Thankful for writing

Happy Thanksgiving! I hope you’re celebrating.

Although eating lots of turkey and stuffing, etc., is a good enough reason by itself to have Thanksgiving, I particularly like the spirit of being thankful.

This year, more than ever, I’m grateful for writing. I’m grateful for the worlds I get to visit, the characters I come to know, the fun I have inventing and creating, the joy of a great turn of phrase. I’m grateful for the enjoyment writing gives me.

I’m also grateful for other writers, those who I’ve met on blogs, both who leave comments on mine and who write blogs of their own. Writers I’ve met through the Society of Childrens Book Writers & Illustrators. And the writers who have gone before me, carved out paths to publication and given me fantastic books that I can not only delight in reading, but also learn from. Some of my favorites right now: the books of Terry Pratchett, Suzanne Collins, Rick Riordan, Michael Buckley …

And, of course, I’m grateful for my husband, family and friends who continually encourage me.

What are you thankful for?

Write On!

Susan Patron finds her muse in a laundry basket

Revision update: Couldn’t get up early this morning, so nothing new. Oh well. Must do better tomorrow. Luckily, it’s a holiday.

I read a lovely interview with author Susan Patron today, on author Cynthia Leitich Smith’s blog, and love that Susan originally got her inspiration from a laundry basket. (Susan is the author of the Lucky series.)

Well, not exactly from a laundry basket, but as Susan describes it, when she was young and would tell stories to her sister, she would imagine that the laundry basket was full of stories and she just had to open it and pull them out. It took away the responsibility of having to create stories, because the laundry basket was always full of them. Instead of having to create stories, Susan just had to retrieve them.

This is similar to what The Artist’s Way teaches when it says creativity is a pond and we have to fill it regularly so we can keep fishing from it. (I read the book companion to this years ago.)

Writing can be frustrating when you don’t feel like your muse is there. But turning it around, telling yourself that you don’t have to write or create the next award-winning title, that all you have to do is put pen to paper — or fingers to keyboard — and enjoy yourself, can relax you enough to let the muse in. Like imagining that it’s not you creating the story; it’s already in the laundry basket.

My laundry basket would be an old painted wooden box I got as a kid. Where do you keep your stories?

Write On!

Your time to write

Revision update: I feel as though I’m finally making progress. Phew! I’ve revised the first 10 chapters and am happy with the changes I came up with. All in all, I’ve cut about 14 pages in my reworking so far, and I think the story is the better for it. I took the revised first two chapters to my critique group last night and they got the thumbs up, so I’m moving forward now. The rest of the book should go much more smoothly. I’m probably not going to make my end-of-November goal, but I will have the entire book revised by the end of the year.

Talking about critique groups, we started off last night with a chat about writing. One member said she was having problems getting time to write.  Others of us agreed that you can’t find time, you have to make it. Some of our members mentioned a recent talk they had attended with an author who had written and published 29 books, and that making time to write was essential to helping her achieve that.

For my part, I told her that with my first book, I started out writing whenever I had time and it took a couple years for me to get only halfway through. When I dedicated myself to writing every day, I finished the rest of the book in about three months and then a revision in another three months. My second novel was written in three months — the entire novel — all because I was making the time to write every day.

If writing is important to you, it should be given a high priority. Even if writing is technically a hobby — that is, you’re not getting paid — if that pay cheque is what you’re striving for, you should treat writing as a second job now. You can make up for the sacrifices later, when you’re a best-selling author.

Making time to write means carving out a time that’s dedicated to your writing and then being selfish about that time. For me, waking up an hour or two early was the best way to make time to write, but for you, maybe it’s one afternoon a week, two hours every Saturday, or whatever. No matter what the time period is, making sure you stick to it and you don’t allow anything to interfere with that time. It’s your time for your dream — be protective of it.

Do you have a time that’s just for your writing? When is it?

Write On!

Revising takes patience

Revision update: Finally on chapter 9.

Ok, so you know how I keep saying I’ve figured out what I needed to do to fix the problems I was having with my first eight chapters? Well, something was still nagging at me. We were still taking too long to get into the real meat of the story. There’s a scene that I liked and it had a purpose in the story, but it was one more chapter getting in the way of starting the real story. Ah well, I figured. At least it’s interesting, but that nagging feeling was still there.

