Previously published in the June 7-12 issue of New Times, San Luis Obispo County's News and Entertainment Weekly: 15th annual mini-short story contest, 55-word stories from all over the globe.
Charity's Tragedy
My numbers are 4-7-9-12-23-45. Help me win, God! I promise to help the Wayward Girls Home, AIDS Hospice, the soup kitchen.
God loves generous hearts, hates liars.
Saturday's winning numbers are 4-7-9-12-23-45. $30,000,000!
A bigger home! World travel! A Rolls-Royce! Diamonds! A private jet!
What else?
What else?
by Billie J. Ryan, San Luis Obispo, copyright 2001
Please excuse the irreverance. I'm really not that greedy and unfeeling. It's fiction =)
9/12/10
When Is It Time to Clear the Desktop?
Or more importantly, when does an aspiring writer throw away all the old queries, synopses, manuscript submissions, rejection letters, requests for submission, etc. etc. etc. and start collecting new ones?
I just took a look in my file cabinet (it's a pretty big one) and I had one full (deep) drawer jam-packed with query letters, submission letters, replies, requests for submission, synopses, partial manuscripts, rejection letters, contest entries, etc. etc. etc. Many were more than ten years old.
Since I decided to make a new start with my stories, and I've already begun revising the manuscripts for two of my currently unpublished novels, it's time to think about new synopses, query blurbs and queries, and get some file folders ready to hold copies of them. Time to start building a new "history."
Get ready, shredder, here comes a load of paper.
How about you? Are you still keeping old "stuff" that can be thrown away (recycled)? The longer you keep the old stuff, the more difficult it will be to toss out the old manuscript and begin anew with the same story ... but a much better version. Clear the file cabinet, clear the desktop, recycle the mind. Begin anew. Write a better story. Revise a manuscript. Reach for the stars.
I just took a look in my file cabinet (it's a pretty big one) and I had one full (deep) drawer jam-packed with query letters, submission letters, replies, requests for submission, synopses, partial manuscripts, rejection letters, contest entries, etc. etc. etc. Many were more than ten years old.
Since I decided to make a new start with my stories, and I've already begun revising the manuscripts for two of my currently unpublished novels, it's time to think about new synopses, query blurbs and queries, and get some file folders ready to hold copies of them. Time to start building a new "history."
Get ready, shredder, here comes a load of paper.
How about you? Are you still keeping old "stuff" that can be thrown away (recycled)? The longer you keep the old stuff, the more difficult it will be to toss out the old manuscript and begin anew with the same story ... but a much better version. Clear the file cabinet, clear the desktop, recycle the mind. Begin anew. Write a better story. Revise a manuscript. Reach for the stars.
8/23/10
Does Writers' Block Exist?
Yes, it's a question. I keep hearing this term: writers' block. But it's like so many things that have no form or substance, things that are only ideas, concepts ... sometimes euphemisms for something else.
But here's what I've concluded about writers' block. It's just the term given to one side of the writing cycle (I'll call it the ebb and flow) ... the ebb side, when time seems to go in reverse and thoughts that were previously flowing smoothly from the writer's mind to his fingertips and onto the paper (or the computer screen) suddenly stop.
I often get a visualization of an experience. Meaning, I attach a picture to a set of words that my mind formulates when I experience something, be it physical, emotional, psychological. So, when I experience the stoppage of words onto the page in whatever project I'm working on, I think of the first time I visited San Felipe in Baja California.
I'd never seen the Sea of Cortes before; nor had anyone ever described it to me. Therefore, I found it quite remarkable to arrive when the tide was in and blue-green water filled the gulf to almost overflowing. It was a panorama of brilliant color as far as the eye could see, and I felt as though I were looking at a massive ocean sans waves at the shoreline. But what was more remarkable was seeing the same shoreline hours later after the tide had gone out, and now all I could see was sand dotted here and there with small pools of water. I estimated that if I began walking out toward the sea, I would walk a mile or more before reaching the water.
That picture is what I see inside of myself as I live my personal writing experience. One day the tide is in and my fingers fly over the keyboard as the words that fill me to overflowing rush to get on the page. And for a while, it seems as though time stops while I write and write and write, thinking of nothing else. Then, without warning, the tide turns. Soon nothing comes from my mind. Nothing flows onto the page. And when I look, there's nothing but sand as far as the eye can see, nothing but a blank page with no words upon it, nothing but a blank mind with no words in it.
Using the Sea of Cortes metaphor, the tide always turns. I just wait for the next inward flow that comes as surely as the sun comes up each morning. Then, once again, it's blue-green water from shore to horizon, and the words again begin to flow onto the page.
So, I ask my question again: Does writers' block exist?
I say no. A writers' life consists of ebbs and flows, slow times, fast times, words coming easily, words seeming to stop. But nothing ever stays the same. Everything is temporary. Change always happens. A writer can only learn to see the trends in his own writing experience. Go with the flow; go with the ebb. Wait for the tide to turn.
But here's what I've concluded about writers' block. It's just the term given to one side of the writing cycle (I'll call it the ebb and flow) ... the ebb side, when time seems to go in reverse and thoughts that were previously flowing smoothly from the writer's mind to his fingertips and onto the paper (or the computer screen) suddenly stop.
I often get a visualization of an experience. Meaning, I attach a picture to a set of words that my mind formulates when I experience something, be it physical, emotional, psychological. So, when I experience the stoppage of words onto the page in whatever project I'm working on, I think of the first time I visited San Felipe in Baja California.
I'd never seen the Sea of Cortes before; nor had anyone ever described it to me. Therefore, I found it quite remarkable to arrive when the tide was in and blue-green water filled the gulf to almost overflowing. It was a panorama of brilliant color as far as the eye could see, and I felt as though I were looking at a massive ocean sans waves at the shoreline. But what was more remarkable was seeing the same shoreline hours later after the tide had gone out, and now all I could see was sand dotted here and there with small pools of water. I estimated that if I began walking out toward the sea, I would walk a mile or more before reaching the water.
That picture is what I see inside of myself as I live my personal writing experience. One day the tide is in and my fingers fly over the keyboard as the words that fill me to overflowing rush to get on the page. And for a while, it seems as though time stops while I write and write and write, thinking of nothing else. Then, without warning, the tide turns. Soon nothing comes from my mind. Nothing flows onto the page. And when I look, there's nothing but sand as far as the eye can see, nothing but a blank page with no words upon it, nothing but a blank mind with no words in it.
Using the Sea of Cortes metaphor, the tide always turns. I just wait for the next inward flow that comes as surely as the sun comes up each morning. Then, once again, it's blue-green water from shore to horizon, and the words again begin to flow onto the page.
So, I ask my question again: Does writers' block exist?
I say no. A writers' life consists of ebbs and flows, slow times, fast times, words coming easily, words seeming to stop. But nothing ever stays the same. Everything is temporary. Change always happens. A writer can only learn to see the trends in his own writing experience. Go with the flow; go with the ebb. Wait for the tide to turn.
7/25/10
e-Books
Check this out. http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/books/id364709193?mt=8 If you have an iPhone or iPad (and lucky you!) Apple has a FREE app called iBooks, where you can purchase all your fave e-books. It's a great e-reader, pages turn (just like a real book - lol), and even on the iPhone's screen, the books are very readable. Lots of "extras".
7/15/10
Point of View, Memoir, and the Saga Goes On ...
I promised to update my POV problem, and how I'm solving it. Today, I'm far into the rewrite of a particular story, and find it cannot be told in fewer than three points of view.
Sometimes a story must be told in multiple points of view. That doesn't mean we can allow ourselves to get carried away and turn multiple into multitudes. Just think about a group of people gathered at a funeral who want to tell anecdotes about the deceased to relate the most wonderful moments of his life. As you listen to the deceased's friends and family who troop up to the pulpit one after another, many of the stories intertwine. That's right, one person will repeat what another has already expressed. Sure, with a slightly different twist. And one version is going to be better than another. So, that's the point. One version is better than another. And let's face it, if many friends and family tell the story, repeating bits and pieces, the event gets to be boring, and you might fall asleep. What you want to hear about is a completely different part of this person's life, told freshly and with excitement and passion.
To put this into your writing, listen to the crowd of characters in your story as they tell the tale. Listen well, and pick out those who are telling the same story ... then pick the best version and relate that part of the story in one character's point of view. Keep whittling the multitude of POV down until you have a workable number ... preferably no more than three for a novel-length story.
You can always pick the outsider to tell the story, as Fitzgerald did in The Great Gatsby, especially if the MC has gone on to the great beyond, which means he cannot tell his own story. But sometimes you, the author, know that the story cannot be full and rich unless part of it is told in the MC's point of view. This because every person is really three personalities. We are: first, the person we believe we are; second, the person who others believe we are; third, the person we think others believe we are.
How did I solve my problem? I chose three points of view: first POV, the main character who tells his story as he believes he is and how he thinks others believe him to be; second POV, the outsider who loves the main character and can tell part of his story as she sees the main character through the eyes of love; and third POV? Okay, I did have to have that third person. It's a mystery, so I had to have a detective. He's my third POV character.
But one other thing, if you will allow me to offer some advice. Your readers are going to have more difficulty getting attached to a character because they will be jumping from his head to two others (if like me you get your cast of characters down to three). I strongly recommend that you start your story with your main character and give him lots of space on the page before you leave him and jump into your next character's point of view. I can't give you a formula, but in my 90,000-word novel I give my main character 4,000 words before I jump into another character's point of view. This allows my readers to get well acquainted with that character, to know what is important to him, what some of his strengths and weaknesses are, what he wants to achieve, and the beginning of what or whom is going to try to prevent him from reaching his goal.
One last thing. Play fair with your readers. As soon as you establish the order in which you present your three characters, for example: John is character A, Mary is character B, and Homer is character C, maintain that structure throughout the book. And never leave one out. The entire book should read: A-B-C, A-B-C, A-B-C. If you change the routine and throw A-B-C, A-B-C, A-C at them, they'll stop reading and try to figure out what happened to B.
Sometimes a story must be told in multiple points of view. That doesn't mean we can allow ourselves to get carried away and turn multiple into multitudes. Just think about a group of people gathered at a funeral who want to tell anecdotes about the deceased to relate the most wonderful moments of his life. As you listen to the deceased's friends and family who troop up to the pulpit one after another, many of the stories intertwine. That's right, one person will repeat what another has already expressed. Sure, with a slightly different twist. And one version is going to be better than another. So, that's the point. One version is better than another. And let's face it, if many friends and family tell the story, repeating bits and pieces, the event gets to be boring, and you might fall asleep. What you want to hear about is a completely different part of this person's life, told freshly and with excitement and passion.
To put this into your writing, listen to the crowd of characters in your story as they tell the tale. Listen well, and pick out those who are telling the same story ... then pick the best version and relate that part of the story in one character's point of view. Keep whittling the multitude of POV down until you have a workable number ... preferably no more than three for a novel-length story.
You can always pick the outsider to tell the story, as Fitzgerald did in The Great Gatsby, especially if the MC has gone on to the great beyond, which means he cannot tell his own story. But sometimes you, the author, know that the story cannot be full and rich unless part of it is told in the MC's point of view. This because every person is really three personalities. We are: first, the person we believe we are; second, the person who others believe we are; third, the person we think others believe we are.
