Back at It

Wow. A lot happens in five years. Five years! We moved houses, had a baby, took some vacations, lost our dog to cancer, and basically life took over.
Honestly, since our daughter was born two years ago, I had not worked on anything new. I did scrutinize my first manuscript, and scrutinize it again. Still it feels incomplete, like I am missing a key piece of motivation (perhaps on the page and off.) I am still passionate about that original project, but as it is the first in a planned series, I have to get it right. So, I set it aside, while I stretch my atrophied writing muscles.
I came across a Facebook memory from five years ago announcing I was going to participate in NaNoWriMo 2011, and it brought me back here. After reading my posts about that experience, it got me excited to take on the challenge once again, but this time with a standalone project.
The story seedling came on August 24th, 2015, while I read a passage in the Old Testament about God's covenant faithfulness, in the face of rebellion and spiritual adultery.
I know the date because I recorded the barest details of the concept, including a working first line, in Simplenote. (A free app, available for both Apple devices and Android, and also accessible online at Simplenote.com) Simplenote has been such an awesome tool for me because it keeps my files synced across all my devices. This is great for on the go notetaking. I love it.
So, I'm taking a lot of my own advice and I brainstormed for the last week of October and at midnight on the morning of November 1st, I sat at my computer and began to type. Here is where I began...

" 

Today they will change her name.
She can barely hold herself up, and several times she has been supported by the maids in the room- how many are there- three? She can barely think. Her head is weak. She presses a palm against her eye, where a throbbing ache is blooming. The image of her hand covered in his blood flashes into her mind and she pulls it away. She shudders at what she is responsible for. 

"

Two hours later-- I was shocked to see the time-- I had three chapters and 1,694 words. An on-target beginning to the challenge.
Here were a few personal tricks I applied to the night's writing:
>>>  I set a timer a few times just to keep my fingers moving.
>>>  I worked out point of view over a few scenes. This time I am not doing first person, but multiple POV in third person, separated, so far, by chapters as to keep from feeling like we're head-hopping.
>>>  I delved into my characters senses to give a true feel for what was happening internally and externally in a scene.
>>> I tried to surprise myself as often as possible with better story advancement than what I went into the scene anticipating.
>>>  And, I stopped in the middle of a clear moment so that I can pick up again, easily, tonight.

Keep watch for updates on my progress and additional snippets.

Now, I am off to slide back into the remainder of that suspended scene.

Full Speed Ahead: using the "find" function and symbols to your advantage

In the world of feverish writing, (as in NaNoWriMo November, or any other time of year when you are trying to get your first draft down) you cannot afford to stop and work out every scene to perfection. The most beneficial thing you can do is keep moving forward, or at least down the page.

For NaNoWriMo 2011, my daily target word count is 2000 words since I am observing a day of rest every Sunday to meet and worship with my church and to spend quality time with family. But because of this high count I have to be diligent to write on my scheduled days, and to keep my forward momentum.

Here's what I do to ensure that my fingers keep typing new scenes--

KEEP CHECKLISTS-- I am writing in Scrivener for Microsoft Windows (now available, Yay!), so I keep a pane open at all times with "Notes as I Write"-- my checklist of things I want to:

• insert in my manuscript,
  
• remember to add in future chapters,
  
• build up into full blown plot lines later.

So, if while I'm writing I have a character, say, trudging through town with a grotesquely overstuffed duffel bag, I may add a check note (which might turn into a series of notes) saying**:
[] Explore what Gertrude is carrying and why this is significant.
[] Is the bag squirming? Is it Mrs. Terrenthal's missing cats?
[] Is it a red herring, perhaps? --a bag full of rats for Gertrude's 11 foot Burmese python?
[] Did the python eat Mrs. Terrenthal's cats???

If I realize that I've left out a crucial detail in an earlier scene, like a character coming into a large inheritance, and I'm going to write about what she's buying with it, I might add**:
[] Insert details about Kara Kitchure receiving news about her inheritance.
[] Are there complications that arise? Does she find she can't trust her friendships with Gertrude and Logan anymore?
[] Is the money doled out over time and she has to plan how to spent it slowly?


USE SYMBOLS-- When I'm typing out a scene and I come to a spot where I can't think of the right word and I know I need to move on, but I want to come back in revisions and change it, I will surround the non-preferred word with multiple parentheses.
Example**:
Logan drew his gun and pointed it at the target in the distance. He spread his stance and aimed. But couldn't shoot. A gun seemed too heartless a way to take down the (((mythical animal with one horn))).

