Writability

What Makes You Keep Reading?

2012-03-05T05:59:00.000-08:00

Photo credit: photosteve101 on Flickr (planetofsuccess)

After reading a certain blue, white and black book written by John Green in a single day, I started thinking. Truth is, the only thing The Fault in Our Stars has in common with most of the books I read is that it happens to be a YA novel. There aren't any high-action scenes or evil villains to destroy or superpowers or magic or spaceships or horrific dystopian societies that must be overturned.

And yet, I whipped through its 318 pages like nobody's business and loved every moment of it. So it got me thinking: what really makes readers keep reading?

Because sure, cliffhangers and gun fights and epic magical battles and action-packed pages can definitely keep a reader hooked, but there are underlying threads deeper than that keep us turning pages in a book. That make it impossible not to continue reading.

Some Underlying Threads:

Make the readers care about the characters. This is a must. What's the point of reading to find out what happens to a character if it doesn't matter? (Answer: there is no point, so they won't read any further). Whether it's a voice that's impossible to ignore, or situations that make your protagonist sympathetic, or an endearing personality or all three, the readers have to care about the characters.

Keep the reader guessing. Will Katniss and Peeta survive The Hunger Games? Will Harry ever get to go to wizarding school? Will Hazel and Augustus ever find out what happens after An Imperial Affliction ? Although this is pretty directly tied to the last point, we need to keep the readers (and the characters) asking questions throughout the book. As soon as all of the questions are answered and choices are made, there are few reasons to continue reading.

Tension. I wrote an entire post on tension, so I'm not going to rehash the whole thing, but in short no tension = no reason to keep reading = book that doesn't get read.

There are other underlying threads, I'm sure, but these three are really what have stood out to me as I continue to read some truly fantastic books. And what better way to learn how to improve your writing than reading a great book?

Have you read any un-put-downable books lately? What makes you keep reading?

To Plot or Pants?

2012-03-02T07:40:00.001-08:00

Photo credit: Incessant Flux on Flickr

It was recently brought to my attention that I don't often talk about plotting. Sure, there was that sugar-induced post way back when on Brainstorming and a post from not too long about on plotting with flashcards, but as far as topics go, plotting is not often written about on this blog.

It wasn't intentional, but I have a feeling my subconscious avoidance of the topic has to do with the fact that I don't have one set way to plot. I've done everything from meticulously plotting with flashcards, to pantsing the entire novel with only a vague idea of where it was going, to hybrid techniques that fall somewhere in the middle.

As it happens (and as is the case with most writing things), there isn't one set way to plot that is better than the others— nor do I believe there is a "right" answer as to whether it's better to plot a novel or just go with the flow and pants the entire thing.

There are, however, pros and cons to both pantsing and plotting up for discussion right here.

So.

For the organized writer: Plotting

It goes without saying that plotting a novel before you write it certainly has its merits. Having a destination before you start the journey certainly saves you a lot of headaches while you're in the midst of writing, and can help you avoid the dreaded writer's block, which often comes from not knowing where the plot leads next.

Many published writers swear by meticulous plotting: J.R.R. Tolkien wrote a twelve-volume History of Middle Earth while writing The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings and it's pretty common knowledge that J.K. Rowling most definitely worked out the complicated plot of Harry Potter in advance.

Having a plot laid out early on can help ensure that your story is well-structured right from the beginning, which in turn saves a lot of time fixing gaping plot holes and unnecessary tangents while revising later.

Some writers, however, find that knowing all the details before the story begins sometimes stifles their characters— they find they end up writing to the formula rather than letting the writing evolve naturally, which then leads to...

Pantsing: for the adventurous writer

Pantsing a novel is a more light-hearted approach to its left-brained relative. It usually begins with a spark of an idea— an inciting incident that catapults the story forward, and the writer discovers the plot along the way with the characters. Pantsers enjoy the thrill of discovery while writing— every day is a new adventure, every writing session delving them deeper into the story that unfolds with every word.

While plotters focus on structure and planning, pantsers focus on discovery and the natural flow of events.

Sounds wonderful, right? Well, there is a downside.

As these writers often have little idea as to where the story is going, pantsing a novel can lead to more frequent writer's block and many more unnecessary tangents and ramblings as the writer tries to figure out what to do next. The story doesn't always have the strongest structure, especially in the first draft, so more time needs to be dedicated to fixing those plot holes and tying things together while revising.

As you can see, there are pros and cons to each method, and I highly recommend experimenting with both throughout your career as a writer.

What type of writer are you? Do you prefer pantsing, plotting or something in between? Why?

Mini Book Reviews 2: Spaceships and Faeries

2012-02-29T06:29:00.000-08:00

As far as reading goes, this month has been pretty excellent. It has also been a month of sequels.

Photo credit: Goodreads

I mentioned I was reading The Iron Fey series by Julie Kagawa last month, and as I’ve continued the series, I’ve been pleasantly surprised. The Iron King (the first book) was a good read, The Iron Daughter was interesting, but The Iron Queen simply blew my expectations out of the water and became my favorite of the series thus far. I’m now currently reading The Iron Knight, which has been different from the previous three in many obvious ways (such as a complete change in POV), but has been so far equally good, in my opinion.

As far as the series goes, what I said last month stands: the series is definitely targeted towards the female half of the population, with swoon-worthy characters, a couple love triangles and pretty eyes, and although there were a couple things that bugged me along the way (i.e.: a certain female protagonist who is lost without her man), the series certainly never gets boring, the characters are memorable and the faery world Kagawa created is just fantastic.

Now, the spaceships—or rather, spaceship.

I read and reviewed Across the Universe by Beth Revis in this post way back when, and as I thoroughly enjoyed it, I’d been waiting quite eagerly for the sequel, A Million Suns.

Photo credit: Goodreads

Well. Before I go any further, I’ll share with you the Goodreads summary:

Godspeed was once fueled by lies. Now it is ruled by chaos. It’s been three months. In that time, Amy has learned to hide who she is. Elder is trying to be the leader he’s always wanted to be. But as the ship gets more and more out of control, only one thing is certain: They have to get off the ship.

I’m not even sure where to start, because A Million Suns was simply amazing—so amazing, that I’ve told more than a few people that it’s one of the best sequels I’ve read thus far.

I think what I loved most about it was that it doesn’t read like a sequel—it was full of action, intrigue, slam-your-head-against-the-wall moments and mystery—can’t forget the mystery. The characters make mistakes, the love interest is far from perfect and with every solution, two more problems crops up until the climax.

In short, A Million Suns was a fantastic read and if you’ve read Across the Universe, you have to pick up the sequel. If you haven’t read Across the Universe I suggest that you give it a try.

What’s the best book you’ve read this month? Any recommendations?

When Writing, Take Your Time

2012-02-27T06:31:00.002-08:00

Photo credit: listentothemountains on Flickr

We often talk about writing quickly, editing quickly, reading and revising and getting those word counts down as quickly as humanely possible.

We share secrets about how to write faster, how to make the most of our time as writers, how to go, go, go in a culture that only seems to be speeding up.

And sometimes it's not a bad thing, sometimes the difference between 100 and 1,000 words written in a writing session is directly related to mindset or strategy. Sometimes writing quickly is exactly what we need to finish our WIPs, especially when we're short on time.

But sometimes we need to slow down.

I've already written about how for writers, time is on our side, but I'd like to reiterate something that I think is important because it's something that's easy to forget: we all write at our own pace.

Each of us writers has our own journey— for some of us it takes a couple years to meet our goals, for others it takes over a decade. Some writers write four to five books a year, others take two or three years just to complete one novel. There are writers who self-publish immediately and writers who spend years seeking representation, even long after the advent of indie publishing.

What I'm trying to say is that it doesn't matter how much time it takes for you to reach your goal. It doesn't matter if it takes you a month or a year to write a first draft. It doesn't matter if you spend three years to bring your manuscript to the best it can be, while your writing buddy finishes in a couple months.

What matters is that you take all the time you need to write the very best work that you can.

When you see other writers speeding past you, don't let it get you down. When it takes much longer than you expected to finish your novel, while your family peers over your shoulder, don't let it bother you.

A writer's journey is not a race. It's not about who gets to the finish line first, or how many times they race around you on the track.

A writer's journey is about one thing: meeting your goals on your time. At your pace. At the time that's right for you.

So next time you feel tempted to rush through a writing stage, take a deep breath and remember to take your time. As long as you keep moving forward, one way or another, you'll meet your goals, too.

Have you ever felt like you were taking too long to finish a writing stage? What did you do to combat it?

