Cross Country Safari . . . Maybe
A little off the subject, but I wanted to let readers know we will be traveling (I think) next week. I will have all my writing comforts with me, but I don't know how much time I'll have to write.
The family has been waffling back and forth for a couple of months now trying to decide whether we will make our annual trip (although it's been two years, not one, since our last trip) to visit relatives in Mississippi, South Carolina, North Carolina, and Virginia. Just to make things a little more interesting, we are also planning a stopover in Paris, Texas, just because ... well, just because.
Our preference is to use the RV for such long trips. We bring along a few cats to keep us company and enjoy the rituals of a leisurely drive and nightly stops at each RV park. Our responsibilities to our foster cats as well as our own brood have put some constraints on how long we can be away this time around. We have two cats on medications. We are also concerned that our foster cats will backslide on the progress we've made socializing the skittish ones if we are away from them for too long.
We've settled on three weeks as the maximum time we can be away. "If" we go, we will have a lot of help from some great friends who'll be coming by the house regularly for cleaning, feeding, and playing. While we know they'll do a great job, we have a parent's worries for our four footed kids that will be left at home. To cut down the travel time and give us more time for visiting, we are taking the car this time. Two cats, Jonesie and Jackson, and our dog Sheila will be coming with us.
We are less than a week away from our planned start, and we have done most of what we need to do to be ready. Mostly. Maybe. Umm, well . . . We still haven't pushed the "GO" button, yet. Two days ago one of our younger cats came down with the sniffles. He seems to be getting better, though we are keeping a close eye on him.
Oh, I do have a little bit of news from the Writer's Conference. They are still compiling and editing the audio from the conference, but expect to have that done in about two weeks. By the time we get back from our trip I should have it.
Saturday, November 16, 2013
Sunday, November 10, 2013
Playing in the Snow Flakes
Playing in the Snow Flakes
With the conference now behind me, it was time to make use of what I've learned and get back to the business of writing. The main project, of course, is the novel. I also want to make some time to revise the short story "The Hallway" based on the excellent advice I received from my private read and critique with literary agent Jill Marr. More on that in a future post.
I am now on my third draft of "The Majik of Spark." That means I have two 80k+ word novels and a partial third stuffed into my files as well as probably triple that in notes, background, alternatives, and who knows what else. The linear writing process I use (also known as SOTP, or Seat of the Pants writing) is, for me, good for my creativity, but not very conducive to good organization. I just haven't done a good job of organizing the project. When I started coming across old content that looked suspiciously like something important that should have been in the book, I had to take a step back and reassess the plan/non-plan I was using. Having no plan is, by default, a sort of plan, and there is probably someone somewhere who could say it better than I. Aha! Let's let Winston Churchill give his version: "He who fails to plan is planning to fail." Change "plan/planning" to "prepare/preparing' and you have Ben Franklin's quote, "If you fail to prepare then you are preparing to fail."
What I'm leading up to is that I need to do some desperately needed planning and preparation before I jump back into pounding out chapters. In our last writer's group there were mixed views about how formal or informal this should be. There are specific guidelines (such as the Three Act process) that a great many writers, agents, and publishers insist on seeing when reading manuscripts. Then there were some who felt that guidelines restricted creativity and turned the art of writing into a cookie cutter process.
I can only comment on my own efforts, based on my obviously limited experience in writing a novel. I did not follow or even know about such guidelines when I wrote the first draft. In my opinion, the faults of the first draft included a failure to inject a sense of danger and conflict early enough in the book; ie, it lacked the first disaster called for in the three act process. There were lots of other mistakes, of course, but the lack of a tempo that is comfortable to readers was a major flaw. The second draft, while much better in a lot of ways, did not address that fundamental issue from the first draft.
My intent with the third draft is to pay homage to the Three Act process. Frankly, when I looked at the novel in that way, the three disasters fairly jumped out at me. They were in there even before I knew that was what they were. Two were pretty solid, but I could see that one was weak and would need reinforcement. Is that a cookie cutter approach, or an understanding of what gives a novel the ebb and flow it needs to have? That will be up to readers to decide.
