Summertime Guest Bloggin'

Giles Hash of High Aspirations is out of town this month, and he asked me to write a guest post for his blog to keep his readers entertained while he is away. You can check it out HERE.

And while you're over there, you should mosey through the rest of Giles' blog! It's full of good, writerly advice and camaraderie.

Happy Wednesday!

Subjective is Not a Dirty Word

What do you suppose you'd call it when you say something for your own benefit as much as for whomever you're talking to? Not 'preaching to the choir,' surely. Preaching to the pastor? Or maybe just 'talking to yourself"...

Right. Anyway. Today I'm talking to my choir-pastor self, as well as to you, so I hope one of us gets something out of it.

I'm a big fan of quotes. I love the sources quotes come from, too, but there's something about isolating a little snippet of wisdom or humor or profoundness from the midst of a work I love that really gives me a thrill. (I know... I'm pretty easy to thrill. Skydiving would probably kill me.) This is undoubtedly the reason I bumbled my way into a side-business based exclusively on the painting of quotes upon ceramic coffee mugs. (Incidentally, you could win one of my mugs if you enter the contest Freelance Writing Jobs is holding for the next two days. Just go to this link, and read and follow the instructions posted.)


An unexpected but surprisingly rewarding source for new quotes has, for me, been Pinterest. Today I discovered this one:

 (Source)

Edmund Wilson was a literary critic and writer in the 1920's, and influenced a lot of important writing minds. And I think his statement really drives home the reality of, not just the subjective nature of the publishing industry, but that of reading itself. Everyone who has ever submitted anything to anyone has probably read the words, "Given how subjective this business is," which can very quickly turn into one of the nastiest sentences in the English language. But it really shouldn't be. Because what it means is, "Just because I didn't love it does not mean that someone else won't." Or, "Keep sending this out, because someone out there will be a perfect fit for it."

I have, on several occasions, recommended a book to a friend or family member with the highest praise imaginable, only to have said friend or family member read--and positively hate--the book I loved. I invariably become hurt and defensive when I hear their reactions, because, to me, the book is like a child who can do no wrong. If I loved it, why on earth didn't you?

Well. Because we're different people. Because reading is subjective. And because "no two persons ever read the same book."

And what a relief that is! As much as we may be inclined to gnash our teeth at the words "subjective business," I think we really ought to be rejoicing. Because that means there is still hope. Even though it would be wonderful to write things that everyone in the world would adore, the fact is that people are too different for that kind of a miracle to be possible.

As Dumbledore tells Hagrid in Goblet of Fire, "Really Hagrid, if you are holding out for universal popularity, I'm afraid you will be in this cabin for a very long time."

Mind-boggling as it is, there are even people on this earth who don't like Harry Potter. And if that doesn't drive home Wilson's point, I don't know what will.

Thoughts? This didn't turn out quite as flippant and lighthearted as I meant it to, but what can you do? Maybe I'll devote my next post to a series of haikus enumerating the glories of David Tennant's freckles.

On Killing your Darlings & Traveling through Time and Space

Time flies, dunnit?

I've said before that I am an inconstant blogger, and I certainly won't take it back now. I hope you're all well out there. And I hope you've shaken hands with 2012 and found her to be charming.

I'm writing today on a subject I have recently had lots of first-hand experience with. It's the old revision tactic scientifically dubbed "killing your darlings." Familiar with it?

Given my druthers, I would always choose to edit like this:

Happy. Easy. Without any pain to myself or the manuscript. Just get rid of those dead leaves and weak sentences, and then I'm good to go. But it seems to me that the more I want to edit with the little pruning shears, the more I need to face the possibility that THIS is what really needs to happen:

I've recently been doing a lot of chainsawing. Consequently, I've killed a lot of darlings. (If you're foggy on this approach, follow this link.) I've been working on a YA fantasy novel for just over a year now, and after an autumn of garnering feedback from betas who read the draft, I found myself with a lot of ideas of ways to improve the book, but no real conviction about which way was the right one. And so, after a week or so of hideous panic, I made the decision to scrap the first third of the book and rewrite it from an entirely different point.

It felt like a setback, but I discovered right away that it was the right decision. Not because it allowed the book to begin in a more compelling and logical place (although it did do that), but because it loosened my death-grip on the petty things I had grown to love about the manuscript.

