Time Out from Me

I figured you could use a break from all the posts about my writing. I found some good writing quotes that made my day. I thought I’d share them with you.

“Convince yourself that you are working in clay, not marble, on paper, not eternal bronze: let that first sentence be as stupid as it wishes. No one will rush out and print it as it stands.” Jacques Barzun

“It is perfectly okay to write garbage–as long as you edit brilliantly.” C.J. Cherryh

“Writing is rewriting. A writer must learn to deepen characters, trim writing, intensify scenes. To fall in love with a first draft to the point where one cannot change it is to greatly enhance the prospects of never publishing.” Richard North Patterson

“The difference between the right word and the almost right word is the difference between lightning and the lightning bug.” Mark Twain

And I also found some blogposts and other nice resources that may help you.

What Keeps Readers–And Agents–Reading

From the Offer to the Bookstore – a published author describes the process of getting a book published from the time she gets an offer until it’s published and on the shelf.

Edit Ruthlessly – a great lesson on the economy of words from Elana Roth, an agent at Caren Johnson Literary Agency

Writing and Mothering: How I (sort of) Do Both by Shannon Hale. Very good advice for finding balance between writing and living.

Improved Scene: Car Crash

I got through my 17th scene today, including one of my sample sentences:

Mostly, this was just a bad scene. A lot of getting ready, talking, and traveling. When I boiled it all down to the real conflict, I realized that the scene was really just a lead-in to the next one: The Car Crash. So I shortened it, got rid of the boring stuff and used only what I needed to carry the bare minimum of the little pre-conflict into the big conflict. Here’s the new card with the Sentence Lite:

The protag, antag, etc are really just my thought process as I came up with the new sentence. I’ll go back and fix them later. The important part is that I have a focus for my scene when I come back to revise it.

Improved Scene: Mom, Meet Nathan

Okay, I have about ten Sentence Lites done. (There are a lot of really short scenes in Chapter 2.) One of them was a bad sentence that I posted earlier:

So as a reminder, here’s the old Sentence:

And here is my new card:

Not perfect, but switching the POV definitely helped. At least there’s a conflict now.

First Three Sentence Lites

I started working on revamping my scenes’ sentences today. Finishing three scenes took a lot less time than I thought. If I maintain this pace I’ll be done in three weeks, but I’d like to finish sooner.

I’ve been using Liquid Story Binder to make “note cards“. Each “card” can be used to track my scenes, sentences, sequencing, and the elements that each scene should have. LSB also has some nifty tools that make the process more fun.

These actors are Colleen Dengel, XiXi Yang, and Dyllan Christopher, who I think look like Rachel, Lisa, and Nathan. Just something to make note carding more interesting.

The pictures represent the point of veiw character. If you can read these (I know it’s tiny guys I’m sorry.), I have the scene title, the old sentence (if it’s an old scene), what I’ve changed (if it’s a new scene), the protag, antag, conflict, twist, and setting, and then the new sentence.

The process is actually fun and seeing a well-put-together sentence gives me chills It’s exciting to see this come together.

Sample Scenes: Good and Bad, and How to Fix Them

For the past couple of days, I’ve been working on Lesson 8 of Think Sideways. So far, I have written a Sentence Lite describing each one of my 54 scenes (a few of which haven’t been written yet). As I mentioned before, some of my scenes have everything they need.

Others have been found lacking.

So as part of my process I’ve decided to post some of my less-than-savory scene sentences. As I revise them, you should be able to see an improvement (I hope).
WARNING: SPOILERS. Stop reading this post if you don’t want to read them!

But first, so you can see 1) what does work, 2) what I’m aiming for, and 3) that there is some hope for me as a writer, I’m going to post a couple of sentences that I’m pleased with.

Here, we have protagonist (Nathan) against the antagonist (burning wreckage) in a conflict (fighting to save Rachel’s life) with a twist (Nathan is a ghost, but is somehow able to pull Rachel to safety). The setting is embedded in the antagonist: burning wreckage.

The protagonist (Rachel) against the antagonist (the shade) in conflict (an attack that causes Rachel to lose consciousness) with a twist (the shade was waiting for her).
This one isn’t quite twisty enough and could use some tweaking.

So here it goes. My crappy scenes:

Okay “introduces” and “explaining” are not conflict. They are boring. There isn’t an antagonist. I suppose Nathan’s unique situation could be a twist, but it’s not a very good one. See the fixed version here.

Again, a conversation isn’t conflict. For there to be conflict in dialogue, they have to want different things or there has to be some subtext that causes conflict.

