The Silly, Completely Inconsequental Contest that Changed My Life

Source: wikimedia commons

If you listen closely, you can hear the frantic typing of thousands of writers gearing up for November, when they will embark on a month long trip into Insanity, Population: You. 

Some choose to outline their novel ahead of time (ahem). Some choose to completely wing it with notes, but have their novel premise and characters completely thought out. Others have put several ideas into a hat and when the clock strikes twelve on October 31st, they will choose the novel to write.

Yes, that's right: I'm talking about National Novel Writer's Month. Or NaNo for short.

In other parts of the Internet, writers are complaining about NaNoers, not because they're opposed to arbitrary goals with no consequences, but because they feel it makes the querying climate harsh for people who know not to polish their novel for two days before deciding it's good enough and sending it to unsuspecting agents everywhere. There's some truth to that, but honestly A) December was going to be a harsh month to query anyway and, B) these same inexperienced people are also your year round competition which really aren't competition because no agent is going to say yes to someone in the slush pile who clearly hasn't edited their novel.

Whatever your personal feelings for NaNo, I will always hold it in a special place in my heart, because the year I did NaNo for the first time was the year I really got "serious" about writing.

Let me explain. I was always serious about writing. I was always writing stories, and even attempting novels in high school. I started and stopped many novels since I was fourteen or so, with the notable mention going to the novel I wrote when I was 17 that was 15oK and still nowhere close to the middle. I honestly didn't know how long a book needed to be, because I'd never researched it before. This was before being a writer was ubiquitous with being on the Internet, blogging and maybe self publishing.

I read Stephan King's On Writing, and Orson Scott Card's Character and Viewpoint. I subscribed to Writer's Digest. I still didn't seem to be able to translate the pictures in my head to the page in front of me. Then I read an article in WD about NaNo and I thought it sounded fun. I still remember sitting in my old apartment and taking the magazine over to my computer so I could properly enter the website address into Google. Lately, I had been feeling depressed. Down. Like writing was just a dream I would always have, but never achieve. For the last few years my writing had taken a back seat to going to Massage Therapy school and working long hours. I was trying to build a business from scratch with other entrepreneurs, and it was grueling, heartbreaking work.

But I'd see my copy of On Writing, and feel a pang a sorrow. I'd get my issue of Writer's Digest in the mail, and devour all the articles like they would be my salvation.

And in a way, they were. Because when I went to the NaNo forums, I found a community of writers. Just like me. Beginners, completely new to everything about writing, and people who had been writing for years. Pros. Hobbyists. Amateurs. Amateurs to amateurs like I was that first year, who didn't know what my average daily word count was, or even what conflict was to a novel.

From there I furiously Googled things like creating characters and building conflict. I found Holly Lisle's website and promptly used half the free articles there to develop the idea I had for my book. Because I signed up for that year, and even though I had absolutely NO IDEA if I could even write 50K in a month, I knew I had to try. I knew time was passing, and if I was really serious about being a writer, of being the person who had books in a store instead of just being someone who talked about it, I knew that I needed to take writing more seriously. Instead of thinking "I'll write a book and then edit it" and letting that be this vague statement, I needed to figure out how one actually goes about doing that.

I started that first novel, called Seeing Red, about a modern day take on Little Red Riding Hood, and learned through the course of the month that I could type fast. Only having a day job to worry about, and my then boyfriend/future husband, I could ignore everyone for a month to work on my novel. And you know what? I wrote 150k words that month. 

More importantly? I finished that novel, something I had never done before. I'd written novels before, novels that long even, but I had never, ever managed to type "The End" without jumping from the middle straight to the end and writing one last scene.

It was invigorating. Exhilarating. I knew this was something I wanted to do the rest of my life, and I haven't looked back since. I wrote another book in February. I tried to edit the first book I wrote. Then I tried to edit the second. I bought and read LOTS of novels about writing. James Scott Bell's Plot and Structure was one of the first, recommended by just about everyone on the Internet, and it's still one of my favorites. 

I started this blog, to talk to other writers and blog about my thoughts on writing. You'll see those early posts, where I thought I had my process all figured out. I still cringe when I read them sometimes, but there's a lot of information there, and people still say they get some use out of them, so I leave them up.

Almost seven years later, and I feel like I know less in some ways than I did then. Writing is harder with all that knowledge in my head. All the dos and don'ts and rules and opinions and trends and what to write about and what not to write about and omg you're going to die in a broken heap if you put vampires in your novel. But you know what? I've written--and completed--at least seven novels (I think it's more, but I'm too tired to count right now). I've started countless more in those seven years, and I've lost count of how many books and articles on writing I've read. All but one of my best friends I found through the Internet, through our writing.

There's a dark voice inside me, one I think we all have, that wants to point out it's been seven years and I'm not published yet. That I still have issues starting and finishing novels. That I should be further along in my writing career by now. That I should at least be moaning about all the rejections I've stacked up over the years.

But right now, reflecting back on all the good that's happened to me, it's easy to push that voice aside. Cathy Yardly, in her phenomenal book Write Every Day: How to Write Faster and Write More talks about our fears, and points out that the things you fear are parts of yourself. Crushing your self doubt, smashing your internal editor to smithereens...these are all pieces of yourself. You doubt things because you're afraid. Of failure, of success, of mediocrity. This is a part of you. You can embrace and attempt to work through it, or let it consume you. I have not found another option; if you have, please tell me.