How did I solve my problem? I chose three points of view: first POV, the main character who tells his story as he believes he is and how he thinks others believe him to be; second POV, the outsider who loves the main character and can tell part of his story as she sees the main character through the eyes of love; and third POV? Okay, I did have to have that third person. It's a mystery, so I had to have a detective. He's my third POV character.
But one other thing, if you will allow me to offer some advice. Your readers are going to have more difficulty getting attached to a character because they will be jumping from his head to two others (if like me you get your cast of characters down to three). I strongly recommend that you start your story with your main character and give him lots of space on the page before you leave him and jump into your next character's point of view. I can't give you a formula, but in my 90,000-word novel I give my main character 4,000 words before I jump into another character's point of view. This allows my readers to get well acquainted with that character, to know what is important to him, what some of his strengths and weaknesses are, what he wants to achieve, and the beginning of what or whom is going to try to prevent him from reaching his goal.
One last thing. Play fair with your readers. As soon as you establish the order in which you present your three characters, for example: John is character A, Mary is character B, and Homer is character C, maintain that structure throughout the book. And never leave one out. The entire book should read: A-B-C, A-B-C, A-B-C. If you change the routine and throw A-B-C, A-B-C, A-C at them, they'll stop reading and try to figure out what happened to B.
6/30/10
Memoir of an Author, or ... Searching for my Point of View
Some authors may never have this wonderful experience.
That can be good or bad, depending on your point of view. And therein lies the essence of this memoir ... and the problem.
Every story worth telling must be told in the right point of view. So, what is the right point of view?
First, I cannot decide for you.
Second, since I've recused myself, I can be free to present my case: The Memoir of an Author, or ... Searching for my Point of View.
I wrote my first novel sans knowledge of craft. I merely sat down and ... no, that's not exactly how it happened. What happened was, I was getting ready to go to work one morning and, as usual, the TV was on in another room. I had the habit of stopping in the doorway now and then to see a newscast or watch a program (another way of procrastinating during those final days before retirement when the last thing I wanted to do was go to work). On this particular morning, a program called Life Styles of the Rich and Famous (Robin Leach) was on the TV. Leach was interviewing some publishers and Romance Novelists. What I noticed expecially was the near-drooling of the publishers when they spoke of the money they were earning as well as the profits for successful romance novels (though not as much for them).
Visualizing that money and thinking of retirement, I heard myself saying aloud, "I can do that."
And that night after I got home from work, that's exactly what I did. I sat down and wrote the most awful romance novel in the history of writing. I sent it off to a publisher and, surprisingly, received an encouraging rejection letter in short order.
I fiddled around with a couple more romance plots, then realized I'd better read some romance novels to see what other authors did. I bought a few off the supermarket shelf and found I didn't like romance novels. (Over the years, I'd been a reader of every genre, but eventually found I was reading mostly mystery genre ... never romance.) Unsure what to write next, my spouse woke up one morning and related the dream he'd had during the night. I made a few changes in location, then proceeded to write the novel, completing it in a few months. It was a lovely story, actually a love story, in the manner of Luc Besson's film, The Professional, being a love story.
But it wasn't quite right. So, I spent a number of years studying craft, and completed two other book-length works of fiction while that first one sat in a file cabinet. From time to time, I took it out and worked it over. But I never knew what caused it to be "not quite right."
Then two years ago, my latest version of that novel made the rounds in an elite writers' group. I say elite because the majority of the authors are published, and they really know "craft." And I received the best advice I've ever received anywhere, be it another author, blog, or how-to book. The story is great, but your point of view is all over the place. Or, something like that.
So, for the past two years I've been searching for my point of view. Meanwhile, I wrote another novel. Being one of those authors who works on more than one project at a time, I found myself picking up that first novel and giving it a go. Each time, I tried a new point of view character (I'd reached a point in my writing career where I believed a book should contain no more than two point of view characters). And each time, after I was a few chapters into the book, I realized that it just wasn't working with the point of view character I'd chosen. Mostly because the story became something other than what I'd originally written when told in this new point of view. Not fretting, I simply put the book away and worked on something else.
And that brings me to today ... or actually yesterday.
Yesterday I had one of those supernatural epiphanies that authors like to speak of. And finally, I knew. I'd been right the first time. I'd chosen the right point of view character in my very first iteration. It was his story, after all. Then, it was just a matter of changing all the other point of view chapters to his point of view. Simple.
Maybe not.
But all I can do now is put my theory to the test. So, here I am, resurrecting the manuscript that went through the elite writers' group critique session, and I've just begun to rewrite it. Of necessity, it requires two point of view characters, both major to the story. All the rest will have their stories told by new people: the man whose story it is and the woman whose life is most affected by that man.
I'll let you know how it turns out.
That can be good or bad, depending on your point of view. And therein lies the essence of this memoir ... and the problem.
Every story worth telling must be told in the right point of view. So, what is the right point of view?
First, I cannot decide for you.
Second, since I've recused myself, I can be free to present my case: The Memoir of an Author, or ... Searching for my Point of View.
I wrote my first novel sans knowledge of craft. I merely sat down and ... no, that's not exactly how it happened. What happened was, I was getting ready to go to work one morning and, as usual, the TV was on in another room. I had the habit of stopping in the doorway now and then to see a newscast or watch a program (another way of procrastinating during those final days before retirement when the last thing I wanted to do was go to work). On this particular morning, a program called Life Styles of the Rich and Famous (Robin Leach) was on the TV. Leach was interviewing some publishers and Romance Novelists. What I noticed expecially was the near-drooling of the publishers when they spoke of the money they were earning as well as the profits for successful romance novels (though not as much for them).
Visualizing that money and thinking of retirement, I heard myself saying aloud, "I can do that."
And that night after I got home from work, that's exactly what I did. I sat down and wrote the most awful romance novel in the history of writing. I sent it off to a publisher and, surprisingly, received an encouraging rejection letter in short order.
I fiddled around with a couple more romance plots, then realized I'd better read some romance novels to see what other authors did. I bought a few off the supermarket shelf and found I didn't like romance novels. (Over the years, I'd been a reader of every genre, but eventually found I was reading mostly mystery genre ... never romance.) Unsure what to write next, my spouse woke up one morning and related the dream he'd had during the night. I made a few changes in location, then proceeded to write the novel, completing it in a few months. It was a lovely story, actually a love story, in the manner of Luc Besson's film, The Professional, being a love story.
But it wasn't quite right. So, I spent a number of years studying craft, and completed two other book-length works of fiction while that first one sat in a file cabinet. From time to time, I took it out and worked it over. But I never knew what caused it to be "not quite right."
Then two years ago, my latest version of that novel made the rounds in an elite writers' group. I say elite because the majority of the authors are published, and they really know "craft." And I received the best advice I've ever received anywhere, be it another author, blog, or how-to book. The story is great, but your point of view is all over the place. Or, something like that.
So, for the past two years I've been searching for my point of view. Meanwhile, I wrote another novel. Being one of those authors who works on more than one project at a time, I found myself picking up that first novel and giving it a go. Each time, I tried a new point of view character (I'd reached a point in my writing career where I believed a book should contain no more than two point of view characters). And each time, after I was a few chapters into the book, I realized that it just wasn't working with the point of view character I'd chosen. Mostly because the story became something other than what I'd originally written when told in this new point of view. Not fretting, I simply put the book away and worked on something else.
And that brings me to today ... or actually yesterday.
Yesterday I had one of those supernatural epiphanies that authors like to speak of. And finally, I knew. I'd been right the first time. I'd chosen the right point of view character in my very first iteration. It was his story, after all. Then, it was just a matter of changing all the other point of view chapters to his point of view. Simple.
Maybe not.
But all I can do now is put my theory to the test. So, here I am, resurrecting the manuscript that went through the elite writers' group critique session, and I've just begun to rewrite it. Of necessity, it requires two point of view characters, both major to the story. All the rest will have their stories told by new people: the man whose story it is and the woman whose life is most affected by that man.
I'll let you know how it turns out.
6/27/10
Left Brain Authors v. Right Brain Authors
It occurred to me when posting my article about the effect music has on authors as they write ... that left-brain authors might write differently from right-brain authors simply because they process information differently. I'm going to give this subject some thought (passing it through both sides of my brain, LOL), and I wonder what other's think.
Is it possible that more mystery fiction is written by left-brain authors since logic comes into play in plotting a mystery? And fantasy and sci-fi authors are more often right-brained and therefore able to create such vivid and unreal characters and setting?
Since I know I'm ambidextrous brain-wise (meaning, I use both sides of my brain equally), is that why I write in a variety of genre from mystery to literary? Does it also mean that when writing mysteries, I have to force myself to think with my left brain, while keeping my right brain quiet? And vice versa?
I also know that in general, more people have one dominant sense, such as: sight, and their brains process information through that single sense. But what about people who process information through a number of senses equally, such as: sight, sound, smell? Do authors who have a dominant sense write in one specific genre? And do authors who use more than one sense write in a variety of genre? Or when writing in any given genre, do authors with a dominant sense more often express that sense in their writing? While authors who process multiple senses equally (is it called being multiphasic?) express many senses throughout their writing?
I'm interested in others' opinions.
Is it possible that more mystery fiction is written by left-brain authors since logic comes into play in plotting a mystery? And fantasy and sci-fi authors are more often right-brained and therefore able to create such vivid and unreal characters and setting?
Since I know I'm ambidextrous brain-wise (meaning, I use both sides of my brain equally), is that why I write in a variety of genre from mystery to literary? Does it also mean that when writing mysteries, I have to force myself to think with my left brain, while keeping my right brain quiet? And vice versa?
I also know that in general, more people have one dominant sense, such as: sight, and their brains process information through that single sense. But what about people who process information through a number of senses equally, such as: sight, sound, smell? Do authors who have a dominant sense write in one specific genre? And do authors who use more than one sense write in a variety of genre? Or when writing in any given genre, do authors with a dominant sense more often express that sense in their writing? While authors who process multiple senses equally (is it called being multiphasic?) express many senses throughout their writing?
I'm interested in others' opinions.
6/25/10
Music, and its effect on fiction writing and fiction writers
Maybe music is something you'd rather think about when you're cooking dinner or when you're getting ready to go to work (if you still do that) or when you're outside watering the roses and zinnias and petunias. It doesn't get much better than listening to your favorite tunes while you spritz the flower garden and look up at the blue sky (if you live in the country) and watch clouds scudding by.
But what if you're sitting at your computer, writing?
I think (and remember, I'm saying I think) whether listening to music benefits your work or detracts from it depends if you're right or left brained (or maybe you're one of those fortunate people who uses both left and right sides equally ... one who is ambidextrous brain-wise).
If your muse dwells in the left side of your brain, chances are you prefer to leave the radio and the iPod turned off while you're writing. Any outside noise probably distracts you and keeps you from concentrating. Chances are, if you listen to music, you wind up playing computer Solitaire or reading your Facebook page (or even submitting a brief post).
If your muse dwells in the right side of your brain, chance are you work more efficiently if your efforts are accompanied by music. The more familiar the music is, whether rock or classic, the more efficient your work; music you've not heard before might interfere, but only slightly. You're not likely to take your hands from the keyboard, put them in your lap while you sing-along, or wave them in the air if the music is Bizet's Carmen Suite No. 1 with Leonard Bernstein conducting.
But the best possible scenario is if you use the left and right sides of your brain equally. If that's the case, then turn on the boom-box as loud as it will go. Your writing is going to be Pulitzer Prize stuff if your fingers move on the keyboard to the beat of Elton John or Luiz Miguel or, better yet, Francis Albert Sinatra singing a duet with Antonio Carlos Jobim.