I know that I am good at organizing things, when I decide to do it. I also know that I have trouble realizing when organizing should end and writing chapters should begin again. That will be my challenge going forward. I'm going to use a well known method of organizing called the Snowflake Method. I've spent the week since the conference crafting the first two steps, which I'll explain in a moment. I have made some alterations to the storyline based on input from the conference as well, so I hope the changes won't be too jarring to those who have patiently waded through all of these drafts. The first step is to write a one sentence summary of the whole book. The second step is to expand that to a paragraph that captures the story setup, the major disasters, and the ending. All of the emotion is essentially wrung out of this process in order to get to the basic framework from which all the good stuff can be built upon it.
It was hard not to try to fit in Song, or Conductors, or the Well of the worlds, or explain how magic/majik works in Spark but not in Chord, etc. The first thing this process did for me was help me to separate the book I was writing from the book that I will write down the road (ie, Chord). Too often I've confused those two, and this process cleared it up for me. So, below is the result of those first two steps. I'm interested to see if you can imagine how The Majik of Spark can be built, layer by layer, from this beginning.
Step 1 - Write a one sentence summary of the novel.
"A teenaged girl tormented with horrific visions joins a mysterious expedition to restore a shattered, life-giving well." - 17 words [goal, 15 words]
Say what? I can imagine that reaction. Let's take it by the numbers. [1] Philly is the girl, of course, and the story now centers on her as the main character. [2] The "why" that brings her into the expedition is now explained - she has horrific visions of the shattered well that drive her. [3] Those visions come from the wizard Reskin, who plays a more vital role than before. [4] The expedition itself now has a more concrete goal. [5] I've reversed the idea of breaking the barrier between the worlds to restoring the shattered connection, a more positive goal.
Step 2 - Write a paragraph describing the story setup, major disasters, and ending of the novel (roughly five sentences). NOTE: I am only going to include the first two sentences (of seven) since entire plotlines and the ending are spelled out. I'd like to save that for eventual readers to encounter when they read the book. For our writer's group, I'll make more details available so you can see where I am taking this third draft.
Here's the teaser:
"A teenage girl befriends a wizard who, on his deathbed, floods her mind with horrific visions surrounding an immense, shattered well beneath a sky raining blood. Convinced by a wakened goddess that her visions are real, the girl joins a mysterious expedition to find and restore the shattered well and stop the evil forces that covet it's power."
With the conference now behind me, it was time to make use of what I've learned and get back to the business of writing. The main project, of course, is the novel. I also want to make some time to revise the short story "The Hallway" based on the excellent advice I received from my private read and critique with literary agent Jill Marr. More on that in a future post.
I am now on my third draft of "The Majik of Spark." That means I have two 80k+ word novels and a partial third stuffed into my files as well as probably triple that in notes, background, alternatives, and who knows what else. The linear writing process I use (also known as SOTP, or Seat of the Pants writing) is, for me, good for my creativity, but not very conducive to good organization. I just haven't done a good job of organizing the project. When I started coming across old content that looked suspiciously like something important that should have been in the book, I had to take a step back and reassess the plan/non-plan I was using. Having no plan is, by default, a sort of plan, and there is probably someone somewhere who could say it better than I. Aha! Let's let Winston Churchill give his version: "He who fails to plan is planning to fail." Change "plan/planning" to "prepare/preparing' and you have Ben Franklin's quote, "If you fail to prepare then you are preparing to fail."
What I'm leading up to is that I need to do some desperately needed planning and preparation before I jump back into pounding out chapters. In our last writer's group there were mixed views about how formal or informal this should be. There are specific guidelines (such as the Three Act process) that a great many writers, agents, and publishers insist on seeing when reading manuscripts. Then there were some who felt that guidelines restricted creativity and turned the art of writing into a cookie cutter process.
I can only comment on my own efforts, based on my obviously limited experience in writing a novel. I did not follow or even know about such guidelines when I wrote the first draft. In my opinion, the faults of the first draft included a failure to inject a sense of danger and conflict early enough in the book; ie, it lacked the first disaster called for in the three act process. There were lots of other mistakes, of course, but the lack of a tempo that is comfortable to readers was a major flaw. The second draft, while much better in a lot of ways, did not address that fundamental issue from the first draft.