So in the spirit of celebration of how far I've come--how far we've all come, because every person that views my blog, that writes their own blog, that toils away at their novel when the whole world sometimes feels like it's against them--I'm going to do NaNo this year with the same bright eyed innocence and steely determination as I did that first year. I don't know what project I'm going to write yet--I keep jumping from project to project as one fear or another rears it's ugly head, but come October 31st at 11:59 my butt is going to be in front of the computer and I'll be ready to start a new book. I'm going to write it until I can type "The End". And then I'm going to celebrate.

I invite you to write along with me. I plan to post this month what I'm doing to prep myself (most of it will be of the "try not to freak out" variety since that's where my issues currently are), and then during November I'll blog about my progress. You can come and leave comments or links to your own update posts and we can cheer ourselves on.

What do you plan to do this November? Write a novel? Are you already in the middle of one? How do you shut out the voices about marketing and trends? 

  

Award Goodness

So my friend Rena, aka the Liz with the Dragons, has nominated me for an award. Awards are fun, and I always enjoy talking about myself, so here we go!

The rules:

• paste the award badge to your blog, 
• give us 11 random facts about yourself, 
• answer the 11 questions, 
• and choose your nominees

 Since I am not sure I can think of random facts about myself everyone wants to know, we're skipping right to the questions, m'kay? M'kay.

a.        What naive misconception did you have about writing books when you started

That your "process" was a static thing. Once you found your magical process at the end of a rainbow, that was it. Just, lather rinse repeat for every single book, forever and ever.

This is so not the case. I always try new things, partially because I am always trying to find a better way to do something, and also because the same thing doesn't work for each book. Some ideas I spend a lot of time working on the character, while the next book I might not have to work hard at all. 

This isn't to say that I don't spend equal time working on character, plot, and setting, just that some things come easier than others, but what things are easy and what is hard changes with each book.  
 

b.      What is your favorite part of writing? 

That warm, bubbly feeling in the pit of your stomach when you're writing and the rest of the world disappears. Your fingertips are flying across the keyboard and the words come easy.

I also really love brainstorming new ideas.

 

c.       What is the one thing you would change about publishing and why?

Wow, what a can of worms! Most of the business practices of publishing are there because they need to be, I think (please lay down your pitchforks). But there's a lot of things that could be done far more efficiently, and I think the new computer tracking systems make it hard to build a career. 

 

d.      Do you have an inspiration list? Can you give us a sample? 

I use music and pictures to inspire me, especially during the brainstorming stage of a project.

Pinterest is excellent for the picture aspect. Here are my boards. All of them are for a book idea. Some of those ideas are really far developed (Deja Vu and Sanctuary for example), but other ideas have been really slippery, so I actually used Pinterest in attempts to brainstorm (What the Water Gave Me for example). 

As for the music aspect, that's why Job invented iTunes. I make playlists for each book idea, and I have a separate playlist called The Idea Mine that's nothing but songs I find inspiring. A few of those songs are:

"A Question of Heaven" by Iced Earth

"Snuff" by Slipknot

"What the Water Gave Me" by Florence and the Machine (if you couldn't already tell from Pinterest) ;)

"Talons" by Bloc Party

and "Daisy" by Brand New

Tangent: there is an excellent Whedonverse music video to Daisy...

 

e.       If you were a super villain, what would be your fatal flaw? 

Hubris, for that is everyone's fatal flaw.

Other than that, it would be over thinking everything. I would try to run a Xanatos Gambit, over think all the possibilities, and never get anything done. I would be the less effective supervillain ever.

f.       If you were a super hero, what would be your super power? 

I would be the superhero that pulls all the other superheros together. When the chips are down and all hope seems lost, I would be the plucky sidekick that gives a rousing speech about friendship or courage or nachos that kicks the Moody Superhero off his/her butt and saves the day.

If I was short inspiration that day, I would just crib Aragorn's speech. He wouldn't mind, I'm sure.

 

g.      If you could go on a trip to a tropical island but you didn’t get to pack anything before you left, would you go?

Yes.

If you asked the same question about the Arctic Tundra the answer would be no. I figure, a tropical island, I could just buy whatever I needed there. Arctic Tundra, not so much.

Now for the nominees:

Joe Selby
Liz Davis
Charity Bradford (who also has a book coming out soon, that you should read because it's AMAZING)

...and anyone else that wants to answer these questions. Let us know in the comments section if you're game, so we can visit and see!

Nominees, because Rena asks awesome questions, I am going to ask that you answer the same ones. :D

Olympic Drive

I am sure other, more witty, better looking, and smarter people have made similiar parallels between Olympic athletes and writers. 

But those people are busy right now, so you're stuck with me. :D Sorry about that.

Anyway. My family and I were talking yesterday about what it takes to be an Olympic athlete, namely the sacrifices.

Consider how many hours of practice it requires. How many missed outings with friends and family. The amount of money spent it takes for them to even be considered for the team.

N0, seriously, think about this.

Because there's a lot of decent athletes out there. Talented athletes, who might have had the chops to go for the gold, but instead made different choices. There's nothing wrong with those choices, but it takes a certain amount of sacrifice to keep working at something day after day.

AND AND AND

These athletes going to the Olympics aren't guaranteed anything. They aren't guaranteed they're going to make the team, or place, or place high enough to win the gold medal. They do all of that work, on the hope they might win a gold medal (or settle for the silver or bronze, if you can call that settling).

So why bother?

I'm not an Olympic athlete, so I don't know what drives them. I watched one of the road races, as they cycled in the rain (SHOCKING in London, right?) for three and a half hours. I just kept thinking, "No way. No way. I would have stopped after the first half hour."

Because that's not my passion. Writing is. 

Writing is the thing I can do, day in and day out. When I'm tired and the words won't come, and when I am typing lightening fast in a white hot fire, word-drunk. Why? Because it's my passion. It's the thing that gives me release and challenges and makes me feel alive. 