I do this also with instances where I don't remember a distance, a direction, or a specific color.
Example**:
The air was still and the night music pleasant as Logan left his house and crossed the (((fifty feet))) to Gertrude's front stoop. Gertrude gazed (((north))) toward the glowing peak of Mount San Fiasco and wondered if the (((purple))) stone set in its ivory base was hidden among the burning forest there.

This way, when the time comes, I can easily jump to these sections by utilizing the handy little "Find" function and searching for "(((".

I also use symbols when I want to write a scene that I'll have to insert into an earlier portion of the manuscript but don't want to take the time to find and place it correctly now. I separate the scene from those surrounding it by entering
<><><>
above and below the out-of-place writing. And, again, when I'm ready, I would do a "Find: <>" and move the resulting scenes to their proper position.



That's how I do it, how 'bout you?


**BTW, the above examples are purely for the purpose of this blog post and do not represent my current project or characters. :)

A NaNo or a WriMo?

I have 2 days and just over 8 hours left before NaNoWriMo 2011.

National Novel Writing Month was founded 1n 1999 by Chris Baty author of:


He and twenty-one friends took on the challenge to write a 50,000 word novel in 30 days. Some reached the goal. Others didn't. But the bug has spread worldwide.

This year, I'm joining the many ambitious writers who will take part in the frenzied, somewhat-social-but-not-so-much-that-it-holds-you-back, word-count focused event which is NaNoWriMo.

Now, because it is word-count focused and not really content focused, we are supposed to be at ease in the process, not needing to get every. word. right. Right now. But this also means we have to shut off the internal editor that wants to analyze each chapter, page, paragraph, sentence, word, punctuation, formatting, font choice. On and on.

I'm taking on the challenge of beginning the second book in my YA series. The first of which is in the final revision stages in the hopes that I would have sent out a query letter by the end of October. When fishing for an agent, the bait has to be set just right. This causes me to overthink things. I have to remember that in order to get a fish on my line, my hook does have to eventually get wet.

So, I'll be doing double duty for the first part of November-- finishing up my chapter summaries; crafting a tight, intriguing query; and making sure my sample chapters are in tip-top shape. As well as dive in to the highly-caffeinated NaNoWriMo world of words on paper. Okay, screens, too.

The participants of NaNoWriMo are sometimes called NaNo's, sometimes WriMo's. Since NaNo sounds like my trusty little mobile .mp3 player, and WriMo rings slightly of an over-large, thick-skinned herbivore I'm not sure which I relate to. By December 1st, I would love to say I "won" the challenge. But I'll settle for I "survived."


November's motto:
Write Now, Ask questions later.

The Joy of Polishing at Year's End

For the past five years or so I've noticed that my writing tends to taper off once November rolls around. I was determined not to let this happen this year. At least not to the degree that it usually does.
It appears that I have not picked up my "regular broadcast" of the remaining 44 days of Pen on Fire, but, I am happy to declare that I have been writing and editing consistently still and am pretty pleased with the results.

As I was entering my penned edits from my hard copy into the digital file I was frustrated with the slowly increasing word count. Grrrrr. My manuscript is already longer than most agents are going to want to see for a first time author, and first book in a series. So, I decided to set myself a reasonable goal in order to downsize. Cut five words per page. Five words. That's so achievable. And that's almost 2,000 words less.

Snip, snip.

And wWhen I am finished, I can do it again.

:) Make every word count.

45 days of Pen on Fire

Inspired by the chapter "create a written snapshot" from Barbara DeMarco-Barrett's Pen on Fire.

Chapter Take-Away: How can I verbally evoke emotion while describing the mundane? Connect with a memory where I encountered similar feelings to that which my character is experiencing and extract empathetic details for the reader to latch onto as well.

Most of my friends "create a written snapshot" every time they post a Facebook Status, which is a great exercise at being vivid with imagery while adhering to an economy of words.

Who doesn't recognize the cuteness factor of a two year old pointing to a picture of Shamu (Sea World's famous killer whale, or orca) and calling it a "cow mermaid"?

Who doesn't understand what a three year old means when he says he feels "like a burned up french fry and a dead fish" right before throwing up?

Who wouldn't crack up at a four year old boy running through the house naked, yelling, "Michelangelo! Michelangelo! Michelangelo!"?
OR
Being torn between a laugh and a sympathetic whimper when a woman is afraid she has somehow become invisible because of the way people look past her and one of her friends sets a picture of a blank wall on his cellphone to display when she calls.