Don't Be Afraid of Failure

2012-02-24T06:28:00.000-08:00

Photo credit: photosteve101 on Flickr

Throughout my time in the Twitter/blogosphere, I’ve seen a lot of talk about failure. For writers, failure could be any number of things, whether it’s failing to write a good book, failing to get x amount of subscribers/page views/followers, failing to sell your manuscript, failing to sell enough copies of said manuscript…the list goes on.

I’m not here to talk about all the different ways a writer could fail, because quite frankly, we writers—hell, we as a people in general—tend to be pretty hard on ourselves when it comes to chasing our dreams and goals. Any hiccup, speed bump or letdown could be in one way or another interpreted as a failure.

Failure is a natural part of life—it’s a testament of the risks we’ve taken, they’re battle scars impossible to avoid throughout our lives and in the end, they leave us all the wiser.

But there’s this one particular failure that many writers are afraid of, one that has killed novels before they had a chance to live, one that has thwarted dreams and left many-a-writer feeling unworthy of the title.

By and large, writers are often afraid of writing badly.

I see it all the time on Twitter—writers who want to write, who have this goal, this dream of finishing their manuscript, who have put some words down and see others speeding ahead to meet their daily writing goals…and yet they hesitate. They look at the words they have so far and they pause. They say things like “I’m stuck,” or “I just can’t write today,” or “Maybe I’ll write later.”

And I recognize it because I’ve been there—because at times, I still find myself there. For me, the fear or writing badly is at its worst just before I start a new novel—that lingering whisper that looks at the plot I’ve thrown together or the first words I’ve scratched onto paper and sneers while it says the words: your writing sucks. They’re the doubts that crawl in and say, you can’t really write that—it’s going to be terrible.

For others, the fear of writing badly kicks in part-way through the story. It doesn’t matter when it kicks in though, because the result is the same: a seeming inability to write.

Something you need to understand—something I occasionally need to remind myself of—is that this fear of failure is a lie. It’s a trick, because by being so afraid to put down a word, you’re already failing. By not writing anything at all, you lose by default.

Something you need to understand is that it is infinitely better to have 80,000 words of a mediocre story than nothing at all.

Something you need to understand is that even if you have to toss those 80,000 words and rewrite the whole thing entirely, even if the manuscript ends up in the bottom of a drawer, even if the words are so awful you’re embarrassed to show even your closest friends, you haven’t failed at all.

You haven’t failed because you wrote something; you created something, something that no one else could create the way you did. And maybe it’s ugly, and maybe it’s not the way you imagined it, but none of that matters because with every word you write, with every chapter you string together, with every novel you finish—terrible or not—you learn something. Those 80,000 words didn’t write themselves—you learn from the process just as much as you learn from reading and studying the craft.

The fear of failure is a lie, because you cannot fail, not really—you can only learn from your experience. And maybe you learn that you went about it the wrong way, or that you really need to study how to write dialogue, or that you’ve possibly written the most cliché-ridden antagonist in the history of terrible antagonists, but you learned something. And you’ll take whatever you’ve learned with you as you write the next book, the next short story or poem or whatever it is you write.

When you’re afraid of writing badly, don’t be. Put the words down and let them be God-awful and know that it doesn’t matter. These words are yours and one way or another, you’ll learn from them.

So go forth and write, friends. I’ll be cheering you along the way.

Also, read this beautiful post, DON’T BE AFRAID TO WRITE A BAD BOOK, from Tahereh Mafi, which basically covers everything I didn’t, and then some.

Has the fear of writing badly ever stopped you? What do you do to combat your writing fears?

The Problem with Love Triangles

2012-02-22T06:36:00.000-08:00

Photo credit: wallyg on Flickr

Now before you pull out the pitchforks and light the stake, let me say I enjoy love triangles as much as the next person. It’s fun to choose a side on the Katniss-Peeta-Gale argument and even though I’m pretty sure I know who won the Meghan-Puck-Ash war (The Iron Fey series, for those of you wondering), it’s been fun to read about it, and it’s no secret that the Twilight phenomenon benefited greatly from the infamous Bella-Edward-Jacob love triangle (hello Team Edward and Team Jacob shirts).

But as of late, especially in YA novels, it seems that love triangles have become somewhat of a prerequisite—a cliché, even. Many novels follow the girl has male best friend/meets new boy/but best friend has loved her all along/oh but the new boy is so hot/but the best friend/but new hot guy!- plot, and hey, I’m certainly not complaining about it—as I said before, love triangles can certainly be one of the guilty pleasures we like to read, but it makes me start to wonder…are they becoming overdone?

I’d like to clarify that I’m well aware there are many YA novels that avoided the love triangle completely—Divergent by Veronica Roth and Acrossthe Universe by Beth Revis are two examples I can think of off the top of my head—but the more I see the best friend/new guy love triangle, the more I’ve started to realize that it has indeed started to become a cliché.

The problem with love triangles, my friends, is that they’re becoming predictable.

I’m not saying that this means we shouldn’t write any more love triangles, or that love triangles are bad in any way. What I am saying is if you do decide to write a love triangle into your story, you might want to ask yourself how your love triangle is any different from the others already out there. I challenge you not to rely on your first plotting love triangle instinct—I challenge you to push beyond the best friend/hot new guy cliché. Ask yourself what the purpose of your love triangle is—what are you trying to show your readers?

A strength, I think, of love triangles is it shows something we don’t often like to talk about—that love is messy. Love isn’t this neat little thing we can put into a box and tie off with a ribbon—love is confusing and exhausting and it has a mind of its own and sometimes love is wonderful but sometimes love is cruel. Love triangles show us all that—they show us that we don’t always know as much about love as we originally planned, that love can create a wonderful relationship, yes, but sometimes love hurts because it doesn’t always strike both ways. Sometimes, (and in the case of love triangles—always) there will be someone left out.

To me, that’s the purpose of love triangles, but until we break out of the formulaic relationships that many novels have fallen victim to, that message—that purpose—gets lost in the mix. Rather than a story about love, it can quickly become another generic boy-meets-girl-meets-boy scenario, and although they’re fun to read, they don’t always hit home.

I like love triangles, and when done correctly I think they can add a powerful dimension to our stories. But don’t let your characters become part of another formula—show us their relationship means something more.

What do you think about love triangles? Are they amazing? Are they cliché? What’s your favorite love triangle from a novel?

How to Be Happy

2012-02-20T06:41:00.000-08:00

Photo credit: Dawn Ashley on Flickr

I try to be an upbeat person.

Remaining positive throughout the day isn't something that comes naturally to everyone— as I'm a rather realistic person, it certainly doesn't come naturally to me. But over the course of the last couple years, I've learned a few secrets about being happy that have shifted the way I look at things.

As it turns out, being positive isn't necessarily related to external events. We all have our bad days, bad weeks or even months. Writers, especially unpublished writers, often struggle with keeping a positive attitude during the years it takes to hone the craft, write book after book and find publication. The life of writers is difficult, and being happy can often feel like an impossible task.

But it's not impossible.

Change Your Thinking

Happiness, as it turns out, is much more closely related to the way we view events rather than the events actually taking place. Good things that happen to us don't make us happy —the fact that we interpreted the event as something good is what makes us happy. The same goes for unhappy events —it all depends on the way we view them.

I read a post by Michael Hyatt a little while ago titled, "How a Shift in YourVocabulary Can Instantly Change Your Attitude." I highly recommend you take a look at it, but if you don't, his post basically capitalizes on what I'm talking about here: you dictate your own happiness.

In the post, Mr. Hyatt talks about the importance of having an attitude of gratitude, and reflecting that gratitude in our vocabulary. Rather than saying, "I have to go to work," for example, he suggests you say, "I get to go to work." This shift immediately turns a negative connotation (I'm going to work because I don't have a choice) to a positive one (I'm so blessed to have a job I get to go to).

For writers, it could be the difference between "I have to edit today" and "I get to edit today." Or "I have to write today" versus "I get to write today."

This is just one example of how changing our thinking can immediately make us more positive.

Smile Often

Do we smile because we're happy, or are we happy because we're smiling? This is a question that scientists have struggled over for years, but research today seems to indicate that smiling can make you happy.

It's hard to smile when we're upset, tired or stressed out, but if you force yourself to hold a smile a couple times a day, even when you're not feeling particularly happy, I think you'll find it much more difficult to hold your unpleasant mood (and really, why are you trying to hold onto that, anyway?)

Start Your Day with Gratitude

Try to start your day by listing three things you have to be grateful about. This is a habit I'm still trying to get into, but I think it's a great idea because not only does it force you to think about something positive first thing in the morning, but it starts to train your brain to look for things to be grateful about —something, I think, that is essential for a positive attitude.

These are just three ways writers (and everyone else) can inject a little more happiness into their lives —and who doesn't like an extra dose of happiness?

Have you tried any of these techniques? What do you do to maintain a positive attitude?

