share a little gem I came across the other day.
 
I absolutely love this clip of Ira Glass and his view on storytelling. He has a way of simplifying the entire process in the most brilliant way.

There are four parts total to this clip. I'm posting only part one today, but I may post the others at a later date (they are on you tube if you want to keep going).
And hey, if you don't have time to watch it now (it's just over five minutes) then put it on your to-watch list; I really think you'll enjoy it!

So what about you? Any new thoughts on storytelling? Getting more or less done now that the kids are back in school? For me, it's a bit of a toss up.

Get On The Trail Already! Platform-Building Campaign

Hello all you fabulous blogging, incredible writing, and overall flawlessly beautiful people!
Do you remember that blog I posted a while back? The one called "Stop Whining and Do It Already! Platform Building" ?
Well guess what? Platform-building just got a whole lot easier! I just joined the wonderful Rachael Harrie's  Third Writers' Platform-Building Campaign!  This one is seriously a no-brainer, folks. You join, you meet other writers, they meet you, you help one another out. All good things. 
Want to know all about it? Click on the link above and join me! 
Hope to see you there. :)

Windows Open or Closed?

Okay, so Summer is here, my favorite time of year. The kids are home, the weather is hot, and the garden is freely giving. One thing I love about summer is the freedom. I love not having to bundle the kids to a ridiculous degree before loading them in the car. I enjoy stepping outside barefoot and feeling the warm pavement at my feet. Last but not least, I love driving with the windows down. I know the air conditioner can do a better job, but nothing beats the fresh air.

Now since my brain rarely takes a rest, I find myself relating this open window thing to writing (of course). I believe it's important to keep an open mind while I write. I recently blogged about how I'm No Longer a Pantser, but that doesn't mean I'm unwilling to budge. I don't even have it in me to stay on such a strict course. Sure I have plotted my scenes. Mapped out an outline of where I need to go. But I'm keeping my mental windows open. Listening to what the characters have to say. I hear their reasons for wanting to take some wild detour, and sometimes I'll even play them out. 


I think another way we can 'stay open' is by reading. I like reading a variety of great authors so that I'm constantly consuming good writing (and Krispy Kremes, but that's beside the point). I'm paying attention to what others have done, noting what works for them. I definitely think it helps us develop our craft.


Lastly, being open-minded during critiques is important, right? (Hey, I didn't say it was easy - just important.) It can help us look beyond our perspective and see how others view our book. Especially if the feedback is repeated by more than one source. 

So what about you? Do you write with your windows open? Drive with them closed? Are you depressed (like me) about the kids going back to school soon? You learned to share in kindergarten, and now's the time - share your thoughts with me. I love your comments!

No Longer A Pantser

Okay, let's face it: we all came to this earth with different strengths and weaknesses. We have taken some of those strengths and made the very most of them. We've tried to improve our weak points, and if nothing else, accepted that we can't excel in every facet.

I lack organization skills. I do. My brain gets scrambled easily, and so I either make lists to keep myself on track, or I spend days at a time flying by the seat of my pants doing a whole bunch of who-knows-what while accomplishing very little and exhausting myself in the process. (I know that sentence was exhausting, but I don't see why I should be the only one tired around here.)

Anyway, there's a point to all this. I'm seeing a similarity to the way my uncontrolled me lives my non-listed life, and the way I wrote my first novel. Sure I knew my protagonists, my antagonist, and the main conflict, but beyond that, I was a free bird. Flying where ever the wind took me. And guess what, I loved it. It was so much fun. For me - the writer. Turns out it may not be as much fun for the reader. (See step number two in Victoria Mixon's How to Plot Wrong, in 3 Easy Steps .)

I was seriously letting my characters lead me through every adventure while neglecting the fact that I was supposed to be driving my plot every word of the way. Of course there was plenty of 'character development' happening in those scenes, but not all of them were relevant. And here's what I ended up with: a 180,000 word novel. I gradually got it down to 150,000. This is what my test readers reviewed. Still too long. I then managed to kill enough of my darlings to slender it down to a whopping 123,000 words, but it still wasn't enough. I did more research and reading, more growing and learning, and eventually whittled the piece down to where it happily resides at a lovely 89,000 words.

This time I'd like to avoid the nearly 100,000 word detour and stick right with the plot. Did I gain from this experience? Yes. And I wouldn't take it back, but I certainly won't do it again. This time I'm plotting it out. Mapping the direction of my book, scene by scene, to ensure that each part serves its maximum purpose.

