Inspiration: Mythology and Fairy Tales, Part 1

This is going to be a series of posts on myths and fairy tales and using them in your work. Hope you like--it was the only thing I could think of before I left!

My Latin teacher's favorite phrase for us to translate was "There's nothing new under the sun." (My Latin teacher was notoriously slack—he'd often give us the same phrases on tests—sometimes he'd even give us the same tests over again because he didn't feel like making new ones. Anyway, it got so that if I saw a line that contained "sol," I knew it was the above phrase. I didn't learn any Latin, but I did make an A.)

My point is, we're all just repeating stories (usually; there are some awesome completely unique stories...but I digress. Again.). The bildungsroman, the hero's journey, Cinderella, Beauty and the Beast...there are variations of these stories everywhere. And it's not a bad thing: one of my favorite movies is Ever After...to say nothing of Star Wars (which would be the entire reason I wore long hair in braids for most of my life).

The key, I think, is to make a unique variation of the story. Even straight up re-interpretations of old stories—much of Shannon Hale's works, or even Percy Jackson—puts a new twist on the story to keep it fresh.

I hope that, when you read the synopsis I've posted before, you can't tell the Greek myth that inspired it. I really hope not. But what if I told you that the main character's name is Belle Ravenna? Or that one of the key things in alchemy they learn is the concept of solve et coagula (ha! I did learn some Latin! It means: separate and join together)—and that the alchemists "separate" different animals to "join together" new ones—like separating an eagle and a horse to make a pegasus?

Hmm...I think I'll be cruel and let you all think about it for a bit. You'll find out in a day or two (as long as Blogger's posting these things right!).

Synopsis

So just in case any of you were curious about the project I was working on so furiously this past week, here's the rough synopsis I made about half-way through. I found that making up a brief synopsis of what I was working on helped me to keep focused.

Fifteen-year-old Belle is perfectly normal: normal school, normal family, normal friends. Her English teacher, Ms. Wendt, is not. Ms. Wendt is a witch. Even stranger than the fact that Ms. Wendt supplements her lessons with magic is the fact that her classroom is located behind an electric blue door that erases her students' memories of magic when they leave. Every day, Belle's class leaves through the door and forgets everything about Ms. Wendt being a witch...until they re-enter the class the next day. As Belle and her friends Robert and Esperanza try to find ways to thwart the door and remember their magical teacher outside of class, they discover that there's something much bigger going on. Ms. Wendt is a prisoner of her own classroom, trapped behind the electric blue door that ensures no one will remember her or help her escape. Belle's new science teacher hints that there may be a way save Ms. Wendt, but as Belle and her friends learn about alchemy, they begin to question whether their new teacher wants to save Ms. Wendt or use her magic for his own purposes. Either way, the first step for Belle to save her teacher is to remember her.

Also, Nathan Bransford had a great post recently about describing plot.

So basically, plot is a premise plus a major complication that tests the protagonist. It's what opens the door plus what's keeping the door from being closed.

He also has great examples of premise vs. plot...something that I think might help out with anyone working on making a pitch...

Going Dark

I am going to be traveling with 18 students for the next two weeks, then coming back for just a day before I set off for the mountains and celebrate my first anniversary. I'm going to try to have Blogger set up to continue to post every other day or so in my absence, but if nothing happens for 2 or 3 weeks, well, you know. And also, even though posts are going up, I won't be able to comment on them...but I'd love for you guys to continue to comment if you feel so inclined!

Just as a bit of a tease...I've got a series of posts coming up on using myths and fairy tales in your stories! Hope you like it!

Finished! ...or just beginning?

Yay! I did it! The story is on paper, the rough draft is done... whew!

Final count: 62k words, 220 pages, 20 chapters, 1 very sore butt (I need a better chair).

I've got one day to spare, then I'm going to be globe-trotting for three weeks. That should help me get some distance (literally and figuratively) from the novel, so that when I finally get back and ready to work, I'll be able to give at least a cursory edit.

And this work is really going to need an edit. I have no illusions about that. This is just a first draft. And besides:

"Every first draft is perfect, because all a first draft has to do is exist."
- Jane Smiley

So it will take a rewrite (or eight). I've already got notes in there as I was writing (check this fact! describe scenery more! add this detail somewhere before chapter 8!). This book was very difficult for me to write, and I know there are whole parts that are choppy and rough because it just wasn't flowing.

After having written a few yet-to-be-published books, I know that just because words are on the page does not make them worthy. I've got to edit for grammar, and then edit for content, then develop character, voice and plot more...and then do it all over again. And then give it to a critique group or two and add more changes (which are usually done to the sound of me hitting my head against my desk, saying "Why didn't I think of that?!").

...but at least the first draft is done.

Whew.

:)

I DID finish today!

The Differences Between Boys and Girls

I needed a chaos scene. I had a class full of kids in my novel, and I needed them to create enough chaos that the teacher would be distracted and the other kids could escape class without the teacher noticing.

It was getting late, and all I could think of was to have the girl students pretend to see a mouse and start screaming. I knew it was lame, but it was all I could think of.

Later, I was eating supper and asked my husband, "If you were a student in high school and needed to create chaos, what would you do?"

He looked at me like I was stupid. "I'd just punch the nearest kid and start a fight."

Well, obviously. I'd never thought of that, and never would have. I think that's the difference between a boy and a girl. Girls tend to be more passive--no one gets hurt when a mouse runs through the room. Boys tend to be more violent--but also more effective. My scene wouldn't work because, well, there was no mouse and there's a limit to how much trouble a girl screaming "Mouse!" will cause. But with a fight...well, then you have the kids fighting, and all the other kids circling around, screaming "Fight!"...it's much more effective chaos.

You Know You're a Writer When...

...you spend half an hour online looking for a description of how people eat the still-beating hearts of cobras and what, exactly that would look like.

And then you research kids books.

I wonder what people would think if they looked at my history?

I'm Stalling on Purpose

Here I am, plugging away at my current WIP, trying to wrap up about 10-20k more words in, OMG, 3 short days...and I'm so reluctant to start. I think it's because I know that when I finish, I'm going to have to do a lot of revisions.

OK, whine over. I'll start the meter here, and update throughout the day:

OMG

There's a new Howl book by Diana Wynne Jones!

And Robin McKinley's coming out with a new book!

squeeeeeee!!!!!!!!!!!

...and I'm back to work now...

Writing Progress: Tuesday

PS- This will be updated all day as I write. I think I'm schizo--I work so much better with three things going on at once!



YES! I've topped 50k!!!


Downtime

I won't be able to write much today--I've got errands and doc appointments and won't be at my computer much. I'm going to try to get another 1000 words down, but...

Anyway, just as I'm writing away and struggling with my book, Nathan Bransford comes out with quite a cheery post:

Here's an analogy sure to brighten the mood of the unpublished: writing a book is kind of like spending a year creating a lottery ticket. Sunny days, people! Sunny days!

At least he ended it with rainbows and puppies.

Welp, I'm off to write my lottery ticket now!

Writing Progress: Monday



Get your own meter here!
And now it really is time for me to quit slacking and get back to work.


There's Got to be a Story Here Somewhere

Ok, ok, I know I'm slacking. But I'm at 50k words now, and only need about 15-17k more to finish and my brain goes dead if I don't take breaks and...ok, I know, it's all excuses for why I'm playing on the internet instead of writing. But Brookly Arden had a post about why I wish I lived in NY city...naw, it was a post about this Scholastic editor's adventures in NY--it just made me wish I lived there. And she saw this.

There has got to be a cool story that someone could make out of that. The design and concept of the thing is amazing. I wish I could come up with some sort of adventure and story around the telectroscope....or at least be able to see it :(

Ok--back to work!