And that's my take on the subject.
But what if you're sitting at your computer, writing?
I think (and remember, I'm saying I think) whether listening to music benefits your work or detracts from it depends if you're right or left brained (or maybe you're one of those fortunate people who uses both left and right sides equally ... one who is ambidextrous brain-wise).
If your muse dwells in the left side of your brain, chances are you prefer to leave the radio and the iPod turned off while you're writing. Any outside noise probably distracts you and keeps you from concentrating. Chances are, if you listen to music, you wind up playing computer Solitaire or reading your Facebook page (or even submitting a brief post).
If your muse dwells in the right side of your brain, chance are you work more efficiently if your efforts are accompanied by music. The more familiar the music is, whether rock or classic, the more efficient your work; music you've not heard before might interfere, but only slightly. You're not likely to take your hands from the keyboard, put them in your lap while you sing-along, or wave them in the air if the music is Bizet's Carmen Suite No. 1 with Leonard Bernstein conducting.
But the best possible scenario is if you use the left and right sides of your brain equally. If that's the case, then turn on the boom-box as loud as it will go. Your writing is going to be Pulitzer Prize stuff if your fingers move on the keyboard to the beat of Elton John or Luiz Miguel or, better yet, Francis Albert Sinatra singing a duet with Antonio Carlos Jobim.
And that's my take on the subject.
6/24/10
What does Technology have to do with it?
Remember when they said computers would do away with paper?
If that's true, why am I sitting here looking at two cases of copy paper I just bought? Actually, it's two cases, less four reams. Those four reams are in a plastic bag waiting to be toted out to the trash bin so they can be hauled away to our local landfill. And I wonder ... after all the trash from my neighborhood reaches that landfill, and just the act of dumping rips many of the bags open, will the air be filled with swirling 8-1/2 x 11 sheets of paper (printed one side only) soaring ever upward like a kettle of turkey vultures circling in warm air currents, until finally the sky over the landfill looks like a snowstorm that obstinately decided to fall upward instead of down to earth?
So, here I sit, contemplating technology and how it's helped me as an author ... while my fingertips tap my computer keyboard and the computer waits patiently for me to send this post around the world in ... what ... two seconds? And while my fingers tap out this message, I listen to Michael Buble on an iPhone that's running by magic called WiFi (and those little WiFi lights on something called a Router blink to the beat of the music) ... while I realize that technology has gone so far beyond my understanding ... and for some strange reason, I still try to understand it.
Well, the easy answer is: technology has made my life as an author possible. I don't think I would have enjoyed, or even participated in, the kind of authorial life that, say, Tolstoy, enjoyed.
Every day, writing becomes simpler. I can sit at my desktop computer with it's mammoth monitor that makes viewing my work easier on the eyes, and for those who didn't learn to type as long ago as I did (when the typing teacher walked around the room with a ruler to make sure each typist had her wrists fairly rigid, keeping the line between hand and arm nearly straight), well, those poor typists who've developed carpal tunnel syndrome, technology has helped by creating keyboard pads. Not to mention the ergonomic chairs we lucky author-typists sit in.
I remember the first version of Word I ever used. It ran on a DOS-PC, where the monitor was a green or yellow screen, and to use the word processor required switching 5-inch floppy disks between the two diskette drives because there wasn't room on the 20 megabyte hard drive to load any programs. Windows users don't know how good they've got it. (Okay, you're probably saying, I sound like your father telling you how he used to walk to and from school every day and it was uphill in both directions.)
Well, when an author has walked those two-directional hills, and today uses Word 2007 on a desktop PC with a hard drive that stores so much stuff it might as well be called a Pantry, that author is likely to think technology is a really, really good thing. Funny, though, this author also has a laptop for those times when the desktop PC is inconvenient (traveling, sitting on the porch at sunset, editing stories while watching Dancing With The Stars on TV), and this author also has a Mini-laptop when the regular-sized laptop is inconvenient (ditto above parenthetical), and this author has also discovered that, in a pinch, small bits of writing can be done on the iPhone Notes App (since it's possible to email those Notes back to any of the above computers).
Or maybe, when considering how technology has helped me as an author, time and not technology is what I'm really considering. You know what I mean? When an author reaches maturity (and I mean age-wise, not writing-wise), it's just a matter of looking back at where we've come from. Technology-wise, I've come from the Stone Age. And I'm ever so grateful.
Uh-oh, that's my iPhone beeping me to remind me it's time to get back to work on my novel.
If that's true, why am I sitting here looking at two cases of copy paper I just bought? Actually, it's two cases, less four reams. Those four reams are in a plastic bag waiting to be toted out to the trash bin so they can be hauled away to our local landfill. And I wonder ... after all the trash from my neighborhood reaches that landfill, and just the act of dumping rips many of the bags open, will the air be filled with swirling 8-1/2 x 11 sheets of paper (printed one side only) soaring ever upward like a kettle of turkey vultures circling in warm air currents, until finally the sky over the landfill looks like a snowstorm that obstinately decided to fall upward instead of down to earth?
So, here I sit, contemplating technology and how it's helped me as an author ... while my fingertips tap my computer keyboard and the computer waits patiently for me to send this post around the world in ... what ... two seconds? And while my fingers tap out this message, I listen to Michael Buble on an iPhone that's running by magic called WiFi (and those little WiFi lights on something called a Router blink to the beat of the music) ... while I realize that technology has gone so far beyond my understanding ... and for some strange reason, I still try to understand it.
Well, the easy answer is: technology has made my life as an author possible. I don't think I would have enjoyed, or even participated in, the kind of authorial life that, say, Tolstoy, enjoyed.
Every day, writing becomes simpler. I can sit at my desktop computer with it's mammoth monitor that makes viewing my work easier on the eyes, and for those who didn't learn to type as long ago as I did (when the typing teacher walked around the room with a ruler to make sure each typist had her wrists fairly rigid, keeping the line between hand and arm nearly straight), well, those poor typists who've developed carpal tunnel syndrome, technology has helped by creating keyboard pads. Not to mention the ergonomic chairs we lucky author-typists sit in.
I remember the first version of Word I ever used. It ran on a DOS-PC, where the monitor was a green or yellow screen, and to use the word processor required switching 5-inch floppy disks between the two diskette drives because there wasn't room on the 20 megabyte hard drive to load any programs. Windows users don't know how good they've got it. (Okay, you're probably saying, I sound like your father telling you how he used to walk to and from school every day and it was uphill in both directions.)
Well, when an author has walked those two-directional hills, and today uses Word 2007 on a desktop PC with a hard drive that stores so much stuff it might as well be called a Pantry, that author is likely to think technology is a really, really good thing. Funny, though, this author also has a laptop for those times when the desktop PC is inconvenient (traveling, sitting on the porch at sunset, editing stories while watching Dancing With The Stars on TV), and this author also has a Mini-laptop when the regular-sized laptop is inconvenient (ditto above parenthetical), and this author has also discovered that, in a pinch, small bits of writing can be done on the iPhone Notes App (since it's possible to email those Notes back to any of the above computers).
Or maybe, when considering how technology has helped me as an author, time and not technology is what I'm really considering. You know what I mean? When an author reaches maturity (and I mean age-wise, not writing-wise), it's just a matter of looking back at where we've come from. Technology-wise, I've come from the Stone Age. And I'm ever so grateful.
Uh-oh, that's my iPhone beeping me to remind me it's time to get back to work on my novel.
6/23/10
How Important is Word Count?
The subject of word count is important to an unpublished novelist. And remember, we're talking manuscript word count here. The publisher will translate word count from manuscript to printed book. But, how important is word count?
I think word count is something to consider while a book is still in the planning stage. You don't plan? You just write? Even then, an author must (and I use the word must advisedly) give some thought to word count. Notice I don't say, he must adhere to any suggested word count formula. I do say, he must give some thought to word count.
That sounds a bit ambiguous? Well, to clarify, I suggest that any author would not want to spend thousands of solitary hours (maybe years) in front of his computer pouring his heart into a novel, then be told by the first agent he submits his work to that the story is too long.
That happened to me.
I could have taken the prize for Newbie of the Century. I knew nothing about writing, except that I wanted to do it, and I had a story to tell. And, yes, I often awoke in the middle of the night, toiled over my novel from 1 a.m. to 4 a.m., grabbed another hour of sleep, then got up and went to work, came home, toiled for a couple of hours, went to bed, then got up again in the middle of the night ... for almost a year. When my novel was complete, I started querying agents (always including the page count: 126,000 words). One or two encouraged me by asking to read a few chapters. Then, one day, an east coast agent asked me to submit the complete manuscript. A month later, I received a heart-stopping two-page letter from the agent who said, "Your story is so close to being wonderful that I'm almost considering going against our agency's policy and taking on your book as-is, but . . ."
Take a deep breath here.
In the next paragraph or two of that heady letter, the agent told me 126,000 words was much longer than any publisher would consider from a previously unpublished author, and for my novel to be considered, it would have to be shaved to a maximum of 90,000 words.
Can't do the math?
I had to cut 36,000 words from my manuscript. But how?
The agent gave me the formula. Cut anything that does not: (1) move the plot forward or (2) develop character.
That's just great. Remember, I said I was a newbie in the writing arena. How green was I? I was so green, the EPA could have used me as its poster child.
What is moving plot forward? What develops character? Hmmmm, I thought for one nanosecond, maybe I ought to step back and take a look at what this thing is that everyone calls craft.
I didn't.
I was too thrilled that an agent was about to sign me up and would get my book published to do anything sensible like studying the craft of writing. Certainly I wasn't going to try to find out how to give myself a better chance at this game. Oh, and one other thing, this was the early 1990's. The Internet was as new a word and concept to the general public as was the word freeway in the 1950's. My gosh, I was writing on a computer that had a green screen (pre-Windows), used 5-inch floppy disks (and they really were flexible), and had a huge 20 megabyte hard drive. (OMG, I have a flash drive that's triple that size.) I mean, if this happened today, an author could glean mountains of ideas and suggestions and expert advice about this and any other subject on the Internet.
But this was the 90's. So, I started cutting. And I did wind up with a novel that maxed out at 85,000 words. But it wasn't the same story. I'd cut one character out entirely. But I'd slashed so deeply into the characters' hearts and minds, the story was left with a lifeless narrative and dialogue that made no sense. The smaller manuscript was resoundingly rejected.
And that brings me back to the dilemma and oft-asked question: how important is word count?
My answer: It might not be important at all.
Oh brother, you're probably saying. That's a big help.
Well, here's my assessment of the word count dilemma. If your prose is so beautiful and your plot so intriguing and unusual and your characters so fully developed that an agent or publisher cannot resist your novel, then the manuscript's word count is truly unimportant. If, on the other hand, you've not mastered the craft of writing and your plot is humdrum and not at all unusual and your characters are cardboard cutouts, then word count might be ... well, even then, word count is unimportant.
But if you still want to add word count to your list of things to adhere to, then go to the websites of a variety of agents and publishers and check out writing competitions (like AWP) and review their submission requirements. Each will give minimums and maximums for different genre. Example: many say an average novel contains 60,000 to 80,000 words. The average mystery maxes out at 65,000; the average thriller at 80,000 to 90,000; while category romance maxes at 55,000; sci-fi and fantasy at 130,000. That AWP competition, by the way, defines a book length novel as containing at least 60,000 words.
Remember, these are guidelines.