I don't know about you, but I love words. I love the way they interact with one another, like they're doing some kind of complicated dance on paper. Like most writers, I love to shape them into sentences and paragraphs and pages pregnant with meaning, and then sit back to watch them glitter. But too often I get attached, and it can take a chainsaw to separate me from a bit of prose I really like--even if the story would be better off without it. And that, I think, is what chainsaw editing is good for. It reminds you that your love for one darling may be choking the whole work. And once you learn to let go of one of the little things you're clinging to, you discover that it's much easier to let go of the next one.

And eventually, who knows? You may even find yourself in possession of that elusive lens we call Objectivity, and look at your work as a reader might.

On an unrelated note, I need to go public with some news: I have fallen in love with the Doctor.

I've resisted and resisted his invisible pull for years now, but about a week ago I finally gave in and started watching. In that brief time I have fallen head over heels, first for the Ninth Doctor, and now for the Tenth. (I am so immersed that I actually thought the whir of the push-vacuum at work was the sound of the TARDIS engine.) It's a glorious thing to find an untapped well of Nerddom simply waiting for you, don't you think? But oh, my poor, poor roommate... And I still have four and a half seasons to go!

 

So today's questions: How do you manage to look objectively at your work? Does it take chainsaws and darling-killing? And if you are afflicted, how do you manage to overcome Doctor Who Mania enough to live a normal life?

A Revelation

Every once and a while I have one of those epiphanies that stops me dead in my tracks no matter where I am or what I'm doing, and makes me turn to whomever is closest (even if it's just my dog) and say, "OH MY GOSH. DO YOU KNOW WHAT I JUST REALIZED???"

Usually this turns out badly for me. Not only because you can never tell what poor, innocent bystander will fall victim to this verbal assault, but also because my revelations tend to be a little, er, shall we say, behind the times.

For example: When I was in college (college, mind you) I realized that the phrase "Take it with a grain of salt" was not in fact, as I had so long assumed, "Take it with the grand assault." This one rocked my world for at least a week.

A few years before this, I was made to understand that the large quantities of fizz produced in the quick pouring of a glass of soda did not result in the irrevocable loss of said soda, but merely indicated some kind of chemical transformation best known by mathematicians and NASA employees. (I had long been indignant at the idea that Coca Cola would sell a product which, if it were not poured slowly enough, would vanish in vast amounts and leave the purchaser with less than half of what they paid for.)

I recently had another revelation, and I hope this one is less embarrassing. It goes like this:

ACTIONS SPEAK LOUDER THAN WORDS

= 

SHOW INSTEAD OF TELL

If I were the sort of person who said OMG, I might say it now. For me, this is the best kind of epiphany. It takes something I've been hearing my whole life and links it with something I've been telling myself as long as I've been a writer. And the result is that both ideas are illuminated.

"Actions speak louder than words" is a phrase so overused by elementary school teachers that it draws eye-rolls from anyone over the age of fifteen any time someone so much as thinks it. But consider it in these terms: The reason we must SHOW our readers instead of TELLING them is that actions speak louder than words. Ha! Do you see it? New meaning altogether!

Writing a character's actions conveys your point so much better (so much LOUDER, you might say) than describing that character's feelings or mental progression, doesn't it? Ludwig's shoulders sagged and he dropped into the nearest armchair with a whimper is ever so much more effective than Ludwig was disappointed and tired and he didn't know what he was going to do, as we all know.

But holy mackerel! That's because actions speak louder than words! If I had really understood the depth of that phrase when my first grade teacher droned it to the class so many years ago, maybe I'd be a better writer today! (Are you sick of the exclamation points yet?)

Excuse me. I have to go gaze starry-eyed into space for a while. And then I have to go do some revising.

Thoughts?

Why What We Do Is Hard

You know it. I know it. And very often, we start to let the difficulty of writing give birth to insecurities that plague our whole existence. It isn't bad enough, apparently, to consider giving up on writing; we must also degrade ourselves into believing we are bad at life in general.

The funny thing is, this problem seems to extend well beyond the glorious milestones of representation and publication. Beth Revis, author of Across the Universe, admits to her insecurities on her blog, here. Jody Hedlund, award winning author, shares many of hers here. And the Authoress of Miss Snark's First Victim confesses her own fears here.