Inspiration--Malta

Blegh. I'm a bit stuck, so I thought I'd share some of the inspiration for my setting. When I got stuck in the story, I decided to switch setting. I always knew that I wanted my characters to go from their home/school to a new place, but I never really though I'd put them in Malta, a small Mediterranean island I visited in college! The setting, however, is perfect.

I've got ancient ruins at Hagar Qim for my kids to explore, a series of towers developed by the Knights of Malta, and the "Silent City" of Mdina, with it's beautiful narrow streets. I'm working on a way to include the il-Gardjola--it's got six sides, two of which are adorned with carvings of eyes, and two with carvings of ears to symbolize how the Knights of Malta were always watching and listening to enemies who might be approaching. I don't have a purpose for this detail yet, but it's just too rich not to include.

But the most important thing is the beautiful doors of Malta. In America, the style, color, and shape of our house says a lot about the inhabitants--but in Malta (at least the cities), there's not much room for different styles, and everything's built out of the same brown limestone. The differences and uniquenesses come through the beautiful doors...and as doors are an integral part of my story, I just couldn't refuse a chance to include them!

So...that's what I've been thinking about as I write the next 50-100 pages of my book to finish it. At the very least, this has helped me jump start my stalled writing and reminded me of how I need to include all these rich details into my book!

Blogging

Sorry I've not got anything to blog about...I've been too busy writing! I've crossed the 150 page mark, and it's my goal to finish the rough draft by June 20th...because on June 21st, I am leaving to Europe for two weeks, then I've only got a day of recovery before I leave for a trip to the mountains to celebrate my first anniversary with my husband! So I've got to get the writing done now, while the stories so strong in me. Wish me luck!

Powerful Writing

All this talk about voice made me think about the works that were strongly written and what made them good. When I think of a single passage in a book that stopped me in my tracks, I think of Robin McKinley's The Hero and the Crown. This is a book I read in high school or junior high, and one that I love. I read this book for one certain passage, about half-way into the novel. When I read it the first time, I still remember weeping so hard that I couldn't see the page. In fact, I don't think I wept so much at a novel until I read JK Rowling's fifth Harry Potter book...at the end...when a certain character I loved died.

Here's the set-up. Aerin is the not-so-talented daughter of the king. Her cousins all have great magic and are beautiful and accomplished and all, but Aerin sticks out like a sore thumb with red hair and a mysterious dead mother. In order to find her place, she starts fighting dragons, which are a dangerous nuisance (but little more) in her kingdom. This gives her an unsteady hold on prestige. She's good at it, but it's menial work and not very respected. Until one of the great dragons awaken--one that's as big as a mountain and capable of destroying the entire kingdom.

Aerin fights and kills the dragon--but is mortally wounded--her body is broken and burned, and she swallowed dragonfire, which is killing her from the inside. Her father (the king) and Tor (her cousin and crown prince--and soon to be fiance) meet her on the road, and Tor grabs her by the arm--which has nearly been burned off by the dragon.

She screamed, except that she could not scream, but she made a hoarse and awful sound, and Tor dropped his hand and said something she did not hear, for her scream made her cough, and she coughed and could not stop, and the bleeding began, and flecks of her blood dripped down Talat's neck, and her body shook, and the cloak fell away from her and onto the ground, and Toor and Arlbeth sat frozen on their horses, helplessly watching.

What makes this such a powerful passage? Well, first of all it's the context and the 112 pages leading up to that passage. I know all about how Arlbeth loves his daughter despite her unconventional ways, how Tor loves her but Aerin doesn't love him, the struggle Aerin had to turn Talat into a proper horse for her. I know these people, so I care about them.

But that's not why this passage brings me back to the book so much that I have been known to read up to that passage and stop without reading the end because I love that one sentence more than the whole rest of the book.

Let's analyze this passage as a writer:

1. It's one sentence long. This is basic, but it's important. The structure of language changes how we read. When I read this one long sentence, I cannot make myself take a break, the way a period would naturally make me stop. I pause at the commas, but not as I would at a period. The length of the sentence, accompanied by how it is broken up into small segments with the comma clauses, makes the reader move from clause to clause quickly. The speed of the reading makes the reader feel the quickness of the event. It's not slow and drawn out, it's pain that's compressed and compounded in a very short time. It's the difference between slowly applying heat, or thrusting one's arm into a fire. The pain is all right there, all at once.
2. The action progresses within the sentence. Aerin's pain starts in her arm, which leads to her scream-cough, which leads to her coughing up blood. It's a progression, and it's key to the sentence structure. If there was one pain--say, the pain in the arm--and that pain was contained in one sentence and described in several different ways, we might perhaps have a better idea of what the pain in the arm really felt like (i.e. I don't know if it's a burning pain, or a crushing pain, etc.). On the other hand, we'd lose the momentum of the progression--this sentence is not about how badly one part of Aerin is hurt--it's about how all of Aerin is hurt.
3. There's a shift in perspective. The sentence starts with Aerin, focused entirely on her pain, but ends with the men who love her--Tor and Arlbeth--and how they cannot help with her pain. That last clause, that's what makes me weep. The sentence shifts from physical to mental anguish. It shows how pain extends past the person who is in pain. It puts the story into perspective, and makes the pain of Aerin that much worse because there is no help for her, and because those who love her really can do nothing but watch helplessly.

So that's what I think makes that passage powerful. In general, powerful writing needs certain elements. In this case, it's a combination of backstory, structure, description and perspective. Certainly the passage is not as important to me when it's cut out of the text and pasted here--and certainly a book would not be readable if every single sentence was powerful. However, in our writing, I believe that one of our goals should be a build-up to a similar powerful passage. You can have several, certainly, and the whole point of writing should not be these few powerful sentences, but if you can write a story that is so gripping, one that can lead up to words that are so powerful...well, then, you've succeeded.

I can't quit with a good subject...

Tabitha had some great comments to make about my recent post on voice. This really is a topic that I am struggling with now, as I don't think my current WIP has a good enough voice (because, mainly, I'm so busy working on plot that I'm ignoring other elements, like voice...and, you know, grammar). So I don't mean to beat a dead horse, but...

What is voice? I dunno. It's a little indefinable, isn't it? I can't give a simple answer, but here's the way I think of it. Imagine two high school kids in art class. They both love to draw. They both study their high school teacher's instructions. They both have the drive to be artists. But when you look at Susie's drawings, you can tell that this kid may be creative, but she's no artist. It's just not there. She could study the technical side of it all she wanted, but she'll never make more than lines on a page. But then look at Annie's drawings. She needs improvement, sure, and she's certainly not da Vinci yet, but there's some indefinable quality that makes you know that this kid can draw. She's a natural. Even her doodles seem to come to life.

Now, the kid who doesn't have that natural-born artistic quality and the kid who does can both go to college and study art. They can travel Europe, study the masters, whatever. But the kid who doesn't have the art inside her won't ever be able to produce the stuff that the kid who does have it can. With study, the kid who doesn't have art can make a passable drawing. She could even be good at drawing...but her work won't be in museums. The kid who does have art...that's a whole other story.

In my opinion, this applies to all artistic endeavors. There's a difference between photographers and people who just take pictures. There's a difference between emo kids who write angst-ridden poetry in their darkened rooms and Maya Angelou. There's a difference between someone who writes with voice, and someone who writes without it.


Can voice be taught? Tabitha made an excellent point when she said:

If you mean that Voice can't be taught in the way 5+2=7 is taught, then yes, it can't. Or, if you mean that *finding* one's Voice can't be taught, then maybe. I suppose it depends on whether pointing someone in the right direction is considered teaching.

Still, that's only one aspect of Voice. And I truly believe that the rest can be taught.

Can voice be taught? I don't know. I agree with Tabitha in that this will depend on one's definition of voice, and in some ways, I still think that no, voice can't be taught. But I do think that voice can change, and that teaching can change us...so...maybe.