My intent with the third draft is to pay homage to the Three Act process. Frankly, when I looked at the novel in that way, the three disasters fairly jumped out at me. They were in there even before I knew that was what they were. Two were pretty solid, but I could see that one was weak and would need reinforcement. Is that a cookie cutter approach, or an understanding of what gives a novel the ebb and flow it needs to have? That will be up to readers to decide.
I know that I am good at organizing things, when I decide to do it. I also know that I have trouble realizing when organizing should end and writing chapters should begin again. That will be my challenge going forward. I'm going to use a well known method of organizing called the Snowflake Method. I've spent the week since the conference crafting the first two steps, which I'll explain in a moment. I have made some alterations to the storyline based on input from the conference as well, so I hope the changes won't be too jarring to those who have patiently waded through all of these drafts. The first step is to write a one sentence summary of the whole book. The second step is to expand that to a paragraph that captures the story setup, the major disasters, and the ending. All of the emotion is essentially wrung out of this process in order to get to the basic framework from which all the good stuff can be built upon it.
It was hard not to try to fit in Song, or Conductors, or the Well of the worlds, or explain how magic/majik works in Spark but not in Chord, etc. The first thing this process did for me was help me to separate the book I was writing from the book that I will write down the road (ie, Chord). Too often I've confused those two, and this process cleared it up for me. So, below is the result of those first two steps. I'm interested to see if you can imagine how The Majik of Spark can be built, layer by layer, from this beginning.
Step 1 - Write a one sentence summary of the novel.
"A teenaged girl tormented with horrific visions joins a mysterious expedition to restore a shattered, life-giving well." - 17 words [goal, 15 words]
Say what? I can imagine that reaction. Let's take it by the numbers. [1] Philly is the girl, of course, and the story now centers on her as the main character. [2] The "why" that brings her into the expedition is now explained - she has horrific visions of the shattered well that drive her. [3] Those visions come from the wizard Reskin, who plays a more vital role than before. [4] The expedition itself now has a more concrete goal. [5] I've reversed the idea of breaking the barrier between the worlds to restoring the shattered connection, a more positive goal.
Step 2 - Write a paragraph describing the story setup, major disasters, and ending of the novel (roughly five sentences). NOTE: I am only going to include the first two sentences (of seven) since entire plotlines and the ending are spelled out. I'd like to save that for eventual readers to encounter when they read the book. For our writer's group, I'll make more details available so you can see where I am taking this third draft.
Here's the teaser:
"A teenage girl befriends a wizard who, on his deathbed, floods her mind with horrific visions surrounding an immense, shattered well beneath a sky raining blood. Convinced by a wakened goddess that her visions are real, the girl joins a mysterious expedition to find and restore the shattered well and stop the evil forces that covet it's power."
Tuesday, November 5, 2013
Superb 2013 La Jolla Writer's Conference
Superb 2013 La Jolla Writer's Conference
I've been to many conferences in my career, but the 2013 La Jolla Writer's Conference was my first as a writer. The conference was packed with three very full days of lectures and workshops while still finding a way for authors to meet and share with each other and with the knowledgeable faculty staff. Huge kudos to the organizers, led by Mr. Jared Kuritz.
The conference certainly had it's "Wow!" evenings listening and talking with respected, best-selling authors Joseph Wambaugh, Christopher Reich and Dale Brown, among others. The focus, however, was a roll-up-your-sleeves immersion in the craft of writing. The schedule was jam-packed and carried well into the evenings. Authors, agents, and publishers from every genre generously volunteered their time and expertise. From mainstream to the far edges of the eclectic, from the basics of plot and character to the almost surreal discussion on how fear drives both characters and authors, there were knowledgeable teachers to offer advice and debate on every question.
As I write this on Sunday night, my head is still bursting with all this new and useful ammunition to attack current (and future) projects with. It was truly a powerful experience that was both exhilarating and daunting. The daunting part was the realization of just how much more there is to writing than just the writing, and just how much work is required to create a truly worthy manuscript. I think it was Dale Brown (things start to blur quickly) who mentioned how lucky he was to get his first novel published in record time - three years from first draft to release. Similar revelations abounded throughout the weekend and gave me a much different perspective toward what I thought was good writing. That's a challenge that I intend to take on.
I have some favorite moments from the conference. Christopher Reich ran his class on hooking the reader from page one as if we were in the middle of one of his books, grilling us about our plot and characters and demanding the very best of us. It was inspiring and riveting, even when I was the one being grilled.
