Do you use outlines?

James Patterson creates such a detailed plot synopsis that someone else can write his first draft. Dostoyevsky was big on outlines too.  But what about normal people? There are upsides and downsides. If you have a great outline, you'll know what parts of your plot don't work before you've already written 200+ pages. You'll also be able to quickly manage multiple plot lines without your head exploding. (Always a plus.) The bad part? Oh, you can spend years perfecting a plot and never get around to writing.  (Perfect is pathological, by the way.)

How to outline? Glad you asked. You can use index cards. Pleasingly tactile and fun to stack. Use different colors for different plot lines.  If you like tools, try Keynote, a small free app that lets you organize notes into outlines. 

My personal favorite is yWriter--another free bit of software that makes you pity those who buy software. You can organize by scene or by chapter. You can write inside your outline. Best of all, you can print your outline on...little cards! ( Maybe this is Patterson's secret weapon.)

Writing with a gem-like flame

My apologies to Walter Pater. His hard gem-like flame was much more aesthetic and lovely than mine. Mine is more of a welder's flame-- a practical torch.
Let us judge our writing as we would a diamond , a gem both beautiful and useful, as the stone embodies the qualities we want in our writing:

1. Clarity. Ask yourself if your purpose is clear to the reader. Does each sentence make sense grammatically?Is it clear what is happening at each stage of the plot?

2. Color. How's that style? Are your words vivid and sparkling? Have you considered who is reading your work? Does your style suit your audience?

3. Cut. Every subject has potential facets. Have you brought our the most important points and made them stand out? Or have you buried the reader in details that detract from your point?

4. Carat. Larger isn't always better. The most perfect length for a piece of writing is dependent on its purpose. (A novel usually fits comfortably around 200 pages, while a op-ed may only be 500 words.) If you have no unnecessary words, each theme has been explored to a satisfying depth, and there is no repetition, the length is probably correct for the material. If the genre requires a different size, then you may need to adjust the material.

Do you need a magazine to write a book?

No, but it certainly can help to have some glossy photos of successful writers arriving in your mailbox periodically to boost your motivation. Is it worth the cost? I'd say yes, having just resubscribed to two writing magazines: Writer's Digest and Poets and Writers. Both have author interviews; both cover a wide range of writing; and both have lots of information about workshops, contests and other inducements to the writing life. So, which one is the best bet for you? Pick up a few back issues of each and examine the covers. Do notice anything? On the cover of Writer's Digest, the author is smiling. Poets and Writers cover subjects favor a more austere expression. The same can be said for interior articles. If you are a rather academic stylist, jaded by workshops and modern fiction in general, grab up Poets and Writers. If you are excited, hopeful and determined to write for the most current market, go for Writer's Digest. Better yet, shell out a few more dollars and get both. Then practice your expressions in a mirror in case you are asked to be on the cover of either of them.

The Truth is Scarier than Stephen King

I just finished Duma Key, King's latest. Now, I love Stephen King with that stubborn loyalty that all his Maine fans have. He's one of us; he's never sold out. Nonetheless, I was utterly puzzled by his latest offering. It wasn't scary. Oh, it had the usual dead creatures, supernatural forces and tragic deaths of sympathetic characters--this time centering around a man, who having lost his arm in an accident moves to Florida and starts painting seriously creepy paintings. (I did a pencil sketch of one of the descriptions for this blog.) But Duma Key didn't scare me.
What kept me reading was the sensitivity with which he described some of the key relationships. One between an elderly woman and her caretaker was particularly resonant. The gestures were spot on. I began to wonder if King wanted to scare me. Maybe he wanted to write about people instead. Maybe that was the truth lurking under the surface. Let me quote a passage where the main character describes painting--it's true for writing as well.

"Be brave. Don't be afraid to draw the secret things. No one said art was a zephyr; sometimes its a hurricane. Even then you shouldn't hesitate or change course. Because if you tell yourself the great lie of bad art--that you are in charge--your chance at truth will be lost. The truth isn't always pretty. Sometimes truth is the big boy."
Stephen King, Duma Key.

Is Your Worst Audience in Your Head?

Why is some writing so effortless and others so fraught with doubt and anxiety? Of course, if I'm writing for publication, the stakes are high, but what about when I'm working on my book? Why should I hesitate to put words on paper? Until it's finished, I'm my own audience.
Evidently that's the problem! I was rereading Peter Elbow's book, Writing with Power when I hit the chapter on audience. We're used to thinking of audience as the expectations of a genre. Elbow takes it farther. According to Elbow, we can put ourselves through literary scrutiny to rival college entrance exams before we put a single word on paper. Here's my breakdown of his finer points:
Audiences can be either external or internal. (Or non-existent). Each type can be either safe or dangerous to the writer. A "safe" audience is respectful, serious and supportive and the writer responds by writing in an authentic voice with depth and power. A "dangerous" audience is critical, demeaning or judgmental, which often causes the writer to write in a false or overly academic style, write only superficially, or not write at all.

We can't change external audiences: writing classes, publishers and family will be safe or dangerous regardless of our desires. We know who they are. But do you really know your internal audience? Not only does our internal audience have a tremendous effect on whether we succeed as writers, we have the power to control it. Next time you think your writing will never be good enough, or that you'll never succeed, stop and ask yourself--who's telling you that? Is it some lingering voice from childhood? Or maybe a teacher? An ex? Get them out of your head! Writing is hard enough without ghosts. Only allow in thoughts that are on your side.

Five Reasons to Toss That Draft

I love to throw scenes away. (crumple, crumple...Yeah!) But I am also meticulous about saving copies of everything and backing up my hard-drive. That's not a contradiction: I have a system. Here are the criteria I use to decide what I take out of my book and what I keep for a rewrite:

1) You dread writing. That scene has painted you into a corner. Now you're stuck, surrounded by wet, sloppy plot, and writing isn't fun anymore.

2) Your characters are acting out of character. It happens. You need one of them to do something to move the plot along, but it isn't what they'd do naturally. You've forced them and it shows.

3) The scene is gorgeous, witty, intelligent and has absolutely nothing to do with the plot. Admire your handiwork for a few more minutes, then scrap it. Pretty is as pretty does, and if that scene isn't doing anything for your plot, it's ugly.

4) You've rewritten it four times and it still sounds wrong. Give up already!