Here's my ideas on it. In my above example, Susie just didn't have that artistic spark. But let's say that something brilliant happened to her. She got pregnant and had a child. Her world view's changed, now. She looks at the world both as her own person and as the mother of her child. Now, let's say that she starts to really study the work of Mary Cassatt. She's inspired by the work, and goes to a class taught by a teacher who specializes in that vein of art. Now she has the drive, and has grown in skill. Her art will certainly be better...and she might have now become the type of person one could faithfully call "artist."

I suppose, in that way, voice can be taught for a writer. Technically, I'd argue that the books we as writers enjoy reading work as mentors and inspiration for our own writing, and every time we read a book, we learn about voice (if we're paying attention). Likewise, attending a writing class could provide the basis for developing a better voice.

But it's not that easy. Despite all this, I still contend that there is some element of voice that can never be taught. That you either have it, or you don't, and if you don't, you'll never get it. Perhaps I am somewhat jaded because of my experience working with high school kids on creative writing. Some of them are brilliant. Those kids make me want to weep because they're so good. Some of them...well, they try really hard, and they do everything technically right, but...they don't have it. They'll never be writers. They'll never progress to more than teen-angst-Fallout-Boy-ripoff poems. They'll never make a short-story that anyone other than their family and friends will read. This is bitter, and it's sad, and I'm fully aware that despite the fact that I've been writing novels for five years, I may be in that category as I've yet to be published.

In any artistic endeavor, there is an artistic spark that, without it, the artist can never truly be an artist. Some people can't do math, or have a terrible memory for dates. Likewise, some people can't write, and some can't draw, and some can't sing. The thing that makes artists so terribly sad is that some, despite their dreams, can never be what they want to be.

But it's not that depressing, either. This is all not to say that if you don't have a voice, you can't be a writer. I don't think you can write effectively without a strong voice, but I don't think you should give up if you don't have one now. Part of voice relies on drive. Looking at my high school students, I can see that some of them are simply not good writers, but I would never, ever tell them to quit. If they're passionate about it, who knows what could develop? In high school, everyone's passionate about something. And although mostly they're all just passionate about getting into each other's pants, some of the kids have the passion to write or draw or sing. Maybe part of voice is just sheer stubbornness not to fail.

I'd like to think so.

Didn't You Know?

Summer begins today...not June 21st. Your calendar is wrong. Trust me. Summer begins today.

Because today's the first day of summer break!!!

Kids have no idea how much their teachers love break more than they do :)

Maybe now I can finally get some writing done! You know, between leading a group of kids to Europe, Yearbook Camp, and a teaching conference in the mountains. Sometime around there I should have time to write :)

When Will the Voices End?!

I know I've done waaaayy too many posts on voice, but I found this post on BookEnds fascinating and had to share (also, I am waaaayy too tired to make up a post on my own:

Voice occurs through word choice. Your vocabulary isn’t limited, but the words you choose to use more often than not are. Soda versus pop? Where you live, your background, and your experiences determine your voice. They all come together to determine who you are, and how your words will sound on paper.

I think this sums up voice nicely. At it's base, voice is just the selection of words. However, there's a difference between a boring voice and an intriguing one...

So, how do you get a handle on voice? You begin to look for it. You analyze yourself and your writing. Is your voice active or passive? Do you love adverbs? Adjectives? Prepositional phrases? Pronouns? Look for what makes your writing work—that unique element in the paragraph you really love. Then you eliminate the stuff you overuse or that makes your prose sound flat.

Again, a basic. To me, at this point in my writing, voice comes in steps. Get the words on the paper (step one, what Dunway just describes as word choice). Then, edit (step two, what she's describing here).

Just as your fingerprints are original, so should be your voice. Write what you love, characters you can love, and your readers will love you. Your voice is what sets you apart from everyone else; it’s what adds that special sparkle to writing that editors are looking for when authors recycle the same basic plots over and over. I mean, what makes your amnesiac bride with the cowboy’s secret baby unique? It’s the way you tell the story, and the way you make your plot come alive through your voice.

And this is why I think that voice cannot be taught. It's part of your personality.

Voices Talk to Me When I'm tired...

I'm exhausted. I was up until about 12:30 last night grading my students' final essays (a 6-8 page monstrosity on the effects of apathy in society). There were almost 70 essays, and I felt the need to comment on every one of them.

My husband, around 9 PM or so (I started grading at 1 PM and only took about four or so breaks), came in and told me I shouldn't bother writing comments on the essays since the kids wouldn't read them.

Today, when the greedy little jerks swarmed me before school, I gave them their essays one-by-one and sat there and made them read the comments!!

Anyway, I'm beat. But Rachelle Garner has a great post on voice, something I've been blogging about for awhile now.

So how do you find your voice? You can't learn it. You can't copy it. Voice isn't a matter of studying. You have to find it. And the only place to find it is within you.

"Publish"America is suing Preditors & Editors!

I am shocked and outraged. Preditors and Editors is a website designed to help new writers spot scammers. It publishes information on whether or not an agent/editor charges fees, etc., and whether or not it has legit sales. Basically, it's one of the few reliable sources on whether or not you should send your work to an editor/agent.

And now it's being sued. (Info via Editorial Anonymous)

PublishAmerica, as most of you know, is a vanity press that pretends to no be a vanity press. For info on how to help, please click on the donation button on this page.

Stages of a New Writer

I don't know if every writer goes through the stages, but these are mine.

1. Wannabe writer: It's a dream, but nothing more. No real effort it put into writing.
2. OMG! I can write!: You've actually written something, and you're amazed that you've done it. It's got a plot, and it's book-length. Wow!
3. ...this is it?: You're a bit shocked that you're not making JK Rowling's salary yet. You wrote a darn book, where's the film rights and huge advance?!
4. Oh...it'll take more work than that: You realize your first book isn't perfect, even after revisions. You put it gently under the bed and start over, really working on craft.
5. Yes! I'm a good writer!: You've actually written a decent novel. It's probably your sentimental novel, but at least you wrote something decent.
6. ...it's still not good enough?: You realize that just because you wrote a decent novel, that doesn't automatically mean fame and fortune.
7. Publishing learner: You read blogs, websites, and books on how to get published. You learn about the staggeringly small percentage of writers who get published.
8. Drink: Gin comes in here. Lots and lots of gin. (Or something...some "excuse" comes up that makes you put writing in the background, and even if you say you've got to do X instead of writing, you know in your heart you're just avoiding writing because it makes you a little sad.)
   
9. Persistent submitter: You start the long haul. You query. You curse. You drink more, but you still keep querying.
10. Defeat of the sentimental novel: You realize that it's not them, it's you. You're too close to your novel. You realize it's good, but it's not good enough. Repeat step 8.
    
11. Determined writer: If you ever get past steps 8-10, then you become a Determined Writer--you keep writing, knowing the odds, knowing that steps 8-10 might be repeated.
12. Professional writer: You join critique groups, focus not just on "tips to getting published" but on "tips to being a better writer." You edit before submissions. You realize that writing towards publication is a business, and you treat it as such, as much as possible.

Right now, I'm at stage 12. I'm hoping lucky 13 is publication!

Revision Quotes

Vivian posted some quotes over on her blog, Hip Writer Mama.

They're just awesome. Here's one I really liked:

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

-Richard North Patterson

This is something that I struggle with constantly. I call it my "sentimental manuscript." It wasn't the first book I wrote, but it's the first one I thought had a chance at being published. Problem was, I thought it wasn't just ready for publication; it was perfect. Of course I was wrong.

The only cure for sentimental manuscript? Write another book, and try not to care as much. That's the only thing that worked for me.