I recently read a Slate article by Michael Agger which shed some light on this widespread issue of self-doubt in writers. In it, Agger explains what should be a very simple and obvious fact to those of us who write: writing is hard. Here are some highlights from that article:


"Writing extended texts for publication is a major cognitive challenge, even for professionals who compose for a living... Serious writing is at once a thinking task, a language task, and a memory task." (Ronald Kellogg, Professional Writing Expertise)


It requires the same kind of mental effort as a high-level chess match or an expert musical performance... Kellogg terms the highest level of writing as "knowledge-crafting." In that state, the writer's brain is juggling three things: the actual text, what you plan to say next, and—most crucially—theories of how your imagined readership will interpret what's being written. A highly skilled writer can simultaneously be a writer, editor, and audience. (Link)


I don't know about you, but I find these passages to be both comforting and liberating. Writing is a highly solitary craft, and when you hold yourself to a high standard, it is quite easy to become discouraged; you rarely have someone next to you all the time to pat you on the back and say, "Hey, you're doing just fine! This is hard stuff, you know!" And the moment you indulge the whiny little voice in your head complaining about how difficult writing is, you start to feel like a wimp.

But isn't it nice to hear someone else verify that, yes, this is in fact a complicated thing you're trying to do?

It's easy to start feeling like a dunce when your work isn't measuring up to what you want it to be, but sometimes you have to remind yourself that it's okay to be where you are right now. 

That doesn't mean we should cut ourselves any slack in what we expect from our (slightly overtaxed) brains. It just means we shouldn't start allowing ourselves to feel inadequate just because it takes us awhile to get to where we want to be. Because if we continue to work at it, we will continue to make progress. And despite the insecurities, despite the difficulty of it all, writing is in fact very rewarding work. Otherwise, why in blazes would we be doing it?

Take this advice from Lois Peterson: "The more you write, the easier it gets; the more you write, the better it gets. So just write the damn thing!"

What about you? Regardless of where you are in your writing journey, do you feel plagued by insecurities from time to time? How do you cope with them? And what do you do when you discover that writing is indeed very hard?

Call for Betas

Well, well, well!  Look who it is!

Yep.  It's me.

Nothing like a lengthy, unplanned hiatus to make you forget you have a blog, eh?  But I've remembered, and what's more, I've decided to keep on remembering.  In other words, I think it's time to get back in the proverbial blog saddle and start posting again.  Because I'm inches away from finishing my first revision of SUNCHILD, and that means more time for other types of writing.

Which brings me to the main purpose of this post.

I need beta readers.  

(If you don't have the foggiest idea what a beta reader is, click this link and have a look at what Casey McCormick has to say on the subject.)

What I'll be asking you to do, essentially, is to read the manuscript from beginning to end, while keeping a shrewd eye out for things that slow you down, things that don't make sense, and things that make you want to stop reading and go vomit instead (although I hope there will be very few of those instances).  Your assistance in this vital step of the revision process will help me iron out kinks in plot, pacing, and flow, and will demonstrate to me what more needs to happen before SUNCHILD will be ready for querying.  But please be advised, should you decide to offer your help, that the manuscript is still in rough draft form.  It will at times be very like slogging through a swamp.

The book, in case you are wondering, is YA fantasy, and it is currently floating at a little over 100,000 words.  Essentially, it's about a girl with a magical connection to the sun who lives in a land that's cursed by darkness, facing this question: how can a sunchild be who she's meant to be--and save her kingdom to boot--when she has never even seen the sun?  (For more, please click here.)

If you are interested in being a beta reader for SUNCHILD, please email me at hanna.c.howard(at)gmail.com, and I will add you to the list of people whom I will love and adore forever and ever, amen, and send you a very fat attachment on Friday, July 29, which is my self-inflicted deadline.

If you are not interested, then this post is largely irrelevant to you, and I must therefore beg you to stay tuned for my next missive, because I promise I'll return soon.  No more shlepping along silently.  I'm back, now, and I'm determined to stay.  Let's talk writing, folks, and let's talk life.

Let's be e-friends, shall we?

Have I Mentioned How Much I Like Quotes?

"The research is the easiest.  The outline is the most fun.  The first draft is the hardest, because every word of the outline has to be fleshed out.  The rewrite is very satisfying."  -Ken Follett

I'm with you, Ken.  I'm with you.

Anyone else with him?

On Typing THE END.

You might have noticed that I've been rather scarce around here for the last few months.  Here's one reason:

This means that I work at a plant nursery, and spring is our equivalent to the Christmas season. 

But here is the the main reason:

This is Siria Nightingale.  She's the protagonist in my WIP, and she's done a fairly good job of keeping me singularly occupied since December.  Turns out, her story was one of those utterly consuming ones that doesn't let you rest until you've sat your little self down and told it in full.  But here's the good news: Today I typed the words, THE END at the bottom of Siria's word document.  This means I can relax a little bit, because revisions are not quite as consuming as first drafts tend to be.

But that brings me to the main point of this post.  I have a few questions for you all.  