Dale Brown took a softer approach that was no less fascinating. As a group we talked about our writing habits and quirks and how they helped or, sometimes, hindered our progress. It quickly became apparent that writers could write just about anywhere, and that there were no cookie cutter descriptions about just what a writer was. The only thing we truly have in common is our love and obsession with putting words on paper.
I had a lively talk with literary agent Jill Marr, who worked with me on the manuscript I'd submitted for the private read and critique session. I must admit to bungling my simple assignment on the first page of the manuscript when Jill pointed out that my "horror" story was actually closer to science fiction. Jill Marr's website very clearly stated that she worked with a lot of genres, but that science fiction wasn't one of them. Jill read it anyway. Not only did she give me a number of tips to improve on the story and set it in the proper horror genre that I intended, she also offered potential sources that might be interested in the revised story. I went into the interview very nervous and unsure what to expect. I left with more confidence and armed with good advice.
I also must admit to dogging Eldon Thompson, who is a published fantasy writer participating and teaching at the conference. I liked his selection of topics, but I also wanted to get a perspective from a successful, published writer who is still somewhat new to the game. I cornered him more than once to talk about writing in general and about the ups and downs of the business end of it and truly enjoyed the conversations.
There are still a ton of things to cover, so expect more to come about the 2013 La Jolla Writer's Conference.
I've been to many conferences in my career, but the 2013 La Jolla Writer's Conference was my first as a writer. The conference was packed with three very full days of lectures and workshops while still finding a way for authors to meet and share with each other and with the knowledgeable faculty staff. Huge kudos to the organizers, led by Mr. Jared Kuritz.
The conference certainly had it's "Wow!" evenings listening and talking with respected, best-selling authors Joseph Wambaugh, Christopher Reich and Dale Brown, among others. The focus, however, was a roll-up-your-sleeves immersion in the craft of writing. The schedule was jam-packed and carried well into the evenings. Authors, agents, and publishers from every genre generously volunteered their time and expertise. From mainstream to the far edges of the eclectic, from the basics of plot and character to the almost surreal discussion on how fear drives both characters and authors, there were knowledgeable teachers to offer advice and debate on every question.
As I write this on Sunday night, my head is still bursting with all this new and useful ammunition to attack current (and future) projects with. It was truly a powerful experience that was both exhilarating and daunting. The daunting part was the realization of just how much more there is to writing than just the writing, and just how much work is required to create a truly worthy manuscript. I think it was Dale Brown (things start to blur quickly) who mentioned how lucky he was to get his first novel published in record time - three years from first draft to release. Similar revelations abounded throughout the weekend and gave me a much different perspective toward what I thought was good writing. That's a challenge that I intend to take on.
I have some favorite moments from the conference. Christopher Reich ran his class on hooking the reader from page one as if we were in the middle of one of his books, grilling us about our plot and characters and demanding the very best of us. It was inspiring and riveting, even when I was the one being grilled.
Dale Brown took a softer approach that was no less fascinating. As a group we talked about our writing habits and quirks and how they helped or, sometimes, hindered our progress. It quickly became apparent that writers could write just about anywhere, and that there were no cookie cutter descriptions about just what a writer was. The only thing we truly have in common is our love and obsession with putting words on paper.
I had a lively talk with literary agent Jill Marr, who worked with me on the manuscript I'd submitted for the private read and critique session. I must admit to bungling my simple assignment on the first page of the manuscript when Jill pointed out that my "horror" story was actually closer to science fiction. Jill Marr's website very clearly stated that she worked with a lot of genres, but that science fiction wasn't one of them. Jill read it anyway. Not only did she give me a number of tips to improve on the story and set it in the proper horror genre that I intended, she also offered potential sources that might be interested in the revised story. I went into the interview very nervous and unsure what to expect. I left with more confidence and armed with good advice.
I also must admit to dogging Eldon Thompson, who is a published fantasy writer participating and teaching at the conference. I liked his selection of topics, but I also wanted to get a perspective from a successful, published writer who is still somewhat new to the game. I cornered him more than once to talk about writing in general and about the ups and downs of the business end of it and truly enjoyed the conversations.
There are still a ton of things to cover, so expect more to come about the 2013 La Jolla Writer's Conference.
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