5)You love it, you love it, you love it---and all your readers hate it. If you've chosen your readers wisely, trust them.

Now what? You're a kind person; you can't just throw your words out on the street. Indeed not. Make a Humane Society for Writing and put them there. I suggest a box. Maybe later, you'll adopt some of those ideas for a different work. Now, go back to your desk with a clean heart.

"Dialog isn't conversation," she screamed.

Let's get one thing straight: dialog is not the same thing as conversation in the real world. There are some important similarities:

1) How someone says something is more important than the words themselves. Imagine your partner, a child, a politician, and a used car salesman (oops, I repeated myself!) all saying the words "I'm sorry." (Obviously, this isn't realistic in the last case. Just try.) Very different meanings, aren't they? This is why the little details of behavior--the smirk, the drumming fingers, the averted eyes are so important. We need to know those nonverbal cues.

2) The speaker determines the meaning of the words as much as the words determine the character of the speaker. In other words, when you first present a character, use the dialog to show their character. Later in the book, how the reader feels about the character will determine the meaning of the words. I know that's true for me in real life. Don't you know someone who if they say "Nice day." to you, you assume they're up to something crooked? And if your sweetie says, "Nice day," well, I blush to even consider what you might think!

There are also some big differences between dialog and conversation:

1) Someone is always listening: the reader. People are, by and large, lousy listeners. We're always thinking about what we're going to say next, what we need to get done or what the other person thinks about us. Readers are waiting for every word. You can use this to your advantage. Characters, because they resemble real people, do not always listen to each other, but the reader always listens. You can put in subtle bits of information that a character might miss for the reader's benefit.

2) Dialog is not just characters talking. It is the writer revealing relationships and information to the reader. While you write, your characters will lapse into small talk. That's natural. But you must prune it down like a topiary. Every word has to have a purpose.

Writing and Crying

Is it a good thing to make someone cry? If it's your reader, it certainly is. I'm not an easy person to make cry, so when I read Steve Erickson's Our Ecstatic Days and cried copiously, I was curious. What what he trying to do to me? And why did it work? And why did I feel so good about feeling so bad?
There are plenty of reasons to cry: pain, anger, humiliation, sadness, mourning, happiness, empathy, or even witnessing noble acts or feeling holy awe. Most of these motivations are not used by writers. I suppose you could write a book so long-winded that the reader would cry from lower back pain when picking it up. I've certainly been made angry by a book, but it's not a long-term relationship so I don't usually cry. Apparently, the further up the scale you go, the more likely it is that a reader will enjoy having a good cry.
A good cry should leave a person feeling "value-added." You've taken them somewhere and shown them something of worth, something that enhanced their human experience. I cried over Our Ecstatic Days because Erickson showed me my worst fears but I didn't have to actually live through it.
Robert Frost said "no tears in the writer, no tears in the reader." I guess that means first we suffer for our art and then it's the reader's turn! If you think that's a hard order, just try and make your reader laugh!

Are You Feeling Lazy?

Oh, I knew it would happen. The well runs dry, the couch beckons and I find myself not writing. Though tonight I am lazy, I am still a kind person;I do not want you to fall into sloth as well.

So, to that end, I found two inspiring articles from two of my favorite blogs.

http://www.lifeoptimizer.org/2008/02/21/16-powerful-tips-to-overcome-laziness/


http://www.lifehack.org/articles/productivity/determine-never-to-be-idle-a-simple-productivity-strategy.html

Yesterday I wandered around the house reciting, "I will not be idle, I will not be idle." over and over. Today, I have no such illusions. If you find yourself in the same predicament despite my attempts to lead you into productivity, just remember you can say that you are "planning" your next twenty pages.
Cheers!

Relationships Rule!

What would life be like without relationships? Relationships, good and bad, are the cause and effect of our lives, and, not surprisingly, the relationships we create between characters creates a majority of our book's plot. Consider these typical character relationships:
1) The main character (M.C. from now on) and the love interest. Who does the M.C. love? Our choices in love are revealing. We choose someone who embodies a part of ourselves that we want or need to explore. However enchanting the beloved is, we are also falling in love with our future selves. Sometimes we attract others who sense parts of us that we thought we had left behind. Not all love is good for us. How can we complicate our M.C.'s life with love?

2) The M.C. and the best friend. Who do we relate to the most? Usually our friends have common values and different skills. We agree on deep levels but complement each other on the surface. In plots, the best friend or side-kick makes up for whatever weakness the M.C. lacks. Is your M.C. always getting lost? Then maybe his sidekick has innate GPS. Sometimes our friends complement our love interest by fulfilling needs that he or she cannot.

3) The M.C. and the antagonist. What do you have in common with the person you most dislike? Probably more than you'd like to think. Our enemies often have the very faults we fear having ourselves. Sometimes our enemies remind us of mistakes we've made, losses we've suffered or childhood figures. Consider why the M.C. hates the antagonist. Play up the that dark mirror. Think of Luke and Darth Vader.

4) Mix and match relationships. You know it's never simple in real-life. Some of our best enemies were once friends, and sometimes the reverse is true. Write your characters' relationships as they develop and change.

One of the great perks of writing a book is that you get to decide how things turn out. So, dig into the archives of your heart and let your characters say those unspoken words.

Is Your Antagonist a Bore?

Okay, so we've unleashed him to thwart the main character at every turn; he's clever, cunning and he'll make the good guys really suffer. But is he interesting? Imagine being trapped in a corner at a party by a dull sociopath. (Wait, didn't that just happen to you a few months ago?) Don't make your reader experience that.
1) Give him a past. Lavish some thought on how he became who he is.

2) Give him a pet. Or a potted plant. Or a penchant for picking up litter. Give him one nice quality to add dimension.

3)Give him a quirk. This will make him seem more real and you can use the detail to build suspense. He likes to eat Skittles? By the end of the book, the reader should break into a cold sweat whenever a Skittles wrapper is seen on the ground.

Assumptions:
1)You know that I don't mean that only guys can be bad guys, right? Women make terrific villains.
2) You know that "bad guy" stands for "romantic rival" if you're writing a romance.
3) You know that the "bad guy" can be a shark, a virus, the government, an addiction, a mental illness or even a concept like greed or pride.
4) It's okay to eat Skittles while typing.

Is Your Antagonist a Dog?