If you are a writer, here's your question:

When you type THE END, what does your next step tend to be?  How do you personally approach the massive undertaking of revising, editing, and polishing your manuscript?  Do you use beta readers?  And if so, how do you find them, and what do you ask them to do?

And if you are a reader, here's yours:

What do you expect out of the ends of books?  What has made you feel most satisfied when you close the back cover of a book, and what makes you want to open the front cover right away and read it all over again?  How do you feel about cliffhanger endings?  In a series, what kind of ending makes you ache with satisfaction, even knowing that you have more books to read before you know the whole story?

Please share!  I have loved hearing your responses to previous questions, and I find the variety of opinions fascinating.  Happy Monday to you all!

If You Have an Opinion, I Want to Hear It...

And it's a quick question:

If you were ordering a YA Fantasy novel, how would you like your romance?

Subtle and quiet, and not a primary focus?

One of the secondary plot points?

One of the primary plot points?

Or outstripping all other details?  (Actually, I think we just call that genre "Romance.")

As I plug away on my WIP, I find myself wondering idly what readers want most.  Even if it doesn't change the way you write, it's still interesting to know.  So put on your reader hats, all you writers, and tell me what you like best in your YA Fantasy.

(Source)

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And extra points if you can identify all the books these couples come from... Happy Wednesday!

Countdown to NaNoWriMo DAY SEVEN! (Evolution of a Manuscript)

Happy Halloween!  And...

Holy crap!  Holy crap!  Anyone else seeing a massive to-do list flying before their eyes right now, and wondering how on earth they'll manage to accomplish everything before tomorrow morning?  Anyone else wondering why the devil they didn't take care of all these things last week?  Anyone else suddenly doubting their ability to compose a coherent sentence, much less a 50,000 word novel--despite having done both many times before?

Yeah.  We'll get over it.  You know why?  Because NaNoWriMo is FUN.  And even if it is a major tax on that thing we like to call Spare Time, it's totally worth it.  It's like a kid being told to eat all the cookies on the pan as fast as possible: It seems like it shouldn't be allowed, and you know it will make you at least a little sick... but it's so opposite of what you normally do, you simply can't resist the outrageous fun of it.

 (Photo: https://store.lettersandlight.org/merchandise/nanowrimo-let-your-imagination-rain-poster)

Okay.  Let's get on with it.  Today's workshop highlights are from editor/publisher Stephen Roxburgh (see his other workshop here), and it's all about the Evolution of a Manuscript.  And from someone who's had lot's of experience watching a manuscript develop (Mr. Roxburgh has worked with many authors, including Roald Dahl and Madeleine L'Engle), I think this information is golden.

The Stages of Novel Writing:

-          VISIONARY STAGE

o       Replace the concept of DRAFT with that of a PILE.

o       In the imagining stage, let go any sense of structure.  Don’t cling to anything.  Don’t let the technical questions hamper you down.  JUST WRITE.  As long as your imagination is giving you things, write them down! 

o       Words on paper may be rubbish or discordant, but at least they are more than just a thought.

o       Give yourself the freedom and opportunity at this stage to Just Write.

o       Don’t put it on the clock!  Don’t try and put a time limit on a project. [UNLESS YOU'RE WRITING FOR NANOWRIMO. :) ]

o       It is not a test of will.  Wrestling a project to the ground doesn’t work.  This kind of work does not lend itself to full-frontal assault.  Your story doesn’t want to be forced out.

o       In this stage, just let yourself write.

o       “Writer’s Block” comes from setting the bar way too high.

o       The things that happen when you let yourself go and loosen up are marvelous.

o       You can interrupt the process at any time to add, etc.

o       You have to know so much more than your reader, and the only way to know is to write it.  So write down all your backstory and character webbing, even if you know you'll never use it in the story.

o       Under-imagined characters don’t bring anything to the book.  Always write it out, even if only for yourself.  Give yourself the time.

o       We’re already disposed to be hypercritical of ourselves.  Don’t do that at this stage.

-          REVISIONARY STAGE

o       Revision requires distance: objective, critical viewing of the story.  Stand up above it and see if it has a recognizable shape.

o       People tend to revise by going back to the beginning and reading to the end—doing the same thing over and over—merely tweaking and polishing.  Not Re-Visioning.  (You can’t polish a turnip.  You can only rub it.)

o       They also try to track too many things at once.  Juggling too many things at one time is NOT productive.  Look at only ONE thing at a time.  Don’t get sucked in to polishing.  Look at the big picture first.

o       Take the Heart of your story and examine every scene that encompasses it.  See if it is all moving the way you want it to. 

o       View your work analytically. 

o       Only look at one piece at a time.  Focus.  Does each scene move the plot?  Does it accomplish what I want it to? 

o       Flag the things you want to come back to.

o       Flag the places that slow things down.

o       If two encounters do effectively the same thing, lose one.