And even though like an Olympic athlete I have no guarantees of an agent, a book deal, of selling to more than just my mom, it's going to keep me going.

Plus, the cool thing about writing is you can do as much practicing as you want by yourself. Because seriously, the first time I fell off a balance beam I would just die from embarrassment.      

The Cost Of Kindness

Warning: Angry rant ahoy!

Over a week ago on Monday (not this past Monday, but the Monday before) my husband and I noticed that once again, our apartment's AC was not keeping up with the Georgia summer heat. Last summer our AC was always a few degrees higher than we had it set. It was set at 71, the house was regularly 76 or 77. But after a week or so, the temperature dropped enough outside that it wasn't an issue.

This year it was already having a hard time keeping up, and the hottest part of the summer wasn't even upon us. Plus, we have a four month old. So we called the maintenance people and were promptly ignored. Wednesday we called them again and they sent someone out. They changed the air filters and charged the freon, and sent a guy out to check on us in the morning. We tried to explain that the AC did the same thing last year, but they were sure it was just the air filters. It was 77 degrees in the house.


Thursday morning, someone stops by and checks our unit and says it's fine: it's blowing cold air. We explained that wasn't the issue. Our unit would blow cold air until Judgement Day, but never cool the apartment down enough to make it livable. Plus, over the weekend it was supposed to be over a hundred degrees outside. He said was just hot and we'd have to deal with it.


Friday we stop by the leasing office to talk to the property manager. We explained the issue. We explained that we weren't just being whiny about the AC being off a few degrees; it had reached 80 degrees in the house last night. We have a four month old. Their nervous systems are immature. It takes a baby a lot longer to warm up or cool down than it does an adult. Plus, he's got eczema, and the heat was just making it worse. If your AC is set at 71, and it reaches 82, and doesn't cool off until 3 in the morning, something is wrong.


The manager said she understood. She would have the maintenance men put the portable AC unit in our apartment tomorrow, and have them check out our AC unit again. We went back to the apartment, and by 5 it was already 80 degrees. I decided to take the baby over to my parent's house where the AC lives until Saturday.


Saturday arrives, and they hadn't brought the portable unit before my husband left for work (1 in the afternoon). I try to give them some more time. My parents live one town over, and I didn't want to drive there and back just to have them say the unit was on it's way. I'd called the office a few times, but no one ever called me back. I went back to the apartment around 4 in the afternoon and still nothing. It was 84 degrees in the apartment and 105 outside. I called the maintenance man again, and left. I spent the night at my parent's house again.


Sunday the office is closed so we knew nothing was going to happen. We called the maintenance man anyway. He'd said he went out there Saturday, and no one was home (*eyebrow twitch*), but he checked and the AC was blowing cold air (*tiny stroke*).


By this time, I was furious. FURIOUS. I live in the South, people. I know complaining about the AC seems like a petty, First World problem when people are starving all over the world, but again, this is the South. It's HOT outside. VERY hot. It was 105 on Saturday, and 103 on Sunday, and 99 on Monday. It's still in the high 90's this week, and will be until the end of August. We had a record breaking heat wave this weekend and our AC wasn't working. The inside of the apartment (top floor, by the way) was like an oven. 


I consider myself a nice person. There's a lot of people that before now would have been up at that front office, screaming at the nearest warm body. But that's not me. I don't think screaming at people solves anything. Usually the person you're yelling at simply nods and smiles, and just ignores what you're saying. It's not productive. I try to realize that everyone has their own problems and that I am not, in fact, the center of the universe.

I was pissed we were being ignored, and I was pissed that they had me backed into a corner. Being nice and understanding that they probably had lots of calls about AC that weekend wasn't doing anything but getting us walked all over, and I hate it. I hate that some people refuse to respond unless you're pissed off and complaining.  They never called us back when they said they would, and they didn't follow through with a single thing. I felt sick to my stomach. I knew I would have to go up there, and I knew I would have to be firm. I HATE confrontation. I HATE. I would so much rather sit down and discuss things like the rationale human beings we are then have to complain and be mean.


Which brings us to this past Monday. I drove up to the apartment, and my husband got up early (he had to work that evening) and we went over to the leasing office, once again. We had written a letter, complete with photo evidence, about our complaints. We walked in, and calmly yet firmly explained what was happening and why it was not acceptable. The apartment manager made some sympathetic noises. You might think I am exaggerating because I am ticked off, but I swear you could see her eyes glaze over the minute we started talking. 


She explained that the second unit was being used in another apartment whose AC was completely not working, and that the maintenance people would be looking at our unit today. It would have been REALLY nice to know this on Saturday. The maintenance supervisor came in and explained they would probably have to replace the unit, but in the mean time they would bring us the portable unit they had just ordered. Apparently the apartment complex only had one, and couldn't be bothered to drive to Lowe's, or Home Depot where they are easy to buy and even ON SALE.


You might be wondering why we didn't buy one ourselves. Well, we thought about it, but when we spoke to the property manager on Friday she said that wasn't necessary, and frankly, we don't have the extra couple hundred dollars to spend on one right now. We weren't 100% sure they would reimburse us if we sprang for one, since the manager said they would provide us with one.

Later on in the afternoon they brought the portable unit by and I was able to FINALLY sleep in my own bed. 

Here's where it gets fun. Tuesday morning the maintenance man comes by and takes out our old crappy unit, because I assumed (my bad) that the new unit had come in. The afternoon goes by and they bring us the second portable unit, explaining that the new unit hadn't come in yet.