Do I still find surprises along the way? Of course! And I'll go with them; luckily my outline is not carved in stone. As a writer, I am forever flexible. But I'm hoping to kick out a better product the first time around.

With all this said, I am not one to say what is right and what is wrong. I've only learned that, for me, it's much better to plot than to fly by the seat of my pants.

So what works for you? Does pantsing serve your writing purpose, or are you a plotter? What about in your everyday life? C'mon, I've told you about me, now I want to hear about you.

My First Writers' Retreat

I just returned from my first-ever writers' retreat, and found it amazingly worthwhile.

In addition to getting some major plotting done (yes, I've been converted), I kicked out a grand total of 18,637 words in three days. That feels amazing!

Our retreat consisted of one giant, cabin-like mansion in the woods, several scrumptious, restaurant-worthy meals, eleven incredible-in-every-way writing chicks, and one exterminator turned hero of the day (long story).
It was such a great time. I'm so glad I went, and I'll definitely go again when the opportunity comes around.


So what about you? Ever been on a Writer's Retreat? Do you dream about going on one?
Ever encounter a sneaky little mouse in a houseful of women? Let's hear it.

I'm on We Do Write!

I have been interviewed by blogger, writer, and over all promoter-of-fellow-authors, Dorothy Dreyer!

 Dorothy uses her awesome blogspot to interview/discuss other writers she has met through social networking. Here's what she says about that:


"At this very moment, future best sellers are being written by people among us. It could be anyone.

It could be you.

I thought I'd take it upon myself to get to know them before they shoot off into stardom, and show my support during their climb."

How cool is that? Writers, this is someone you want to know. 

You can start getting to know her by checking out my interview. (Wow - great idea, right?)

Hope you have a super summer day. Come back tomorrow so we can chat about Writer's Retreats. 

Also, let me know what you think about Dorothy's rockin' blog. Or drop me a note if you've had the great pleasure of enjoying a Krispy Kreme lately; it's been far too long for me.

Where Do You Find the Time?

Finding time to write can be tricky, especially when you're a parent.
I often sneak in a half hour here, or an hour there while the kids are at piano lessons or before they wake up. Now that it's summer, I have them at home with me all day, but I can always write during their designated reading time. I'll sometimes take the kids to the park, bring my lap top and let them play while I write. It's not the most serene environment, but it's something.

Of course,  there are those times when I'll sacrifice my much-needed beauty sleep for those long stretches of fast-typing, completely-in-the-zone, interruption-free writing.
And while I love having those great chunks of time, (I would never finish a book without them), I actually find I can make some pretty decent progress during those little snippets as well. Even if I have to stop right when I'm finally stepping into the character's head. Even if the scene is just beginning to unfold, revealing itself like a hidden mystery bursting into daylight. That's okay because I can muse on it while I go about my day.

When that happens, I'll type a quick summary of the scene, keep the emotions with me throughout a large part of the day, and, of course, take notes along the way of things I do not want to forget. If I fail to bring my notebook, the scribbles end up on random envelopes, crinkled receipts, or the back and or palm of my hand. The important thing, for me anyway, is that I stay with it. And I do it without sacrificing excess amounts of time. For me, it's better to keep the book in my head than skip the whole day all together.
Writing is important to me, but I wait all year for my kids to get out of school (school is such a time hog!), and I want to spend the summer with them once it's finally here.

What about you? Got a method that totally rocks? Have you found the perfect writer-parent balance? Well hurry and share it already; we want to hear!

Coming up sometime in the near future: my 'Query Tracker Premium Membership Giveaway!' Stay tuned for details.

Discovering Your Characters

So I've been reading a lot of your amazing blog posts, and have noticed a bit of a theme over the last week or so: getting into that main character's head.  This was not a problem for me with my first novel. I was there. In it all the way.

But my WIP is a little different. My main character (MC) went through some pretty traumatic, life-altering events early in her life. And though I'm not writing those events into the book, I needed to go through them with her in order to get a good sense of how her past has shaped her. This is what I've been working on.

Then while surfing blogs yesterday, I read someone's comment that really got me thinking. He said that he writes journal entries for the MC before going into the scenes. I stored this away as one of those, "Wow - good idea - I don't want to forget that" things and continued on with my day. (This is why I can't tell you whose blog it was on or who made the comment. Bummer.)