After exhausting all my options, I was satisfied with my first eight chapters and decided to move on. The next part is where the meat starts, so I had just been working on the initial chapters in a lump before.

At 3:30 Saturday morning, I was trying to lull myself into sleep with a re-run of Baby Boom and some hot chocolate and I decided to look over the next set of pages I was going to tackle, chapter 9. And there, in my sleepless haze, I found my solution — again — I think.

This is the third or fourth time I’ve come up with the solution for this same problem, and although I think it’s the best idea so far, I’m not kidding myself by thinking it will be the final rewrite.

Revision takes a lot of patience. I’ve talked about Holly Lisle’s One-Pass Revision Method on this blog a lot, and when I started revising this book, I decided to try it, but the further I get along, the more I’m convinced that revising in only one pass takes a LOT of experience. You have to have quite a few books and revisions behind you, like Holly has, to really be able to fix all the issues in one go. I think I have that instinct for when something’s not quite working as best as it could, but it takes me a little longer to figure out what I can do to make it work the best.

But no matter how many revisions a book takes to get it in tip-top shape, it’s worth it. Maybe I should have insomnia more often.

How are you with revising?

Write On!

Book lists

Revision update: I think the first three chapters are in pretty good shape. Moving on…

It’s coming up to the holidays again, and no matter what holiday you celebrate — Christmas for me — presents are often involved.

Last year, I made a point of trying to find a book for everyone on my list before anything else. This year, I was pleased to see that I can do the same for lots of people.

For us writers, of course, books are a given as presents. But if you’re anything like me, you’ve always got a stack by your bedside or on your shelf waiting to be read, and another list floating around in your head of books you want to read. Most of the books are in the genre I write in, but a few are there because I’ve heard they’re really great books.

Today, I thought we could compare lists.

Here’s what’s currently on my to read shelf:

• Savvy, by Ingrid Law (I read about this online and it sounds great)
  
• The Sisters Grimm: The Unusual Suspects, number two in the series by Michael Buckley (I picked up the first book in this series a while ago because of the awesome name: Fairy Tale Detectives)
  
• The Summoning, by Kelley Armstrong (I picked up this one as research for a future book idea)
  
• Looking for Alaska, by John Green (I bought this at a conference last month, but I had been planning to read it since hearing a lot about it at the SCBWI summer conference in 2007)
  
• and Diggers and Truckers, numbers one and two in the Bromeliad Trilogy by Terry Pratchett (I’m a big fan of Terry Pratchett’s, having read most of his adult books before I started reading only middle-grade and young adult; this series is YA)

What’s on my reading wish list?

• Catching Fire, number two in the Hunger Games series by Suzanne Collins (I just finished the first book and, as usual, she ended the story with many questions unanswered, so I’m looking forward to this next one)
• The Emerald Tablet and The Navel of the World, numbers one and two in the Forgotten Worlds series by P.J. Hoover (I’m getting a critique by her at a conference in January, so I definitely want to read her work before then)
• The Last Olympian, the last book in the Percy Jackson & the Olympians series by Rick Riordan (I loved the other books)
• Wings, by Aprilynne Pike (I read about this one online and it sounds awesome; a debut author and a bestseller in its first week)
  
• the other books in the Sisters Grimm series
• Wings, book three in the Bromeliad Trilogy by Terry Prachett (ditto above)
• The Magician’s Elephant, by Kate DiCamillo (it always helps to read the award winners)
  
• The Mysterious Benedict Society, by Trenton Lee Stewart (I heard about this on The Today Show a while ago and it sounded like a lot of fun)

What’s waiting on your shelf? And what would you like to be there?

Write On!

Never give up

Revision update: I got some good stuff done today, and I feel like I’m finally getting a hang of these first few chapters, like things are finally starting to fit into place. Fingers crossed.

My father-in-law is coming to stay with us tomorrow, so, naturally, tonight I was cleaning up. As I put away all the papers and stuff that always accumulate in the kitchen, I came across a fortune cookie that had come with our Chinese food delivery last weekend. Instead of throwing it away, I cracked it open for a quick snack, and it was the best fortune I’ve ever gotten — even if it’s not technically a fortune. Anyway, it said: “Never give up.”