-          Crude, and startlingly effective Revision Tips:

o       Have in your mind to see clearly.

o       It is an endless cycle of refinement

*         Put the MS away for one year.

*         Try to work on something else anyway.

*         Take the time to get away from it, and distance yourself.

*        Reset the font, margins, and line spacing.  This will force you to have fresh eyes.

*        Don’t start on page one.  Shuffle pages, and read them one at a time, out of order.  This is very good for refining.  You’re not caught up in the story.

-          THE MOST ADVANCED STAGE OF EDITING

o       Looking at every word, every encounter, and making it the best possible word/sentence to notch it up and intensify it.

o       Your language should burn with a hard, gem-like flame.

o       Ask yourself: how do I want my reader to feel right now?  Is there anything at all I can do to intensify or enhance that?

o       Revision is seeing something anew, in another way.

-          Some Other Notes

o       You have to be consistent.  The last word in a Manuscript after it is published IS THE MANUSCRIPT—not anything the author might say about it.

o       If you don’t know what should  be happening in your book, there is a problem.

o       “Maybe they won’t notice…?  Maybe this will slip by them and they’ll give me the Newbery anyway…?”  NO.  If there’s a problem with your manuscript, you’d better fix it.

o       The Mushy Middle is the hardest part.  If you can tighten it and get the pacing right, you’re doing well.

o       Most people submit prematurely.  They don’t hold on too long, they let go too early.  That can dig your grave, because most professionals won’t give you a second chance with the same book.

(Photo: http://writeitsideways.com/last-minute-preparations-for-nanowrimo-a-checklist/)

Any thoughts on all this?  Personally, I found it to be a very useful way of looking at the whole process--from brainstorming to polishing--all from an editor's perspective.  Mr. Roxburgh's advice is good for NaNoWriMo, but it carries us well beyond November.  Anyone have any thoughts or opinions (or experiences) to add?  

Happy NaNo-ing!  Come back tomorrow morning before you start for a wave farewell and a NaNo share-fest!

Countdown to NaNoWriMo Day Six: Fantasy

Welp. It's Saturday. Two days to go. No preamble today. If you haven't been with us on the countdown this week, click here.

Today's post is possibly my favorite of the workshops I attended at Chautauqua.  Of course, I'm a fantasy junkie at heart, but this workshop was magical.  Editor/author Patricia Lee Gauch gave it, and she talked all about Fantasy writing, and what makes it so great.  If you're as big a nerd as I am, you'll love these notes.

Fantasy is a place where trees walk, rocks talk, giants exist, owls deliver our mail, where our own shadow faces us… It is through the looking glass, and nothing is expected.  Everything is unexpected.  It is slightly dangerous terrain... and you’ve elected to be here.

(Photo: http://www.epilogue.net/cgi/database/art/view.pl?id=77992)

HIGH FANTASY

-          It is supernatural, archetypal, magical.  The basis is Mythic, and that is what makes it go so far.  Freud and Jung: these myths live in us.  They are a part of us.

-          Monomyths… these are not patterns.  They are not things to try on for side.  It lives in us.  It will come up.  And that’s why, in a fantasy, the characters are outsized.  They are nightmarish and dreamish, and they are not held back by the boundaries of reality.  That is what you want to get to. 

-          You must use your mind, but so much of it comes from inside you.

-          Starts in this profound place we can barely understand.  Projections of the unconscious.  Almost like Jack and the Beanstalk, reaching for the stars, uniting two parts.

Monomyths

-          Light and dark

-          The unindividuated hero (Bilbo-type; Pinnochio), Just a piece of wood, reluctant hero.  Gets a call to adventure from Somewhere. 

-          There is some kind of a sign, and a decision to be made.  The threshold guardian is ambiguous, not sure if he’s good or bad.

-          But that hero is ready, and off he goes.  And what he faces in the uncharted territory is chaos, tests.  The world turns upside-down.  Nothing is familiar.  (The Odyssey.)