But you know what I find interesting? As a newbie, all my novels were long, long, long. Today, seventeen years after I first took up writing fiction, I have a hard time maxing out a novel at the minimum word count for my genre. Go figure.
I think word count is something to consider while a book is still in the planning stage. You don't plan? You just write? Even then, an author must (and I use the word must advisedly) give some thought to word count. Notice I don't say, he must adhere to any suggested word count formula. I do say, he must give some thought to word count.
That sounds a bit ambiguous? Well, to clarify, I suggest that any author would not want to spend thousands of solitary hours (maybe years) in front of his computer pouring his heart into a novel, then be told by the first agent he submits his work to that the story is too long.
That happened to me.
I could have taken the prize for Newbie of the Century. I knew nothing about writing, except that I wanted to do it, and I had a story to tell. And, yes, I often awoke in the middle of the night, toiled over my novel from 1 a.m. to 4 a.m., grabbed another hour of sleep, then got up and went to work, came home, toiled for a couple of hours, went to bed, then got up again in the middle of the night ... for almost a year. When my novel was complete, I started querying agents (always including the page count: 126,000 words). One or two encouraged me by asking to read a few chapters. Then, one day, an east coast agent asked me to submit the complete manuscript. A month later, I received a heart-stopping two-page letter from the agent who said, "Your story is so close to being wonderful that I'm almost considering going against our agency's policy and taking on your book as-is, but . . ."
Take a deep breath here.
In the next paragraph or two of that heady letter, the agent told me 126,000 words was much longer than any publisher would consider from a previously unpublished author, and for my novel to be considered, it would have to be shaved to a maximum of 90,000 words.
Can't do the math?
I had to cut 36,000 words from my manuscript. But how?
The agent gave me the formula. Cut anything that does not: (1) move the plot forward or (2) develop character.
That's just great. Remember, I said I was a newbie in the writing arena. How green was I? I was so green, the EPA could have used me as its poster child.
What is moving plot forward? What develops character? Hmmmm, I thought for one nanosecond, maybe I ought to step back and take a look at what this thing is that everyone calls craft.
I didn't.
I was too thrilled that an agent was about to sign me up and would get my book published to do anything sensible like studying the craft of writing. Certainly I wasn't going to try to find out how to give myself a better chance at this game. Oh, and one other thing, this was the early 1990's. The Internet was as new a word and concept to the general public as was the word freeway in the 1950's. My gosh, I was writing on a computer that had a green screen (pre-Windows), used 5-inch floppy disks (and they really were flexible), and had a huge 20 megabyte hard drive. (OMG, I have a flash drive that's triple that size.) I mean, if this happened today, an author could glean mountains of ideas and suggestions and expert advice about this and any other subject on the Internet.
But this was the 90's. So, I started cutting. And I did wind up with a novel that maxed out at 85,000 words. But it wasn't the same story. I'd cut one character out entirely. But I'd slashed so deeply into the characters' hearts and minds, the story was left with a lifeless narrative and dialogue that made no sense. The smaller manuscript was resoundingly rejected.
And that brings me back to the dilemma and oft-asked question: how important is word count?
My answer: It might not be important at all.
Oh brother, you're probably saying. That's a big help.
Well, here's my assessment of the word count dilemma. If your prose is so beautiful and your plot so intriguing and unusual and your characters so fully developed that an agent or publisher cannot resist your novel, then the manuscript's word count is truly unimportant. If, on the other hand, you've not mastered the craft of writing and your plot is humdrum and not at all unusual and your characters are cardboard cutouts, then word count might be ... well, even then, word count is unimportant.
But if you still want to add word count to your list of things to adhere to, then go to the websites of a variety of agents and publishers and check out writing competitions (like AWP) and review their submission requirements. Each will give minimums and maximums for different genre. Example: many say an average novel contains 60,000 to 80,000 words. The average mystery maxes out at 65,000; the average thriller at 80,000 to 90,000; while category romance maxes at 55,000; sci-fi and fantasy at 130,000. That AWP competition, by the way, defines a book length novel as containing at least 60,000 words.
Remember, these are guidelines.
But you know what I find interesting? As a newbie, all my novels were long, long, long. Today, seventeen years after I first took up writing fiction, I have a hard time maxing out a novel at the minimum word count for my genre. Go figure.
6/22/10
Writing Description, and the sense of smell
Yes, there are five senses, Virginia. Sight, sound, smell, touch, taste.
But do writers use them all? Do they even use half of them (would that be two and a half senses?)
I don't see many of the senses used in writing today. For example, I'm just starting a national bestseller, Julia Glass's Three Junes. And while the sense of sight is used almost immediately and often through descriptions of color, I noticed that the sense of smell is non-existent until page 16, and then it's only by the author saying in narrative prose that some animals smelled. Since I've not been around that type of animal, I was unable to dredge up anything from my memory, so I continued to read without feeling any closer to the characters or the story.
As a reader, I need more than visual description to get me tucked inside the character's experience. Including audial description helps, but when the author includes description that tweaks my nose ... well, from that point, I'm lost inside the character's head, heart, and life.
Now, why is that? I asked myself this morning. Why is the sense of smell so often ignored and so important to me?
Following that train of thought, it occurred to me that fewer people wear cologne today than did when I was a teenager and even a young adult. Or so it seems to me. In my rural neighborhood, I so rarely smell anything in the local supermarket other than those luscious sugary cake and doughnut aromas in the bakery section, smells that put pounds on every time you inhale; or the fresh outdoor scent when you pass a mound of peaches in the produce department; or the sharp, throat-burning smell of bleach when you walk down the "cleaning goods" aisle and find a bottle toppled from a shelf. Notice, I said rarely.
Once, a few years back, I was walking down an aisle in the supermarket. This was in the morning when only early risers were shopping. No one else was in the aisle with me, and I heard no sounds around me, not even supermarket music. And then, I felt a choking sensation, while at the same time, I smelled a ghastly, yes, ghastly perfume, so powerful a scent that I pictured the owner spilling a whole bottle on herself (or himself). I didn't know which way to run. Didn't matter, because in the next instant, a woman appeared at the end of the aisle, and I could almost see a rainbow aura of perfume around her ... as she walked ... oh, no ... toward me. I turned and fled. But no matter what aisle I went down, as I completed my shopping, the scent was there, as if she'd left a physical trail while she zigged and zagged her way through the market.
Recalling that incident, I went further back in my mind and remembered when I stopped wearing cologne or perfume altogether. I was working in an office filled with Dilbert-style cubicles, when a woman in a nearby cubicle chose that moment to spritz herself with her favorite scent. The air-conditioning quickly picked up the airborne droplets and scattered them over every other cubicle within thirty yards ... it was a very large office. That was when I first discovered I had an allergy to strong perfume. While I choked and coughed, it occurred to me that my own perfume might be causing distress to those around me. That was the last day I used cologne or perfume.
And this brought me to my musings this morning and I found I could encapsulate my life in the various scents I wore over the years.
I think the first two perfumes I wore (sneaking to wear them as I recall when I was a pre-teen) were influences from my mother: Prince Matchabelli's Wind Song and Bourjois' Evening in Paris. If I recall, I continued wearing one or other of those into my early teens after I got my first job and could buy my own perfume ... I think either one could be purchased at the five-and-dime (what we oldsters used to call J.J. Newberry's and Woolworth's).
In my late teens and early twenties, I graduated to Tweed by Lentheric (pronounced, I believe, lawn-thur-eek). I still had not discovered my true scent, and this time was following the lead of an older sister who had chosen Tweed as her perfume.
I was nearly forty before I found my own path through the maze of perfumes in the larger department stores where I lived. I'm not sure why I selected what I did, but do you remember Youth Dew by Estee Lauder? A major recollection, and I still laugh about it, was when a fellow worker (a male) asked me what I was wearing ... when I said Estee Lauder Youth Dew, he said back, "Estee Lauder Used to?" Oh, one other thing. Back in those days, women I knew did everything they could to keep their scent strong, and one way I did that was by soaking a cotton ball with the cologne and wearing it inside my brassiere. One thing about Youth Dew that I especially remember is its rich brown color. Well, Youth Dew faded as my youth dew faded, and for a while I used whatever cologne I received as a birthday or Christmas gift.
Then, somewhere in my mid to late fifties, I'd undergone a renaissance (which often means a personality change for a female), and I decided it was time to settle into a new scent. This time I selected Shalimar by Guerlain. I'd come a long way from Evening in Paris to Shaimar, and my pocketbook knew that fact the most. (OMG, I just Googled Shalimar and looked at the 1 oz. parfum I used to buy, and it's $317.00. That alone, is a good reason to stop wearing a scent.) But it wasn't price that made me stop. It was just that life took me to rural America where the sky is always blue, the air fresh and clean with the outdoor scents of juniper or lilacs blossoms in the Spring or roses in the Summer (along with the acrid smell of smoke during wildfire season). And now, in the twilight of my life, perfume is the farthest thing from my mind when I don my work clothes and gardening gloves and wide-brimmed hat and step into the bright sunshine to prune trees or rose bushes or dig up the soil in my herb garden or fill the water dish I put out for the local birds and other wildlife.
But I bet you can see why it's so pleasurable for me to read a book whose author has chosen to include the sense of smell in their story.
And one afterthought. I still have a spray bottle half filled with Shalimar eau de parfum. It's been on a shelf for more than twelve years. I lifted it to my nose a moment ago, and it still smells spectacular, a rich floral scent with undertones of woodsy and fruity and a bit of nutmeg, like you might want to spread it on a piece of toast. Hmmm, probably not the way Guerlain would describe it, but yummy nonetheless.
But do writers use them all? Do they even use half of them (would that be two and a half senses?)
I don't see many of the senses used in writing today. For example, I'm just starting a national bestseller, Julia Glass's Three Junes. And while the sense of sight is used almost immediately and often through descriptions of color, I noticed that the sense of smell is non-existent until page 16, and then it's only by the author saying in narrative prose that some animals smelled. Since I've not been around that type of animal, I was unable to dredge up anything from my memory, so I continued to read without feeling any closer to the characters or the story.
As a reader, I need more than visual description to get me tucked inside the character's experience. Including audial description helps, but when the author includes description that tweaks my nose ... well, from that point, I'm lost inside the character's head, heart, and life.
Now, why is that? I asked myself this morning. Why is the sense of smell so often ignored and so important to me?
Following that train of thought, it occurred to me that fewer people wear cologne today than did when I was a teenager and even a young adult. Or so it seems to me. In my rural neighborhood, I so rarely smell anything in the local supermarket other than those luscious sugary cake and doughnut aromas in the bakery section, smells that put pounds on every time you inhale; or the fresh outdoor scent when you pass a mound of peaches in the produce department; or the sharp, throat-burning smell of bleach when you walk down the "cleaning goods" aisle and find a bottle toppled from a shelf. Notice, I said rarely.
Once, a few years back, I was walking down an aisle in the supermarket. This was in the morning when only early risers were shopping. No one else was in the aisle with me, and I heard no sounds around me, not even supermarket music. And then, I felt a choking sensation, while at the same time, I smelled a ghastly, yes, ghastly perfume, so powerful a scent that I pictured the owner spilling a whole bottle on herself (or himself). I didn't know which way to run. Didn't matter, because in the next instant, a woman appeared at the end of the aisle, and I could almost see a rainbow aura of perfume around her ... as she walked ... oh, no ... toward me. I turned and fled. But no matter what aisle I went down, as I completed my shopping, the scent was there, as if she'd left a physical trail while she zigged and zagged her way through the market.