Editing Technique: Lists

2012-02-17T06:18:00.000-08:00

Photo credit: john.schultz on Flickr

So, I have a confession. You may or may not have noticed due to the abundance of organizational/ list- type things floating around this blog, but I am, indeed, a list person.

I write lists for everything— I have an ongoing To-Do list with sub-lists prioritized by date on my iPod (the 2Do app is fantastic, for those of you who are interested), I have a list of every blog post ever written on this blog ever (also known as the mysterious Blog Directory), I make shopping lists, blog post idea lists and when I'm editing, I have a list for that, too.

The editing list is, in my opinion, one of the best lists for writers of all. I know that's a lofty claim, but hear me out.

You see, while writing is a very right-brain creative process, editing is very much the opposite. As Ernest Hemingway said, "Write drunk; edit sober," or, as I've also heard it said: write hot; edit cool.

The creation process of putting words to the page for the first time, of creating that first draft and fleshing out new characters and plots is entirely different from the analytical, detached process of editing— or at least, it should be. Writing is a passionate process— writers need to be excited while fleshing that scene out for the first time. We need to love our words and dive head-first into the story. We need to be, as Hemingway might have put it, drunk with our words.

The editing process, not so much. Editing requires distance and analytical measurements of what works and what doesn't. While editing, writers need to be able to take a look at their work as objectively as possible and try to separate themselves from the work so that the weaknesses and ugly bits are more apparent. Editing is the territory of the left brain.

Thus, editing is the perfect time for lists.

When looking at a mountain of rewrites and problems in your WIP that needs fixing, the editing process can quickly become disheartening and overwhelming. Progress can be difficult to measure— what's one edit when you have two hundred pages dripping with red ink? Writers often feel as though they're fighting a losing battle, and many of them simply give up.

It's no wonder so many writers hate editing.

But it doesn't have to be overwhelming— in fact, with the right tools, it can be downright exciting. The elusive list is an example of such a tool, and if you haven't before, I challenge you to give it a chance.

Next time you're editing your WIP, make a note of all the things that need fixing. Maybe there's an opportunity for an extra scene after chapter 5 that could better explain the antagonist’s motivation— add it to the list. Maybe you messed up and forgot that your secondary's father's name is Jim, not Josh halfway through the novel and you need to fix it— add it to the list. Maybe you're way too dependent on certain words, or your character voice needs some tweaking, or you accidentally made your antagonist bald with a moustache (it happens)— add it to the list.

If you're feeling super ambitious, or you just like organization like yours truly, you can divide your list into sub-categories like "Character Development," "Minor Fixes," "Tying Things Together," etc. It doesn't matter how you organize it really, do whatever feels most natural for you.

Once you've completed your list, you may be tempted to be terrified by the sheer size of it. Don't give in to it. Take each list item one at a time— maybe your goal is to finish two or three list items a day— once you've completed an item, check it off or cross it out. I think you might find there's something strangely satisfying about checking off list item's you've completed.

If you take each item one at a time, you'll soon find that you've accomplished much more than you might have thought possible. Keep working and it won't be long before you have a long list of ways you improved your manuscript— which, if you ask me, isn't such a bad thing to have.

Have you ever employed the list method in your editing? What other editing techniques have you tried?

How (Not) to Write the Perfect Query Letter

2012-02-15T06:38:00.000-08:00

Photo credit: donovanbeeson on Flickr

I've noticed that there's been an astonishing lack of posts about the elusive query letter on this blog. I suppose there are a few reasons for that—namely, that when I figure out how to write the perfect, foolproof query letter from heaven, I'll let you guys know—but considering the huge role query letters play, especially for writers who want to go the traditional route and would like an agent, this really must be remedied.

So. The query letter isn't an exact science—in fact if you check out the interwebs, you'll find a lot of conflicting advice not just from writers, but from agents, which can really be rather confusing when you're looking for some solid query-letter-writing advice.

So naturally you end up here. Right? Right.

In a similar flash of brilliance that led me to write my How to Write a Masterpiece post, I have in fact unwittingly stumbled upon a chest of infinite query letter wisdom, that I feel compelled to share with you guys. You're welcome.

HOW TO WRITE THE PERFECT QUERY LETTER*:

Begin with Dear Sir/ Madam/ Agent/ You Awesome Person, You. First impressions are everything, and what better way to start off one of the most important letters of your writing career than with a general sir/madam opening?

Include a photo of yourself, your three cats and your pet parrot. How can any sane agent say no to your parrot's adorable face?

Declare your book to be the next Harry Potter/ Great Gatsby/ The Catcher in the Rye/ Hunger Games. This shows the agent that two things: 1) you like to read (or you at least know the names of uber-popular books) and 2) you're very confident in your work, and confidence is key!

Make sure your query letter is an attachment. I mean really, who types their query letters in the body of the e-mail anymore, anyway?

Send your query letter via Twitter. Bonus points for fitting your query into 140 characters!

Send your query letter to the agent in a long list of agent e-mails. Not only do you save yourself the time of sending each e-mail individually, but now the agent knows who they're up against.

Include the full manuscript as an attachment with the query letter. You already know they're going to want to read the full, anyway. You're just saving them the extra time of having to e-mail you and ask for it!

Include lots! Of exclamation points!!! And sentence fragments! And typos! Yay!!!!

Include a blurb from your mother. No self-respecting agent will even look at your manuscript unless it has the Mommy seal of approval.

Write a book that's 200,000 words long. Instant approval.

In fact, send the query letter before you've even finished writing the book. Fully written manuscripts are overrated, anyway.

Query three different manuscripts in one query letter. Not only does this increase your chances of the agent possibly liking one of your manuscripts, but they also know you're a prolific writer. Win-win.

Call them immediately after you send it. You know, to give them the heads up that your fantastic query letter is on its way and they should probably stop whatever they’re doing to read it immediately.

Send your query letter to every agent at the agency simultaneously. One of them are bound to like it, right?

There are actually many more ways to write the perfect query letter, but this post would be ridiculously long if I gave you all of the query-writing secrets. Besides, I want to hear from you guys: what query letter secrets do you have to share?

* DISCLAIMER: By "perfect" query letter, I mean absolutely horrendous don't-you-even-think-about doing this in your query letter. You know, in case my sarcasm didn't come off as obvious as it did in my head.

5 Writing Myths

2012-02-13T06:41:00.000-08:00

Photo credit: Johan Larsson on Flickr

Not too long ago I wrote two posts covering ten writing truths that I thought were important to discuss broken up into bite-sized part one and part two posts.

Today I’d like to talk about the opposite end of the spectrum—the myths that many of us, especially early in our writing careers, have probably fallen for or perhaps are even still tempted to believe. These myths are created by Hollywood, by too much news coverage of the exceptions, by well-intentioned hopes, overly-optimistic dreams and inexperience.

But these myths are just that—myths—and although they sound nice on paper, the sooner we accept that they aren’t real, the better.

The Writing Myths:

1. The overnight success story. Nathan Bransford wrote a really fantastic post covering this myth much more succinctly than I could, but the overnight success stories that you hear about all so very often are largely lies. Writing a book takes time—months, sometimes years—and chances are the first book that you publish won’t be the first book you ever write (more on that later). It takes time to hone your craft, to learn the ins and outs of writing, to develop your voice and learn how to write a solid plot and then learn the proper way to market it all when you’ve finished. J.K. Rowling spent years planning out and writing Harry Potter and received dozens of rejections before getting published. Amanda Hocking also spent years building her craft and receiving rejection letters before making it big in the self-publishing world. The list goes on, but in short, don’t believe the overnight success story.

2. Your debut novel = your first novel. No.

I mentioned this in first bullet, but nine out of ten times, your first novel will not be your debut novel. Debut is a tricky word, because it sounds like it’d be your first novel ever and when publishers announce an author’s “first” novel, it often sounds like it’s the first one the author has ever written but with few exceptions, that’s largely not the case. “Debut novel” means the first novel that you’ve ever gotten published. It’s your debut into the world of published writers—it’s usually not the first novel you’ve ever written. Chances are the first and second and maybe even third and fourth novels you’ve ever written are going to be sitting in a drawer somewhere when you get your “first” book published. It varies from writer to writer, but it usually takes more than a single manuscript to really hone your novel-writing skills.

3. All the author needs to do is write a book. That’s a nice thought—but not quite. Authors write books, then edit, then rewrite, then edit more, then they market their books—whether it’s on Facebook or Twitter or tumblr or book tours or YouTube—all the while working on the next book, and reading other books, and trying not to entirely disappear from the social media world while buried under a heap of editor notes.

And that’s not even getting into just how difficult it is to write a book in the first place.