***

Now there are also ways of drawing a word picture by forming correlations with the things around a character. When my character Dannen is contemplating being sent away while laying on his back in an open field behind his grandpa's house, he finds a parallel between his situation and the clouds above him:

' Wide blue sky and pale wisps of cloud swept above him. These clouds weren't quite as impressive as the billowing pillar to the east, still visible, still unchanged. But he could relate to these-- disconnected, blown about by the wind.
Soon they'd be gone too. '

TRY YOUR HAND: Write a scene about a character standing outside a building.
Where are they? Insert sensory details: sight, sound, smell, touch...
Why are they there?
Now what is the character struggling with internally?
Is he trying to talk himself into going in? What is preventing him?
Is she trying to convince herself to walk away? What is she tempted to do in there?
Or has he just left and he's afraid of the consequences of what just transpired?
How can your past experiences add richness and authenticity to the scene?

46 days of Pen on Fire

Inspired by the chapter "first lines" from Barbara DeMarco-Barrett's Pen on Fire.

Chapter Take-Away: Find a good first line to work with-- if it hooks you and pulls you through the story it's done its job even if you end up using another first line in the final draft.

If you're going to write, you need an arsenal of good first lines, you need good first lines at your Book's opening, at chapter beginnings and after section breaks. As author Jack Cavanaugh said at the San Diego Christian Writers' Guild 2009 Fall Conference, you don't want to give your readers a good place to put down your book, rather you want to give them every reason to blame you for sleep-deprivation.

These are the series of first lines which got me through my first and second draft:

* He knows, she thought.
* As he sat in classroom 4-A listening to the other kids talking about their summer plans, his spirits dug a ditch and crawled in.
* Fifteen-year-old Dannen Pyke broke into a run.
* A shadow passed in front of his eyelids and he opened to see a figure looming over him.

I am now down to the following two for my opening options in my final draft:

* The Watcher perched on the roof of a convenience store, his wings extended behind.
* The first time Dannen noticed the clouds that didn't change was on the way to Grandpa Joe Moses' house to be dumped for a summer of exile.

And as I look through my short list of first lines for future projects I find the following:

* The doctor leaned over her open palm.
* Let me make this abundantly clear: this story is not about me.
* Tomorrow my life ends.


Here are some good first lines-- let's see if we can dissect them and find out why they are good.

1)That fool of a fairy Lucinda did not intend to lay a curse on me. (Ella Enchanted, by Gail Carson Levine)
WHY is it good?
It shows personality.
It tells the genre (fairytale).
It presents a problem-- a curse,
and reveals Point of View: first person.

2) Late on a full-mooned Sunday night, the two figures in work clothes appeared on Highway 27, just outside the small college town of Ashton. (This Present Darkness, by Frank E. Peretti)
WHY is it good?
It gives the location
and time of day--
with a hint of mood in the details.
It gives a ring of the mysterious:
these figures "appeared"
as from out of nowhere,
so we can expect the extra-ordinary in this book
and it begs the question Why have they appeared?

3) It began one day in summer about thirty years ago, and it happened to four children.(Half Magic, by Edward Eager)
WHY is it good?
It, again, gives a time frame
and season.
It tells who the main characters are going to be
and hooks the reader with the detail "it happened"--
You naturally have to know what "it" is.

4) When the city of Ember was just built and not yet inhabited, the chief builder and the assistant builder, both of them weary, sat down to speak of the future. (The City of Ember, by Jeanne DuPrau)
WHY is it good?
It states the place.
That it was just built and not yet inhabited are
intriguing details.
And the fact that the chief builder and assistant are both weary
is a telling fact as well,
when you would expect excitement
even celebration
over their finished project,
whose purpose is about to be realized,
their somber mood suggests something about
the city's perhaps less-than-bright future.

5) Wind howled through the night, carrying a scent that would change the world. (Eragon, by Christopher Paolini)
WHY is it good?
The detail of howling wind anchors the reader in an expectation of something ominous.
It grips the reader with a need to know what the scent is?
And it announces a promise: the world is about to change.

Reader Input:
What is your favorite first line? What book? What author?
And, alternately, what is the first line of your favorite book?
Finally, can you pinpoint WHY it is good?

As Long as it Takes

Lately, I've felt beaten down every time I miss a self-imposed deadline for myself, and then I have to remember: Life Happens.

I went on a snow trip to Park City, UT last week and hadn't been on a snowboard in three years and it had been five years prior to that. With that much time in between I feel like I'm re-learning everything: balance and strength, confidence on both edges, boldness to cut turns (and wouldn't you know I'd be goofy-footed on top of it all).

I'm a cautious snowboarder, as well, which tends to make me nervous that some other riskier newbie is coming up behind me and is going to plow me over. Yeesh. But I returned in one piece, with wonderful soreness to prove what a great workout it was out there.

So what does this have to do with writing and deadlines? Let me draw a bit of a comparison...