Characterization

I've struggled so much with the plot of my current WIP that I've not really had a chance to delve too deeply into characters. So here's my ideas on the ideal way to develop characters.

1. Create a personality for the character. This doesn't have to ever go on paper, but you should know the character's likes and dislikes. You should be able to say what he's afraid of, his favorite thing to eat, whether or not he's a night person.
   
2. Create a set of motivations and values for the character. This goes deeper than personality--it touches on character values. Does the character value truth? Then he'll be angry when someone lies. Does the character not really care about what it takes to do something? Then he'll be more ruthless.
   
3. Create a plot. Plot and characterization lies hand-in-hand. If you just have the plot, then you just have a list of events. If you just have characters, then you just have a list of people. Combine events + people to get a story...and if you've established who and what the characters are and their values, then you'll know how they will react in a given situation.

Essentially, the author's job is to create the events that the characters react to. JK Rowling created Harry Potter as a strong-willed boy willing to fight for what's right, one who's a bit reckless and with a hero-complex, but one who essentially had a good heart. Then she put this boy in a situation where he had to do these things. Think about the fifth book. Harry has a vision of Sirius being tortured. That's the event. His reaction--rushing heedlessly off to save him--is based on Harry's character. Combine the event and the character, and that's the story.

My goal in writing: infuse more of my characters into the plot. I had only a vague idea of all but the main characters, but I've got to bring in more on my side characters so that they react to a situation based on their own personalities instead of what I need them to do to develop the plot.

Wanna Give it a Try?

(Read the post below this one first)

Here's my student's final essay question:

Describe using specific examples from the poem and real life, what Jaime Torres Bodet's poem "The Window" says about opportunity.

The Window

Jaime Torres Bodet

Translated from the Spanish by George Kearns

You closed the window. And it was the world,

the world that wanted to enter, all at once,

the world that gave that great shout,

that great, deep, rough cry

you did not want to hear-and now

will never call to you again as it called today,

asking your mercy!

The whole of life was in that cry:

the wind, the sea, the land

with its poles and its tropics,

the unreachable skies,

the ripened grain in the resounding wheat field,

the thick heat above the wine presses,

dawn on the mountains, shadowy woods,

parched lips stuck together longing for

cool water condensed in pools,

and all pleasures, all sufferings,

all loves, all hates,

were in this day, anxiously

asking your mercy…

But you were afraid of life.

And you remained alone,

behind the closed and silent window,

not understanding that the world calls

to a man

only once that way, and with that kind

of cry,

with that great, rough, hoarse cry!

Try out an answer in the comments section! I promise to grade you easier than I do my students :)

Learning from Students

My day job is a teacher. Which will mean I may be scanty on the posts for the next few days. It depends on whether I really buckle down and grade those finals, or whether I slack off and play on the internet instead.

The essay question on their test is to interpret a South American poem, "The Window" by Jaime Torres Bodet and explain what that poem is saying about opportunity. Some of the kids really went with it, describing lost opportunities to say goodbye to their grandmother, or creating scenarios of how they thought the poem was talking about lost love (which reminded me more of this poem).

In reading these essays, I could really tell the difference between the kids who were writers and the kids who weren't. I'm not saying anything bad about the kids--it's just some people can write, and others can't. As a teacher, I am perfectly aware that there is a limit to how much I can teach each child about literature and writing--just as their is a limit for each individual child on how much math, or science, or history she can understand. Some people are programmed for certain subjects more than others.

I digress. The difference, at this very early stage in these young writer's life, is personal observation. Some kids were straight to the point, and while their examples were technically correct, they weren't very specific: "I wanted to go to the roller skating rink, but for some reason I decided not to go. Who knows what could have happened?" But others really went in depth. The student worked to make the example real. One wrote about a friend who had a scholarship to study in Spain, but didn't go because he was scared. He talked about the kid's facial expression, the shift from eagerness to cowardice, the way his appearance changed from open and willing to closed and shy as the departure drew nearer. He added real-life detail that made the example come alive.

A writer must do this. A writer must observe life. When the writer then creates a character, the writer must consider what that character would do in real life. A character cannot just progress plot--that makes a story a list. A character must instead have depth, "real" emotions that dictate actions, even poor actions like missing a trip to Spain. A character cannot be simple. In order to create real characters, a writer must have personal observations of real people. It's the details that create reality. Writing without detail is like a blurry photograph--you might be able to tell what the picture is, but you're not going to frame it and hang it on the wall.

Example: In the Percy Jackson series, Percy's mother makes blue-dyed food as a special treat for Percy because it's her little way of rebelling against an oppressive husband who says blue food is impossible. That's a minor detail. Without it, the plot does just fine, the characters develop just fine--it's not needed. But it makes the story so much richer, the characters so much more real.

Striving to develop real characters with real histories, real emotions, real motivations, and real actions makes a richer, better story. Our goal as a writer is to do just that.


PS: A little note about my finals. They're killer. The school allows us 3 hours of testing, and I use all three. The kids have nearly 200 multiple choice, 9 short answers, and an essay...and the questions are all very specific. Sample short answer question: Give an example of a medieval allegory, explaining the symbolic and literal meaning. Or, define the differences between Abrahmic and dharmic religions and explain how these differences influence literature in the East or the West. *insert wicked witch cackle here*

In Praise of the Butt

Yesterday, as I wrapped up a new chapter (and crossed the 100 page hurdle that means, for me, this book will be finished or I'll die trying), I cracked my knuckles in satisfaction. These past thirty or so pages, where I was trying to get over writer's block and figure out where to take my characters has been difficult to write, and reading back over them, I know I'll have to do some heavy revision to that section simply because it was difficult to write. I've taken my character in a whole new direction, so I'm going to have change some foreshadowing in the earlier chapters. And the writing's clunky--I was worried about what would happen and didn't focus so much on the beauty of language as on getting the plot on paper.

But the important thing is: the plot is on the paper, the story is there, and the story can go on, much like Rose did (and Jack didn't).

For the past few weeks, I've been having a hard time getting the words down. I tried plotting, and making character maps, and outlining, and a whole lot of other stuff I don't normally do.

Nothing works so well as my butt in my chair in front of my computer. Butt-in-chair is the perfect remedy for writer's block. Last night, I goofed off on the internet, worked on critiquing someone else's chapter, and finally I had to decide: play a video game, take a bath, read a book...or work on my book. I had no words, and told myself I didn't have the energy, it was too late.

But I tried butt-in-chair for a little bit. I brought up my ms. I stared at it. I guess I can add one more sentence at the end of this paragraph. I thought. Then I'll read a book in the tub. So I added a sentence. Then another. Then a paragraph. Then a page. Then ten.

If I ever get whiney about writing again, just remind me: put your butt in the chair and write.

PS--PJ's got a great little story about butts on her blog, too! (but with a little bit of a different angle...)

Letting Your Characters Decide

I've recently gotten to one of those turning points in my novel, and, I've got to say, I'm very disappointed in my character. She didn't do what I would have done. She didn't do what I wanted her to do--in fact, she did everything wrong.

Which is great.

When you get to the point in your writing where you know, logically, what your characters would do in the situation, especially when it's the opposite of what you'd do, then you know your writing is working, that your characters are clear, and that you've established a strong scene.

Which doesn't mean I still can't disagree with her!

Fun Contest!

It's easy to enter Keri Mikulski's contest for free books: just go to her blog, and write about your favorite vacation spot. Go! Now! Free books are up for grabs!

Getting through writer's block

I've been struggling for awhile now as to where to take my story. I had the beginning done (about 80 pages), and I knew the ending, but I had no idea what went in the middle...I had no idea how to get my characters from the beginning to the end.