4. Authors do everything alone. I wrote a post about this point already, and Rachelle Gardner wrote a post more focused on the help that traditionally published authors receive, but in short, traditionally published or not, authors absolutely do not do everything alone. We get help from readers and editors and book designers and agents and marketing specialists and copyeditors because it takes a lot more than just one person to write a book and get it out there. Writers can’t do everything alone, and the great part is that we don’t need to. There are others out there willing and able to help—we just have to go out there and find them.

5. After publishing one book, money starts raining on the author. I think most of us know this isn’t true, but especially nowadays I think it’s important we accept this one.

Yes, there are always exceptions—we’ve all heard about the debut authors who start off with a bang and immediately jump into the New York Times Bestsellers list, with a very nice advance sitting in their bank account. It happens.

But by and large, it doesn’t happen. In today’s world, advances are shrinking and publishers are more careful. An author’s career (regardless of how successful they were with their debut) isn’t based on just one novel—it’s a combination of every novel they ever publish and for most of us, it’ll be a slow climb. There’s a reason so many authors have a second (and sometimes third) job, and it’s not just because they’re bored sitting at home.

Writing takes time. Publishing takes time. Making a living off of writing usually takes a lot of time.

So those are my five writing myths. What would you add to the list?

Why I Love to Edit

2012-02-10T07:02:00.000-08:00

So a few days ago, precisely one month after finishing a draft of my WIP, I had the pleasure of tweeting this:

Although many of my wonderful writer tweeples responded with glee, I got more than a couple of messages that went along the lines of err, I don't know, Ava. Editing? Want to do mine for me? *wink wink*

It got me thinking.

Once upon a time, long, long ago in a galaxy far, far away, I used to hate editing. It's not that I thought it unnecessary—I knew it was necessary—I just couldn't stand the thought of re-reading something I wrote half a dozen (or—God forbid—more) times. I'd already done the hard work of getting the first draft down, did I really want to spend months or years flipping things around and cutting passages and adding new things and re-reading re-writing re-reading re-writing?

Over the course of trunking many-a-novel, I learned the hard way about the importance of editing—real editing, and I realized that if I was going to bring the fullest potential out of my stories, I had to learn to love to edit. Period.

Surprisingly, saying ok, I need to love editing now didn't magically make me start to love to edit. What did change my opinion of editing (and this is a little surprising), was editing the same WIP over the course of two and a half years.

I'll admit, initially I got pretty sick of it, and when I discovered after a break from the WIP that it needed complete re-writing after a couple of rounds of edits already, I resisted the process. I didn't want to re-write it—it would take weeks, and then I'd probably need to edit it again and what if it needed more re-writing after that?

I rewrote it. Then something weird happened.

Photo credit: AlaskaTeacher on Flickr

As I looked over the WIP again, I realized it was entirely different from the first draft—no, no just different, better. Sure, it still needed work, but it was improving, I could see it improving right there in front of me. I knew it was better, and to be entirely honest, it felt great.

And suddenly, editing wasn't so bad after all.

When I didn't like editing, I was looking at it all the wrong way—I thought of it as this extra step, this horrendous extra task that inevitably meant more hard work and when I sat down in front of the computer I thought, ugh, I have to edit today.

What I didn't realize is that editing is so much more than that—it's a chance to refine your work, to really make your writing shine, and once you start to see your work evolve, well, it can be kind of fun.

I'm not saying editing isn't hard, time-consuming work—it absolutely is. What I am saying is that the way you look at it can largely change your experience.

Let's face it, if you want to be a writer, you're going to be doing a lot of editing. Whether it's editing your first or second or fifth or fifteenth draft, editing your query letter or synopsis or author bio or blurb, editing your first book or your twentieth book, the life of the writer is an endless cycle of writing and editing and editing and writing.

It's part of the process, and it's a step that you can't skip. So if we have to do it anyway, we might as well try to enjoy it, right?

What do you think? Am I crazy for loving to edit? What are your favorite and least favorite parts of the editing process?

Writing Dialogue with Purpose

2012-02-08T06:48:00.000-08:00

"Characterization is an accident that flows out of action and dialogue." —Jack Woodford

Photo credit: pheezy on Flickr

It's often said that poorly written dialogue is one of the first signs of a new writer —whether it's an error in the way it's punctuated, an abundance of non-said dialogue tags or clunky, unrealistic speech, dialogue can make or break your writing.

This post is assuming that you've already perfected the grammatically correct way to punctuate your character speech and your characters are speaking naturally, rather than sounding like they're reading off lines from a script. You see, even after you've mastered the basics of dialogue writing, there are still many more aspects to look at when writing or revising character speech.

One of the most important things you can do when looking over your novel's dialogue is determining its purpose.

In our everyday lives, people blabber on for no particular reason. We talk about the random and the ridiculous with little direction, we go off on long-winded, completely unrelated tangents and some of us are even guilty of talking for the sake of talking. In real life, those things happen.

In your books, those things must never happen.

Menial how's the weather conversations are perfectly acceptable in the work place or at the dinner table, but the moment your characters start talking about the beautiful sunny day outside or the delicious breakfast they had, red flags and buzzers should be going off in your mind.

I'm sure most of you have heard the Alfred Hitchcock quote: "Drama is life with the dull parts taken out." The axiom doesn't only apply to drama and plot, however, it also applies to dialogue.

One of the best writing tips I've ever read on the subject is this: character speech is an action. Our characters' every action must have a purpose, and that includes every line of dialogue they speak throughout the course of the novel.

So what does that mean?

Next time you're revising your writing, take a close look at the dialogue. With every line that comes from your character's mouth, ask yourself if what they said was necessary. What would happen if you removed that line? Would the conversation still be understandable? Would it miss anything? Chances are if the scene can go on without repercussions after removing the line, you probably don't need it.

But how can you tell if the dialogue is necessary?

Dialogue must accomplish one of two things: 1) move the plot forward or 2) develop character. If your dialogue isn't doing either, it's time to either cut it or rewrite it with one of those goals (or even better—both) in mind.

Well-written dialogue moves smoothly, develops character and leads the reader forward through the plot. What are you accomplishing with your dialogue?

Mini Book Reviews

2012-02-06T06:16:00.000-08:00

I haven’t done a book review in a while for a couple of reasons, but I thought it’d be fun to give a couple of short book recommendations based on what I’ve been reading as of late, rather than writing many separate reviews for every book I read.

So! Based on what I’ve read so far this year, the first book I’d like to recommend to you is The Girl of Fire and Thorns by Rae Carson. Before I get into what I thought about it, here’s the Goodreads summary:

Photo credit: Goodreads

“Once a century, one person is chosen for greatness.

Elisa is the chosen one.

But she is also the younger of two princesses, the one who has never done anything remarkable. She can't see how she ever will.

Now, on her sixteenth birthday, she has become the secret wife of a handsome and worldly king—a king whose country is in turmoil. A king who needs the chosen one, not a failure of a princess.

And he's not the only one who seeks her. Savage enemies seething with dark magic are hunting her. A daring, determined revolutionary thinks she could be his people's savior. And he looks at her in a way that no man has ever looked at her before. Soon it is not just her life, but her very heart that is at stake.

Elisa could be everything to those who need her most. If the prophecy is fulfilled. If she finds the power deep within herself. If she doesn’t die young.

Most of the chosen do.”

So I don’t usually read high-fantasy, but I gave this one a shot and I’m certainly glad I did. The Girl of Fire and Thorns really surprised me. Elise, the protagonist, defied the gorgeous-model-like-looks that many YA novels feature, and starts off, in fact, as a rather overweight teenager with a remarkably low self-esteem. That in itself caught my interest and following her story and watching her develop as a character was a real treat. I’ll admit that some of the more fantastical elements took a little adjusting, but The Girl of Fire and Thorns surprised me with many-a-plot twist that I definitely didn’t see coming (which is a rare thing, I might add) and actually got me to exclaim out loud while reading…twice.

In my book, that means I really enjoyed it, and thusly I recommend it to you.

The second book is actually a series that I haven’t finished yet, but judging by the first one and a half books, I can already tell it’s a series I’m going to have to finish.

What series, you ask? None other than The Iron Fey series by Julie Kagawa. The Iron King is the first of the series and this is the Goodreads summary:

Photo credit: Goodreads

"Meghan Chase has a secret destiny; one she could never have imagined.

Something has always felt slightly off in Meghan's life, ever since her father disappeared before her eyes when she was six. She has never quite fit in at school or at home.
When a dark stranger begins watching her from afar, and her prankster best friend becomes strangely protective of her, Meghan senses that everything she's known is about to change.