I was reviewing my plot today when something dawned on me. It was a musty, drooly thought. My antagonist was dragging my plot off into the backyard and burying it! Indeed, my antagonist had gone to the dogs. Here's how to tell:

1) Your antagonist chases cars for no reason. If your main character is always on the run, make sure your antagonist has a good reason to be in pursuit, other than the fact he's the bad guy. Give us some plausible and understandable motivation.

2) Your antagonist barks and barks, but you've chained him to a tree. My antagonist makes lots of threats, but he doesn't actually do much of anything other than stand around looking terrifying. Why? Because I am overly fond of my main character and I hate to have him suffer more than a hang-nail. Bad idea. Let the conflict loose.

3) Your antagonist is easily fooled. Fake throwing a stick and a dog will chase after thin air. Repeatedly. We love dogs for their gullibility. But an antagonist needs to be complex and at least as smart as the main character or there will be no satisfaction when the hero prevails.

In short: Give your antagonist good reasons for doing wrong, make them clever and let them do some damage.

Denis Johnson is a Poet

And, yes, he is a novelist too. And that is why I turn to his poetry to show the effects of the sounds of words on meaning. You see, if he were only a poet, you might wonder what these techniques had to do with your fiction writing, right? Anything goes in the quest for a cool scene, so prepare to steal a few riffs from poetry. If Denis Johnson does it, it's got to be good.

Here's the deal: different sounds evoke different emotional or symbolic meanings.
Some hiss and sizzle: s, sh, ch ("hiss" and "sizzle" actually sound like they mean, which is known as onomatopoeia, a great word to use in Scrabble)

Some explode or stop you in your tracks: k, t, p, g

Some are smooth: w, m, n, y

Some are fuzzy: th, v, z

Some are slow and sombre: o, oo, uh, ah

Some are quick and sharp: ih, i, eh, ee

Short words are quicker than long words.

Now for the applications (all Denis Johnson):

"a semi-truck against the bruised roses/of sunset/" from Grocery on Venice Beach. (Notice the vowel sounds: ah, eh, ee, ah, uh, oo, o, uh, uh, eh. That's 3 quick vs. 7 slow. Very sombre.)

"a chilly wind was taking/ small sticks and the like down the block" from All-Night Diners
(Notice all the quick vowels, and notice too that the second line has only one-syllable words adding to that sense of little things blowing down the street)

If you haven't read his poetry, you really should. They are skeletons of novels. Try this one: "Our Sadness"

Then go read the comics. You'll need to.

The End is Only Beginning

Take a look at these endings. Which do you think work best? Notice how different genres have different styles of endings. I'm enjoying tearing books off the shelf and carefully reading the last lines. When I read a book for pleasure I am so immersed in the story, I don't notice how the writer has been leading me along.

1) "Never you mind, honey," she said quietly, reaching under the jacket and carefully straightening out the collar, "Honey, never you mind..." Larry McMurtry, The Last Picture Show.
Listen to the rhythm in that ending! Even if you don't know the characters, their relationship is plain as day. McMurtry is considered "general" fiction, which means essentially, he was writing westerns extremely well, so the "general" public read his books, and he was no longer "genre." Sometimes it's who reads you that defines what genre your book is, not what genre you write!

2) Her hand tightened on his until her finger nails dug into his skin, and she said:
"O.K.,Bert. To hell with her!"
"Goddamn it,that's what I want to hear! Come on, we got each other haven't we? Let's get stinko."
"Yes--let's get stinko."--James M. Cain, Mildred Pierce.
No question that this is one hard-boiled noir mystery, is it? It was written in 1941; hence the slang. I imagine it must have been quite edgy at the time.

3) "As he peered ahead into the great land that stretched before him, the way seemed long. But the sky was bright, and he somehow felt he was headed in the right direction." E.B. White, Stuart Little.
I love how the landscape reflects Stuart's optimism. Setting really is a useful tool for conveying character and mood. This ending also is open to further books. (Remember, if you want to write a sequel, don't end like Hamlet. ) Do you remember how the first Harry Potter book ended with Harry considering how much fun he was going to have with Dudley that summer, teasing him with the threat of magic? Sequel-city.

4) "They would listen to each other's voices and they would breathe each other's breath. And they would wait for that power that would pull them like a chain into whatever came next, into that distant world where broken souls were wrenched out of their histories." Kevin Brockmeier, The Brief History of the Dead.
The end really starts a few sentences back, but I didn't want to spoil the plot if haven't read it. Literary fiction, wouldn't you say? You can really hear that omniscient narrator putting in his two cents. If you write literary fiction, you get more latitude to be introspective. Unfortunately, you probably can't have as many car chases or weapons. Ah, the sacrifices of style!

I've been giving Romances too little attention, so I think I'll head to the used book store and today and grab a few. From what I hear, they tend to have happy endings. Good. Cynicism is over-rated.

The Second Ending!

I am happy to post this next entry in the Ending Challenge---I'd say this writer is taking it to the literary genre:

The door slammed on the squad car and the thing settled under his
weight. She'd kicked him, once in the ribs as he lay bound and his
body had had no give to it but instead felt rubbery and he'd grinned
but only at the cement floor. The car was gone, now. The neighborhood
felt cold to her, ignorant, and she started to cry knowing, in an
hour, two she would find herself wishing she had done much worse.

The First Submission to the Ending Challenge!

Here's the first rewrite, obviously by a mystery-reader with a sense of humor. Keep 'em coming!


The Evil Villain was out cold. Lisa slammed the door, still panting. She grabbed her cell phone and dialed 911. "I have him! The Evil Villain! Come get him! Now!"

"We'll be right there to pick up the body, M'am"

"Body? No, he's still..." but they had hung up.

She could hear grunts and feet dragging across the floor.

Quickly,she slapped duct tape around the door.

Her gun, smeared with his flesh, blood and hair was on the floor.

Lisa heard the rasp of the duct tape beginning to give way.

She picked up the gun, thoughtfully wiped it on her jeans and stood back from the door.

If she heard a siren, he would be taken alive.

If she heard the duct tape breaking, it would be a body.

The door burst open.

Fix this ending, please!