I tried outlining, but that doesn't work for me. I brainstormed a bit, and came up with a rough guide for the next three or so chapters. Here's a sample:

Chapter 10

-Adventures with wands! --Note: only elements

-Flower storm from cherry trees

-Belle changes self, room, etc. at home

-Discuss with others

That's the extent of my outline for that chapter. As you can see, not very detailed, but the best I could do. Then I just sat down and stared at the screen.

The result? I realized that some of the mythology linked with my world matched mythology and images I'd learned about during my college trip to Malta. OK, then, I took my characters to Malta. By doing that, I discovered more links, more ways to connect the real world and the world I'd invented. It didn't work perfectly. I had to do a lot of image and map searching to make sure my memory matched real life. And I had to change that outline, skimpy as it is, as I went--I had to change the order of things, add in clues about the ending, etc., that made one line of my outline into a whole chapter by itself, or merged two chapter outlines into one chapter. In the end, I've got nearly 10 pages written, and a clear idea of what else I'm going to write. That old inspiration is back; a Maltese carving at Hagar Qim led me to a three page description and connection to my characters that I thought of while driving home from my mother's birthday party.

Lesson learned: when writing gets tough, just keep going. Do whatever it takes. If you've got to make short-hand outline sketches and then ignore them, do it. Whatever it takes, as long as you've got your butt in the chair and your hands in the writing!

When Writing Kinda Sucks

...I'm at that point in my current WIP where I kinda have figured out where the story is going, but I'm just using the Internet as an excuse not to actually write because right now, it's hard and I'm lazy.

So I'm going to go get back to work.

Meanwhile, The Rejector has a great post on whether or not this blog (or any writer's blog) is actually worthwhile, and the comments have led me down the hyperlink trail to a couple of great new blogs.

And now I'm really going to get back to work. I've got to somehow figure out how I'm going to trap my main characters on an island in the Mediterranean inhabited by evil alchemists...

5 Things I've Learned in 5 Years

So I was adding it up this morning, and I've been writing novels for five years. There's a big difference between the writer I was in 2003 and the writer I am now. Here's what I have learned in 5 years:

1. Just because you wrote 200 pages doesn't mean you wrote a good book.
2. Nothing is ever as good as it can be in the first draft.
3. You cannot revise alone.
4. If you still can't sell your book after revisions, rewrites, and a spit-polish, write another one.
5. If you ever get to the point where the writing isn't worth it, just quit.

Let's hope I learn a little bit more about actually publishing something in the next five years!

Good Article

I will probably write something a little more on this article later, but right now I just found it so brilliant that I don't have any comments--I just wanted to share.

Rachelle Gardner's Blog Article on Creativity vs. Production

Voice

Voice can be the most important thing in a written work. Recently, I talked about voice when I reviewed Rick Riordan's Percy Jackson series, and I've postulated before about how important voice is and yet how it cannot be taught (whether it can be learned, however, is a different matter).

One reason why Percy Jackson's voice shines through so well in Rick Riordan's books is because the book is written in a first person point of view. Because of the first person POV, Percy's phrases and attitudes can shine through even in the narrative and description.

However, in a third person POV, especially an omniscient third person POV, it becomes much more difficult to show voice. Voice is limited to dialogue (internal or external) and it becomes tricky trying to put the character voice into the description and narrative without having author intrusion.

So here's my question: What is a good book that shows voice but is told in 3rd period?

Finally--Some Good News!

OK, so my title makes it sound like the world's depressing (gas hit $4 a gallon in Charlotte today and my sprained ankle still hurts), but there's plenty of good in the world, and this article in Newsweek is just icing on the cake.

Contrary to the depressing proclamations that American teens aren't reading, the surprising truth is they are reading novels in unprecedented numbers. Young-adult fiction (ages 12-18) is enjoying a bona fide boom with sales up more than 25 percent in the past few years, according to a Children's Book Council sales survey. Virtually every major publishing house now has a teen imprint, many bookstores and libraries have created teen reading groups and an infusion of talented new authors has energized the genre.

And as if that's not enough, David Leviathan says that we're living in "the second golden age for young-adult books."

This gives me hope for the future!

Book Review: Rick Riordan's Percy Jackson Series

Since I've spent the past few days with my ankle elevated (as well as my anger--I hate being limited!), I've had little to do other than read or watch TV, and TV got pretty boring pretty fast.

Fortunately for me, I'd just received a big box of books from Scholastic--including the first three books of Rick Riordan's Percy Jackson series!

I'd been holding off on reading this series. I know they're wildly popular and have reached the almost-impossible-to-reach MG/YA boy audience, but they didn't seem that interesting to me. The covers didn't grab my interest, and I had a hard time figuring out how a modern re-telling of Greek gods could be worthwhile. Retellings of fairy tales--I love them--but Greek gods?

Which just goes to show how wrong I can be.

This series is fantastic. I loved them so much, I've read one book a day for the past three days. They made me forget my throbbing ankle. They made me forget lunch. They made me forget to sleep. All I've done is read these books. I didn't want to put them down! You should have seen me hobbling down the hallway, one hand on the wall so I wouldn't fall over, the other holding the book in front of my face.

As a reader, I loved this book. As a writer, I wanted to know why--and how I could emulate that in my own writing.

1. Voice. Agents and editors talk about it all the time. It's something I struggle with, and something I suspect that all authors struggle with. Here's my conclusion: When I read these books, it wasn't just some random person telling me a story. It was the hero, Percy Jackson, telling me the story. Everything--from description to dialogue--was in his unique voice. He could write an essay on Steinbeck, and I could still tell it was his voice.

2. Layers. This book had a great story in and of itself. However, if you knew something about Greek mythology (and as a world lit teacher, I credit myself with knowing quite a bit) it added a whole new layer of fun to the book. If you didn't know all the backstory about the Greek gods, the story was still fun and nothing was really taken away (it wouldn't be confusing for someone not familiar with mythology)...but if you did know it, there was some laugh-out-loud moments.

3. Genre. I have long believed that the best kind of books are the ones that can make you laugh and cry. An adventure story doesn't need to be--and shouldn't be--all adventure. Through in something to make the reader laugh, through in a taste of comedy. Mixing things up keeps it real--and interesting.

ARGH!

I've sprained my ankle. After the flu, and finals, and now this....ARGH! How am I supposed to do what I want, write, when I've got to worry about elevating my stupid ankle and get an ankle brace!

Don't Be a Nitwit

I'm from the School of Snark.

A year ago, the best thing to ever happen for struggling writers ended when Miss Snark put up her pointy high-heeled shoes and retired from the blogosphere. Still today, I wish there was a Snark Badge or Code Word or something to let editors and agents know that my skin has been thickened with gin and bites from Killer Yap. A year later (has it only been a year?!), I still know her website by heart.

The official tribute is here. I say, the real tribute is here, in the archives.

Long Live the Silent Snark.

A Sign of Changing Times

I began re-reading Doomsday Book by Connie Willis last night. Willis writes with a wonderful blend of science fiction, fantasy, and Jodi-Picoult-esque mystery. Doomsday Book was the first book of hers that I read, back in the days when I was in junior high and couldn't afford books, so I'd sign up for book clubs under different names just to get the "8 Free Copies!" for joining.

I digress. I've loved the Doomsday Book for a long time, but I loved it in the same way I love King Lear, not the way I love The Hero and the Crown. Let me explain. I read King Lear once, knew I loved it, and loved it so deeply I never had to read it again. The love was in me, and it remained in me, and every time I look on that bookshelf, I always remember that love for the book and don't need to pick it up and re-read it. A lot of the classics and more epic fantasy books are like that for me. On the other hand, there are some books, like The Hero and the Crown that I can read over and over again and never have my fill. I read The Hero and the Crown almost every year on my birthday. When I finished the third Harry Potter book, I flipped to the front and started again. It's like the difference between fine chocolate and cheap chocolate. I can savor a single Swiss truffle, or I can gorge on a pound of Easter candy.