Of course, Wednesday was the Fourth of July so nothing got done, and yesterday they didn't call or bring by our new unit. 

So once again, today I get to call them and ask where our new unit is, because guess what? It was 84 degrees in the house last night because just the two portable AC units couldn't keep up. Plus, they tripped the circuit breaker a few times.

I hate this so much. I hate being so very angry, I hate feeling like a bad person because I just want to march up there and scream at them for ignoring us, for patronizing us. We're good tenants. We don't complain. We clean up after ourselves. Our rent is always paid on time. Yet, this means nothing. Sometimes the squeaky wheel IS the one that gets the most grease, and I think that's wrong. That just sets up the next time the person has a problem they'll think the only way to solve it is to get pissed off. I've worked in retail and customer service my entire life. It's not fun to have someone yell at you over something you can't control.

But being ignored, being patronized and walked all over just because I haven't screamed at them just is just...wrong. 

Needless to say, we will not be renewing our lease.   

The Kindness Project: The Kindness of Strangers

 About The Kindness Project

Too often kindness is relegated to a random act performed only when we’re feeling good.  But an even greater kindness (to ourselves and others) occurs when we reach out even when we aren't feeling entirely whole . It’s not easy, and no one is perfect. But we’ve decided it’s not impossible to brighten the world one smile, one kind word, one blog post at a time. To that end, a few of us writers have established The Kindness Project, starting with a series of inspirational posts.

The other day my friend Liz told me about the Kindness Project, and it seemed like the universe answering a question I hadn't yet asked out loud. I knew I had to join.

Because lately I've been thinking about how even small things make a big difference. On the Internet, it's really easy to forget how many people you come in contact with every day. I don't usually think about how my actions affect other people, but I've certainly noticed how other people's actions affect mine.

For example, I read The Bloggess's blog and bought her book. It's funny and sad and awesome. You should read it. I follow her on Twitter, and occasionally reply to her tweets. A few weeks ago, she started to follow me. I was blown away. One of my writing heroes was following little old me on Twitter.

Then just Sunday, I posted a comment on James Scott Bell's blog asking about writing a road trip novel. He very kindly replied within a few hours, despite his ridiculously busy schedule. I've been through Plot and Structure so many times I've had to buy a second copy, and my copy of Conflict and Suspense is already showing the love. It meant a lot to me, that another one of my personal heroes took the time to reply to my question.

These are just two very small examples of how a small thing can have a big impact. I am sure both The Bloggess and Mr. Bell see themselves as regular people going through their daily motions. I'm sure they didn't know how highly I think of them, considering I try to keep my Internet stalking to a bare minimum. But that small gesture completely made my day. 

I've got to be honest here. Most of the time I don't consider my Internet dealings as a big deal. I am just a tiny, tiny fish in a very big ocean. I send out my tweets and posts because I enjoy doing those things, but I assume that they're going to be largely unread. When I read a blog post, and see that fifteen people have already commented, I think my own comment isn't that important. 

But I'm wrong.

When people leave comments on my posts, it makes me inordinately happy, so why wouldn't the reciprocal be true? It does matter, and for me to assume that it doesn't...well, that's just sad when I really think about it. Words and actions have power, and mine are no different. In fact, part of the reason why I am a writer is because I believe words have power.

From now on I'm going to be more mindful of my actions, and I hope you will too. You never know what something might mean to another person, and after all, isn't that why we're on the Internet? To make a connection?

Please check out the other wonderful people in this blog chain and spread the word. 

The Great Juggling Act

My friend Linda mentioned that she can't juggle more than a few things at once without feeling frantic, which got me thinking.

I can juggle several things at once. I used to pride myself on my abilities to multitask. But I looked at my daily practices, really looked at them, and now I wonder if we as a society should attempt to juggle a bajillion things at once.

Granted, in some cases it's necessary. I know that for a fact trying to juggle a baby with cooking and housework, and oh yeah, dinner, and let's not forget Elizabeth needs to write at least a few times a week if not every day to maintain basic sanity.

But when did we start feeling like not only we had to do it all, but all at once?

In some cases multitasking is a boon. Last night I loaded the dishwasher, cooked dinner, and cleaned out the fridge at the same time. With the time saved, I finished watching season four of Heroes with my husband (more on that train wreck later). 

In other cases, multitasking actually hurts. Imagine trying to write a novel at the same time as reading one. Or walking in the park. I'm not saying that people aren't capable of it (although walking and writing at the same time strikes me as hazardous to your health). But why would you want to? Shouldn't some tasks be awarded your complete attention? I don't know about you, but I want to get lost in a book. When writing, I want to be completely in the zone. When walking, I want to pay attention to the birds and the trees and the breeze on my face.

Some things deserve no less than your complete attention.

What about you? Do you prefer to try and get it all done at once, or one thing at a time?










 

 

Easy Plotting for Pantsers and Plotters Alike

Yesterday my friend Liz posted this helpful template about how to use Dan Wells's 7 Point Plot System in addition to, or instead of, the Save the Cat Beat Sheet for Novels.

The behind the scenes look at that post is Liz and I (or Liz and Liz if I refer to myself in third person) are obsessed with plotting. We'll dissect a favorite movie, book, or TV show for hours on end. I do it because I like analyzing things and I suck at plot, and Liz does it because she sees the structure of a novel first. The end result is we've spent countless hours breaking down the 7 Point Plot System and Save the Cat so you don't have to. 

Liz mentioned in her post using the 7 Point Plot System to hammer out a basic plot before you start writing, and I can tell you it's awesome for that. It's quick and dirty. You just fill in what you think happens in the story and press on with the business of actually writing the darned thing.