But she could never have guessed the truth - that she is the daughter of a mythical faery king and is a pawn in a deadly war. Now Meghan will learn just how far she'll go to save someone she cares about, to stop a mysterious evil no faery creature dare face; and to find love with a young prince who might rather see her dead than let her touch his icy heart."

First and foremost, I’d say this is definitely a girl book and although there are a couple of things that irked me along the way, I’ve really been enjoying the series. Once again, it’s a little out of my normal reading genre (and the first faerie book I’ve read since Artemis Fowl) but after seeing it repeatedly mentioned on Goodreads I thought I’d give it a try and now I’m hooked. The faery world Kagawa created is just remarkable, there’s never a dull moment in the plot and the characters are memorable, to say the least.

So that about covers it. Happy reading!

What’s the best book you’ve read this year so far?

Will Print Books Become Obsolete?

2012-02-03T06:30:00.000-08:00

Photo credit: shutterhacks on Flickr

After reading a particularly interesting NPR article on why we should stop having e-book vs. print book arguments, and a post from agent Rachelle Gardner on what will happen to book signings in the age of e-books, it has occurred to me that it's not so far-fetched to think that one day, print books may indeed become obsolete. That's not to say that it's particularly likely that it'll happen any time soon or that we should all brace for the book apocalypse, but it's something, I think, that we need to increasingly consider a possibility.

Now, imagining a world without print books is, for some people, not far removed from imagining some sort of horrific dystopia. A world without print books is a world without bookstores—a world without a new book smell, or the crinkle of turning pages, or the subtle yellow tint of an aged book.

A world without print books is a world without real, physical bookshelves—except in the homes of those old-fashioned book collectors who scour the web for a limited-edition print copy of their favorite novels.

A world without print books is a world where everyone must charge their e-readers at night or else risk not being able to read the next day due to a low battery. It's a world where no one can know what you're reading just by glancing at the spine in your lap, a world where book signings, indeed, become a tad more complicated.

Note that I did not say a world without print books is a world without reading or a world without authors.

You see, because a world without print books is something else, too—it's a world where children don't have to lug twenty-pound book bags to school or must use textbooks that are falling apart because it's too expensive to replace them or even must hide what they read because what would their classmates think if boys were caught reading girly books or vice versa?

A world without print books still has, ironically enough, print books on the market—they're just harder to come by and a tad more expensive. Owning a print copy of your favorite novel isn't commonplace—it's special. It means you took the time to get your hands on a limited-edition print copy, it means you are one of those slightly eccentric and mostly archaic book collectors (which is a title, I'm sure, that you wear proudly).

Yes, it's painful to imagine the closing of bookstores or the diminishing of book signing events and it's hard to look at our bookshelves and think that those paper things we took for granted all those years may one day be much more difficult to come by.

But just as people continued to listen to music long after the digital revolution in the music industry, people will continue to read and authors will continue to write. The written word will still be out there, and those stories we've learned to fall in love with will continue to be created and published—and really, isn't that the point?

Let me get this straight: I love print books just as much as any other book collector—I love adding books to my shelf and seeing those beautiful, colorful spines line up neatly next to each other as much as the next person. I love the new book smell, I love the feeling of turning the pages and looking at the texture of the page and how the text was laid out and even how the font that the publisher chose fits with the tone of the novel.

I love all of those things, and it's sad to think of a world where those nuances will no longer be appreciated.

But a world without print books is not the end of the world. There will always be something to read, new stories to immerse ourselves into and new characters to fall in love with.

I hope not to live to see a print-book-free world, but if I do, I guess I'll be one of those crazy book-collector types who hunt down those special limited-edition print copies like it's nobody's business. And I guess I'll proudly add it to my bookshelf while the younger members of my family roll their eyes at me.

Because although print books may one day become obsolete, they will never lose their place in our hearts.

Yet Another Reason You Should Blog

2012-02-01T06:35:00.000-08:00

Photo credit: cambodia4kidsorg

I read a little while ago on Michael Hyatt's blog that he found he sometimes didn't know how he felt about a particular topic until he blogged about it (unfortunately I can't find the specific post...sorry!). I thought that was interesting and it raised some questions in my mind.

Questions like: do we blog because we know about something or do we blog because we want to know about something?

Questions like: do we blog to teach others or do we blog to teach ourselves?

After some thought, I like to think that I came up with an answer because for me at least, the answer is both.

Truth is, I've learned just as much from blogging as I hope you have from reading my posts. Writing blog posts—from creating better villains to the usefulness of tumblr for writers—forces me to sit down and think about the topic until I can think about it clearly enough to share with you—my amazing readers.

In essence, I've come to realize that blogging is just as educational for the blogger as it is for the reader.

But I have a feeling I'm not the only one who's come to this conclusion, and I want to hear from you guys.

DISCUSSION: For those of you who blog, would you say that you’ve learned from your blogging experience? For those of you who don’t, would you say you’ve learned from reading blogs?

So You Want to Be a Writer?

2012-01-30T06:55:00.000-08:00

Photo credit: @optikalblitz on Flickr

An open letter to new and aspiring writers:

First and foremost, the "aspiring writer" does not exist—there is the writer and the not-writer, but you cannot aspire to be a writer any more than you can aspire to be a reader (do you read or not?) or an artist (do you create art? Yes? Then you’re an artist). If you want to be a writer, the first thing you must do is eliminate "aspiring" from your vocabulary. You either write or you don't. Decide.

But first make absolutely sure that you want to be a writer—there can't be any doubts in your mind, you must know that you want to write like you know that you need to breathe to live. The words "maybe" "might" "perhaps" and "possibly" are not acceptable terms. You must know this with your heart, mind and soul.

Once you have decided that you are, indeed, a writer, you must, of course, begin to write. Chances are if you're reading this, you've already done so, but if you haven't you must begin immediately. Write as much as you can—write awful, melodramatic poetry and ridiculous, clichéd short stories and novels that go on for 100,000 words with little character development, a bald, moustache-twirling villain and an ending that features your protagonist waking up and realizing it was all just a very strange dream. Share it with your family who will tell you it's fantastic. Forget about editing and write query letters to top agents around the country, then receive your first and second and third and fourth form rejection letter.

Throughout this time, you should be reading. Read everything—trashy novels and books from the children's section and long, classic novels that make you want to tear your eyes out. Read the good, the bad, the ugly, the beautiful, non-fiction and novels, poetry and plays. If you don't have time to read, then you most certainly don't have time to learn how to write. Accept this and start reading widely, even if it means reading just a couple minutes at a time.

Eventually, you will probably realize that your first novel is terrible. This is good—it means you're learning. Don't let it discourage you—put your first novel away and start the second. And third.

If you want to get serious about writing, you must learn to edit. You'll have to make painful decisions—decision like tossing the first 50,000 words of your first draft or eliminating characters entirely or adding another 40,000 words to your novel long after you thought you'd be finished.

Read about writing as much as you can—blog posts, non-fiction, advice from agents and published writers—this is your bread and butter, the food that will mold you into the writer you want to become. Read it, apply it to your work then write some more.

Repeat.

Don't read about those writers who published their very first novel and became New York Times bestsellers. Don't let jealousy paralyze you when you see others around you get book deals, or when your best friends become successful and pat you on the back as you continue to slog through this disease called writing.

Accept that your friends and family will not understand your passion. Don't let this stop you.

Over time you will get tired. You'll be working a non-writing job or going to school or raising a family or all of the above and there will be bills to pay and long hours at work and family members who will smile politely when you talk about your writing and ask when you're going to get published.

Know that it will likely be many years before you see any of your writing in print.

Know that your debut novel will probably not be your first book. Or your second. Or your third.

Know that even when you do get published, chances are you'll probably still need that other job.

Know that there are much easier ways to make a living.

Are you sure you want to be a writer? Are you absolutely sure? Because the road of the writer is not an easy one—it's long and often lonely and frustrating. It's exhausting and not unlike repeatedly smashing your head into a wall.

Above all else: you must love to write.

If you're sure—if you know you love writing—then know this: as long as you don't give up, you will one day succeed. It might take two years or six or ten or twenty. It might be your fourth novel that gets published or your sixth or your thirteenth. But if you're sure this is the road you want to take and you devote your spare time to improving your craft and falling in love with your stories over and over again, one day you'll make it.

Being a writer isn't always easy or fulfilling or fun. But if you're sure that's who you are, don't let go of your dream—never let it escape you.

Because it's up to you to make your dream come true.

So now, tell me: are you a writer or aren't you?

Character Development: Fear

2012-01-27T07:28:00.000-08:00

Photo credit: ia7mad on Flickr

Everyone is afraid of something—most of us, many things. That may seem a bit cliché or redundant to say, but while we do our best to avoid fear in our everyday lives, we should punctuate on it in our writing.

What do I mean?