Anyway, later that day I gave it a try. I wrote a journal entry for my MC starting right around the time her life took a sudden twist (when she was about eleven years old). I was amazed at how quickly I connected with her then. In just a short amount of time, I was able to experience this tragedy with her - her fears, her pain, and her hopes for a better tomorrow. These aren't things that will go into the book. Many of the events that take place in these journal entries will never be revealed to the reader at all, but that's okay. We still need to know it in order to know these people better. Why they act the way they do. Why they might be afraid to speak up. Or perhaps why they overreact all the time. You'll figure that out along the way.

I encourage any of you to try this exercise if you're not feeling connected with your MC. For me, it's already making a world of difference.

So what about you? What helps you discover your characters? Don't get stingy on us now; we want to hear.

Art work above by larafairie.j

The Day I Almost Quit

Ever been close to calling it quits?

I have. Very close. See, from the moment I started writing I, like most writers, fell in love with it. So much. Yet I had no idea how difficult it would be to secure an agent and get published.

I haven't shared much about my own journey so far, but here's a piece of it now:
Once I finished writing, editing, revising, shelving and re-editing EVIE'S KNIGHT, I gave it to just over a dozen beta readers. After receiving feedback from them, I went over it one final time, and then started to query.

Querying sucked. A lot.
I got rejection after rejection after rejection, until I got a request. For a full.
That didn't suck; it felt amazing!

But what's funny is I actually thought the agent would read the ENTIRE NOVEL before making a decision. And I was convinced that anyone who read the entire novel would fall in love with it. Of course, agents aren't required to read the whole thing. They could get as far as the synopsis and decide it's not going where they hoped it might and reject it before even getting to the novel. You never know. Not to mention, as any agent will tell you, this is a subjective business. They could read the entire thing, like it but not love it and you've still got a 'no'. But that's all beside the point.

So fast-forward to ... I'm not sure how much later, and I get a rejection stating that though she liked the voice and plot of the novel, she felt it "lacked polish".
POLISH? After I went over it a million times and shelved it and went over it a million more times and had all these beta readers go over it and... (Later I realized she was right, but let's not spoil the mood here.)
I was devastated. And ready to call it quits. Who was I anyway? Some ... twilight-loving, kid raising, not even best grade-getting woman who didn't know a thing about writing until she dedicated sleepless nights and insanely early mornings to a passion that took her by storm and refused to let go. Sure I had a dream. But maybe it just wasn't meant to be.

Writing was time-consuming. And though I loved it, though I couldn't imagine my life without it, I was wondering if I should call it quits. For good. I remember praying about it like, "Okay, is this my answer? Am I just stupidly pursuing something that is never going to happen?"  This is about the time I got a phone call from my dear, sweet mother who sensed the distress in my voice (never mind the hopelessness of my words) and got online to find out what local writers did. Surely there was a place to turn. Somewhere writers like myself could gather, share writing tips, gush about the highs, whine about the lows,  who knows? 
She was right. She discovered a local group that met once a month at a nearby library.
Now here's the kicker - the meeting was that very night. The one night of the month they met. So I went. Even though I didn't really want to. Even though I wouldn't have gone if it had been on any of the other twenty-nine days of that month.

This was a turning point for me. Being around other writers was incredible. Just the vibe in that room invigorated my writer's soul. I came home with a renewed passion, ready to get back on that laptop and do whatever it would take to make that manuscript shine. I also met the amazing women from my critique group (not to mention some super awesome friends) at such meetings.
I continue to learn, grow and renew my passion each time I attend a writer's meeting or conference. And most importantly, even when the going gets - well - straight out brutal, I hang in there and keep on writing. Truth be told, I don't know if I ever had much of a choice. :)

I want to leave you with one of the most fantastic blurbs on querying I have ever, ever read. YOU MUST READ The Ten Phases of Rejection. Best laugh ever.

Okay, so now you know a little something about me. What about you? Have you come close to calling it quits? What helps you stay with it when the writing world gets rough?

Sticking it out!

 

The writer's life isn't exactly what I imagined it would be. Granted, I hadn't given it much thought. But I figured it went something like this: Write a book, get it published. Move onto the next.

For me it all started with an idea. More specifically, the conflict. I went with it, and soon fell in love with everything about writing. 