Here is a reference guide so you don't have to keep looking at the outline on Liz's post:

The 7 Point Plot System

Hook
The beginning. The mirror image of the end.

Turn 1
Introduces conflict and bridges the gap between the Hook and the Midpoint.

Pinch 1
Something bad happens.

Midpoint
Bridges the gap between the Hook and the Resolution.

Pinch 2
Something even worse happens.

Turn 2
Bridges the gap between Midpoint and End.

Resolution
The climax. Everything in the story leads to this moment.

If like me, you want a short outline before you start writing, you can fill in some vague thoughts and start typing. Or if you're pantsing the entire book from start to finish with nary a character sheet, you can fill in events as you go. The beauty of doing that is you'll start thinking about the next major plot event ahead of time. "Okay, well, I just hit the Midpoint, so the next major event should be Pinch 2: Something Even Worse Happens".

But the fun doesn't stop there! I use the 7 Point Plot System to check the fiddly bits of my plot too, not just the entire kit and caboodle. Let's say you have a romance as a subplot. You can take just the events of your novel that relate to the romance, and use the 7 Point Plot System to check how it progresses. 

The application for this is endless. I've plotted out the relationship between the main character and the antagonist, the love interest, important secondary characters--any character relationships that I needed to see the progression of. I've plugged in just the action bits, the arc that leads to the betrayal, anything I felt would be important to track all the way through my novel. It's especially awesome if you have more than one point of view character. You can track their character arcs and have a quick and simple way of keeping track of what they are doing in the book and when.

Obviously you should only plot out what you feel like you need to know. If doing three separate 7 Point Plot Systems for your character makes you want to curl into the fetal position, uncurl. Take a deep breath. This is simply a tool for you to use as you need. 

I can tell you though, working out the smaller pieces has really helped me see the inner cogs of the plot. If you see that the betrayal, romance, and action parts all share the exact same three events, then you can really amp those scenes up with focused purpose. It can help you spot plot holes a mile away, and also give you a clue how to fix those same holes. 


It also helps with pacing. I've noticed that if all but two of points happen within the first forty pages, I've obviously front loaded the book. Same thing happened with all but one of the event happened after the midpoint.

Another way to approach this is in revision. All the stuff I talked about tracking you can hold off until you're done writing the novel. Rather than trying to read through your manuscript a bajillion (bajillion is a word, I swear) times, you can simply keep track of the important arcs of the story using that nifty guide.

Something else Liz and I discussed was using the 7 Point Plot System for a series. Are you plotting a gigantic epic fantasy series? Of course you are. Who isn't? You can check to see if your entire series is progressing in a coherent fashion by plugging in the important events. Book one might just be the Hook, and book two could cover the first Turn and Pinch.  It would be a handy little reference guide to stick in your series bible, that's for sure.


If you would like specific examples, click on the link to Liz's post at the beginning of this post. Liz plotted out the musical Wicked in both the 7 Point Plot System and Save the Cat beat sheet. She's also linked to Dan Wells's Youtube series explaining the 7 Point Plot System in great detail, as well as uploaded the place you can download the slides from his presentation.

If you have any questions or need clarification on something, don't hesitate to ask. Also, if you find another use for this, let me know! I love finding new ways to plot.  

No Flying Cars to be Found

This post is going to be scattered, since there's lots of little things I want to say. So I am going to put it in one post. If you get confused, just pretend a squirrel on coffee wrote the post while having an epileptic fit, m'kay?

*Yes, I am still pregnant. I am scheduled to be induced on Thursday. So either the baby decides to come before, or I'll have to evict him then. I am mostly trying to ignore the contractions I am having, since wondering every few hours "AM I IN LABOR?" will drive me insane. My parents and in laws however, are not relaxing as well, and thus I have had to tell them to not ask me every time I call if I am in labor.

*You need to check out this post by my friend Joe. You need to. Then, you really need to read the Brian Brushwood/Teller correspondence he linked to. It's amazing and insightful, and yeah. If I could force words into your brain, it would be this correspondence.

*My husband found this last night: 9 Essential Skills Kids Should Learn. I teased him that he was already Googling child-rearing techniques, but his story is he found the site through another essay this guy wrote. Even if you're not gearing it towards raising kids, I think considering these skills is a good idea. Because there's a surprising corollary to 9 Essential Skills--- How "The Karate Kid" Ruined the Modern World.

*I am editing my ghost book, and beta reading another book, and I am enjoying this back and forth between the two. It's been very enjoyable. Have I mentioned I'm enjoying it?


*Back to the pregnancy thing: it really really irritates me just how poorly it's shown in movies and television. I know, I know. Elizabeth, it's not real. Even reality TV isn't real. Why expect realism? But it's something about HOW wrong they get it that bothers me. You see a woman touch her belly and say "It's time" and then they go to the hospital where she screams at her husband and then, POOF, baby. There's nothing about the broad spectrum of in between. I don't think it would kill producers to just be a little more realistic, if only so women don't suffer from these shattered illusions when they actually experience it for themselves (like, I don't know, having labor pains on and off for a WEEK). It would be like, I don't know, every movie showing flying cars. And then when you go buy a car for yourself, NONE of them fly. Not a single one. Do your research people. Not sure I am making sense anymore, but yeah. I had to get that off my chest. 

In summation: pregnancy/labor as shown on TV and movies? Nothing like a flying car.

*I am pretty sure there was something else, but of course I've forgotten it. It will come to me while I am in the middle of showering or driving or doing something that prevents me from jotting it down. I can only apologize. 