Fear humanizes us. It's something we all share as a species and an emotion that our characters should share as well—even the bravest and baddest of them all. You see, a character without fear is automatically unbelievable and more difficult to connect with—not to mention missing out on plenty of plot opportunities a character with a few fears has.

When looking to develop your characters, I highly recommend you get to know their fears—five each is a good place to start. The fears should range from anywhere as deep and integrated into the plot such as the fear of dying alone to something as silly and simple as the fear of butterflies (which is a real fear by the way, linked to the fear of months and called lepidopterophobia, but I digress).

It's not enough to be aware of our characters fears, however. Once you've developed a list, it's time to take a look at them and figure out how you can incorporate a couple of them into your plot.

Is your main character afraid of rabbits? Make sure she comes across a field full of those adorable little bouncing fluff balls.

Is your secondary afraid of bright colors? (again, a real fear believe it or not)—send him on a trip to Vegas.

Is your antagonist terrified of losing a loved one? Incorporate it into the plot.

I'm sure many of you noticed in my last example I used the antagonist, which brings me to my next point: evil characters have fears, too.

Yes, I know, it sometimes seems like an oxymoron to think of our antagonists as actually afraid of something, but the best, deepest antagonists have fears of their own that often color their actions and—at times—even causes them to make some fatal mistakes.

When it comes to fears, your antagonist should be no different from your main character —even the most nefarious of villains must be afraid of something to be believable. Their fears could be simple and linked to the plot—fear of losing power, for example, or fear of failure. I recommend, however, that you try to give your antagonist a normal, humanizing fear as well.

What if your antagonist's greatest fear really was losing a loved one? What would happen if his fear came true—or, perhaps, if it already did?

Discovering and developing our character's fears is a fantastic way to deepen your host of characters and make them more believable—not to mention the plot possibilities it provides you (how many times did Ron Weasley have to face his fear of spiders, for example? Or Indiana Jones and his phobia of snakes?)

Then once you've figured out what your cast is afraid of, it's time to start incorporating them into the plot.

Do you know what your characters are afraid of? Have you exploited their fears in your WIP?

Why I Don't Auto-Follow Back

2012-01-25T05:21:00.000-08:00

Photo credit: respres on Flickr

In a little change of pace, I'd like to take a moment to talk about some social media etiquette that often comes up for debate.

For any of you who use Twitter (and those of you writers who don't, I truly believe you should give it a try), you know exactly what I'm talking about just based off the title of this post: Auto-follow backs.

Every new Twitter user will quickly come across the question that has many debating and scratching their heads over—to automatically follow someone back or not?

If you glance at my Twitter profile for even a second, you'll see pretty clearly based off my follower/following ratio that I very obviously don’t—but it’s probably not for the reason you might think. Truth is, I believe that automatically following everyone who follows you indicates that you’re completely missing the point of social media.

You see, when you ask for more followers or hound others to follow you simply because you followed them, you're focusing on the numbers rather than the people. Following people becomes a game—a race of let's see who can get the most followers the fastest. We become concerned no longer with the content of our streams or the relationships we're building—simply the number beneath the "Followers" count on our profiles.

And from there, it's a slippery slope. Because the moment you lose sight of the people behind the numbers, you start to forget what this whole social media thing is all about: relationships.

I challenge you to look beyond the numbers. Sure, they're fun to look at every once in a while, particularly at a milestone, but I challenge you not to lose sight of the greatest gift social media has to give.

How you decide to do that may differ—for me it meant only following people back who I've started to create a relationship with—people who I've carried a conversation with, who I have word sprints with, who are friendly and greet me in the morning and make a point of reaching out occasionally to say hello and answering when I welcome my new followers.

Because when you encounter those kind of people you know that they get it—that you're not just a number, that they're willing to make the little extra effort to build a relationship with you.

And that's when I click the little blue follow button to make sure I can connect with them again.

What's your Twitter follow policy? Do you automatically follow people back? Why or why not?

On Character Motivation

2012-01-23T05:24:00.000-08:00

Photo credit: Lord Mariser on Flickr

It has occurred to me that while writing, one of the best things a writer can do is question every action from every character. Why did your protagonist say that? Why did your secondary react to that snide remark so violently? Why did your antagonist plant a bomb in a toy factory? Why won't that random taxi driver stop talking?

What I mean to say is that every action any character in your novel takes must have a motivation (and P.S: speaking is an action).

Think about your everyday life for a moment—from waking up in the morning to climbing into bed at the end of the day—and I think you'll find that there is very little (if anything at all) that you do without any motivation or reasoning at all. Even something as simple as eating lunch (motivation: you were hungry) or playing video games (motivation: you were bored, or didn't want to do something else, or really just wanted to reach that achievement, etc.) has some form of reasoning behind it.

What's my point? We don't do anything without motivation and neither should our characters.

This tends to be an obstacle when certain plot points need to be met, so our characters must do stupid or evil things in order to accomplish our goals for the manuscript. Without enough planning, when looking back at the WIP, writers often stumble across scenes where characters do something without a clearly defined motivation.

This happens most often with antagonists. In most novels, the antagonist must do some pretty terrible things to the main character in order for the plot to progress—whether it's stealing his lover or trying to kill him or embarrassing him in school (or at work)—antagonists must set our characters back and create conflict.

But antagonists are characters too, and they need to be well developed with believable motivations or their actions will fall flat.

Because I love the Harry Potter series and one of the best ways to learn how to improve your writing is by taking a look at the expertise of the greats, I'm going to use the most evil and yet still believable bad guy I have yet encountered in a book.

That's right: I'm talking about Voldemort.

As most of you know (regardless of whether or not you've read the series), Voldemort does many a terrible thing to our main character Harry. Without spoiling anything for those of you few readers who have yet to read the series, Voldemort kills Harry's parents when he's a baby, tries to kill him a dozen or so times throughout his lifetime, frees the most evil of wizards from Azkaban (wizard prison), murders many of Harry's friends and loved ones as well as tortures and kills others, goes through a very painful process of fragmenting his soul and murders his loyal followers when their usefulness expires.

And yet, Voldemort doesn't do things only because he's evil—he has a goal, a motivation: to be the greatest wizard who ever lived—greater even than the famous Albus Dumbledore. Above all else, he wants power and immortality.

Unfortunately for Voldemort, there's this pesky orphaned teenager who keeps getting in his way.

Despite all the evil, horrendous things Voldemort does, never once did J.K. Rowling fall into the trap of making him do things just to be evil—everything he did led back to his number one goal, every horrible action he took had a motivation.

Can you say the same for your characters?

Take a look at your WIP. Can you justify your characters' actions with motivations--or are they simply acting for the sake of the plot?

How to Gather Distance from Your WIP

2012-01-20T05:05:00.000-08:00

Photo credit: Jonathan L D Bennett on Flickr

In my last post I may have said something a little flippantly that went along the lines of if you’re not 100 million percent sure that the beginning of your novel would grab you, it might need some work and I sort of might of accidentally insinuated that getting that kind of distance from your manuscript is not only entirely achievable, but easy enough that I don’t even have to talk about how insanely difficult it is.

So on that count, I apologize for that accidental insinuation, because as I’m sure many of you know, getting that kind of distance from your WIP is not an easy feat. However it’s not impossible.

I mentioned this briefly in a post I wrote a while back about the cooling off period, but I’d like to talk about it again both because I’m currently in that torturous don’t even look at your WIP phase and because I think it’s important enough to talk about twice.

You see, in order to glean the best insight on how to improve your WIP, you need to “forget” that the words on the page are ones that you put there yourself. You need to be able to read the words with a critical eye and look specifically for weaknesses—whether it’s a cliché phrase, a shallow character, lack of motivation, too much or too little explanation, etc.

The question, of course, is how? How do you distance yourself from a novel you’ve practically memorized, from words that you agonized over to get on the page?

Truth is, achieving the kind of wow, I entirely forgot I wrote this distance from you book takes time—a lot of time in fact, as in months to a year of doing everything but looking at your WIP, which probably (but doesn’t have to) includes writing other stories and reading a lot. Don’t panic though, I’m not suggesting that you have to take a year away from your WIP in order to edit it correctly.

I do suggest that you take a month off after you’ve finished writing a draft before you start editing. Although you most certainly won’t forget the words after a month, I’ve found that 30 days tends to develop enough distance so that you can look at your work more critically. Even then, however, you need to go into editing mode with the right mindset.

You see, after a month you will have developed distance from your WIP—distance enough to start editing, at least—but you need to be aware that despite that agonizing month of not looking at your WIP, you’re still about twenty thousand times closer to your manuscript than any outside reader who comes across it. When you start editing your WIP, you need to look specifically for weaknesses.

Before you start editing, ask yourself:

What do I already know needs fixing?