-          Some of the tests are:

o       The ID (Yourself, the wild parts of your own nature.  Or, Animal, not civilized.)

o       The Anima (The Blue Fairy; seductress, or mother-type, or ambiguous… Projection that the hero must figure out.)

o       The Animus (The father-figure the heroine must deal with.)  Or the Jiminy Cricket figure. 

o       There is always a turning point before the cliff.  And when you go off the cliff into the Land of Darkness, you are alone with yourself.  Once you have overcome that womb-like place of darkness, you are ready to join society.  It is the Belly of the Whale, your place to be reborn.

(Webbing is a good way to brainstorm events, and let your subconscious have a chance.)

-          When the hero returns, he brings something back to the community.

-          This format works with Star Wars

-          What’s happening is profound.  When you go to the center of you to tell a fantasy, something magical happens.  

-          THE HOBBIT 
            o There is something warm, and something humorous about MOST fantasies.

o       You access your primary world by the STUFF of the secondary world.  Ie., the coat-pegs on Bilbo’s hall walls. 

o       The house is all about the word COMFORT.  Bilbo doesn’t want to go anywhere.  The Bagginses don’t do anything unexpected or have any adventures. 

o       Narrator: your choice.  Tolkien’s narration is very prominent.

o       Fantasies love Two Sides.  (Ie, Tooks Vs. Bagginses)  New writers tend to understate.  Don’t be afraid to come right out and say something.  Don’t be afraid to overwrite.

o       Bilbo’s wooly toes neatly-brushed are another thing that grounds the reader to the story.  Specifics.

o       “I have no time to blow smoke rings,” said Gandalf.  “I am very busy trying to find someone to take part in an adventure I am arranging.”

o       Analogies from This World root the fantasy world in something that feels familiar to the reader.  “Selling buttons at the door.” 

o       The Hobbit is a great model.  Starting in a hole.  Going on an adventure.

o       The terrain is important in fantasy ALMOST ALWAYS.  It is a character.  It is accessible. 

o       “He thought of himself frying bacon and eggs in his own kitchen at home…”  “After some time, he felt for his pipe.”  He’s still who he is.  He’s still linked to comfort, though he’s in the darkest pockets of the world.  And with the comfort of his elvish blade, he is able to get up and go forward.

o       Unconscious narrative

o       Steeped in a history of the story, of the place.  It feels authentic.

o       Gollum: “They had a feeling that something unpleasant was lurking down there.”

o       If you want to introduce a character, you have to take time to do it.  And you need a good name.  Not just an interesting one, but a good one that fits, that rolls off the tongue.

o       Don’t be afraid of "suddenly," if it’s done right.

 (Photo: http://www.infamouskidd.com/could-gandalf-walk-from-the-hobbit/)

-          HARRY POTTER AND THE SORCEROR’S STONE

o       J.K. Rowling thought and thought… and eventually let go to what she conceived.

o       Jo is so bold in the first chapter.  She isn't afraid to be ironic.  “…the dull, grey Tuesday our story starts…”

o       “None of them noticed the tawny owl that fluttered past the window…”

o       Jerks back to the ordinary are signposts in a story.  McGonagall and her map on the corner are signposts.  “Drills were driven out of his mind by something else.”  Storytelling.  Transitions back and forth from the ordinary to the extraordinary slowly pull readers into the story with the promise of something wonderful.

o       Mr. Dursley’s refusal to acknowledge the strange things around him are just like Bilbo’s refusal to be taken in by Gandalf.  They build tension.

o       Buying a bun from the bakery is another anchor back to reality.  Juxtapositions from our world to theirs are what entice us.

o       Jo inserts her narrator again after Mr. Dursley is hugged around the middle and called a Muggle.  “which he had never hoped before, because he didn’t approve of imagination.”

o       Build up to unusual things at the end of almost every paragraph.  In and out of ordinary… she doesn’t go too fast.  Getting that other stuff in—the ordinary stuff—is what makes it authentic.

o       When you accept the call to adventure, you enter chaos.  Things that were natural are now unnatural.  The ordinary things are on hold.  As long as your world is consistent in its unnaturalness.

(Photo: http://www.hp-lexicon.org/atlas/gazetteer/gazetteer-p.html)

A final thought from Patti Gauch: When you go through the darkness, over the sea that turns to land, and face your own shadow, you’ll get it.  When you see a book to write, write it.

What do you think?  Anyone writing Fantasy?  Anyone connect to this kind of storytelling?  Do share!

Countdown to NaNoWriMo Day Five: Plot

Well, hello there!  Welcome to Friday!  As it happens, this is a very special Friday, because it is the last one of October, and it opens the door to the final weekend before NaNoWriMo starts.  Are you excited?  Yeah, me too.