Sharpen your pencil and find an eraser, (metaphorically speaking, of course, since most of you use a computer). For your edification, I have written an ending in need of work. Lots of work. Imagine you are on the final page of a crime novel. The hero has caught the crook and all the loose ends are resolved. This is what you read:

Lisa dialed the phone.
"I have the Evil Villain tied up in my garage. Could you send a patrol car?" she asked.
"Certainly," the operator replied.
Lisa hung up the phone. She looked around and soon found her gun on the ground. She picked it up and put it away. In a few minutes the police arrived and put the Evil Villain in the back
of the car. The Evil Villain glowered at Lisa. Lisa was glad he was heading to prison.

Hmm, not quite right. Maybe if we could end at a more dramatic moment? Let's try this:

Lisa ripped the duct tape with her teeth and slapped it across the Evil Villain's hairy arm. He struggled wildly, sweat pouring off his forehead, but the tape was industrial grade and Lisa had used most of the roll. She picked up her gun where it had fallen during the scuffle and wiped it off.
"Crime is a dirty business," she said to the scowling Evil Villain, "Now you need to clean up your act."

Well, at least something interesting is happening. Maybe we could compress things a bit and still keep all the necessary information? Let's try again:

The Evil Villain glared at Lisa from the backseat as the patrol car sped away. Lisa smiled as she wiped her gun with her handkerchief and carefully put it back in her purse.

All the information is there, something dramatic is happening, but is that as good as it gets? No way! Now it's your turn to have a go at it. Send me your versions and I'll post them.

No one got them all right!

I must admit I probably wouldn't have either. (I hope someone tests me so I can prove my own literary acumen!) The answers to yesterday's post quiz: 1) William Gibson 2) John Banville 3) Don Delillo, 4) Henry James, 5) Cornelia Funke, 6) James Salter, 7) Willa Cather, 8) Neil Gaiman.

Did you notice any common elements in these endings? I chose a very odd assortment of genres and time periods, so you wouldn't expect too much similarity. This is what I observed:
1) Most of them tell what happened instead of showing it in a drawn-out scene. Most of the time when you are writing, it's best to stay in the moment, right in the thick of the action. That last line is a place where it's okay to compress time a bit.

2) Most of them are dramatic. No one is dawdling around after the excitement is over.

3) Most of them convey a strong emotion or theme. Finally, you get a chance expose the heart of your story so the reader closes the book with the feeling still resonating inside them.

4) Most of them seem to be written with the sound and rhythm of the words in mind. Read the Banville and the Delillo endings aloud. Do you hear it? There's a real difference in rhythm and it isn't accidental. And yes, we'll get into that later.

Next post, I am going to give you a truly awful ending. Naturally, I had to write it myself to be sure it would sink to my low standards.

Can You Guess Who Wrote These Endings?

I can't wait to write the end to my book--mostly because that means I will be at the end and and ready for those heady few days before revision sets in. I know it's a way down the road for most of us, but let's think about that last line. It's your big chance to package your theme in a shiny prose package. Consider writing it first. Here are a few examples, culled randomly from my shelves. Can you guess who wrote them? I'll tell you the answers in my next blog. Then we'll get down to the business of how to write one.

1) "She kisses his sleeping back and falls asleep."

2) "Write to me, she said. Write to me. I have written."

3)"Ten minutes after we were airborne a woman asked me for my autograph."

4)"And the truth of it had, with this force after a moment, so strangely lighted his eyes that, as for pity or dread of them, she buried her own in his breast."

5) "But Farid was still standing on the same lonely road. In the wrong world."

6) "Their heavy shots had splashed into him, and they had followed all the way, firing as they did, with that contagious passion peculiar to hunters."

7)"Whatever we had missed, we possessed together the precious, the incommunicable past."

8) "She says nothing at all, but simply stares upward into the dark sky and watches, with sad eyes, the slow dance of the infinite stars."

You know, you're right. That's too hard. Here are your choices: James Salter, Neil Gaiman, Willa Cather, William Gibson, Don Delillo, Henry James, John Banville and Cornelia Funke. It's probably still too obscure, but aren't those great lines?

Time is stretchy.

Do you know one of those tiresome people who when you ask them how their day was, they tell you every minute in plodding exactitude? Time lumbers forward in their recounting like a soporific elephant. Writers, in contrast, put time through its paces: slowing down for scenes, racing through summaries and even leaping forward and backward as it suits the narrative. What you need to know is, simply, that the more important something is, the more words you ought to devote to it. For example, if someone jumps from a train, the action may take only a minute in real-time, but you would want to write every nuance, every emotion and detail to draw out the excitement. Conversely, if your character has an uneventful cross-country drive, sum it up in a sentence. Don't be afraid to play with time.

Free Printables for Plotting

It's hard to get ideas to stop swirling around in your head and down on paper, isn't it? I find it next to impossible to get all my scenes and facts in order. Sometimes details need to be slowly dropped into the storyline like breadcrumbs. I don't like erasing and rewriting my plot plans, so I've been using index cards to record my ideas, which is good as far as it goes. Today I designed a set of cards to print on card stock that should help us get those ideas down and in the right order. I've put them on my website: under Free Printables. Let me know how they work for you.

What We Can Learn from Art Garfunkel

I was intrigued to read in Terry Whalin's blog "The Writing Life" that Art Garfunkel was not only an avid reader, but a meticulous record-keeper of each book he has read, according to the New Yorker article "The King of Reading" by Nick Paumgarten. Whalin suggests that this would be a good habit for writers to pick up and I couldn't agree more. Great books are a wonderful resource. Find a notebook you can use and allow yourself a page at least for each book. After each chapter write a quick summary and anything you found particularly memorable, good or bad. When you're finished you'll have a plot outline that you can study and a few examples of effective writing. If you keep it up, you'll have a notebook full of plot outlines that can help you structure your own book. I like the idea so much, I think I'll try it myself. (I put a clip of Whalin's post in the left-hand column. From there you can click to the New Yorker article, if you are interested)

It's Easier to Avoid Sin Than Practice Virtue

And no one is quicker to find fault than a publisher. So while you write your book, watch out for these mistakes:

1. You have no knowledge of other books in the genre. (Yes, I've heard that you can make money writing romance novels, but if you don't love to read them you'll have a hard time pulling it off. Write what you love to read. Anyhow, it gives you a great excuse to sit around reading your favorite books. You're doing "market research"!)

2. You have no experience writing, but refuse all advice. Creativity is a gift, but it won't get your plot untangled. Obviously, this can't apply to anyone reading this.