Recalling that incident, I went further back in my mind and remembered when I stopped wearing cologne or perfume altogether. I was working in an office filled with Dilbert-style cubicles, when a woman in a nearby cubicle chose that moment to spritz herself with her favorite scent. The air-conditioning quickly picked up the airborne droplets and scattered them over every other cubicle within thirty yards ... it was a very large office. That was when I first discovered I had an allergy to strong perfume. While I choked and coughed, it occurred to me that my own perfume might be causing distress to those around me. That was the last day I used cologne or perfume.
And this brought me to my musings this morning and I found I could encapsulate my life in the various scents I wore over the years.
I think the first two perfumes I wore (sneaking to wear them as I recall when I was a pre-teen) were influences from my mother: Prince Matchabelli's Wind Song and Bourjois' Evening in Paris. If I recall, I continued wearing one or other of those into my early teens after I got my first job and could buy my own perfume ... I think either one could be purchased at the five-and-dime (what we oldsters used to call J.J. Newberry's and Woolworth's).
In my late teens and early twenties, I graduated to Tweed by Lentheric (pronounced, I believe, lawn-thur-eek). I still had not discovered my true scent, and this time was following the lead of an older sister who had chosen Tweed as her perfume.
I was nearly forty before I found my own path through the maze of perfumes in the larger department stores where I lived. I'm not sure why I selected what I did, but do you remember Youth Dew by Estee Lauder? A major recollection, and I still laugh about it, was when a fellow worker (a male) asked me what I was wearing ... when I said Estee Lauder Youth Dew, he said back, "Estee Lauder Used to?" Oh, one other thing. Back in those days, women I knew did everything they could to keep their scent strong, and one way I did that was by soaking a cotton ball with the cologne and wearing it inside my brassiere. One thing about Youth Dew that I especially remember is its rich brown color. Well, Youth Dew faded as my youth dew faded, and for a while I used whatever cologne I received as a birthday or Christmas gift.
Then, somewhere in my mid to late fifties, I'd undergone a renaissance (which often means a personality change for a female), and I decided it was time to settle into a new scent. This time I selected Shalimar by Guerlain. I'd come a long way from Evening in Paris to Shaimar, and my pocketbook knew that fact the most. (OMG, I just Googled Shalimar and looked at the 1 oz. parfum I used to buy, and it's $317.00. That alone, is a good reason to stop wearing a scent.) But it wasn't price that made me stop. It was just that life took me to rural America where the sky is always blue, the air fresh and clean with the outdoor scents of juniper or lilacs blossoms in the Spring or roses in the Summer (along with the acrid smell of smoke during wildfire season). And now, in the twilight of my life, perfume is the farthest thing from my mind when I don my work clothes and gardening gloves and wide-brimmed hat and step into the bright sunshine to prune trees or rose bushes or dig up the soil in my herb garden or fill the water dish I put out for the local birds and other wildlife.
But I bet you can see why it's so pleasurable for me to read a book whose author has chosen to include the sense of smell in their story.
And one afterthought. I still have a spray bottle half filled with Shalimar eau de parfum. It's been on a shelf for more than twelve years. I lifted it to my nose a moment ago, and it still smells spectacular, a rich floral scent with undertones of woodsy and fruity and a bit of nutmeg, like you might want to spread it on a piece of toast. Hmmm, probably not the way Guerlain would describe it, but yummy nonetheless.
6/21/10
Research and Google Maps and Street View
I made a great discovery today as I began the opening chapter of my new novel. Although I'm a believer in visiting sites to get a real flavor of a location in a story, I wasn't ready to make a trip to New York. Since that's only where the story's opening occurs, and my main character may never return there, I didn't want to put out the price of a plane ticket, hotel, meals, etc. etc., for just one chapter and a few sentences to describe my main character's place of business.
And that's where friends kick in, followed by Google Maps and Street View. Perfect.
My friend, who knows NY well, suggested the address, and I simply Googled the street in Google Maps, then took a look around, zooming in for details, and zooming out for a long look at the neighborhood. Unbelievable how far our technology has taken us. Don't you just love it?
I remember in the 1990's when I was writing a novel that had a main character who lived in Newport, Rhode Island. Back then, no Google, and no Street View. So, I traveled there, and had a marvelous vacation, by the way, but also came away with photos of Rhode Island Sound and Newport mansions and street names and everything else I needed to create one or two lines of description in the novel that even Rhode Islanders would believe.
We've come a long way, baby, and I'm so glad we have.
And that's where friends kick in, followed by Google Maps and Street View. Perfect.
My friend, who knows NY well, suggested the address, and I simply Googled the street in Google Maps, then took a look around, zooming in for details, and zooming out for a long look at the neighborhood. Unbelievable how far our technology has taken us. Don't you just love it?
I remember in the 1990's when I was writing a novel that had a main character who lived in Newport, Rhode Island. Back then, no Google, and no Street View. So, I traveled there, and had a marvelous vacation, by the way, but also came away with photos of Rhode Island Sound and Newport mansions and street names and everything else I needed to create one or two lines of description in the novel that even Rhode Islanders would believe.
We've come a long way, baby, and I'm so glad we have.
6/20/10
Point of View, the easy way
But that's the problem, isn't it? There is no easy way to decide which point of view is the best one for a particular story. Wouldn't it be great if an author could say to himself, hmmmm, since this is a mystery, I'll write it in first person. Or, let's see, my mainstream family saga ought to be written in multiple points of view.
It doesn't work that way. At least, it hasn't for me.
And I have this story that I'm aching to write ... actually I've written it eight or ten times. In a number of points of view. And none has felt just right. You know, when you finish the manuscript, and you put the last punctuation mark after the last sentence, and you know in your heart that you got it right? Well, that hasn't happened for me. So over and over again I've set this story aside and have gone on to other things.
Until today. Today I believe I've solved the point of view problem ... finally. And now I'll begin a new edition of the book, writing the story from scratch, because I'm bringing in an entirely new character. He will tell the story, in his singular point of view. So in a way it will become a whole new story. One in which the main character is only spoken about in reminiscences by people who knew him, each with widely different opinions of the character.
Egad! Am I writing The Great Gatsby?
It doesn't work that way. At least, it hasn't for me.
And I have this story that I'm aching to write ... actually I've written it eight or ten times. In a number of points of view. And none has felt just right. You know, when you finish the manuscript, and you put the last punctuation mark after the last sentence, and you know in your heart that you got it right? Well, that hasn't happened for me. So over and over again I've set this story aside and have gone on to other things.
Until today. Today I believe I've solved the point of view problem ... finally. And now I'll begin a new edition of the book, writing the story from scratch, because I'm bringing in an entirely new character. He will tell the story, in his singular point of view. So in a way it will become a whole new story. One in which the main character is only spoken about in reminiscences by people who knew him, each with widely different opinions of the character.
Egad! Am I writing The Great Gatsby?
Writing is a Solitary Pursuit
Amen to that. Writing is a solitary pursuit.
But does it have to be?
I've been examining that notion for a while now . . . as I sit alone at my computer and look out my window at the empty valley below . . . nice view, by the way, but I digress.
What writers among us have mentors, people we interact with almost daily while we work on a new creation? I'm one of those more fortunate writers of full-length fiction who has a live-in mentor. And just today, we hashed out some of the finer points of a new novel that I'm about to start. We sat almost all the way through the final round of the U.S. Open and, instead of watching the tournament leaders blow putt after putt, we tossed ideas back and forth about protagonist motivation, general story line, character names.
So, where's the solitary in that?
But let's say, for the sake of argument, you don't have a live-in mentor. Well, how about finding a good friend, hopefully one who reads obsessively, who is interested in an author's creative process, and one who can keep a secret?
That's your mentor.
Now, all you have to do is find time to get together (with you paying for lunch), and spend the whole time talking about your project. Present your ideas, ask for honest input, and listen to what comes your way. Sometimes the weirdest input winds up being just what you need to flesh out that vapid character, or gives you the missing link that brings your story together at a crucial point.
Oh, and one other thing. When you make the lunch invitation, make it clear up front that you'll be doing all the talking . . . that this is, in fact, a business lunch.
Well, it's just an idea . . . .
But does it have to be?
I've been examining that notion for a while now . . . as I sit alone at my computer and look out my window at the empty valley below . . . nice view, by the way, but I digress.
What writers among us have mentors, people we interact with almost daily while we work on a new creation? I'm one of those more fortunate writers of full-length fiction who has a live-in mentor. And just today, we hashed out some of the finer points of a new novel that I'm about to start. We sat almost all the way through the final round of the U.S. Open and, instead of watching the tournament leaders blow putt after putt, we tossed ideas back and forth about protagonist motivation, general story line, character names.
So, where's the solitary in that?
But let's say, for the sake of argument, you don't have a live-in mentor. Well, how about finding a good friend, hopefully one who reads obsessively, who is interested in an author's creative process, and one who can keep a secret?
That's your mentor.
Now, all you have to do is find time to get together (with you paying for lunch), and spend the whole time talking about your project. Present your ideas, ask for honest input, and listen to what comes your way. Sometimes the weirdest input winds up being just what you need to flesh out that vapid character, or gives you the missing link that brings your story together at a crucial point.
Oh, and one other thing. When you make the lunch invitation, make it clear up front that you'll be doing all the talking . . . that this is, in fact, a business lunch.
Well, it's just an idea . . . .
Oops! Web and Blog Design
Maybe those of you who have been following my blog are curious why I suddenly changed its design. Maybe, like me, you've noticed how a lot of author's websites have changed. Take Jeffery Deaver, Robert Crais, for example. A few years ago, I'd go to their respective websites, and I'd come to a page with a dramatic black background, a brilliantly colored banner, and white or gray type. Very pretty, but kinda hard to read.
Check out those same websites today, and you'll always see a white or beige background, maybe or maybe not a similar colored banner, but black, black, black type. Check out: http://jefferydeaver.com/ or http://robertcrais.com/ or http://michaelconnelly.com/. All have white background, black type, and the color is most often in the book cover art.
Another thing I've noticed, is that the best websites are simple, easy to read, and easy to navigate, with all the important stuff right there in your face, easy to get to via good links. Permalinks. Those links that take you directly to the end-zone, without having to go from screen to screen to screen before you get where you want to be (like the last play in a football game where one runner passes to another and to another and to another). Nice. User-friendly. A link like this, for example, (if I wanted to send you directly to Michael Connelly's bio): http://michaelconnelly.com/Biography/biography.html.
Well, if you're famous like these guys, I guess you can have any kind of web design you want. But if you're an aspiring author, methinks it's prudent to follow the old advice: KISS.
Check out those same websites today, and you'll always see a white or beige background, maybe or maybe not a similar colored banner, but black, black, black type. Check out: http://jefferydeaver.com/ or http://robertcrais.com/ or http://michaelconnelly.com/. All have white background, black type, and the color is most often in the book cover art.
Another thing I've noticed, is that the best websites are simple, easy to read, and easy to navigate, with all the important stuff right there in your face, easy to get to via good links. Permalinks. Those links that take you directly to the end-zone, without having to go from screen to screen to screen before you get where you want to be (like the last play in a football game where one runner passes to another and to another and to another). Nice. User-friendly. A link like this, for example, (if I wanted to send you directly to Michael Connelly's bio): http://michaelconnelly.com/Biography/biography.html.