So I hadn't read Doomsday Book since I bought it, which might have been a decade or more ago. I still know the plot: a girl from the future is sent to the Middle Ages, witnesses the Black Plague, and has trouble getting safely back. Meanwhile, in the modern world, a whole new kind of plague has broken out.

Here's the thing. The "future" of the book is the year 2054, which seems a lot closer this side of the millenium. And within the first 50 or so pages, the sub-plot of the modern plague is just starting, and the main character keeps going around trying to find phones so he can call people. It was so disjarring I had to stop reading. When I first read the book, I didn't own a cell phone, had never seen one outside of TV. Now, my high school students all have cell phone and there's lot of technology indicating that cell phones will continue to grow. But here in this 2054 world where time travel is real, cell phones aren't.

To me, it's a sign of how difficult it is to write in sci-fi. You can imagine the future the way you want to, but there will be elements of it--simple elements, like cell phones or iPods or DVD players--that are impossible to predict. When I create a world for one of my fantasy books, I have the luxury of making my own rules. Part of sci-fi is prophetic: given the world now, how can it be in the future? It takes thought, and good thought makes a better book. In Joss Wheedon's Firefly and Serenity worlds, the characters speak a combination of Chinese and English because at the apolcalypse of Earth when the people of the world flew off to different planets to live, those were the superpowers. That's taking today's real life--China and America being so powerful--to a possible future--Chinese and English merging into one accepted language. Now it seems innovative and clever...fifty years from now, China and/or America could fall from power and it will seem laughable. Or, more likely, there will be some new form of technology that will make the whole premise laughable. Maybe Al Gore will save the world of carbon dioxide emissions, world peace will be found, and we'll be living happily ever after on a perfect planet that will never be broken apart.

Who knows? All I'm saying is, enjoy your sci-fi now, while the possibilities presented in it are still possible.

Another Contest

Just your friendly contest announcer, adding that Nathan Bransford is doing a dialogue contest on his blog.

Pitching

For the pitch contest I mentioned earlier, here are some ideas for pitches:

For Babbletongue: Mina's not an ordinary teenage girl, but she finds out how un-ordinary she really is when she learns she has hidden magic...magic that might be enough to save the universe from an evil megalomaniac, but won't be enough to save the person she loves most.


For The Red Thread: When Chloe finds herself on another world, she realizes that the hardest thing won't be finding a way home...it will be convincing her brother to come back home with her.

What are your ideas for pitches?

Pitch Contest

Donna Earnhardt, a fellow SCBWI-Carolinas member is holding a Pitch Contest at her blog. I'm going to enter...why don't y'all? :)

The Future of Publishing

As an unpublished writer who works diligently to become published, I keep my ears open to any important things in the market. Having been working on writing and developing professionalism for over 5 years, I am fully aware that, at this point in the publishing industry, self-publishing is not a viable option for me, someone who wants to be a successful writer.

However, this article at Galley Cat is intriguing.

It's about how Sramana Mitra (what a great name!) believes that Amazon will shape the face of publishing. Basically, she says that the way publishing currently is, is unfair (i.e., the author does all the creating, but gets a small slice of the profit pie). Amazon, she believes, will change all that.

"Let's say, in the new world, Amazon becomes the retailer, marketer, publisher and agent combined and takes 65% of the revenues, offering 35% to the author--we end up with a much better, fairer world."

This interests me. It sounds great...but in the same way that communism sounds great (it's brilliant on paper but fails in real life). It would be wonderful if there truly was one source for publishing and publishing was streamlined enough to provide a direct connection between author creation to publishing to the consumer.

But that can't work. First, the entire reason why self-publishing fails as a viable market for novels that want to be a part of mainstream America is because there is no filter between author and publisher. As much as I hate to say it (because it's kept me out of publishing), there's a very important filter between the author and the published book: an editor. Even if Amazon were to take over the publishing world, all that would happen is either a) a massive number of crappy books flood the site, making it impossible for the reader to find anything worth reading except for the few books that Amazon marketing pushes on you, or b) Amazon will develop a system of acquisitions, editors, etc., that will make it essentially the same as current publishing.

The long and short of it is that there is a surplus of writers. Everyone and their momma wants to be a writer...and self-publishing means that once Joe Schmoe actually puts the words on paper, he can immediately put it in print. If I'd put my books into print before revisions, they'd be worse than they are now--and so would anyone else's. Revision is part of the business.

Here's another scary quote:

Over the next few years, Amazon likely will use its power to build direct relationships with authors and gradually phase out publishers and agents. It will first go after the independent print-on-demand self-publishers and get the best authors from that world. Amazon will then take on the large publishers.

Amazon has already done this by requiring any self-pubbed book to publish through their company, BookSurge. And Amazon's already taken the first steps in building "direct relationships with authors" in their ABNA contest...which heavily promoted the BookSurge company as well. Whether or not it Amazon really will try to paint the big-house publishing world a bright, shiny communist red, it does seem to be taking over the independent (read: vanity) publishing world quite efficiently.

Don't get me wrong: I love Amazon. I try to buy from my local book seller, but they close at 7 (who closes at 7?!) and their books are over-priced. Most of my purchases are from Amazon or Scholastic (I love being a teacher). But the idea that Amazon is trying to take over the publishing world is crazy...so crazy, it just might happen.

Creative Writing 101, part 4

The last section on what I learned from Kurt Vonnegut, in which I analyze his 8 Basic Rules of Writing and how that can be reflected in my own writing goals.

Here's something that I never knew about Vonnegut's writing tips, until I started doing some research. He had a corollary:

The greatest American short story writer of my generation was Flannery O’Connor (1925-1964). She broke practically every one of my rules but the first. Great writers tend to do that.

And here’s the most important thing to Vonnegut’s rules. Great writers don’t need rules—they just write. If, in the end, the reader enjoys and values the work, nothing else matters.

My goal in writing: Forget about the rules...just write the best possible thing I can ever write.

A little good news....

In my day job, I'm a high school English teacher. Part of that job is teaching kids how to write, and they're tested by the state yearly.

We got the scores today.

Out of roughly 110 kids who I taught this year, all but 14 passed the writing test!

As someone who wants to be a published writer, it makes me smile a bit to know that I helped teach these kids become better writers themselves.

Creative Writing 101, part 3

Continuing with what I learned from Kurt Vonnegut, in which I analyze his 8 Basic Rules of Writing and how that can be reflected in my own writing goals.

8. Give your readers as much information as possible as soon as possible. To heck with suspense. Readers should have such complete understanding of what is going on, where and why, that they could finish the story themselves, should cockroaches eat the last few pages.

If I was going to argue with Mr. Vonnegut on anything, it would be this one. M. Night Shyamalan doesn’t do this. Wicked, Lovely didn’t do this. The Princess and the Hound didn’t do this.

But the above examples also prove Vonnegut’s point, in a way. People don’t go to see Shyamalan’s latest movie because of the story—they go for the twist. I will never count Wicked, Lovely or The Princess and the Hound as one of my all time favorite books...because there was a point, near the end, with each of these book when I was only reading in order to find out what happened. I didn’t care about what happened to the characters, I didn’t have an emotional relationship with the story. I was waiting for the other shoe to drop. I wanted to know the answer to the question, but I didn’t feel anything. I had as much attachment to these stories as I do to a crossword puzzle.

Then look at almost every cheap romance novel out there. I’ll admit they are an occasional guilty pleasure for me. When I pick up a romance, I know that Girl will, by the end of the story, be with Boy. A good romance doesn’t keep me wondering if that will happen, it makes me so involved with the story and characters that I can’t wait to just witness the inevitable. You know every Disney movie will end happily, but part of the happiness you feel is in watching that happy ending you already expect. You don’t have to be obvious (that would be boring), but it does help if the plot isn’t driven by the question, what will the resolution be, instead of the desire to witness the characters within the resolution. My goal in writing: Tell a story that people want to read not to find out the ending, but to satisfy a desire to witness the ending.