3. You don't pay attention to other people's speech so all your characters sound alike. Don't let your 3 year olds sound like thirty year olds. Or visa versa.

4. You don't really care about your characters, so you allow gruesome and tragic things to happen to them that aren't necessary to the plot. This sometimes happens to good writers with wildly creative imaginations. No brakes. Rule of thumb: Think twice before adding maggots. (See Neil Gaimon's American Gods ) If you write horror, then those gruesome scenes are necessary to your plot.
   

5. You love a writer so much that you try to write exactly the same way. It's okay to be slightly under the influence, but value your own voice. Then down the road, other writers will want to imitate you.

Fiction That's Realer Than the Real Thing

How do you fill your book with descriptions and characters that are so vivid, that the reader is utterly convinced in their reality? Do you stick to what you know is true? No way! You are a writer! You are not bound by those rules! Nonetheless, there are a few ways to get the facts.

1. Experience: I swam with sharks!

2. Observation: I watched someone swim with sharks.

3. Conversation: I heard someone talking about swimming with sharks.

4. Imagination: I imagined swimming with sharks.

5. Research: I read about swimming with sharks.

Often you'll hear that experience is the most valuable, but I don't believe that. Doing something is no guarantee you can convey the feeling in writing. Get your facts however you choose, (Read my post "Using Your Senses" for tips) and then let your imagination take over.

Casting a "Star " Main Character

Whose eyes will the reader see through? When you choose a character to be the point-of-view character or the main character in your book, that's exactly what you must decide. The point-of-view character's eyes will become the reader's eyes; his/her hands will become the reader's hands. The point-of-view character will lead the reader into the world you have created. Your reader will also walk hand in hand with the "main" character. The main character is the one that the story revolves around. Let's work with a main character who is also the point-of-view character for our first book. This is the most exciting option for the reader because it places him or her right in the center of all the action. (Like a first-person shooter for you game buffs). If you have an idea for your book already, you probably have a sense of who your main character will be. As you dream up your story, try to make your main character active rather than passive. In other words, if your character is hit by a bus, be sure that it is because he or she ran into the street, rather than that the bus swerved onto the sidewalk. Why? Because your character needs to act with passion, be motivated by strong ideals, face up to harrowing fears and live every moment of your plot as if it were his or her last. Then the reader will happily follow your character anywhere.

Free Worksheets

I was going to wait until I was completely finished working on my web page before publishing it, but I really wanted you guys to be able to use some of the worksheets I've made for you and they didn't fit on this blog! Here's the website: http://howtowriteyourbook.writersrecipe.com-a.googlepages.com/home. Go there and look under Free Printables and you'll find some premise cards to print and play with. There's a "Madlib" plot worksheet too. I hope you have fun getting some ideas. Let me know how they work for you!

The players are the game

Characters. You need some. But how many? And who? To decide what characters your story needs, keep in mind that your characters are your plot. They make it happen. Imagine a football game. Your main character is the star player. He's on the field (the setting) holding the ball (the action). The field posts are his goal. His motivation is to score and achieve his goal. The main character carries the action toward the goal. Naturally, it wouldn't be much of a game if he were alone on the field. Let's give him a team-mate to help him. (In your book, this will be a side-kick or romantic interest). This team-mate should complement the main character; he should have strengths and weaknesses that are different, to keep things interesting. But don't look now! Here comes the rival team's best player! (This is your villain in a suspense or mystery novel or the competition in a romance novel.) Be sure that the rival has as strong desire to keep your hero from achieving his goal as your hero does to reach it. These characters are all you need. Any other characters should be added only if they serve to advance the plot. Remember, a close game is more nail-biting than a rout. Keep your sides evenly matched. Victory is sweeter when snatched from defeat. Consider this: the player has no function outside of the game. The game cannot exist without the players. Your characters and your plot are inseparable in the finished book, even if we tend to work on them one at a time in the planning stages.

Go ahead! Make a scene!

Okay, so you want to get to work? I don't blame you! Jump right in! Probably you already have a dramatic moment in mind, a crucial moment in your future book. Time to transform it into a scene! If you remember from my earlier post "The Basic Recipe" each scene has three elements: action, dialog and description. Aim for between 1 and 3 pages. Here's the breakdown:
1) Begin in the middle of the action. (The car skidding, the gun pointing, the letter crumpling in the fist, the door slamming, the phone ringing.)
2) Think like a movie producer. Zoom in from a distance and get close with your details.
3) Get the main character right into the mess. Get those feelings, impressions and thoughts down. Let them use all their senses.
4) Take a breath and set the stage. Where is this taking place? Why is the main character here?
5) Dialog. Don't say a word that doesn't either foreshadow, reveal character or give essential information.
6) More action. Finish the action you started, and if possible, get something else brewing so you can end with a hook. (the car skids to a stop...on the edge of a cliff.)

Now, remember action isn't just car chases and cliff-hangers. You romance writers know that a good deal of suspense and action can be subtle and interpersonal. Sometimes the action is as quiet as character having a life-changing thought. Use what works.

Break habits and build suspense

Since so many of you are interested in the mystery/suspense genre, I thought I'd write a bit about suspense, the tension that keeps readers avidly turning pages. How do you get it in your writing? First, you need a good handle on what suspense is. Suspense isn't curiosity. Curiosity is when you wonder what will happen next. Suspense is when you know exactly what might happen next, but you don't know if it will happen. You need these factors in place for good suspense:
1) Anticipation. That's the "if" factor. The reader must expect something to happen by experience, habit or hope. If you do not establish that your character eats eggs for breakfast every day, your reader may not notice or care if toast crusts on left on the plate one Tuesday, which leads me to the next point...
2) Make a habit, break a habit. Something was anticipated and it didn't happen. That's suspense. The reader is on alert.
3) Make sure the reader knows what's at stake. What is the main character trying to achieve? What are the obstacles? What is that black cloud looming on the horizon? Let the reader get good and worried. (Remember, if the reader doesn't have an inclination of what will happen next, that's just curiosity.)
4) Don't let your plot unravel! If you've got unresolved questions and side stories, tie them up neatly. Don't leave the reader with loose ends.
Even if you aren't planning on writing a mystery, tuck these tips away. Suspense is useful in all genres.