What do I hope to achieve with this round of editing?

Once you’ve answered those questions thoroughly, you can start reading. Even while you’re going through your WIP though, there are more questions you need to ask. Questions like how can I make this situation worse? Did my character respond realistically? Is this situation believable? What are my characters’ motivations? You need to be on the lookout for clichés and lazy shortcuts like information dumping and telling rather than showing.

You need to be aware that unless you proactively search for mistakes, most of them will hide from you.

Let’s be honest, subconsciously, most of us don’t want to find weaknesses in our WIPs. And it’s only natural—we love our stories and we’ve probably already worked on them for ages and the thought of having to do even more work can be a little scary.

Don’t let it scare you.

When you hone in on the weaknesses in your story and it starts to become overwhelming, think of how much better your WIP will be once you’ve finished. Tackle one issue at a time and don’t worry about the other things. Prioritize what needs to be fixed first and cross it off your list when you’ve finished.

Then, when you’ve finished, let your critique partner have at it and start all over again.

What tips do you have for distancing yourself from your WIP?

Reading: How Do You Decide?

2012-01-18T04:50:00.000-08:00

Photo credit: RLHyde on Flickr

A short post today.

As I've been attacking my 2012 reading goal with a vengeance and will most assuredly surpass it this year, I've been doing a lot of reading. I’ve also read a Mount Kilimanjaro-sized flood of samples in the past few weeks and it got me thinking.

When it comes to book buying, what’s your deciding factor?

After devouring sample after sample and organizing them into “must read” and “not interested” piles in my brain, I’ve come across a rather unexpected discovery about my reading tastes.

You see, I always knew that voice was an important factor for me, but I never realized until recently just how important it is to me. I'd always assumed that genre would pretty much dictate what I choose to sample (and thus, even consider reading), but I've found that if I come across a book out of my normal reading genre with a great voice, it doesn't matter—chances are I'll add it to my "must read" pile anyway.

And if that means I'll be reading a little more widely from now on, well, let's just say I'm not too broken up about it.

Voice, however, isn't the only thing that matters. I've read a sample from at least one novel I can think of off the top of my head that had a fantastic voice and an interesting story, but the villain was so evil and cliché that I put it down immediately and moved on to the next sample (which is a shame, because I was about ready to buy it).

I think there's an important lesson to be learned from our reading habits—specifically from how we decide whether or not to buy a book. For me, the largest factor is the voice, followed closely by the depth of the characters—are they believable and interesting or do I want to laugh at their swirly moustaches when they're introduced?

We can apply our reading habits to our own novels by taking a step back and examining the beginning of your book. If you weren't the author, would you buy it based off a quick sample? If the answer isn't a 100% absolutely yes, then it might need some work.

I'm sure not everyone's book buying habits are the same as mine, however. What factors determine whether or not you decide to buy a book?

Why Use Past Tense?

2012-01-16T05:48:00.000-08:00

Photo credit: boris_licina on Flickr

Continuing from Friday’s post on the pros and cons of using present tense in your novels, we now move on to the much more widely used past tense.

Truth be told, you could write the same exact story nearly word-for-word in past or present tense. The difference lies in the way you’d like the novel to feel.

You see, while present tense’s effectiveness is largely due to its immediacy, past tense’s reflective nature is its great strength. The connotations of past tense are entirely different from present—in present tense the narrator is telling the reader the story as it happens, while in past tense the narrator is retelling the story events to the reader. In past tense, the narrator already knows how the story ends—in present, he does not.

Between the two, past tense is the more realistic tense. By this I mean it’s much easier to believe that the character is retelling their story than it is to believe that they’re announcing their story as it happens. We retell stories to friends and family all the time, and when we do it’s obviously in past tense. Reading novels in past tense, then, feels much more natural—which is a large advantage. While it’s not unheard of for a reader to dislike a book because it was written in present tense, very rarely will you find a reader who disliked a book simply because it was written in past tense.

Let’s take a look at one of my favorite lines from The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger (via allgreatquotes.com):

It was that kind of a crazy afternoon, terrifically cold, and no sun out or anything, and you felt like you were disappearing every time you crossed a road.

I love this line for many reasons, but I chose to use it here because it really punctuates on the strength of past tense. If you’ve ever read The Catcher in the Rye (which I hope you have), you know that Holden Caulfield (the protagonist) is very much a reflective character. Written in present tense, I don’t think his musings would be quite as strong.

But don’t take my word for it. Let’s try translating that line into present tense:

It’s that kind of crazy afternoon, terrifically cold, and no sun out or anything, and you feel like you’re disappearing every time you cross a road.

As if often the case with this type of thing, which you like better comes down to opinion and there isn’t really a right or wrong answer per say, but the difference between the two is pretty clear. The same images are present as well as the same voice and tone—but the feel is different. In the past tense line you’re remembering—it’s as if the memory of that incredibly cold day is your own. The present tense line is more immediate—it’s cold now versus it was cold then.

For certain novels like The Catcher in the Rye where the main character is indeed a reflective character, the choice between past and present tense is pretty clear—as the reflective tense, past tense is the way to go. For other novels however, the choice isn’t as clear and it’ll depend largely on whether you (the writer) prefer an immediate or reflective feel for your novel.

Past tense is a great option and, for some writers, easier to write, but that’s not to say it doesn’t have its own hurdles to overcome. You see, when compared to present tense, past tense tends to be more difficult to establish a connection with the reader. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying at all that it’s impossible to make a connection with the reader with past tense, but as illustrated by my lovely closeness chart from the last post (reposted below), you start off a step further away from the reader as far as closeness goes (in case you missed it, the explanation of closeness is here).

It’s easy to fall into the storytelling trap with past tense—where the narrator is merely telling the story without truly connecting to the reader. It’s a hurdle, and one that can (and must be) overcome, but it’s one that you should be aware of as you work on your past-tense story.

In the end, neither past nor present tense is greater than the other—they both have their strengths and weaknesses and hurdles to overcome. Once you decide how you’d like your novel to feel however, choosing one over the other becomes markedly easier.

What do you prefer to write in—past or present tense? Do you have a preference when it comes to reading?

Why Use Present Tense?

2012-01-13T05:14:00.000-08:00

Photo credit: FL4Y on Flickr

So after reading my post on first sentences, a certain fabulous blogger suggested that I write a post on the choice between present and past tense, which, in my opinion, is totally brilliant and a bit of a wonder that I hadn’t already done so already. However, I’ve come to realize that this post is going to be enormously long if I try to cover both, so while today’s post will primarily focus on present tense, Monday’s post will cover past.

Quick note: for the sake of this post I’m going to focus on first-person POV, but the same principles apply to third-person as well.

Stylistically, the differences between past and present tense are pretty subtle—and both function well in their respective novels. Books like The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins, Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi, Across the Universe by Beth Revis and The Girl of Fire and Thorns by Rae Carson were all successful with their use of present tense while books like The Fault in Our Stars by John Green, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer, Immanuel’s Veins by Ted Dekker and The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer by Michelle Hodkin worked well with past tense. (Note: I haven’t fully read all of the books I mentioned, but I’ve at least read samples if not the whole thing, and found the voices to be particularly interesting).

So what’s the difference between the two? Why use one over the other?

Having read (and written in) plenty of both, the biggest difference that stands out to me is the sense of immediacy and closeness. Now I’m aware that closeness isn’t really a technical term to describe writing and I should probably use another more professional-sounding word, but closeness is the word I currently have in my head. So.

By “closeness” I mean the proverbial distance between the reader and the narrator. I’m sure you’ve all read a novel and found that the narrator felt distant, which made it difficult for you to connect or empathize with the protagonist (and you probably put the book down unless you were forced or felt particularly compelled to read it for whatever reason). That’s the distance I’m talking about—the closeness.

In my experience at least, I’ve found that this closeness correlates directly to the tense the work is written in, and the relationship is something like this:

So...this is a little hard to read, but hopefully you get the idea.

Now, that’s not to say that books written in third-person past or even third-person omniscient can’t create a close relationship to the reader—it just in many cases takes a little more effort on both the writer and reader’s part.

You see, when a novel is written in present tense, the reader is in essence experiencing the events of the book at the same time as the narrator, and it’s this feeling of going through the plot together (immediacy) that tends to create an instantly closer relationship. Books written in past tense of course can create the same sort of relationship—as I said the differences between the two are very subtle—but the effect of the narrator recounting the story (as is the case in novels written in past tense) is a half-step farther than the narrator experiencing the novel with the reader.