Creative Writing 101, part 2

Continuing with what I learned from Kurt Vonnegut, in which I analyze his 8 Basic Rules of Writing and how that can be reflected in my own writing goals.

5. Start as close to the end as possible.

This is the easiest of all the rules for me. I’m a big fan of starting in media res and jumping straight into the action. By the end of my first chapter in my revised novel, the heroine has found out about her magical powers and has begun her quest. In the first sentence of the novel I’m currently revising, the heroine is in a strange new world and figuring out how she got there. My problem isn’t starting near the end. My problem is making the facts clear. Maybe I start too near the end, but sometimes my readers get lost, wondering how my characters got there, who they are, what they’re like. My goal in writing: Start the novel with action, but don’t forget about establishing sympathetic characters so the reader actually cares about what happens.

6. Be a sadist. No matter how sweet and innocent your leading characters, make awful things happen to them—in order that the reader may see what they are made of.

I’ve got to up the ante on this one. I’ve had my sentimental book*, and now I’m ready for real writing. My problem stems from the characterization versus plot problem. I have a story in mind, but in my current work in progress, I’ve not got real characters. So, when writing, I think about how to get to the end result of the plot, without thinking about how everything directly reflects on the characters. My goal in writing: Focus more on the characters—let the characters drive the plot, not the plot drive the characters.

*sentimental book: a writer’s first book, or most personal book, or the book they first thought might actually get published. Either way, it’s a book that the writer feels so connected to, he’s not willing to do to many structural changes to it. The writer is blind to criticism on this book. For me, it was Babbletongue. I loved it so much, I wasn’t willing to change anything, even the character’s names...and it took writing another book that I wasn’t emotionally attached to for me to set aside my feelings.

7. Write to please just one person. If you open a window and make love to the world, so to speak, your story will get pneumonia.

This is another one I don’t have trouble with. If nothing else happens in my writing career, I will know that at the very least I have written something that pleases one person. My momma.
My writing goal: I don’t have to try to please the world, but a little marketability would help.

Just a Thought...

In reading Pub Rants, Agent Kristin Nelson had this to say about how she edits her client's work:

Sometimes it needs a bit more work (in plot or character—never in voice or in the quality of the writing)...

I've been contemplating this for a while, and here's my conclusion:

1. A writer must write a story that focuses on a combination plot and character.
2. If plot/character needs to be fixed, that can be fixed with critique groups, editing, etc.
   
3. A high quality of writing is necessary to be published.
4. Writing quality can be fixed by a good class.
   
5. A writer's viability comes from voice.
6. Voice cannot be taught.

Creative Writing 101

You know a quote has power when you read it once and it stays with you for years. That’s how Kurt Vonnegut’s Creative Writing 101 stuck with me (especially rule #3). Because I’m having such trouble with my story, I decided to look up these rules again. I'm going to reprint the "rule" he had, and how that changes my goals.

So here’s what I learned from Professor Vonnegut.

1. Use the time of a total stranger in such a way that he or she will not feel the time was wasted.

Obviously, the stranger is my reader. How can I ensure that I’ve not wasted my reader’s time? To answer this, I asked myself, as a reader, which books I felt not only didn’t waste my time, but enriched my life...and which books were the exact opposite. The answer is simple: if a book made me think, I enjoyed it. If it was too obvious (read: cliched) or if I didn’t care about the characters (read: the characters did stupid stuff no one would ever really do), then I felt as if it were a waste of time. My goal in writing: make characters the reader cares about, and make a story the reader thinks about.

2. Give the reader at least one character he or she can root for.

Believe it or not, I struggle with this one. Silly, I know...it’s the easiest one on the list, but one I struggle with. In many of my works, my female leads aren’t just straight-forward and blunt, they’re downright snarky. Recently, my critique group led me to the realization that I was trying to give my readers House, but they were getting Hitler. So my goal in writing: give my lead characters more depth down so they’re not hated.

3. Every character should want something, even if it is only a glass of water.

This is one that I think I—and every writer—should focus on. Motivation is so often lost. When a writer wants to show something dramatic or give a hilarious one-liner, they often forget about the character. It’s the dance of plot versus characterization, and usually plot wins. Even with minor characters, there should be some sort of desire. The key is not to tell the reader “He wants this,” but to show it. My goal in writing: Have characters whose actions, reactions, and choice of speech are so strong that the reader knows what the character values and desires.

4. Every sentence must do one of two things—reveal character or advance the action.

This is the idea of plot versus character again. Stating it in this way makes you tighten your focus more. Every sentence must have purpose: plot or character. So when you describe the setting, there should be a purpose to it based on these. In a recent revision, my main character is outside and observes the nature around her...and then reacts to the nature in such a way that her feelings about her situation in life are revealed. The nature description serves a purpose. (This, by the way, is where I think Tolkien and Hawthorne and Melville failed.) My goal in writing: Cut away all fluff, and make sure relevance is in every passage.


...more on this tomorrow, as I explore Vonnegut's other rules of writing.

3 Good Men: Characterization

First of all, just a question to the universe: how am I supposed to get anything done now that I have a Wii? It is brilliant and fun!

So anyway....

This mother's day, we actually did something for my father: We watched the 1997 movie Tombstone. It's awesome. Afterwards, I was talking about it with my husband, and realized that my favorite character in the movie, Doc Holiday, reminded me of my favorite character in another TV series, Firefly, Captain Mal Reynolds. And they both reminded me of another character, Dr. Who.

Why do I love these characters so much? What do they have in common?

All three of them are men who do the right things for the right reasons...but they're not afraid of doing the right things for the right reasons in the wrong way. Example: Captain Mal's friend is being held hostage. The criminal has a gun to his friend's head, and says if Mal doesn't drop his weapon, he'll kill the girl. Without blinking, Mal draws his weapon and shoots the bad guy in the head. Quick as lightning. He knew the right thing to do was save his friend...and he did so without hesitation.

All three of these men are funny, but serious. Dr. Who is sometimes slapstick funny; all of the characters are clever and witty in conversation. But when things turn serious, they all have powerful, strong emotions. They easily shift from funny to serious. After a few one-liners in the last episode of Dr. Who, the Doctor turns to his companion, Donna, and clearly explains why he has to let thousands of people die--in order to save generations of people in the future--and how he has to live with that decision. Doc Holiday jokes with everyone, even his enemies, and has the ability to break up a fight with a few funny lines, but when his friend is in danger, he rises to the occasion and fights with him, despite the pain of his fatal illness, TB.


All three of these men are human: they try to be good, they're sometimes bad. They make mistakes. There's little wonder that all three of these characters have had episodes or scenes in which they make the wrong choice and are miserable about it. They create their own misery through pushing others way, making bad choices, or living with a guilty conscience.

This is what defines a good character. Even if these men are different--a Western hero, a space captain of the future, and a guy who's not even human--but all three of them have similar key traits that make them memorable characters. It's been years since I saw Tombstone, but I could still quote the line: "I'll be your huckleberry." I've seen Firefly and the accompanying movie Serenity many times, but I still gasp when Mal shoots the criminal, or laugh when Mal messes up his relationship. I'm continually on my seat when watching Dr. Who every Saturday on BBCA--I can't wait to see what dramatic situation he'll get in, and how he'll handle it was blase wit and heart-wrenching drama.

A good character is memorable. A good character is human. A good character makes us want to make our characters like him. I wish I knew Mal; I wish I was best friends with Doc, and I wish Dr. Who would land in my front yard and take me on an adventure. And I wish that when I write a character, I can make someone as wonderful, mysterious, witty, and complex as these.