Genre is knowing which manners to mind

Two things got me thinking about genre yesterday. First, while rereading Clive Thompson's article about science fiction in Wired, I noted his observation that readers of Wired magazine wouldn't know the distinction between many genres.
(http://www.collisiondetection.net/mt/archives/2008/01/why_scifi_is_th.html) He's probably right. Readers don't need to know exactly where to shelve a book. But writers do need to know what the major genres are because publishers do. The second thing that got me thinking was a comment someone e-mailed me describing Agatha Christie's successful use of the unreliable narrator in her book, The Murder of Roger Ackroyd. Another poster, an avid mystery reader, had added a good tip to Mr. Brean's plot formula. What I realize is that while people may not know the names of all the types of genres or all the conventions, they do know what to expect when they read one! Now this is a bit like taxonomy, so bear with me! On the top, you have mainstream fiction and genre fiction. Mainstream fiction is general fiction, best-seller style. It is popular, usually plot-driven, not specialized. Some people give Literary fiction its own category, others lump it in with general fiction. Literary fiction is known for allowing authors to explore style and character and be a bit experimental. Now, on the other side of the chart is Genre fiction. It is sometimes (and not always in a nice way!) referred to as "formula" fiction. In other words, there's an understanding about how the novel will unfold if it is within a genre. Some of the genres are: Romantic, Mystery, Science Fiction, Fantasy, Historical, Suspense, Horror, Western, Christian, Adventure and Young Adult. While I think absolute beginners do best to focus on one at a time, many good books blend two genres. If you are a voracious reader of any of these styles, you may have noticed that they have similarities. Those similarities are the rules of the genre that the writer followed. These rules are not arcane or top secret. Most publishers and editors have guidelines. I'll cover most of the most popular formulas in future posts. There are even rules for the genre of blogging. One of them I am at risk of breaking: brevity. So, I will break here and let you get back to your writing!

A Cautionary Tale of a Very Bad Novel

If you've been following along, you remember from my earlier blog, "Is there a draft in your closet?" that I am one of those writers who is guilty of the "out of sight, out of mind" type of revision. I would like to pretend that I never wrote such a bizarre novel, but in the spirit of openness and trust that blogging inspires (and the knowledge that even if you laugh I can't hear you), I will tell you how I described it at the time:
"It's a romantic suspense novel. It's first person, except for a few flashbacks to a supernatural horror scene, which are in the third person. Don't trust the main character. Come to think of it, all my characters are unreliable. Oh, and tell me who you think the murderer was, since I couldn't make up my mind, so I left it hanging. It's a really sad story, so I threw in lots of puns and jokes to liven it up."
Ouch. The miracle is that a few agents actually thought it was redeemable with work, but unfortunately, I had written myself into a corner, so instead of revising---into the closet it went and stayed for the next ten years. In short: Don't write anything that even remotely resembles that description. Next post, I'll list a few tried and true techniques so you can keep your closet for your shoes.
Extra credit: How many of the techniques that I warned you against yesterday did I mention in my description of my first novel?

Tried and True techniques

Naturally, I need to follow up with a few tried and true techniques. Use these to ensure that you encounter the fewest problems with your book.

1) Use one point-of-view. Choose one character as the main focus and keep him or her "on camera" at all times.

2) Use the third person. It's much easier to describe a character's thoughts and reactions in the third person. The same thoughts in the first person tend to sound narcissistic. Try it--write a paragraph with "I" and then rewrite it with "He" or "She." See what I mean? Don't be seduced into attempting the first person by John Banville's sinuous novels, unless you have a personal voice that enraptures all that wander near. Not for beginners.

3) One genre at a time, please. Readers get cranky if you mix them too much. Readers feel betrayed if they think they're enjoying a romantic novel, but zombies wander in by chapter six. Not to mention the risk of ruffling the feathers of publishers and booksellers who won't know where to place your book.

4) Plot twice, write once. And then cut by a third.

I'll have more tried and true later. Tonight I am thinking about an article I just read in Wired magazine that asserts that all the deep questions have abandoned general fiction and taken residence in Science Fiction. Maybe we should take that up tomorrow?

Writing techniques best left to geniuses and fools

Since most writers are like moths to the flame, I thought I might list a few of the most disastrous and beguiling techniques in fiction today. Use them at your own peril.
1) Weird time tricks. Time loops around, time leaps forward, time goes backward, what's old is new, what's new is old. The reader needs GPS just to get to the end of the narrative. The delightful exceptions: The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger, and Time's Arrow by Martin Amis.
2) Writing in the second person. It's just too distracting to read "you" over and over. Jay McInerney used it in Bright Lights, Big City, but that doesn't mean anyone else should.
3) Talking animals in adult fiction and wizards in young adult fiction. I don't even need to tell you it's been done as well as it ever could be done.
4) Sociopaths as main characters. Sociopaths do not have compelling inner lives. They have no motivation except mental illness. Come to think of it, they make pretty dull villains too. My apologies to Bret Easton Ellis, but American Psycho wasn't a page-turner.
5) Artificial Intelligence and hyper- geeky terminology...unless your name is William Gibson, in which case, I take it all back. Try Burning Chrome and you'll see why.
6) The epistolary novel, that is, a novel in the form of letters. An American Tragedy by Theodore Dreiser is a good example. It worked in 1925, but today we need more action than a stuffed mailbox.
7) Stream of consciousness. You need a brilliant mind for this one. Try Joyce's Ulysses. No, don't: Try Stephen Dixon's Interstate instead. You won't need coffee for a week.
8) The crazy narrator, particularly the sensitive insane young woman. This goes for memoir writers too. Even if you are a sensitive, insane young woman, in which case, you have creative ideas to spare. Choose something else.
Now, don't say I didn't warn you! Got any literary peeves to add to the list? I'd love to hear them.

Why You Should Ignore Publishing Trends

They're everywhere: Fewer books to be published! Women's fiction is in! Young Adult fiction is in! Amazon's Kindle will change the world! I could worry about the trends but I choose not to. Here's why:
First, every trend begins with an original genre-blasting best-seller. Then come the swarm of imitators. By the time I could write a book to capitalize on the latest theme, the trend will be on its way out. Besides, who can do better than the author who was creative enough to usher in the trend?