Well, if you're famous like these guys, I guess you can have any kind of web design you want. But if you're an aspiring author, methinks it's prudent to follow the old advice: KISS.
Can an Amateur Sleuth Become a Series Protagonist?
I recently read a post about mystery protagonist types, and an unequivocal no was given as an answer to the title question.
I think many authors who write mystery fiction realize the benefit of utilizing the series. Why? If readers like the first book, then it's probably because they become attached to the protagonist (and the author's style). Remember how you felt after reading your first Elvis Cole mystery? You were hungry for more. That's how it was for me. And sometimes the attachment is so great, readers remember the protagonist's name and can't remember the name of the author.
That's not necessarily a bad thing. As an example, go to amazon.com and in Books, search for Elvis Cole. What comes back is a complete listing of all Robert Crais' novels. See?
We all know about the success Robert Crais had with his Elvis Cole mysteries. But what about a protagonist who, unlike Elvis Cole, isn't a private investigator? What if he's a pastry chef, who gets involved in his first investigation after a family member gets killed and he gets mad? Does that mean the man who said an amateur sleuth is only good for one book is right?
Well, maybe, unless in the second book of the developing series, the pastry chef, now ensconced in his own bakery, gets a call from an old friend, a retired newspaper reporter, who tells the now-bakery owner that he might be interested in talking to a reporter in another city who's looking for someone to take an unadulterated look at a puzzling death that no one, so far, has been able to explain. Hmmmm . . . that might work.
Those books I'm talking about?
First in the series is: Murder at Third Base, currently in pre-publication (that's code for seeking a buyer). Third Base is the story of what happens when a murder investigation brings to light the fifty-year-old murder of a Mexican boy in Chávez Ravine, and when pastry chef, Larry Gar, gets involved and tries to solve the crimes, he must face his prejudices about his own heritage.
Second in the series is: A Green Star in Scorpius, currently in progress. Green Star is the story of a man afflicted with Neurofibromatosis, who is accused of kidnapping a child, but who dies in a peculiar manner before he can be arrested. Chef Gar answers the call from an old friend, a newspaper reporter, who asks if he'll take a fresh look at the unexplained death.
Third in the series is: All the Marbles, currently on the drawing board. Marbles is the story of a suspected heist of the Elgin Marbles from the British Museum that comes to light just before Chef Gar visits London on a recipe-gathering vacation.
I think many authors who write mystery fiction realize the benefit of utilizing the series. Why? If readers like the first book, then it's probably because they become attached to the protagonist (and the author's style). Remember how you felt after reading your first Elvis Cole mystery? You were hungry for more. That's how it was for me. And sometimes the attachment is so great, readers remember the protagonist's name and can't remember the name of the author.
That's not necessarily a bad thing. As an example, go to amazon.com and in Books, search for Elvis Cole. What comes back is a complete listing of all Robert Crais' novels. See?
We all know about the success Robert Crais had with his Elvis Cole mysteries. But what about a protagonist who, unlike Elvis Cole, isn't a private investigator? What if he's a pastry chef, who gets involved in his first investigation after a family member gets killed and he gets mad? Does that mean the man who said an amateur sleuth is only good for one book is right?
Well, maybe, unless in the second book of the developing series, the pastry chef, now ensconced in his own bakery, gets a call from an old friend, a retired newspaper reporter, who tells the now-bakery owner that he might be interested in talking to a reporter in another city who's looking for someone to take an unadulterated look at a puzzling death that no one, so far, has been able to explain. Hmmmm . . . that might work.
Those books I'm talking about?
First in the series is: Murder at Third Base, currently in pre-publication (that's code for seeking a buyer). Third Base is the story of what happens when a murder investigation brings to light the fifty-year-old murder of a Mexican boy in Chávez Ravine, and when pastry chef, Larry Gar, gets involved and tries to solve the crimes, he must face his prejudices about his own heritage.
Second in the series is: A Green Star in Scorpius, currently in progress. Green Star is the story of a man afflicted with Neurofibromatosis, who is accused of kidnapping a child, but who dies in a peculiar manner before he can be arrested. Chef Gar answers the call from an old friend, a newspaper reporter, who asks if he'll take a fresh look at the unexplained death.
Third in the series is: All the Marbles, currently on the drawing board. Marbles is the story of a suspected heist of the Elgin Marbles from the British Museum that comes to light just before Chef Gar visits London on a recipe-gathering vacation.
6/12/10
The Marketing Plan - - Arranging a Book Signing
It appears that most publishers these days, whether print or electronic, expect the author to activively participate in the book's marketing. And to test whether or not an author is serious, that publisher will ask for a Marketing Plan to be submitted along with the manuscript, author bio, and synopsis.
How then, does the beginning author come up with a Marketing Plan? Often the publisher will present an outline or list of items for the author to consider. One such list made me think.
How do I ... whose only experience with booksellers is to enter a Barnes & Noble, find the book I want, and pay for it at the checkout counter ... arrange for a book signing?
Well, rather than inventing, I just did a bit of Googling, and have found some great links with instructions on how an author can arrange his own book signings.
http://www.writersweekly.com/this_weeks_article/000585_03062002.html
http://www.ehow.com/how_2242859_arrange-book-signing.html
http://www.authorhive.com/bookmarketingadvice/booksigning.aspx
http://www.writing_world.com/promotion/james.shtml
And don't forget, an author can always pay an expert in the process to arrange the book signing for him. To find one, Google how to arrange a book signing.
How then, does the beginning author come up with a Marketing Plan? Often the publisher will present an outline or list of items for the author to consider. One such list made me think.
How do I ... whose only experience with booksellers is to enter a Barnes & Noble, find the book I want, and pay for it at the checkout counter ... arrange for a book signing?
Well, rather than inventing, I just did a bit of Googling, and have found some great links with instructions on how an author can arrange his own book signings.
http://www.writersweekly.com/this_weeks_article/000585_03062002.html
http://www.ehow.com/how_2242859_arrange-book-signing.html
http://www.authorhive.com/bookmarketingadvice/booksigning.aspx
http://www.writing_world.com/promotion/james.shtml
And don't forget, an author can always pay an expert in the process to arrange the book signing for him. To find one, Google how to arrange a book signing.
Synopsis Made Easy
I think for authors who begin a project with a plot outline, whether brief or detailed, when it comes time to write the synopsis that publishers (and some agents) always ask for, the task is easy. Well, maybe not. I've been writing synopses almost as long as I've been writing full-length fiction: going on seventeen years. And it still isn't easy. Why? You guessed it. While I may write an outline of sorts when I'm half or three-quarters of the way through a novel, I never begin a new novel with an outline. So, of course my outline only covers what's left of the novel.
In my synopsis-writing experience, I've tried different styles.
In one, I begin the synopsis by writing in one sentence what significant event opens the novel. After that, I write in one sentence how the novel ends. Then, I write ... you got it ... one sentence that defines the middle of the novel. From there, I fill in around ten more sentences, five that fall between the opening and the middle, and five between the middle and the end. Each entry is a singularly significant event, and it usually follows the format of a standard plot plan.
A second method I've tried is to simply list the standard plot points required for every good novel, then write a sentence that shows what event occurs in my novel to fit each point.
A third method I've tried is to print off page one of every chapter of the completed novel. Using each chapter's text, I write randomly about what occurs in that chapter. In this method, I wind up with a long synopsis. But when I've written the last entry about the final chapter, I go back and edit the synopsis, cutting unnecessary, unimportant, or duplicate information, and tightening wherever possible ... in the same manner I use when editing the actual novel.
A long time ago I read a fascinating study on the Internet written by Bill Johnson who used Clancy's Hunt for Red October as the model for his instructions on how to write a synopsis. You can still read some of it at http://www.storyispromise.com/wsynop.htm. The most significant thing I remember in Mr. Johnson's instruction is that the synopsis should open with what the novel is about (its theme), instead of the protagonist's action. I highly recommend Mr. Johnson's essay for anyone who is writing a synopsis, even if you already have a number of them under your belt. Following his instruction, writing the synopsis does seem fairly easy.
For what it's worth (maybe 2 cents?), for my next synopsis, I plan to create a Word document, write a statement of my story's theme, then create a numbered list of each point in the standard plot, and fill in the blanks below each numbered item with details from my novel.
Not only should I end up with a good synopsis, I will discover if I know what my story's main theme is (heaven help me if I don't know what it is) and I'll discover if I've included all of the plot points (or if I've missed any ... oops!) which will tell me whether or not I've written a good novel.
In my synopsis-writing experience, I've tried different styles.
In one, I begin the synopsis by writing in one sentence what significant event opens the novel. After that, I write in one sentence how the novel ends. Then, I write ... you got it ... one sentence that defines the middle of the novel. From there, I fill in around ten more sentences, five that fall between the opening and the middle, and five between the middle and the end. Each entry is a singularly significant event, and it usually follows the format of a standard plot plan.
A second method I've tried is to simply list the standard plot points required for every good novel, then write a sentence that shows what event occurs in my novel to fit each point.
A third method I've tried is to print off page one of every chapter of the completed novel. Using each chapter's text, I write randomly about what occurs in that chapter. In this method, I wind up with a long synopsis. But when I've written the last entry about the final chapter, I go back and edit the synopsis, cutting unnecessary, unimportant, or duplicate information, and tightening wherever possible ... in the same manner I use when editing the actual novel.
A long time ago I read a fascinating study on the Internet written by Bill Johnson who used Clancy's Hunt for Red October as the model for his instructions on how to write a synopsis. You can still read some of it at http://www.storyispromise.com/wsynop.htm. The most significant thing I remember in Mr. Johnson's instruction is that the synopsis should open with what the novel is about (its theme), instead of the protagonist's action. I highly recommend Mr. Johnson's essay for anyone who is writing a synopsis, even if you already have a number of them under your belt. Following his instruction, writing the synopsis does seem fairly easy.
For what it's worth (maybe 2 cents?), for my next synopsis, I plan to create a Word document, write a statement of my story's theme, then create a numbered list of each point in the standard plot, and fill in the blanks below each numbered item with details from my novel.
Not only should I end up with a good synopsis, I will discover if I know what my story's main theme is (heaven help me if I don't know what it is) and I'll discover if I've included all of the plot points (or if I've missed any ... oops!) which will tell me whether or not I've written a good novel.
6/10/10
Thoughts About How Authors Get Published
I recently remembered when I first heard of Charles Frazier, author of the blockbuster bestseller, Cold Mountain. A friend at work showed me a newspaper article about Frazier, probably thinking that if I read of his remarkable success, I would be encouraged about my own writing. Not! I'd written three novels and only had a file cabinet full of rejection letters to show for my efforts. As the newspaper article said, Frazier spent a mere eight years writing his novel and had stashed it in a bureau drawer only to have his wife (if memory serves) secretly take it from its hiding place and virtually toss it over the transom to a friend in the publishing business. And the rest is history, so to speak.
In comparison, I worked on my novel for going on seventeen years (okay, to be honest, I finished two other novels in that time and took time off to experience life). But there weren't any transoms around, so I did as Frazier did, put my manuscripts in a bureau drawer (I actually use a file cabinet), and let them sit, while I dreamed that someday my fairy godmother would come along with her magic wand.