Making the Hero's Journey Work for You! (and by you, I mean me)

You'd think that, considering I'm an English teacher who has taught her students about the Hero's Journey and how it applies to Gilgamesh and Theseus for, oh, 8 semesters and roughly 700 students, I'd have thought about how it applies to my own novel.

But noooooo.

Thanks again to PJ Hoover for putting her version on the web. I've been stuck around page 80 in my current WIP for awhile now, so I've decided that I need to do some sort out outlining or something in order to get it going! I've invested too much time, thought, and energy to abandon these characters (and I'm dying to find out what happens to them!).

So I'm trying out the Hero's Journey outline.

I realized that I've gotten all the way through Act I, with a tentative doorway of no return.

ACT ONE:

• Introduce the Hero's World: Check. Regular teenage world with a magical twist.
• Call to adventure: Check. Regular teenage girl wants in on that magic thing.
• Hero may ignore call...but she won't.
• Hero crosses threshold into a dark world: Check. Girl realizes that magic has a price.
  

DOORWAY OF NO RETURN: Lead is thrust into main conflict in a way that keeps him there.

• Maybe. Kinda. My girl becomes determined to participate in magic in order to help someone else, and she's not going to give up and forget about this goal. So, yeah, I've got a doorway. Sorta.
  

So onto the real work.

I've got some vague ideas for Act II, the second doorway, and Act III. But they are very vague. I'm having the most trouble, I think, with Act II--various encounters with forces of darkness. I kinda-sorta know that the girls is going to be gradually exposed to darker and darker magic, but how I'll show that...that's where I'm lost.

Even if this hasn't completely solved my writer's block, it has at least helped me identify what I need to focus on. I've got my heroine a good third of the way through the journey--I've just got to figure out how to torture her and raise the stakes a bit more :)

Revising and Outlining

Seems like everyone's doing it now. All of my critique group is in the midst of it, and many of the writers on the blogs I read are doing it, too.

After eating gallons of chicken noodle soup and finally starting to feel better, I've turned my thoughts to revising as well. For my finished ms., The Red Thread, it's just a matter of work. But in my current WIP, I'm stuck at about page 80.

After reading about outlining from hipwritermama, and seeing PJ Hoover's Hero's Journey outline that she used, I decided that the only way for me to become unstuck was to try out an outline.

I've not done an outline since my second ms. I used to outline everything...but then I found out that the thing I like about writing is discovering what happens to my characters...and if I outline, I figure it out without writing it...so then I don't write it.

But I'm hoping that a looser strategy than point A leads to point B leads to point C will enable me to think through this writer's block without making me bored with my own story.

Here's hoping!

sick

blegh. flu for the past four days. so sick, not only do i miss work (yay!) but i've not been able to string together a coherent thought.

i'm going to crawl back into bed now.

Getting it right...

I haven't a clue who said it, but I remember reading somewhere that when dealing with SF or fantasy, you've got to show differences instead of tell them, i.e. say the door slid open with a whoosh instead of saying that the electronic door opened. It comes down to presenting the details as common, every day facts instead of announcing how brilliant and clever you are with description that, if the world was real, would not be necessary at all.

I kept that in mind with my most recent revisions. I gave the fantasy world a small, red sun and told how the whole planet is smaller.

Then I stopped. What if a small red sun means the sun's about to go supernova or a smaller planet means the gravity's all whack? I immediately emailed a physics expert friend and asked, and checked my email about a dozen times until she replied. Fortunately for me, a smaller sun would just be a little colder (and can be fixed by making the sun be closer to the planet) and a smaller planet would be OK as long as the core is denser. In order to be accurate, I feel as if I should at least mention the core, and my friend had a great idea in linking the core to the magic of the world.

Which just goes to show, you've got to do some research, even if you make the whole world up!

My new favorite quote about YA

From the Publisher Weekly's "Think Future" Panel Debate:

Writing for teens involves a stripped-down technique, Alexie said. “You tend to write more like Hemingway than Faulkner. More like Emily Dickinson than T.S. Eliot. It’s not a matter of more complex thoughts, but the number of adverbs and adjectives. In the adult world, the number of adverbs and adjectives can be confused with great writing.” Martin put it another way: “Teen books are like adult books, without all the bullshit.”

Naming Magic

As I revise The Red Thread, I put some serious thought into naming magic. This was also a topic of much debate in my critique group. Some felt that magic is magic is magic and should not be renamed to be anything else. Some felt that there is a fine distinction between, for example, magic and magyk. I believe magic can--and in some cases, should--be renamed.

There is, to me, a difference between fairy and faerie. I know faerie is just a twisted spelling on fairy, but it seems more grown up to me. I associate fairy with Tinkerbell and fairy tales; I associate faerie with darker stories like Wicked Lovely or Tithe.

Likewise, I see a difference between magic and magyk. Different spelling, but different connotation, too. Magic makes me think of men in capes sawing women. Magic seems fake to me. In fact, the only time I've ever liked "magic" was in Harry Potter...where spells with unique names take precedence over the word "magic."

In my story, I used alchemy because I was going for a similar idea as Full Metal Alchemist, where magic has a price--there has to be an exchange (for example, of elements) to make it work. This is crucial to the story, because what Chloe doesn't know is that there was an exchange involved with her. So I have a specific set of rules for my magic--you have to exchange something for something else. You can't just wave a wand a poof! it happens.

Technically, it is still magic. I'm going to argue that magic in Baloria is very similar to science. That's where the "scimancy" word came up for me. If I use the word magic, I'm going to have Bo explain how magic = science in their world.

But...the term does not appeal to me. When I hear "magic" I think of easy, wave your wand stuff, and I don't want that connotation. The lesson Chloe must learn is that everything has a price. There is no one simple, easy answer.

And there is no one simple, easy name for magic.

Caring

I've decided that the single most important issue in writing is making the reader care. It's not something I've put a lot of thought into, to be honest. It came about through working in my critique group.

I've never worked in a crit group before...and boy, do I wish I'd started sooner. I don't know why I didn't before. Guess I couldn't really think of how to find one, and didn't bother looking to hard for one. As it is, Wunderkin sort of fell in my lap, and nothing--not my mama saying nice things about my writing, not my college professor saying mean things about it--nothing has been as beneficial as swapping 50 pages with 5 other people of all ages and tastes and seeing what they think.

I sent them Babbletongue first. I've had issues--it's a pretty unique, creative idea, but people either love or hate the MC, Mina. My crit group was mostly on the hate side--they didn't "get" why Mina was acting the way they did. When my turn came around again a month later, I sent the first fifty of The Red Thread. They had trouble with the in media res beginning.

To be honest, though, I didn't really get what was wrong with my writing, until I started analyzing theirs. I'd read one of their works and write in a comment--"Why's this character acting this way?" or "This is too random!" or "I hate this character!" These characters were doing such random things for no apparent reason...and when things happened to them, I didn't care one bit!

...and then I realized what was wrong my characters. I had them doing random things for no apparent reason and had yet to realize that the reason was because I'd not made my reader care yet. This may be something all writers struggle with, I don't know. For me, I knew my characters, I cared about them, I knew why they acted the way they did. But I forgot about making the reader care. I forgot that just because they were on paper, they weren't alive. I had to show my reader what made my character special, or they would never care what happened to her, never understand why she acted--or didn't.

My problem was that I focused on the action of the plot (I love a fast pace), but I let the characters be left behind. It's just as easy to lose readers by focusing on the characters and ignoring the plot. This isn't really an issue of character or plot--it's an issue of creating sympathy--or at least empathy--within the reader for something in the text. Whether the reader cares about what will happen or cares about the character, the important thing is that the reader cares.