Secondly, on-demand printing and the digital download book are putting an end to that bane of publishers--remaindered copies! We don't have to please the mainstream anymore; we can go for the long tail! (Here's a link to Chris Anderson's original article, mostly concerning the music business, but very good reading: http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/12.10/tail.html)

Thirdly, if there's an audience for us swinging on the tip of that long tail, and we know there most certainly is--we can reach them. That's what the Internet is for. How we will connect with our readers online is the most fascinating area to explore in publishing.

So, this is good news. Don't chase anyone else's dream or theme. Just write. Your readers are waiting.

5 things editors want

There's more to glean from Mr. Brean. Let's see if his assessment of publishing trends from1936 is still relevant today. My summation of his main points are below.
Editors want:
1) a formula that doesn't look like one. ( Are publishers going to be more conservative and look for sure bestsellers with the current economy? Worth considering. I prefer to think of "structure" instead of "formula" because it allows more originality--which everyone wants. )

2) a story that throws the characters into the action quickly. ( I suppose Henry James doesn't have to follow these rules. In some of his books, there's hardly any action outside of psychological rumination. Come to think of it, there's plenty of modern literary fiction in which nothing physically happens. Maybe we should modify this one: If there is going to be action, get right into it.)

3) a story with as few characters as possible. ( In other words, if you describe the clerk at the 7-11 in chapter one, you'd better have a pivotal role for him in chapter eight! This is a tough one for me--I like quirky walk-on characters.)

4) characters with strong desires and for them to be torn between them. ( I can't argue with that. Can you think of any books that have apathetic main characters?)

5) a very clear main character. (Multiple point of view books are a bit of a high-wire act. You have to be really good to make each of your characters equally interesting. Admit it--you've skipped a section to get back to the "good" character when reading, haven't you? Maybe editors don't like books with dull parts! )

Keep writing!

A Magic Formula for Plot?

Is there really a magic formula for a perfect plot? Today I am going back to the Mystery Writer's Handbook edited by Herbert Brean (published in 1956) to take a closer look at the chapter from Lester Dent written in 1936. Mr. Dent, if you are reading this blog, I apologize in advance for the liberties I am taking in condensing your article. Those of you who would prefer to read the original may find it here:
http://www.biblio.com/details.php?dcx=74056597&aid=frg

Bear in mind that this is a guide for mystery writers; literary fiction can cool down the heat a bit.

First, divide your book into four sections.

Section #1
In the first line (or as soon as possible) introduce the hero, get him in trouble, hint at a mystery and begin the menace. Next, get the hero in action, as he tries to cope with the trouble, fathom the mystery, solve problem or defeat menace. All characters are stirred into the mix. The hero's actions land him into conflict with antagonist. End section with a surprise plot twist.

Section #2 and #3
(same structure, just ratchet up the intensity)
Give the hero more trouble, then allow him to make some headway in the conflict with antagonist. End with a plot twist that results in the hero getting smacked down hard.

Section #4
Even more trouble! The hero is in absolute despair of achieving goal. Then, he manages to save himself by his own skills and wit. The remaining mysteries are cleared up. Give the reader one last plot twist for the road and a perfect line to end it.

Okay, I admit my synopsis sounds a bit humorous. But honestly, haven't you read lots of books that follow this outline fairly closely?

7 ways to perfect your plot

What makes a novel worth reading--or publishing? That was the quest that sent me into the dim, musty stacks of the library this afternoon. I hoped that serendipity would lead me to the answer. I found plenty of possibilities. (And a few sleeping homeless people, one paranoid man in fatigues and a handful of dealers on cell phones. Busy place, the library.) From one little beige hardback--The Mystery Writer's Handbook, edited by Herbert Brean, published in 1956--I gleaned these tips:
1) Bad plots kill more books than bad writing.
2) Spend as much time on plot as you do on the writing.
3) Ensure that your plot has suspense, menace, and conflict. ("menace" in this case, being some looming difficulty that hangs over the main character's head.)
4) Don't deal with conflict in your plot the same way you do with conflict in your own life. We don't like problems and try solve them (or avoid them) as quickly as possible. A good plot increases the conflicts and drags out the solutions.
5) Be tough on your characters. Let your plot challenge them, test them, and subject them to failure before they succeed.
6) Roll up your sleeves. A good plot is hard work. It's more rewarding to tinker with a phrase or create backstory, but you get out what you put in.
7) Don't let your plot be a swayback. Throw in a few complications in the middle.

In the same book is an article from 1936 by Lester Dent who describes a master plot formula. I'll comment on that next time!

Is there a draft hidden in your closet?

There is in mine! It's been there for over five years and I just found it again, covered with dust, under a pile of old clothes. Maybe I found it because I'm working on this blog trying to help you write that best-sellers you said you were going to write. (Admit it!). So now this flawed novel is staring at me, challenging me, telling me to take my own medicine. Can I really untangle the mess I made of the plot? Should I just throw it out and work on my new book? When do you dig in your heels and do the hard work of revision and when do you cut your losses and move on? What do you think?

Let's talk about dialog

Dialog: Who doesn't love it? It's fun to set characters against each other and imagine what they would say. Add the pleasure of a new paragraph for each change of speaker and pages fly from your fingers. But wait! Characters don't have conversations like we do. (At least they shouldn't!) There are a few things to bear in mind:

1) Dialog is never small talk.

2) Dialog either reveals character, creates tension, builds suspense or moves the story forward.

3) Characters may be like us, but they don't talk like us. No unnecessary words, no repetitions, or irrelevant information.

4) "If you have to tell the reader how your character feels," she said pompously, "you haven't got good dialog."

"But I love my adverbs," he said, his forehead imprinted with small squares from striking it against his keyboard. "I can't leave them to fend for themselves!"

"Just compare our dialog!" she asserted proudly, enjoying his misery. "I am as dull as a menu, while you..."

"...sound like a real person?" He lifted his head and stared at her. "That's what you want, isn't it?" His fingernails dug into his palm.

"That's what all writers want!" she said triumphantly.

He sighed and dumped an armload of adverbs into a nearby trashcan

10 excuses not to write & 10 reasons why you should!