And speaking of which!  If you haven’t been around the last few days, you won’t know that we’ve been brushing up on our novel-writing craft this week, with a little help from the workshop notes I brought home from Chautauqua, NY this past July.  If you’d like to read the posts from Monday (Creativity & Inspiration), Tuesday (Writing Novels for Young Adults), Wednesday (POV Character), and Thursday (Characterization), feel free to click on the links and join in those discussions as well.

Today’s notes are from a workshop called “Plot: Its Making and Breaking” by editor and publisher Stephen Roxburgh.  Mr. Roxburgh had some great advice to share—and I’ll actually be recapping another of his workshops on Sunday to propel us into NaNo World.  Enjoy!

• The difference between Story and Plot is summed up in these two sentences: “The cat sat on the mat” vs. “The cat sat on the dog’s mat.”  Story talks about a sequence of actions, while plot adds a WHY and makes it all cohere.
• (From ON POETICS by Aristotle) A story must have a beginning, a middle, and an end:
• Beginning: that which nothing needs to precede, and which something must follow.
• Middle: that which something needs to precede, and which something must follow.
• End: that which something must precede, but nothing needs follow.
• Necessity is the crucial element here.  It binds the whole formula together.
• Every story starts with an imbalance, or an injustice.  The end is inevitable. You will never know the beginning of a story until you know the end.  Learn to not fret about the beginning, until you reach the end.
• Most novels have between ten and twelve major scenes, which click together.  Often the pieces are out of order, need to be put together.
• You can never see your work objectively—which is exactly how editors and agents will see it.  You’ve got to stop seeing your book the way you wrote it.  Think of it in these structural terms, and that will help you to step outside it.  You need to see the whole arc of the story to see how the little things work within it.

THREE KINDS OF PLOT:

1. Plot of Character: Protagonist who starts in one state, and changes.  At the end of the plot, there has been a fundamental change of character.  In YA, it is usually a character moving from innocence to experience.  It is also what most YA novels are.  Often start with a character who is in some way immature; there is some imbalance.  At the end, the character is somehow reconciled or redeemed.
2. Plot of Action: What changes is not the character; it’s the circumstances.  It’s about the fate, the fates or surroundings that change.  James Bond and Indiana Jones: you are always watching how the character gets out of his scrapes.  Picaresque novels.  Don Quixote.  Charlotte’s Web.  “Romance” is Robert Louis Stevenson’s word for plot of action.  A reader hunts after incident like a pig after truffles.  The first thing you have to do in a book is to kill off the parents.  If you don’t lose the parents, how are the kids ever going to do anything?
3. Plot of Thought: It isn’t the thought of the character that changes, it’s the thought of the reader.  Essentially political communication or nonfiction.  Another word for Plot of Thought is didacticism—intentionally teaching something through the work.

EACH story/MS is essentially one or the other.  But they’ve all got bits of the others in them.  Action always seems to trump character in reader interest.  Plot if thought displays the urge to tell rather than show: which shows a lack of confidence in both yourself and your reader—because you don’t believe your story can convey it on its own.

 (Photo Credit: http://www.boxofficecritic.com/its-arguable/best-swashbucklers-ever/)

But the competing influence between character and action has to not kill each other off.  They have to work together.  Remember that necessity has to drive your plot.

You have to step WAY away from your book and determine whether it is a plot of character or of action?  What is my central plot?  Where is my MC at the end?  And is that different from where he was at the beginning?

Modes of Representation:

1.)    As it is: Mimetic, an imitation of life.

2.)    Better than it is: the Disney version of life.  The Utopian vision.  (Nowhere.)

3.)    Present things as worse than they are.  Dystopia.

Most YA novels are Mimetic.  Even fantasy can be mimetic.  People can identify with it.  Prior to the 70s, literature for kids tended to be strictly Utopian.  The YA novel, when it officially came along, started to represent the realities of adolescence.  But there’s a fine line between representing reality and showing a reality that utterly and wholly sucks.  The thing is to be intentional, to be deliberate, no matter what you are doing. 

-          The most important question you can ask yourself is: How do you want the reader to feel right now?  The challenge of literature isn’t to affect your reader, but to affect them precisely as you wish.

-          Manipulate their feelings deliberately, incrementally. 

-          The ending has to be inevitable.  Necessary.

Authors tend not to cut themselves any slack.  They try to do them all at once. 

Several ways to gain perspective:

-          Put the MS away for a few months/years.

-          Work on something else

-          Give it to a trusted reader

-          Try to think about your book with some distance.