UPDATE: Oh yeah, I remember. I was going to complain about how the magical power of eggplant has failed me. But that's pretty obvious isn't it? And you'd probably just scoff at me for putting my faith in the magical powers of a vegetable. Because really, if eggplant induced labor for reals, they'd tell us not to eat it until the end of the pregnancy. I've also tried all of the other old wives tales, minus the castor oil. Because yeah, just look up what castor oil actually DOES. No thank you.

Where Have All the Big Moments Gone?

Okay, maybe it's just me, but lately I've noticed there's not a lot of big moments in movies and books. 

At least, not in the last few published novels I've read or movies I watched on Netflix. I know this is subjective, and I can still think of a bunch of movies and books that are exempt from this observation, so they are excused from class.

Perhaps I should explain what I mean by "big moment" so the rest of you at home can decipher my meaning.

Simply put, it's a turning point. It can be a major change of direction for the plot, or when some of what character is working towards pays off, or a major set back. The most obvious example is the climax of the plot, but there should be other, smaller climaxes. 

And yeah, there were turning points in the offending books and movies, but they felt really small. Little Timmy made a B on his math test. Rhonda found her lucky penny. Events that progressed the plot, but they didn't feel like much. It was "meh" instead of "Wow, I can't wait to find out what happens next!"

Think about big moments. Harry Potter discovers he's a wizard. Po finds inner peace. A coach gives an inspiring speech in innumerable sports movies. John McClane walks across broken glass shoeless. Johnny gets Baby out of a corner. Frodo is entrusted with the One Ring.

There's a cathartic effect from these turning points, whether things are better or worse for the main character. Something important has changed, and life can never be the same again. 


Not every moment in the movie or book needs to feel like this of course, but turning points should make you feel something. They should stir you, throw you towards the remaining turning points until the inevitable climax occurs and you feel the biggest release of all: the resolution (or conversely, you feel the most pissed off you spend X number of hours of your life on this piece of crap and can never get them back).


I'm not saying every turning point should be POW POW EXPLOSION OMG THE KILLER BEES ARE IN MY RACCOON WOUNDS!!!!!!!!!! but unless they are more dramatic than the events around them, they don't feel like anything at all. 


I really believe that a movie that keeps you on the edge of your seat or a book that is physically impossible to put down has among other things, a dynamic plot. There's twists and turns and high and lows and you're always emotionally engaged. 


But that's just me. My attention span is currently that of a coked up squirrel, so I am harder to entertain at the moment. It might be why I've noticed it more, but it's still something to keep in mind. 


What say you? How you do feel about turning points and how they relate to your own work?

Just So You Know...Plot Points

Yesterday I was being very good and working on my book. Problem is, I am stalled, big time. I don't know what happens next, and at the moment, I don't really care. It feels stupid, boring, and like hard, hard work. 

I know a big part of this is because I haven't be able to work on my book for about a week and half (you know how I am always going on about writing the first draft as quickly as possible? This is totally why.). But I looked at my outline and make a startling realization.

I had very few plot points. And of those, most weren't even proper plot points.

Here's the thing. You can totally put "learns to accept herself" on your outline. You really can. You can put whatever you want on there. But the reality is this really doesn't help you with your story in a concrete way. I put notes on my outline like that, but only to remind myself of where I want the character to be at that point. It does nothing for me as a plot event. 

Also? Settings do not make good plot points either. "Goes to a club and sees the evil monkey" doesn't really help you. You have the "sees the evil monkey" which is the point of the scene, but "goes to a club" really doesn't help you. I can almost guarantee that you will get to that point in your outline, and wonder what the heck the character is going to DO once they get to the club and see the monkey.

The really sad thing is I know this already. I know better than to jot down "sees largest ball of twine" as a plot point. But a lot of times while I am outlining I jot stuff down and never go back to add details.

Then I get to where I am now, where I have an idea of where I want my character to go, and what sort of emotional journey she experiences, but very little ideas in the way of the actual plot. So here's a friendly reminder for you:

A plot event is a concrete event that moves your character from point A to point b. 

Obviously this is a basic definition, but I want it vague enough that it will apply to different people's writing styles. The important thing to remember is a specific event. Like "Sally fights the zombies that have broken into the secret lab". Or "Jonathan kisses Mabel, and Denise walks in the middle of it."

Something happens. It's usually action oriented, even if it's not guns exploding and kittens being saved from a burning building. 

Hopefully this little reminder will help you guys in your plotting endeavors. Now if you'll excuse me, I have an outline to rip apart.

What litmus test do you use for your outline? Any hard and fast rules or do you just keep everything vague?  

Exploratory Draft Part Two

A while ago I blogged about calling my first draft an "exploratory draft". This idea came from Laini Taylor, who blogged about the same thing here.

Today I am revisiting the idea. I've wanted to write a post about this for a while, but I didn't feel like I'd come out to a place yet where I could.

The problem was letting go. I've finished a major rewrite. I've been working on developing an idea, but no matter how hard I tried the plot wouldn't come together. Suddenly I started to feel like a failure. I started to worry that the book, tradition urban fantasy, would just get lost among the hundreds of other urban fantasy books out there. 

Then I thought about my other ideas, the weird ones. The ones that are like urban fantasy but set on another planet. Or even weirder than that, the ideas that approach being considered cyberpunk. The little voice worried that a market would be hard to find for those ideas because they are so strange. And what if the book does well? I'd been stuck in the genre. 

Then of course the guilt set in, because I know I should not be worrying about agents and publishing at this stage; I should be focusing on the novel. 

This little cycle of emotions made me realize some things. First, writers are crazy and I am no exception. Second, my doubt masquerades itself as a reasonable voice only looking out for my future. Do you see what it did there? First my idea was too normal and then it was too weird. I couldn't win either way.