This is the best fortune cookie a writer, or anyone trying to do succeed at anything, can get, better than, “You will come into a lot of money.” That could be from the lottery, but it won’t get us what we want.

Because what we want requires never giving up. No matter how often we wonder if we’re writing our scene the best way, no matter how often we question our word choice, no matter how often we send out query letters, no matter how often we get rejections, if we want to succeed, we must never give up. This is the same when we’re trying to get an agent, when our agent is trying to sell our book, when we’re trying to market our book after it’s released on shelves, when our agent is selling our next book, and so on. No matter what, we must never give up.

If I was writing that fortune cookie, I would add one thing: “Work hard … and never give up.”

What would your perfect fortune cookie say?

Write On!

Keeping readers guessing

Revision update: Still slogging through the first eight chapters, this time with a fine tooth comb looking for word choices, etc.

I’m also keeping an eye on Anita Nolan’s series on beginnings on her blog. Yesterday she had tips to hook the reader, and the first was keeping them curious. This is a good tactic for every part of the book, but especially for the beginning. If a reader is curious about what’s going on, he or she will most likely read more, and that’s exactly what we want. To keep the readers reading, keep them guessing.

Knowing what to put in a first chapter and what to leave out can be difficult. I think it’s a tool a writer learns over time. It’s one I’m learning right now.

As I mentioned, I’ve been reading first chapters from the bestsellers in my genre on my shelves to see how they do it, and I’ve come up with three main goals for the first chapter:

1. Introduce the character, setting, situation,
2. Make the audience care about the character,
3. Make the audience curious about the character and, thus, the story.

So, I’m looking at my first chapter with those things in mind, and anything that isn’t necessary at this point to those three goals, I’m leaving it out. Hopefully, it’s working.

How do you decide what goes in your first chapter?

Write On!

Beginnings

Revision update: I got some good stuff done on Saturday, but nothing Sunday, and nothing yet today. Uh oh.

I am still working on my beginning, the first eight chapters, which essentially makes up most of act one. Beginnings are very important, from the crucial first sentence, first paragraph and first page that must draw the reader in, through to the first few chapters that must hook a reader enough to make them not want to put the book down.

On Saturday morning, I was re-reading my first page for the umpteenth time, trying to decide if it did for me what first pages in recent bestsellers do for readers. I decided to do an experiment, and I went through my shelves reading the first pages of all the books that I have in my genre. This is invaluable, I believe. These are books that publishers have invested in, and the bestsellers are books readers are enjoying. These books are the standard we all should be writing toward.

Reading those first pages, I could pick out the elements each one had, emotion, character, setting, theme, tone for the book, etc., and how they were shown or told. Some had a sense of foreboding, of things to come, some just made you interested in the character.

For example, in Suzanne Collins’ Gregor the Overlander, we know Gregor is frustrated and bored, but not just that, so frustrated and bored that he “resisted the impulse to let out a primal caveman scream. It was building up in the chest, that long gutteral howl reserved for real emergencies.” That’s great showing. Collins also tells us there’s heat, that Gregor is banging his head on a screen, so probably a screened in window or door, and that it’s the beginning of summer.

With Rick Riordan’s The Lightning Thief, things are told more, but that’s mainly because the book is written in first-person narrative; you’re not just in the character’s head seeing things from his point of view, he’s telling you the story of his life so far. In this first page, he tells us that he recently learned something about himself and that if we think we might be the same, we should put the book down, because it’s dangerous. He tells us his name and age and that he has been expelled from school.

After reading these and others, I went back to my first page and identified the elements. I could quickly see what I was lacking and figured out how to remedy it.

Beginnings are the first impression for agents and editors and future readers. They’re so important. They set up the rest of the book. And if you don’t believe me, try Richard Castle, the fictional mystery novelist star in ABC’s show Castle, which I LOVE, by the way. Nathan Fillion is great. Anyway, as Castle says: “When I’m writing a story, the beginning is always the hardest, but if you can nail that, the rest of it will just fall into place.” (Watch the Kill the Messenger episode here; the line is around the15-minute mark.)

I don’t know about the rest of the book writing itself, but Castle’s right about beginnings being hardest.

This morning, I was catching up on blog reading and saw that writer Anita Nolan has beginnings on her brain right now too. She has just started a series of posts on beginnings. I’ll be keeping an eye on those.

How do you work on your beginning?