It's magical, right? Discovering who our characters are. Experiencing the way they come to life and take over. Those payoff moments when pieces start clicking in ways we never saw coming. 

Sort of like the honeymoon phase. For me, anyway.

And then the editing phase comes along. And stays a while. And frankly wears out its damn welcome. The editing phase becomes its own life form. One that moves in, takes over the bed and eats all the food. 

I have literally fallen asleep at the laptop while doing revisions/ edits (more than once), and though I can't be certain, I'm willing to bet it wasn't as pretty as the picture above. I will say that I've learned to appreciate the editing phase though. Because in its own way, it offers a different sort of pay off: polish. 

This is the time to really make our story shine. I think it's easy to get to this point and say, "Meh, I'm sick of this one and I'm really loving my new idea so I'm just going to work on that one for now."

My advice? Don't. Do not move onto the next one unless you're shelving your current work in progress. Don't get into the habit of backing down when the going gets hard. Stick with it, make that thing shine, and then do everything it takes to share it with the world!

Thoughts? Comments? I'd love to hear them.

Damn You, Synopsis!

See that face?

Pretty sure that's what mine looked like during the frustrating stages of writing the dreaded synopsis for my first novel. Okay, so I'm not quite as young as she is, but still.
I can't tell you how many times I'd step away from the keyboard, certain I'd created the perfect summery of the important events in just the right amount of words only to come back and find that I'd actually made a total mess of things.
In the end, I finally came out with something I was happy with, but not before a massive loss of blood, sweat and tears. Well, maybe not the blood, but if I could have made that synopsis bleed...

So is there a better way to do it?



Some say writing the synopsis before writing the book is best. Joanne Rock suggests we do just that in her article, Honing Your Synopsis Skills. (Very helpful article, by the way.)
I didn't have much of an outline when I started my first novel, but when the idea for my second came along (middle of the night, of course!), I got up and wrote the entire synopsis in under ten minutes. Yes, please. Let's do it that way every time. Really. For the love.

What's your experience with the whole synopsis thing? Love it or hate it, we can't avoid it, no matter how many tears we shed.

Are We Doing It Wrong?

How many times have you wondered, as a writer, if you're doing it wrong?

Ever watch Mr. Mom? Remember the part where he tries to do the drop off with the kids at school and the whole time the kids are in the back seat saying, "Daddy, you're doing it wrong." And he's like, "Don't tell me I'm doing it wrong. I know what I'm doing." Meanwhile, there are moms honking and shouting, I think one even flips him the bird. He gets a little further on, is approached by a woman under an umbrella (if my memory is accurate) who knocks on his window, introduces herself and  then says, "You're doing it wrong."
The nice thing about this scenario is that someone was there to tell him (besides his own kids, of course) that he was doing it wrong. She even told him the right way to do it.

Well, writing is an art form. There's no right or wrong way to do it. Right? Maybe. But there are some pitfalls to watch out for. Agent Kristen Nelson of Nelson Literary Agency posted a blog entitled, Culprit: Writing Mechanics. In this piece she tells us of her "Agent Reads The Slush Pile" workshop, where she basically pretends she's at the office, going over the opening two pages of a submission. During the actual workshop someone else reads it aloud, and she speaks up and tells them to "stop" at the point where she would not continue, and then tells them why.
She goes on to say that 99% of what she sees in these workshops is not ready for an agent to read. (Ouch!) When asked if her view was subjective, she allowed for that on some level, but said in these cases, the offenders were universal. She then listed the Top Ten Culprits. Want to know what they are? You're in the right place.

1. Telling instead of showing.
2. Including unnecessary back story.
3. Lose sentence structure that could easily be tightened
4. The use of passive sentence construction.
5. Awkward introduction of character appearance.
6. Awkward descriptions/overly flowery language to depict.
7. Starting the story in the wrong place.
8. Not quite nailing voice in the opening.
9. Dialog that didn’t quite work as hard as it should.
10. A lack of scene tension even if the opening was suppose to be dramatic.


This is one of those blog posts I will go back to time and time again. I hear the list of offenders rambling in my head as I review my work, asking myself one simple question: "Am I doing it wrong?"

Click here to read Kristen Nelson's full post on Culprits: Writing Mechanics. If you'd like to view her blog, go to  http://pubrants.blogspot.com/
Have a favorite blog post you'd like to share? Drop us the link and share the wealth (of knowledge)!