While this is great news for Lisa, there isn’t much conflict. The scene needs some work and the sentence needs a LOT of work. Mostly, Rachel is suspicious of Kevin, but doesn’t want to disappoint her friend. That’s the conflict, but it could be better.

Learning is not conflict. Nor is a discussion. There needs to be more tension. There needs to be something at stake here.

I think the scene is okay, but the sentence needs reworking. The verbs aren’t very strong and don’t convey any tension.

So there you have it. 5 scenes in desperate need of a makeover. Let’s see what I can do.

Okay, New Plan

I just finished Lesson 8 of How to Think Sideways and, to be honest, I’m a little overwhelmed. Basically, the lesson says to write a sentence (called the Sentence Lite) for each scene that describes the protagonist, her conflict, the obstacle/antagonist, the twist, and maybe the setting. If you don’t have these, then the scene is incomplete. Thinking back, I’m glad I have SOME scenes with all of these elements, but there are a lot of scenes that don’t.

So, I need to go back, make a plot card for each scene with the complete Sencence Lite on each one, and figure out how much I have to revamp.

This is really going to help my writing. Now that I’m more aware, the scenes with all of these elements are the best scenes in Shadows. Now I have the tools to make every scene just as good. This is going to be a challenge.

I knew I’d have a lot of work to do. Don’t get me wrong. But now that it’s time to get crackin’ I’m nervous. How much will I have to cut? How much will I need to rewrite? Will I have enough time to plan my phantom novel before November?

Stay tuned.

Links: Organizing, Creating, and Marketing

So, here I am, twiddling my thumbs as I wait to add to my manuscript. I understand why I need a break from it before diving in again, but sometimes it’s hard! So, to occupy my time, I’ve been searching for good resources and advice from the pros. Here’s what I have so far:

The number one link I think I can ever give you is :
How to Start a Novel
Read it, explore the links, and explore the side bar for more articles. This site covers everything.

Organizing:
Plotting Under Pressure
How to Write a Novel Using the Snowflake Method - this provides an excellent checklist that an agent (or intern at an agency) will go through to see if they should take you on as a client. Very helpful.

Creating:
One Word – a 60 second writing exercise
Deeper People: Putting Yourself into Your Characters
Pacing Scenes
How to Write the Perfect Scene
How to Finish a Novel
5 Evergreen Editing Tips – When you’re done with your manuscript and think it’s ready for submission, make sure you’ve gone over this checklist before you do.

Marketing:
Advanced Fiction Writing E-Zine
How to Query an Agent
When Reading Submissions

Track Your Progress

Using the NaNoWriMo Report Card by Eric Benson, I adapted a spreadsheet that will track your word count goals and progress. This is a helpful motivation tool, especially if you’re goal-oriented or like a visual representation of your progress.
Click Here to Download.
Cameron Matthews has a much more high-tech version, found here.

Free Intro: Create a Plot Clinic

I found a nice little freebie from Holly Lisle. Her Think Sideways course is a bit pricey, although I can say from personal experience it’s worth every penny. Still, for those of you on a budget, she has a number of writing clinics, which I’ve mentioned before.
For those of you on a tight budget, I found a free intro to her Create a Plot Clinic:
Click Here To Download

I’ve bought and used the entire clinic and it is fantastic. It takes you through the ins and outs of plotting a novel no matter where you are in the process. She gives a number of techniques and gives lots of examples. Anyway, hope you find it helpful.

Links: from Funny to Informative

As I was catching up after the fourth of July weekend, I stumbled across some new writing-related sites:

Many of you have heard of National Novel Writing Month in November (NaNoWriMo), but what about the other 11 months of the year? (Yes, I’m aware of NaNoFiMo and NaPlWriMo, but still…)

If you need motivation, you may like The 500 Word-A-Day Challenge. Easier, more achievable goals is the key. (I won’t be posting their banner yet, since I’m done with my first draft and won’t actually be getting word counts this month. But for the record, I was averaging about 630 WPD. )

There’s a cute comic called Will Write For Chocolate that has some great writer humor. It makes my day.

I found a great article by Margaret Fisk. (It’s actually a free workshop, since she gives an assignment.) It’s called All the Way to the End. She addresses a common problem for writers : not knowing how to end your story.

And finally, Chip MacGregor’s blog had two informative posts: Basic, Basic, Basic Questions and More on the Basic Basics. In the first, he explains a few terms used in the publishing world. The second is more about querying and agents.