Write On!

How research can lead a writer

Revision update: Too many late nights, and I haven’t moved forward. I must get up earlier tomorrow!

Today, Day By Day Writer is thrilled to be participating in the blog of author Therese Walsh, who’s debut novel, The Last Will of Moira Leahy, was just released. Therese has written a fabulous guest post on research and how it can help in our writing.

Before we get to that, however, the book’s publisher, Random House, has provided the first three chapters of the book in an online reader. Check it out here.

And now I pass the floor, er, blog, to Therese … take it away!

When I first began writing my debut novel, The Last Will of Moira Leahy, it was not intended to become what it did—the story of twin sisters and their everlasting bond—but was rather a simple best-friends-fall-in-love story that would kick off at an auction house. The story changed because of research that led me to interesting facts. The item of interest at the auction was a Javanese dagger with a wavy blade called a keris. It wasn’t until later, after a friend’s innocent inquiry, that I researched the blade and discovered a storyteller’s goldmine.

Some pros hate the idea of a writer stalling in her tracks for research, because it’s simply too easy to become derailed. Just do the minimum, they suggest, then get back to writing. Truth is, The Last Will of Moira Leahy wouldn’t have become what it did without the keris, and I wouldn’t have known about the keris if not for my research-related diversion. I am both a pantser and a pauser. I write as the story leads me, and I pause to “listen” along the way. Some might listen to their muse, and I do that too, but I also listen to my research. Hard. I don’t pause to research minor details necessarily, but I pause to research anything plot related, and I allow that my research may turn the course of the story. Sometimes it does.

An even more potentially impactful kind of research is immersion research, when you visit the place of your story and put yourself in situations resembling those of your characters. I visited Castine, Maine, for example, while writing The Last Will. My perceptions as well as my interactions with the people there influenced the plot of my novel, turned several characters onto different paths, and generally helped me to visualize the novel better than I ever would have without that experience.

I’m a researcher at heart, so I am biased toward lots and lots of research, but I can attest to its power. It can help your stories become more powerful by:

• helping you identify new ways to inject a situation with conflict
• providing you with first-hand accounts that can lend authenticity to your work
• allowing you to hone in on the best settings for your scenes

and of course

• leading you to story ideas you never imagined, that can turn your story into something so much better than you would’ve created left to your own devices.

I know this to be true. My personal zigs and zags made a world of difference for The Last Will—a story that might otherwise have been as predictable and commonplace as a straight line.

What is your relationship with research? How do you incorporate research into your writing? Do you control it, let it run wild over your pages, or do you practice something in between?

Write on, all!

Learning the query

Revision update: I’ve done entering all my corrections for the crucial first eight chapters. Next is the big test: Read it all and see if the edits I’ve made work. Fingers crossed.

If you read my post a few weeks about about Andrea Brown literary agent Mary Kole’s query contest, you’ve probably been following her analysis of her winning letters. If not, check them out, starting with her honorable mentions here, and moving forward to the grand prize winner.

Writing a query is a very different skill from writing a novel, but good writing is still good writing, and learning about query writing is not only important when you’re writing those dreaded letters, it can help with your long-form work too.

In a query letter, you have one page to make a brilliant first impression as a writer, a person and for your story. You have to entice the reader with your story and impress with the freshness of your voice, all while you’re telling the main crux of your story in just a few sentences, showing your experience and why you’re submitting to this particular agent — and, again, all in one page.

Doing that, fitting it all in and making it interesting and exciting, is a lesson in editing that will help with your book.

When you’re writing a query letter, you have to make sure every word counts. You have to use just the right words to tell the story in the briefest most interesting way, with the right flow, action, etc., and all in your voice. Sound familiar?

When writing a novel, it’s easy to overlook some sentences, paragraphs, even chunks of text and think, ahh, they’re good enough. They’re halfway down page 124 in a 214-page book. Who’s going to notice?

But really, when we’re editing our novel, we should give every word just as much attention. The story should flow, be believable, be understandable, entertaining, etc., all showing your fresh, original voice. And this applies to every word, every sentence and paragraph on every page. Phew!

Mary Kole gave some really great analysis in the query letters she showcased in the contest results. Have a read. I learned a lot, and I’m sure you’ll take something away too.

How’s your writing going?

Write On!