BE CONSISTENT

Writing takes consistency. If I wait too long in between I can feel like I'm learning all the basics over again. But, man! When I give it the time, even if I've been slacking up until that point, it feels SO GOOD to get the kinks worked out and exercise those atrophied muscles, and maybe even labor with some that I forgot I had.

KNOW YOUR WEAKNESSES

My first attempt at snowboarding I caught the wrong edge and landed on my backside, clutching my wrist to my chest, unable to take a breath. And I was at the base of the mountain. I had to sit out for the rest of the weekend and was convinced I'd broken my wrist. I later found that it was only a bad sprain, but my manual capabilities were drastically diminished afterward.

Since then I have added wrist guards to my repertoire and fall with a lot more confidence. :)

In writing, I know that I have difficulty showing emotion rather than telling my reader what the character is feeling, so I add tools to my repertoire-- I make a note when I read a good example of showing emotion. If I watch a TV show or a movie that is rich with emotion I can exercise my craft by attempting to capture the emotion of the scene in words.

When I reinforce my known weak spots, I give myself the opportunity to turn them into strengths.

GET A LITTLE HELP FROM YOUR FRIENDS

I have funny friends. I have clever relations. That used to discourage me. I'd think, I'll never be as naturally funny as Tim, or Danielle, or Charissa, or Kate and I'd lean toward shutting down. Can I just say-- that's stupid. (Or as Danielle would say, "That's tarded again.") It doesn't matter if I don't have Tim's quick wit-- I have time on my side when I'm writing a book. It's okay if I'm not situationally clever like Danielle, or vocabularily astute like Charissa, or don't possess a humorous outlook like Kate. I don't have to be those things. I can make things up as I go-- or I can borrow.

On our snow trip I needed a good jacket and my friend had one. In fact they gave me the newest one they owned and it served me well. So well, in fact, that I had to unload some of my own layers in order to not overdo it with the warmth.

Having cleverness and wit that surrounds me is a blessing, and, luckily, with friends who are generous, I can borrow from their stores and bring character and situation to life on the page in a way that pays tribute to the inspirational people in my life.

WORK AT YOUR BEST PACE

Next, I needn't worry about those who are sweeping past, and maybe even cutting fancy turns and whizzing by like a pro when I'm flat on my derriere. Again. I push myself up, brush myself off, and stop trying to be someone else. It doesn't matter how many times I fall, whether I fall up the mountain or down it, no matter how many barriers appear to be in my way, no matter how many times I catch the wrong edge or seem to lose my bearing on the peak. My work will take as long as it takes and when I finally arrive-- when I've reached the bottom of the mountain-- I'll have something to show for my work that no one else has written... and as so many professionals remind me... that no one else could have written.

So, I press on.

Write on, writers. Write wisely.

Boiling Water, Christmas, and Fishing

How to illustrate a point? Oh, let me count the ways. But I promise that any metaphor, simile or imagery will be strongest when you closely tie it to your character.

Take for example what I originally had in my manuscript to punctuate a time of waiting—

He counted down the hours, which, only made it that much longer. Like trying to watch a pot of water come to a boil. Maddening.

In a critique group someone pointed out that you don’t “try” to watch a pot of water come to a boil, you actually watch it, but there are other problems besides. One, the image is a bit cliché. But also it wasn’t as strong as it could’ve been. To be specific, it had no ties to my character. The “he” in the story is an almost fifteen year old boy. Not many boys his age do a lot of cooking, and hardly any would look forward expectantly to a pot of water boiling. So this illustration falls short, but it’s got me headed in the right direction.

First off, I know what I’m trying to say. I just have to get it in tune with the story and my character. So I ask myself “What do boys his age look forward to?” How ‘bout Christmas? Not all boys, of course, celebrate Christmas, but it so happens that he does, so that would work.

My revision looks like this—

Dannen counted down the hours, which only made them take that much longer. Like waiting for Christmas to come when it’s only Thanksgiving. Maddening.

This has strength, because of its hyperbolic tone it sounds like a fifteen year old, so we’re close. Many kids will be able to relate to the illustration, but it might not be specific enough. It doesn’t have to be a broad example. Use what you’ve built for your character.

In my book, the main character loves fishing, which is already established for the reader by the time this troublesome text comes along, so I could use that. Something like,

Dannen counted down the hours, which only made them take that much longer. Like watching for your reel to spin when the lake hasn’t yet been stocked with fish. Maddening.

There are endless possibilities. Don’t worry about finding the perfect line for your first draft. Write. Write. Write. Fill your manuscript with clichés if those come easiest so that your story continues to move forward. And then when you go back, take the time to find out what those clichés are really trying to say, and then let the voice of your character say it better.