1) I don't have time. (You only need to sit still for few minutes!)
2) My partner/kid/dog/cat/gerbil want my attention. (You can close the door for a few minutes, can't you?)
3) I work all day, I'm too tired. (Yeah, I can relate! But don't let your job stop you from accomplishing your dreams!)
4) I never took writing classes. (Well, write anyway! You can only get better!)
5) I'm too hungry! (That's what cookies are for! Don't get crumbs on your keyboard!)
6) My best friend says my writing is lousy. (Maybe he or she is envious of your determination!)
7) I want to play with my kids! (Play then! But get in a few minutes of writing after bedtime)
8) I still don't have any time! (Are you focusing on what's important? Maybe less T.V.or mail?)
9) I can't think of anything to write. (Then grab a stack of books and magazines and read. What fascinates you?)
10) I'm still planning, but my idea isn't perfect yet. (And it never will be---until you begin. Jump in headfirst and correct course on the way! )

Using your senses

Have you ever watched a baby explore his or her environment? First, they try and grab, then they stick it in their mouths! They learn quite a bit about the qualities of an object by tasting and feeling it, much to our alarm! Stuffing food up their noses, banging pan lids, splashing water out of the tub, babies glory in living life with all their senses. And we writers can learn a great deal from babies!

Now that we're older, we explore more with our minds and search new worlds in books. But that doesn't mean we've changed--we still use our senses.The trick of a writer is to put down simple words that trick the reader into thinking they actually are using their ears, nose, skin, tongue and eyes. A good description does just that by choosing just the right detail.

Try writing down everything you can think of for a scene using all your senses. Now, choose one detail for each sense. From those details, choose one that shows something very close up, one detail that shows something within about twenty feet and finally, one detail that focuses on the scene as a whole, seen from a slight distance.

Write Your Own "Choose your Adventure" story!

Do you know a child who loves those "choose your own adventure" books? Why not help them make their own? You can't be too young to start thinking like a writer. You'll need a big stack of unlined extra-large index cards. Write each of these letter/number combinations on its own card: A, B1, B2, C1, C2, C3, C4, D1, D2, D3, D4, D5, D6, D7, D8, E1, E2, E3, E4, E5, E6, E7, E8, E9, E10, E11, E12, E13, E14, E15, E16. (You may not have as many levels for younger children. Some kids may want more!)

Arrange the cards in rows by letter in the shape of a pyramid. Flip over card "A". Leave room for a picture and a couple lines of story. On the bottom of the card write: "If you think____, Go to B1" and "If you think____, Go to B2" Make sure you leave a big enough blank space for whatever wild options your child dreams up! Now, turn over "B1" and "B2". This time you'll write options "C1" and "C2" on the bottom of "B1" and "C3" and "C4" on the bottom of "B2". Continue on until you reach the final row of cards. The "E" cards are the end of the story. You can choose to end some story lines early, or jump ahead. Once you get the basic structure, you can play around with it a bit.

Make it shorter for young kids and help them by writing the words while they supply the pictures. Older kids can work on their own.
To read, place all cards letter side up and only turn over one card at a time.

While the kids are busy, why not work on your own writing? Have fun!

The Basic Recipe for a Book

When I set out to write my first book of fiction, I pestered every writer I knew and read many books on the subject. I learned quite a bit, but what I really wanted was...less. I didn't want to know how to become a literary genius; I just wanted to know what to put in my first draft. A recipe, if you will. This is what I wound up with:

To write a 180 page rough draft, you will need 20 chapters.
Each chapter has 3 scenes.
Each scene contains action, description and dialogue.
Each scene should be about three pages.

This gives you a general outline. Once you decide how much time each day you can devote to writing and how much you can accomplish in that time, you'll be able to do some quick math and get an estimate of when you'll be done that first draft.
As you write, you'll find some scenes and chapters are longer or shorter, and that is fine.

Simple, huh? That's just an overview--we'll be exploring each part in depth in future posts. And if any of you find the secret to literary genius, let me know.

Who is this book for?

If your answer is that you want to publish it for everyone to read, then you haven't answered my question. Let's dig deeper. In your heart, who is this book for? Are you writing for yourself, to create a life or world to escape into, or to explore your secret fears and hopes? Are you writing for your parents, either to prove them wrong when they said you couldn't do it--or to give them something wonderful in return for their faith in you? Are you writing for a child who loves to be enchanted by words? Are you writing for your partner or friend or teacher? Are you writing for another writer, either long dead or contemporary? Picture someone reading your book. Who is it? That is your ideal reader. Make friends with him or her because you'll need to be well-acquainted when you begin writing. Why? Well, you'll know just what kind of words to use to reach your reader if you know exactly who they are. Tomorrow you'll need a notebook or some paper, so get ready!

How do you decide what kind of book to write?

Now, I am assuming that if you are here, you are starting from scratch. So we must begin at the beginning. What shelf in the bookstore would you find your soon-to-be book? Probably nestled beside the books you like to read. Write what you want to read! After all, you are going to be reading it everyday! Now, some of you will know exactly what they have in mind, but the rest of you, like me, will find yourselves in even worse a fix! You like LOTS of books! Oh, you lucky gourmets! It may take a bit longer, but your possibilities are endless. Here's what you need to do:
1) Go find six or so of your all-time favorite books.
2) Get a sheet of paper and a cup of something delicious and find a comfy seat.
3) For each book, write down what it is that you love. Use the following choices: The story, the characters, or the feeling the book gives you. You may wind up with something like this: The Da Vinci Code: the story; The Pilot's Wife: the characters; and Stardust: the feeling. In short, a high action suspense book with poignant female characters in a fantasy world.
4) Think of this as a treasure hunt. What do your favorite books have in common? What makes them different? Is there a type of situation that you enjoy seeing characters get into? What do you really hate to read about? Write it all down.
5) Imagine you are in an enchanted library and you have just found the perfect book. It was written just for you. What is it about? This is your book. And I'm going to help you write it!

Is it Really That Easy?

Now, before you object to my saying writing a book is as easy as following a recipe, let me clarify:
1) Writing a book takes a good deal more time than making a chicken casserole.

2) You don't need to write it all at once! (This one is important!)

3) If you are really good in the kitchen, you'll find that writing is a bit more challenging than whipping up supper. But not much.

4) If you can follow a recipe, you can write a book.

5) Even if you make a meal worthy of the Food Network, it will be gone shortly after it hits the plates.

6) A book doesn't get eaten and unless you lean on your delete key, you'll have more to start with every time you sit down to work.

Sound good? Sound possible? Sure it does! Let's get to work!