The immediacy of present tense works particularly well in fast-paced, action-packed novels—which is why I think it worked so well in The Hunger Games. For these kind of novels, present-tense adds an extra edge—the characters are going through their battles with the reader. The protagonist hasn’t experienced this already—and thus isn’t telling us about a battle three years ago that they very clearly survived from or else they wouldn’t be around to tell the story—so there’s an added sense of vulnerability. Although it’s very rare for protagonists to die, the sense that things are happening now can give the added feel that anything could happen—even, possibly (although unlikely), the death of the protagonist.

But like every tense, there are weaknesses you must be aware of.

Present tense (especially first-person present tense) can be more difficult for some readers to adjust to. Whereas it’s reasonable to think that a narrator may be telling you about something they experienced before (as is the case with novels written in past tense), the idea that the narrator is actually standing right there in front of you narrating exactly what they’re doing right now is a hurdle that readers must get over in order to enjoy the story. Obviously no one (sane) goes around announcing to some invisible audience everything that they’re doing as they do it—which for some readers is a fact that makes it rather difficult to enjoy novels written in first-person present tense.

For this reason, present-tense can be a little more difficult to write convincingly. Your voice and story must be strong enough to make readers overlook the fact that realistically, the protagonist should not be describing everything that’s going on at this present time.

If done well, however, present-tense is a perfectly viable option that can function really well for certain types of novels.

What do you think? Have you ever written in present tense? What novels have you read that used present tense well (or that didn’t)?

What Makes a Great First Sentence?

2012-01-11T06:27:00.000-08:00

“When it comes to selling your book, the most important words you’ll ever write are those on page one.” –Jodie Rhodes, President, Jodie Rhodes Literary Agency (from Hooked by Les Edgerton).

Photo credit: soyrosa on Flickr

Most readers and writers alike can agree that the first page—and even more so, the first line—of a book carries ea very heavy responsibility. I’d even go as far to say that the first line in your book is the most important sentence in the entirety of your WIP. Why?

The first line determines if the reader will go on to the second (then third and fourth, etc.) line (obvious, I know, but important).

The first line is the very first impression readers (and agents, and editors) have of your manuscript.

The first line carries the responsibility of hooking your readers into the story, or else they likely won’t move on. (No pressure).

Most of us can agree that the importance of the first sentence is undeniable. But what makes a good first sentence?

Hooked by Les Edgerton focuses on, as the title suggests, hooking your readers with your first scene and naturally, your first sentence (it’s a good read for those of you who’d like a really in-depth look at the topic beyond the little bit that I talk about here, but I digress). My favorite point in the book however, came with his theory on the two things that should belong in first sentences.

According to Edgerton, every first sentence should hint at trouble and raise a question. Taking a look at some great (in my opinion) opening lines, I have to agree with him. Let’s take a look:

“When I wake up, the other side of the bed is cold.”—The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

I’ve seen this line used time and time again as an example of a great first line and I don’t know about you guys, but I think it’s brilliant. It also holds up to Edgerton’s theory—although the trouble isn’t stated directly (it rarely is in first lines), there is certainly a sense of foreboding as our main character wakes to a cold, empty bed. The question of course is obvious—why is the other side of the bed cold? Who was she (Katniss, the protagonist) expecting to be there?

“I’ve been locked up for 264 days.”—Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi

The trouble and questions are pretty clear here—the trouble is clearly that our protagonist (Juliette) has been locked up for nearly a year. We don’t know where exactly, but by the term “locked up” we can assume it’s some kind of prison. The question of course is why? Why lock someone up for that long? What did she do to deserve imprisonment? You must read to find out.

“I see darkness.”—Saint by Ted Dekker

Trouble? Well, waking to darkness isn’t often a good thing and although we know little about the protagonist’s situation from this first sentence, we most certainly have a sense that something bad is about to happen—or perhaps something bad already has. Either way, we want to know why our main character only sees darkness (the question), so we have to read on to find out.

“There is one mirror in my house.”—Divergent by Veronica Roth

The trouble here is a little more subtle than in the last two examples. We don’t know for sure from the first sentence that anything bad is going to happen, but just the fact that we have to ask why our main character only has one mirror in her house (and why, as we quickly find out, the mirror is hidden) gives us a sense that something isn’t quite right.

“Mr. and Mrs. Dursley, of number four, Privet Drive, were proud to say that they were perfectly normal, thank you very much.” –Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone by J.K. Rowling

How could I go through this kind of post without including Harry Potter? Obviously, I couldn’t.

In all seriousness, this is the kind of sentence that uses a sort of reverse-psychology. Just the fact that Mr. and Mrs. Dursley feel the need to say that they’re perfectly normal indicates that they probably aren’t (which foreshadows trouble) and also leads the reader to ask why they feel it’s important everyone know that they’re normal. Do people think they’re strange? If so, why? We must read on to find the answer.

A sense of foreboding and raising questions can go a long way to grab your readers’ attention right from the first line—are you using this technique in your writing?

What are your favorite first lines? Do they create a sense a trouble and raise questions? I’d love to hear them!

Joining the Dark Side with a NOOK

2012-01-09T06:12:00.000-08:00

Photo credit: Yes, I'm a fabulous photographer

A few months ago I wrote a slightly hyper post possibly influenced by a sugar rush explaining why I didn't yet have an e-reader.

For those of you who didn't read it (or else don't click that pretty blue link up there), I came to the conclusion that the e-reader I wanted was out of budget, but we would see how I felt around Christmas.

WELL. As some of you most astute readers probably noticed, I did indeed write those summarizing sentences in the past tense there is indeed a reason for that.

I received a gift, you see. An e-reader gift. Specifically, a NOOK gift (the e-ink Simple Touch variety). So for those of you who still swear completely by print books, I suppose I've joined the dark side. And I'm not apologetic.

Firstly, I still love print books and just because I'm officially the owner of an e-reader and, naturally, a few e-books, doesn't mean I won't continue to buy print books. I will— in fact, that hardest part I've found is now deciding which books to buy for my NOOK and which to buy for my bookshelf. It's a much more difficult decision than you might think, but I digress.

Secondly, I have discovered that owning a NOOK (or any e-reader for that matter) is a dangerous thing for writers and readers alike. For anyone who's friends with me on Goodreads, you've probably noticed that in the past couple of days I've added about a bazillion books to my TBR pile (ok, I exaggerate— I've added a little less than ten in four days, but STILL). The reason for this is indeed my NOOK.

You see, having an e-reader is basically like having a bookstore on your lap. If you see a book that interests you online, you can whip out your e-reader and read a sizable sample. If you're bored and flipping through covers on the online bookstore on your e-reader and see something that interests you— download a sample and read it. One of your Goodreads friends finished a book you haven't read and loved it? Go get that e-reader and download a sample to read STAT.

As you can imagine, I've read quite a few samples. In fact, they're pretty much what determines whether or not I buy the book 100% of the time.

Because I came to realize it's not so different from what I do in a bookstore. At bookstores I walk through the shelves, pick up something that interests me, read the blurb—and if I like it—move on to the first few pages. If I don't like it, I'd put it down and move on.

Turns out, it's the same thing with e-readers. Samples that I don't like get archived. Samples that I read and love are left to torture me on my NOOK until I finally cave in and buy it.

I think I'll be reading much more this year.

So for those of you who are wondering, quick pros and cons of the NOOK Simple Touch.

Pros : It's affordable (only $99), the e-ink screen is very easy to read on (as opposed to backlit screens which can tire your eyes out), it's small and light enough to be easily portable and the battery life is pretty fantastic. I read online that it's something like 14 days with heavy use. I charge mine every couple of days once the battery starts dipping below 50%, but I have to say I'm pretty impressed with the battery's resilience. Also, you can add storage through an SD card which I suppose is always a plus.

Cons: There isn't any color! Yes, I obviously knew that my NOOK Simple Touch wasn't going to have color as it has an e-ink screen (which I'm finding more and more that I actually enjoy reading on), but it makes me a little sad inside when I flip through my little virtual bookshelf and everything is in black and white. The covers just aren't nearly as pretty as the ones sitting on my bookshelf (or my iPod, for that matter). And, you know, the new book smell isn't there when reading an e-reader. Which is a little sad.

I've also noticed that Barnes and Noble tends to have less promotional little things for their e-books (in comparison to Kindle books). I can't tell you how many times I've seen free or discounted offerings for a Kindle book, when the NOOK counterpart was, erm, not. That combined with Amazon's constant LOOK! SHINY KINDLE! DID YOU BUY ONE YET? on their homepage (I'm a Prime member, so I suppose I kind of asked for it) while I'm all noooo Amazon, I have an e-reader, kthanks can be a little irritating, but hey! It's a minor thing, really.

So that about covers it, really. I think I'm going to go read now.

Thoughts! Do you have an e-reader? If you do, what do you think? If you don't, tell us why you're holding out! There are e-readerish things to discuss!