So I tried to get back to that feeling, of just having fun with an idea. Allowing myself to write a really, really crappy first draft. Of writing scenes I knew would never make it. Of exploring the idea.

It's not as easy as it sounds. There's a lot invested in the idea after all. And for me, I have to have some idea of the primary conflict before I head off into writing land. Otherwise the idea fizzles after a few scenes. 

I wish I could tell you that I had a magical breakthrough and the novel is now flowing off my fingertips like water from a stream, but that's not the case. I started something last night, but I don't know what the primary conflict is. I plan to spend time today figuring some basic things out, and hopefully I can start up again. 

The point is to just keep trying. You're going to enter weird slumps and phases of your writing life, and sometimes you have to get really creative with the solutions. 

Anyone have any horror stories to share? What about that nagging voice? How do you manage to ignore it enough to make it go away?

How to Make Cliches Work for You

Yesterday I have a mild panic attack. I blame the pregnancy hormones. While drafting my query letter for The Heart's Remains, I had this horrible suspicion that the book sounded like one big clichefest. Exorcists. Demon summonings. Summoners. Family secrets. Not exactly untrodden ground here, especially in fantasy.

This of course was not true. I know that. I'm not saying I completely reinvented the wheel (that would be impossible, since the book is a loose retelling of Snow White), but I know my book isn't one big cliche. Sometimes when you boil an idea down to it's smallest parts it can feel like that, but as we know, a lot of what makes something fresh and new is the execution. 

I've talked about that before, so today I thought instead I would show you how to make a cliche in your genre work for you. I personally don't think there's anything wrong with a trope, so long as they are used sparingly, or you do something cool with them. After all, most ideas become a trope because there's something enduring about them. I think once you've thought through the cliche and used it to your advantage, it become a trope. You still need to use tropes sparingly, but not you're thinking about the elements of your idea, not just piling on a bunch of ideas that have all been done to death.


See this article here about tropes: Tropes Are Tools

And here is a good livejournal post about Trope vs. Cliche.
 
Let me also say that I don't usually get story ideas this way. Normally I have a vague idea for a story and where I want it to go before I start taking each piece apart. It gives me a better sense of the direction I want to take the reversal. But there's nothing saying you can't say, "Man. I love the 'Love at first sight' trope. Let's see what sort of story I can make of that!"

This requires a tiny bit of research. But it's the fun, don't let it suck you in, sort of research.

So here we go. I am going to use the trope "Chosen One" since a) It's a pretty common trope. It's considered a cliche in most stories nowadays, and b) I am developing a novel with a chosen one in it, so I've already done a lot of thinking on it. 

1. Scouting

Your first defense against a cliche is research. I like to use TV Tropes.org as a good starting place. They have a vast collection of tropes and things are cross referenced.

We simply type "Chosen One" into the search box and pull up a long entry. The entry itself is also riddle with links, so you might want to check a few of them out if you're confused. There's also a long list of examples from books, movies, TV, and even webcomics. I like to skim through the examples to give myself an idea of how the trope has been done before.


Here is another trick. Scroll down the entry and you see where the "Chosen One" trope is on the trope axis. You get a lot of similar tropes to look at. "Fate and Prophecy types", "Magical Girl Tropes", "Heroes", "Archetypal Characters", "Empowerment", and "Discredited Tropes" (which means it's been done to death, didn't age well, or people have come to hate this trope).


Since my story deals more with fate versus free will, I will look at the "Fate and Prophecy types" branch. But let's say you're trying to pay homage to a traditional fantasy story. You've got an idea that you're going to use classic archetypes and then parody the heck out of all of them. "Archetypal Characters" would probably be a better branch for you in that case. 


My search gives me all sorts of plays on the Chosen One trope:
*The Chosen Zero
*It Sucks to be the Chosen One
*The Unchosen One


Next, you attempt to list all the movies and books you've seen/read that used the Chosen One as a trope. Depending on the trope you're researching, you might even want to re-watch some of these to see how they did it.


In this example, Chosen One has been done so often it would be a great idea for you to brush up on how other works have used this trope. You're going to really want to shoot for something different here, especially if the Chosen One is your main character.


2. Processing


That's enough information for now, don't you think? You don't want to get too crazy with this. 


Now we sit down and use our brains. Think about why this element is popular enough to be a trope or cliche if done badly. How it is used? Why has it endured for so long? 

For the Chosen One, I already know why it's popular. (Mythologists speculate) it comes from ancient legends, when people were still telling tales around the campfire. Cultures needed a way to designate the hero from everyone else, so they said that destiny chose this person, or this chosen one is the son of a god. 


This is also why it's almost a cliche. Because it's been done before we even invented books. Also, it's no longer a cultural necessity for us to use destiny/the gods to tell people who the hero is. We have other ways of designating the hero, and sometimes we'd rather the hero to be a guy just like us (hence the Everyman trope). 

Take your list and ask yourself the following:


*What do we expect from this trope?
*What is ordinary about how I want to use this trope?
*What is extraordinary about how I want to use this trope?


You don't have to get this all in one go. I often have one place in my brainstorming document for this, and I often add to it as I think about the idea. I also place my notes underneath the trope in question, so it looks little thought trees. :D


Here's an example:

*What do we expect from this trope? 

*We’d expect the Chosen one to fulfill their prophecy right away and always be on the side of the good guys.

            But in Star Wars, Darth Vader did both. He subverted the prophecy because he helped kill the Jedi, and then later on with the help of Luke, he kills the Emperor and fulfills the original prophecy of getting rid of the Sith Lords.