You should be able to articulate succinctly the heart of your story.  Begin to look at each of your episodes, and see how each moves the reader along the story arc toward the heart of your story.  Try to look at your story with some objectivity.

 (Photo Source: http://amscoextra.blogspot.com/2007_08_01_archive.html)

Any thoughts?  

And a random question because I'm curious: How many of you write with a clear intent of craft inside your head the whole time?  In other words, are you able to write--actually WRITE, not edit--with clearheaded motives and editorial goals, or does some other part of you take over like a vehicle driving itself and keep you from being intentional until you're either away from the MS or approaching it with a red pen? 

Just curious.  I'm the unmanned vehicle, in case you couldn't tell. 

Countdown to NaNoWriMo Day Four: Characterization

BREAKING NEWS: It's Thursday. There are now only four days of sanity October remaining. Before we continue with this post, I think we should do a quick exercise.

On the count of three, I want you to raise your arms and interlace your fingers behind your head. If you're sitting in a chair, I want you to lean back and relax your neck. Now take a very deep breath, close your eyes, and think of precisely NOTHING for ten seconds. Give yourself a moment to enjoy the calm. Maybe even spend a whole minute this way. Try not to think about the fact that in four days you won't have any minutes to spend in such a blissfully wasteful fashion.

(Photo: http://poemsoutloud.net/columns/rss_all/)

Now then. If you've been following this train of blog posts (the most consecutive posts I've ever written in my life, by the way), then you have already brushed up on creativity and inspiration, YA fiction writing techniques, and point of view characters. (If not, you're probably desperately confused, and should click on this link.)

Regardless, I'm sure you're here because you heard that today's post was a recap of a workshop given by award-winning author Donna Jo Napoli (BREATH, THE WAGER) which was all about characterization in YA.

Tuck in.

Things to Know About a Character

Sensitivities

o What is your character afraid of? If you know all about your character, they will act coherently through all the scenes.

o Reader wants a coherent personality, even though humans are not consistent and coherent people.

Family Relationships

o People are surrounded by other people, and that becomes a part of who you are.

o Offer information that hooks the reader to the MC’s family and surroundings

Temperament

o Inspires the way a character responds to things

o Child should have a variety of temperaments. Kids go every different direction, but don’t use reality for a reason for something to happen in your story. We have to totally believe what happens in your story, therefore things that occur in fiction MUST HAPPEN. Nothing can be simply coincidence, or arbitrary, as in life.

o Give characters variety.

Physical Characteristics

o Kids always want to know this FIRST. Boy or girl? Tall or short? Heavy or skinny? Helps kids visualize.

o Nationality and language.

o Hair matters. It shows how you see yourself and affects the way others see you.

o Find out what is important to your character.

o It isn’t what YOU think is important to your character, it is what your character thinks is important.

o Physical characteristics that will change might actually be more of a hindrance.

(Photo: http://www.femalenetwork.com/travel-leisure/photos/fn-bookshelf-staff-picks-for-influential-childhood-books/)

Interests

o The older the character is, the more interests affect their friendships.

o You don’t have to do a lot with this, but the fact that it is there in the background helps enrich and define your character.

Setting

o Plays a major role in how the MC views the world. How they respond to situations, and see in the world is determined by what culture has taught them.

o WHEN and WHERE are very crucial to a story.

o If you’re creating a world, it must be MORE solid than a historical place in time. They physical laws must make sense—everything must work. (Just like the use of magic.)

Age

o Kids want to know this as well. Not everyone develops at the same rate, and two kids at the same age might be entirely different, and at entirely different stages.

o Find out the curriculum of the age you are writing about.

o Gain the trust of your reader.

o Children may not have experience, but they have smarts.

o Make sure your reader can’t—with the same amount of information—work out something in the plot before the MC does. Unless you’re trying to make a point about that character.

Some other thoughts:

- Don’t let facts shackle your story. Truth is not equal to fact.

- You must ask yourself: Why do I want to write this story? That answer is the truth of your story.

- Children want to be caught up in the plot by the end of Page 1. Establish something that Is the Problem, Leads to the Problem, or Takes us Into the Problem. Editors and kids need a reason to turn to Page 2.

- Your story begins when your problem shows up. Whatever thing will cause that huge emotion is what you should begin with.

Any comments? What measures do you take to develop and get to know your characters before you start writing? I personally like to spend time filling out character worksheets. Here are some good ones, if you've never tried that approach: Jody Hedlund's Character Worksheet, Elfwood.com Character Creation Sheet, Writing.com Character Development Form.