But this is where Frazier and I part company. I was seventeen years older by now. I'd been through the mill, submitting my work to agents and publishers, entering writing competitions (and doing pretty well in a couple of them), and watching writer friends all around me getting published via their own singular kind of miracle. And one day, I decided it was time to stop trying, even though I knew that everyone says the only writer who doesn't get published is the one who stops trying. But the fun had gone out of writing, and I wanted the fun back. I thought the way to put fun back in writing was to give it away free to anyone who wanted to read it. Kind of like the millionaire who received his joy by giving away his money anonymously ..... something like that. I created a blog (this one) and began to post my novel, one chapter at a time. (I have since read that the majority of readers hate to read novels in serial form, preferring to have the entire book so they can read at their own pace and not have to sit and wait for the next series of chapters.)
And that's when it happened. Charles Frazier all over again. I ran across a friend, who had joined a publishing group, and the friend was eager to read my manuscript. There it was . . . my transom. Ready to have me throw my manuscript over it and be fast-tracked to editors.
Okay, this is not a success story yet. The editors have to like my story enough to want to publish it. But for me, today, I feel like Charles Frazier, and I'm beginning to visualize my book in print, and Mel Gibson playing the lead role in the movie version.
In comparison, I worked on my novel for going on seventeen years (okay, to be honest, I finished two other novels in that time and took time off to experience life). But there weren't any transoms around, so I did as Frazier did, put my manuscripts in a bureau drawer (I actually use a file cabinet), and let them sit, while I dreamed that someday my fairy godmother would come along with her magic wand.
But this is where Frazier and I part company. I was seventeen years older by now. I'd been through the mill, submitting my work to agents and publishers, entering writing competitions (and doing pretty well in a couple of them), and watching writer friends all around me getting published via their own singular kind of miracle. And one day, I decided it was time to stop trying, even though I knew that everyone says the only writer who doesn't get published is the one who stops trying. But the fun had gone out of writing, and I wanted the fun back. I thought the way to put fun back in writing was to give it away free to anyone who wanted to read it. Kind of like the millionaire who received his joy by giving away his money anonymously ..... something like that. I created a blog (this one) and began to post my novel, one chapter at a time. (I have since read that the majority of readers hate to read novels in serial form, preferring to have the entire book so they can read at their own pace and not have to sit and wait for the next series of chapters.)
And that's when it happened. Charles Frazier all over again. I ran across a friend, who had joined a publishing group, and the friend was eager to read my manuscript. There it was . . . my transom. Ready to have me throw my manuscript over it and be fast-tracked to editors.
Okay, this is not a success story yet. The editors have to like my story enough to want to publish it. But for me, today, I feel like Charles Frazier, and I'm beginning to visualize my book in print, and Mel Gibson playing the lead role in the movie version.
Book Reviews, another Singular Opinion
Heaven help those authors who have a book published, being sold at Amazon.com, and get reviews by someone with an agenda. I recently read the reviews for true-crime author Derek Armstrong's book, Drew Peterson Exposed. One review, in particular, has a meanness about it that tells me the reviewer has an ax to grind. The review is angry, and therefore, I don't consider it especially helpful to anyone trying to make a decision about buying or not buying the book.
Why does Amazon.com allow such reviews to get posted? Maybe Amazon believes that controversy will bring more people to their site?
Meanwhile, I'm waiting to receive my copy of the book in the mail so I can read it and decide for myself whether or not I think the book is good/bad/indifferent. The subject matter is certainly timely ... and who of us out here doesn't want a man like Drew Peterson to be exposed. (Those who believe he's guilty, of course.) I also think it's interesting that the names are so similar: Drew Peterson and Stacy Peterson and Scott Peterson and Laci Peterson. Think there's anything to that, or is it just coincidental?
Authors note: After I first wrote this blog entry and posted it on another blog, I have received the book and I've read it. I came away with mixed feelings; not about Peterson's guilt, but about whether the book was intended to show guilt or innocence, or if it just seemed that way to me. Then again, how can any author write a book without including some of his own feelings in it? Mine is not to reason why . . .
Why does Amazon.com allow such reviews to get posted? Maybe Amazon believes that controversy will bring more people to their site?
Meanwhile, I'm waiting to receive my copy of the book in the mail so I can read it and decide for myself whether or not I think the book is good/bad/indifferent. The subject matter is certainly timely ... and who of us out here doesn't want a man like Drew Peterson to be exposed. (Those who believe he's guilty, of course.) I also think it's interesting that the names are so similar: Drew Peterson and Stacy Peterson and Scott Peterson and Laci Peterson. Think there's anything to that, or is it just coincidental?
Authors note: After I first wrote this blog entry and posted it on another blog, I have received the book and I've read it. I came away with mixed feelings; not about Peterson's guilt, but about whether the book was intended to show guilt or innocence, or if it just seemed that way to me. Then again, how can any author write a book without including some of his own feelings in it? Mine is not to reason why . . .
Writers Groups, A Singular Opinion
Okay, we all have opinions about a lot of things. I've recently noticed that my opinion of writers groups is beginning to gel (or is it gell? or is it jell?).
WG's fall into three categories: good, bad, and ugly.
A good WG is one with a strong leader, a good set of rules, and requirements that the authors must meet. If you're in that group you're very fortunate. I call it the "A" group, and it's the one a writer will be most active in. It's also the one a writer benefits from most.
A bad WG is at the other end of the spectrum. Leadership is weak or non-existent. The rules only have to do with posting: what you can and cannot say. Mostly, it's a place where authors socialize. Frankly, I don't know why anyone wants to be a member of that group. I call it the "Z" group, and maybe lurking is the thing to do. read the new posts, and mark them as read and leave the site. I suspect it's where a writer rarely participates, since the majority of new posts are of the socializing kind. Again, why stay?
An ugly WG is indifferent and is almost as bad as a bad WG. Leadership exists, it isn't weak; it just doesn't know how to be strong. I think some leaders don't want to appear mean or tough, or they want to be liked. Or maybe they've been in a tough good WG, and they got burned (usually from not following one of the rules), so their pendulum swings to the other side and they think it's best to not have hard-and-fast rules. I disagree. Authors are people, and all people need rules. They need to know what is expected of them. So, there's the problem. If you're a rules person (and an author) you won't benefit from being a member of a no rules WG. Still, you can participate now and then, and feel you receive some benefit from membership in the group. If you often think you should quit the group and focus solely on the good WG, but don't. Why? It's something to think about.
WG's fall into three categories: good, bad, and ugly.
A good WG is one with a strong leader, a good set of rules, and requirements that the authors must meet. If you're in that group you're very fortunate. I call it the "A" group, and it's the one a writer will be most active in. It's also the one a writer benefits from most.
A bad WG is at the other end of the spectrum. Leadership is weak or non-existent. The rules only have to do with posting: what you can and cannot say. Mostly, it's a place where authors socialize. Frankly, I don't know why anyone wants to be a member of that group. I call it the "Z" group, and maybe lurking is the thing to do. read the new posts, and mark them as read and leave the site. I suspect it's where a writer rarely participates, since the majority of new posts are of the socializing kind. Again, why stay?
An ugly WG is indifferent and is almost as bad as a bad WG. Leadership exists, it isn't weak; it just doesn't know how to be strong. I think some leaders don't want to appear mean or tough, or they want to be liked. Or maybe they've been in a tough good WG, and they got burned (usually from not following one of the rules), so their pendulum swings to the other side and they think it's best to not have hard-and-fast rules. I disagree. Authors are people, and all people need rules. They need to know what is expected of them. So, there's the problem. If you're a rules person (and an author) you won't benefit from being a member of a no rules WG. Still, you can participate now and then, and feel you receive some benefit from membership in the group. If you often think you should quit the group and focus solely on the good WG, but don't. Why? It's something to think about.
A Mentor's Value
A mentor's value is high, and blessed is the author who lives with one.
While writing, I constantly toss out tidbits about my current WIP. My live-in mentor goes off for a while, lets what I said swirl around in his brain, and comes back later with thought-provoking ideas/suggestions/comments. Something like that happened today. Since my mentor knows the identity of my WIP's protagonist, and since my mentor has ideas very different from mine about how this character might think/act/react (which is a good thing....see note below about 'gender'), his comments sometimes seem off the wall; nevertheless, they always stimulate brain action on my part and that generates creativity and plot progress in a direction that had not occurred to me (and that might never have occurred to me without the stimulus).
What might be the most valuable part of my mentor is gender. Being different from mine, everything the mentor brings to the table is from an opposite point of view. And since I want to reach readers of both gender, and even though I consider myself a writer with insight, I wonder if I could write a book that will market as well with male and female readers without my mentor's input.
So, if you find a great mentor of the opposite sex, marry him/her.
While writing, I constantly toss out tidbits about my current WIP. My live-in mentor goes off for a while, lets what I said swirl around in his brain, and comes back later with thought-provoking ideas/suggestions/comments. Something like that happened today. Since my mentor knows the identity of my WIP's protagonist, and since my mentor has ideas very different from mine about how this character might think/act/react (which is a good thing....see note below about 'gender'), his comments sometimes seem off the wall; nevertheless, they always stimulate brain action on my part and that generates creativity and plot progress in a direction that had not occurred to me (and that might never have occurred to me without the stimulus).
What might be the most valuable part of my mentor is gender. Being different from mine, everything the mentor brings to the table is from an opposite point of view. And since I want to reach readers of both gender, and even though I consider myself a writer with insight, I wonder if I could write a book that will market as well with male and female readers without my mentor's input.
So, if you find a great mentor of the opposite sex, marry him/her.
Writing an Epistolary Novel
I've not written in this genre before. Nor have I read many (any) classic or contemporary novels written in this fashion---a novel of letters. As yet. My plan is to read as many as possible while I flesh out a structure, list of characters and their traits/backgrounds, and a basic theme. Already begun, my novel is not yet titled, and like others I've written before, I expect the title will emerge as the story and characters develop.
While I have a fairly good notion, at this point, of who the characters are (four female characters will exchange letters, making this a polylogic type of epistolary novel) as with other of my novels, the characters will come more alive as the story begins to take shape. Employing this method in writing a novel, that of not fully knowing the characters at the outset, requires some additional editing after the novel is finished. Nevertheless, my author style is fairly well set in cement at this time; it's the way I work best, so I'll not change it, nor try to change it, with this novel.
I plan to carry blog readers along on this journey and will post new entries as I take steps toward ultimate completion.....my goal is to complete the novel by year's end. I'm aiming at an approximate word count of 70,000, and my current structure has the novel broken into nine parts, each part containing four chapters (36 chapters in all). With little more than 5 months left in the year, I'll need to write 2 chapters per week (which will allow time to edit at the end), a schedule that is attainable.
That said, we're off and running . . .
While I have a fairly good notion, at this point, of who the characters are (four female characters will exchange letters, making this a polylogic type of epistolary novel) as with other of my novels, the characters will come more alive as the story begins to take shape. Employing this method in writing a novel, that of not fully knowing the characters at the outset, requires some additional editing after the novel is finished. Nevertheless, my author style is fairly well set in cement at this time; it's the way I work best, so I'll not change it, nor try to change it, with this novel.
I plan to carry blog readers along on this journey and will post new entries as I take steps toward ultimate completion.....my goal is to complete the novel by year's end. I'm aiming at an approximate word count of 70,000, and my current structure has the novel broken into nine parts, each part containing four chapters (36 chapters in all). With little more than 5 months left in the year, I'll need to write 2 chapters per week (which will allow time to edit at the end), a schedule that is attainable.
That said, we're off and running . . .