*We’d expect the Chosen One to not have a Chooser, for it just to be a nebulous “fate” thing. A prophecy, something they can’t confront.

            What if instead there was a chooser? Or the Chosen One themselves was the Chooser of the fate. Valkyries, Fates, the Morrigan, Norns.

So underneath I often put what I am going to do, if anything, to address the audiences expectations of the trope. You don't have to address every single expectation. Some of those expectations are going to be fulfilled, and that's okay. 

The really cool thing is thinking about each expectation often gives me neat ideas. I think the Darth Vader both fulfilling and subverting the prophecy is AWESOME. That makes me happy. I also now have cool ideas for norns and fates and valkyries. Also good stuff. 

The important thing to remember is to not drive yourself crazy with thinking you're writing a terrible book riddled with cliches. Some tropes you use are just going to be there, no matter what. If the good guys win, congratulations, that's a trope. If the guy gets the girl, also a trope. 

Tropes are simply what we expect from a story with a certain set up. You can have your fun though, if you think about which elements you want to subvert and twist by trying to figure how you can do things differently. 

It's also important to note that context is king. If you're writing a medieval fantasy novel set in pseudo-Europe and there's an ancient prophecy where a farm boy turns out to be the Chosen one and picks up a sword to defeat the Dark Lord, then your Chosen One trope is going to feel A LOT like a cliche. 

But, if you do like J.K. Rowling did, and instead set her Chosen One to a magical wizard school (also a trope) where he had to learn the ropes and had to stop Voldemort from taking over the muggle and magical world, it feels less like a cliche. Rowling did enough interesting worldbuilding and had enough clever new twists that her Chosen One didn't feel like the same old same old. Especially when she introduced the concept that Voldemort MADE Harry the Chosen One by killing his parents. How it could have been Neville instead. 

So. Does anyone have any other thoughts to add? Anyone want to see me pick apart another trope?

    

Pet Peeve: Words Have Weight

"Word have weight." 

                                 ---Holly Lisle

Today I am going to talk about a pet peeve of mine. Since most of my readers are also writers, I am going to be preaching to the choir on this one, but I figure some of you might not have thought about things this way. If you have, well then join me in the comments section and we can complain about it. :D

Today I read a funny article on Cracked.com about subjects people love to talk about, but most people don't want to hear about. Number one on the list was your book/script/screenplay. I rather enjoyed the article, especially since Daniel O'Brian made the caveat that most writers like to talk to other writers about their ideas. And most of the time, if you have a book or something to show for your efforts, "normal" "non-writer" people usually like to hear about your book because you have something to show for it.

I am going to add to that statement and say in my experience, even IF you have a book to show for your efforts, most people don't want to listen to you breathlessly talking about your space adventure cowboy romance between a sentient tree and a hamster. Short, interesting pitch sentences, yes. When my co-workers ask about what I am writing, I use that as an opportunity to practice my pitching skills. 

"It's a retelling of Snow White on a tundra, about an exorcist who promises her mother on her deathbed that she'll stop a demon summoning before the winter solstice, but she winds up discovering her mother's secret life in the cult." (that's the basic plot of my book, The Heart's Remains, in case I haven't mentioned it before).

See, that was short and sweet. I can gauge how interesting the story is (to some people) by their reaction. I can also choose to include different details to see what people seem to respond best to. When they ask for more information, I expound, but I usually don't go on at length about my book. 

I think a lot of people like the idea that you're a writer more than actually hearing about your book in detail. We're interested because it's our book, but most people really couldn't care.

I used to ramble on and on and on. It wasn't pretty. I would deluge the hapless sap who asked me about my book with details. "It's about this girl who's mother is sick from an unknown illness, and right before she dies she tells Sera, the main character, about a demon summoning that a secret cult is doing, and Sera promises to stop them, but then she finds out it's hard to find proof of the cult, and she gets sick herself, and she has a twin sister, and her friend gets possessed, and...."

To most people it's just a bunch of details. It doesn't make sense to them. 

But that's not my pet peeve. I have made my peace that 99% of the population is not rabidly excited about my book ideas.

In the comments section a lot of people disagreed with the author's statement that you need to have tangible results, like half a book, in order for most people to be interested in your book/film. Lots of people said that ideas were just as good, if not better, because you can see where the book is going.

I've also seen this basic sentiment prevalent on forums everywhere and in real life. How many people have you met that say they had a book idea? And it's going to be the best thing since Twilight/The Da Vinci Code/The Bible. Yet they have nothing to show for the idea.

I am not saying these people are lazy posers and need to write that idea down. Not everyone is a writer, after all. It's a lot of work. It's just really annoying to me when people act like having an idea is the same exact thing as actually writing a book.

I know I should be more understanding. They don't know, because they haven't written the book yet. They don't actually know how hard it is to get from the beginning to the end, and then to edit the sucker within an inch of it's life, and then...

The other thing these people don't seem to understand is words have weight.  Having an idea is great. It's the first step. But anyone who's ever had an idea and then wrote that out into a book knows that no idea remains completely intact from when you first had it. The words you're writing have weight. Even if you have an idea come to you and everything is laid out perfectly, and you write the book and barely a thing changes, the book still feels different than your idea. There's layers to it. Nuances and subtleties that you didn't conceive of intially.

That's okay. Normal. What's supposed to happen. But that's why I get annoyed when people try to compare having an idea to writing a book. It's not as easy as simply jotting the idea on paper and selling it for millions of dollars.  

If it was, everyone would have a book out there.

So there. That's my rant. I'll stop foaming at the mouth.

So what do you guys think? Am I nuts? Or does that burn your biscuits too?