An Author's Plight and Plotting
After a year away from a project, it takes time to get back into the groove of writing again every day. Since I'd nearly forgotten what my story was about, I decided to start by getting the latest version of that story and just start reading. (I had created no plot outline, so I couldn't work from that.) Therefore, while reading, when I came across something that didn't seem right (maybe it needed clarification, maybe it just stunk) I began editing. In that way, I plowed through the finished portions of the novel (from Ch 1 to where I'd stopped), and then I reviewed the "statements" I'd written for each succeeding chapter up to the book's end.
So, then I edited and read, edited and read, edited and read, until I wasn't sure anymore what I was reading. I didn't know if the chapters flowed smoothly one to the next, nor did I know if my plot was cohesive and ran consecutively. In other words, I no longer knew if the plot made sense. Since the WIP is a mystery, it really needs to make sense, and it has to be cohesive, and the clues have to be given up one at a time, in proper order, and not too soon (or the story's over). That, plus the fact that the novel is an "open mystery" meaning the reader knows who the bad guy is but the protagonist does not, and so, as the story unfolds and the plot moves forward, the protagonist eventually comes to the right conclusion and learns what the reader knows, and the mystery is the journey while the protagonist discovers the truth.
As I finished the last few chapters that ended the story (some middle chapters are still left to be written), I realized that once again I had written a story "on the fly" so to speak, with no planning, no outline. That's not all bad. Some very successful authors write this way. They start with Chapter 1 and continue until they reach the final chapter. And it all works out beautifully. But in my case, although I have a strong beginning and I've written the ending three chapters, and I know who the good guy is and who the bad guy is, the middle of the book is wavering. Tottering? Crumbling?
So, what did I do? Well, I took what I've written so far and am creating a plot outline from what's already there. I've created a matrix, and for each scene I'm indicating on that table, the scene goal, the conflict, and the disaster (the dilemma that will carry the character on to the next scene and it's goal). In this way, it's easy to see if one of the three requirements is missing from a scene; maybe there's no clear goal; worse, maybe there's no open conflict (as opposed to conflict inside a character's head, which is usually fairly boring to a reader); and maybe there is no clear "does he get what he wants?" or "does he not get what he wants?" or better yet "surprise! he does get something, but whatever it is puts him in such a bad spot that it looks like he'll never get what he wants".
Another aspect I like about plotting in this manner, I've been able to quickly pinpoint those spots in a chapter that ought to be cut and turned into a sequel to the previous chapter, instead of being written in the present chapter as something that previously occurred. I keep forgetting that the reader likes to be carried on a torrent of "now" with the character and can easily get bored when a character "remembers" something that happened a day or a moment ago.
The last good thing I learned in doing this plotting exercise, I sometimes write a scene where a character rehashes in his head about conflict that occurred in the past, or, he might think to himself about something that upsets him in the present (but he doesn't speak up). Well, that's going to change . . . at least in this current WIP. While creating my plot matrix, any time I see the possibility of "open" conflict (as opposed to in-the-head conflict), I will rewrite that scene. I mean, why have someone frown or scowl, when they can just as easily speak up and tell the other character (in dialogue) what is making them frown or scowl? This can be great dialogue, with lots of hostility, maybe some name-calling (if they're the type to name-call), accompanied by some effective body language, expressions, and at the very least, it will create great drama.
Oh, boy, I can't wait.
So, then I edited and read, edited and read, edited and read, until I wasn't sure anymore what I was reading. I didn't know if the chapters flowed smoothly one to the next, nor did I know if my plot was cohesive and ran consecutively. In other words, I no longer knew if the plot made sense. Since the WIP is a mystery, it really needs to make sense, and it has to be cohesive, and the clues have to be given up one at a time, in proper order, and not too soon (or the story's over). That, plus the fact that the novel is an "open mystery" meaning the reader knows who the bad guy is but the protagonist does not, and so, as the story unfolds and the plot moves forward, the protagonist eventually comes to the right conclusion and learns what the reader knows, and the mystery is the journey while the protagonist discovers the truth.
As I finished the last few chapters that ended the story (some middle chapters are still left to be written), I realized that once again I had written a story "on the fly" so to speak, with no planning, no outline. That's not all bad. Some very successful authors write this way. They start with Chapter 1 and continue until they reach the final chapter. And it all works out beautifully. But in my case, although I have a strong beginning and I've written the ending three chapters, and I know who the good guy is and who the bad guy is, the middle of the book is wavering. Tottering? Crumbling?
So, what did I do? Well, I took what I've written so far and am creating a plot outline from what's already there. I've created a matrix, and for each scene I'm indicating on that table, the scene goal, the conflict, and the disaster (the dilemma that will carry the character on to the next scene and it's goal). In this way, it's easy to see if one of the three requirements is missing from a scene; maybe there's no clear goal; worse, maybe there's no open conflict (as opposed to conflict inside a character's head, which is usually fairly boring to a reader); and maybe there is no clear "does he get what he wants?" or "does he not get what he wants?" or better yet "surprise! he does get something, but whatever it is puts him in such a bad spot that it looks like he'll never get what he wants".
Another aspect I like about plotting in this manner, I've been able to quickly pinpoint those spots in a chapter that ought to be cut and turned into a sequel to the previous chapter, instead of being written in the present chapter as something that previously occurred. I keep forgetting that the reader likes to be carried on a torrent of "now" with the character and can easily get bored when a character "remembers" something that happened a day or a moment ago.
The last good thing I learned in doing this plotting exercise, I sometimes write a scene where a character rehashes in his head about conflict that occurred in the past, or, he might think to himself about something that upsets him in the present (but he doesn't speak up). Well, that's going to change . . . at least in this current WIP. While creating my plot matrix, any time I see the possibility of "open" conflict (as opposed to in-the-head conflict), I will rewrite that scene. I mean, why have someone frown or scowl, when they can just as easily speak up and tell the other character (in dialogue) what is making them frown or scowl? This can be great dialogue, with lots of hostility, maybe some name-calling (if they're the type to name-call), accompanied by some effective body language, expressions, and at the very least, it will create great drama.
Oh, boy, I can't wait.
6/9/10
Where Did The NOVEL Go?????
One never knows what life has in store . . .
After giving you a gander at the opening chapters of Murder at Third Base, I connected with a publishing professional who expressed a strong interest in my manuscript with the possibility of publishing it in print and e-book forms. So, Murder at Third Base will be off my blog while the manuscript is under consideration.
After giving you a gander at the opening chapters of Murder at Third Base, I connected with a publishing professional who expressed a strong interest in my manuscript with the possibility of publishing it in print and e-book forms. So, Murder at Third Base will be off my blog while the manuscript is under consideration.
6/5/10
ACROSS THE BOARD
A short story first published in June 1996 (in a now defunct print magazine) by B.J. Ryan, Copyright 1996
I'm standing out here on Pacific, eyeballing an area that still strikes a chord in me after all these years. People call me Bootsie.
I heard tell the developers finagled day and night, laying out commercial and residential sections, utilities, transportation, civic facilities. Not satisfied, they dumped their plans again and again--until they got it right. Seems that was ... what? Sixty-some years ago? People sure took chances back then.
I catch myself thinking how I've changed over the years, going from pudgy and pale to slim and quite well-formed in a modern sense, with remarkable coloring, considering my age. I usually say I'm fortyish. Don't tell anyone, but this year I turn fifty. It's like every few years I experience a metamorphosis.
What unhinges me today is how much the territory is changing. And not for the better, mind you. New houses keep shooting up everywhere. Someone even threw up a sleazy hotel over on Vermont. As if there aren't enough hotels already. People are overbuilding. It's just a game to them. They take too many chances these days, don't bounce anything back into the community, and scream whenever they have to pay a little tax bill.
I hate the old man the most. I get really riled up when I see him sitting across from the banker, his lips pursed smugly around that smelly cigar, his porky fingers fiddling with a wad of money like he wants everyone to know what a fat cat he is. He shows his true colors when he squeaks to the banker, "Think you can out-landlord me, do ya? I'm gonna buy me all the available property so's I can put up some cheapo tenement hotels."
The old man's wife is just as bad, her face made up like a clown, and dressed in that frumpy pantsuit. Why won't she speak up about his real estate holdings? Because she has property of her own? I think it's because he yells at her when things don't go his way.
Obviously the old man wants it all. I see the greed in his eyes. I even heard him say once, "I'm gonna win the whole kit 'n' caboodle." As if winning is important. What about caring for other people? Where is his sense of charity? If he wins, others will go broke. So what happens to them? Is it that easy to start over?
I don't think of myself as especially clairvoyant. But I predict the future as precisely as if I had been there.
Although the old man just ran off two others, I figure I'm safe on Pacific. Aren't I? I see the boxcars too late. His wife moans and mutters a nasty word. I slowly move across the board, past two houses on Pennsylvania, over the railroad tracks, around the corner, where the money I find is meaningless in my predicament, then three more steps to Baltic and the old man's big red hotel. His wife moans again and tips me over. I lie here wondering if she thinks it was my fault, especially when she says, "If we play again, I want to be any piece but the boot."
Copyright 1996-2010 B.J. Ryan, All Rights Reserved
I'm standing out here on Pacific, eyeballing an area that still strikes a chord in me after all these years. People call me Bootsie.
I heard tell the developers finagled day and night, laying out commercial and residential sections, utilities, transportation, civic facilities. Not satisfied, they dumped their plans again and again--until they got it right. Seems that was ... what? Sixty-some years ago? People sure took chances back then.
I catch myself thinking how I've changed over the years, going from pudgy and pale to slim and quite well-formed in a modern sense, with remarkable coloring, considering my age. I usually say I'm fortyish. Don't tell anyone, but this year I turn fifty. It's like every few years I experience a metamorphosis.
What unhinges me today is how much the territory is changing. And not for the better, mind you. New houses keep shooting up everywhere. Someone even threw up a sleazy hotel over on Vermont. As if there aren't enough hotels already. People are overbuilding. It's just a game to them. They take too many chances these days, don't bounce anything back into the community, and scream whenever they have to pay a little tax bill.
I hate the old man the most. I get really riled up when I see him sitting across from the banker, his lips pursed smugly around that smelly cigar, his porky fingers fiddling with a wad of money like he wants everyone to know what a fat cat he is. He shows his true colors when he squeaks to the banker, "Think you can out-landlord me, do ya? I'm gonna buy me all the available property so's I can put up some cheapo tenement hotels."
The old man's wife is just as bad, her face made up like a clown, and dressed in that frumpy pantsuit. Why won't she speak up about his real estate holdings? Because she has property of her own? I think it's because he yells at her when things don't go his way.
Obviously the old man wants it all. I see the greed in his eyes. I even heard him say once, "I'm gonna win the whole kit 'n' caboodle." As if winning is important. What about caring for other people? Where is his sense of charity? If he wins, others will go broke. So what happens to them? Is it that easy to start over?
I don't think of myself as especially clairvoyant. But I predict the future as precisely as if I had been there.
Although the old man just ran off two others, I figure I'm safe on Pacific. Aren't I? I see the boxcars too late. His wife moans and mutters a nasty word. I slowly move across the board, past two houses on Pennsylvania, over the railroad tracks, around the corner, where the money I find is meaningless in my predicament, then three more steps to Baltic and the old man's big red hotel. His wife moans again and tips me over. I lie here wondering if she thinks it was my fault, especially when she says, "If we play again, I want to be any piece but the boot."
Copyright 1996-2010 B.J. Ryan, All Rights Reserved
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