I'm blogging in Seekerville today on Plotstorming.
I'm also giving away two brainstorming sessions with Yours Truly. Go see what it's all about. You'll need to leave a comment over in Seekerville on the post in order to be entered into the drawing.
Zip on over and join in the fun.
Thanks all!
Cheryl Wyatt
Showing posts with label PLOTSTORMS. Show all posts
Showing posts with label PLOTSTORMS. Show all posts
Tuesday, December 16, 2008
Saturday, September 08, 2007
PLOTSTORM BEN'S STORY--DAYS 5, 6, 7
As you can tell, the plotstorm has morphed into the actual execution of the plotstorm, which is simply brainstorming a plot. I include my character development with my plotstorms. Just FYI.
Moving onward....
What I've been doing the last three days is:
I let the story gel for about a day and a half. Separated myself from it so I could see it with fresh eyes. Then I went through tightening the writing. More on that in a second.
Normally I do that after the book is finished, but since I only have to turn proposals (three chapters versus a completed book) into my editor from now on, I've changed the way I normally do it. I usually write the mess draft in a matter of days. No editing or proofing, just write, write, write straight through and get the story down.
This time, I've been polishing and proofing as I go. When I finish a scene, I go back through and polish/proof/correct errors. Then I do this when I finish a chapter so what I'm writing the first pass is actually pretty clean.
I actually got on a roll though and in the past four days have written 27,000 words even though I only intended to write the first three chapters. Out of those, I may have 20,000-25,000 usable or keepable words though.
Regarding the tightening: I am aware that I almost always over write by several thousand words. I usually end up having to cut between 3000-10,000 words...and that is before I even send the book to my acquisitions editor for consideration. So I've gone through and made sure that every single sentence belongs there. Every sentence must serve at least one purpose for being in the book. I also make sure that sentence needs to be in the book right then. I had a couple paragraph passage where I must have gotten off on a back story tangent, so I cut and pasted all but one or two sentences of that to the back of the book. I will break it up and sprinkle it in as I go, just not in the first three chapters.
One thing we often do as beginning writers is put too much back story or background in at once. This is called a back story dump and it bogs the reading. You want the story to have forward momentum as much as possible. If, while I'm reading any portion of my WIP (Work in Progress) and I find my mind wandering from the story, I know that I have stumbled upon a problem area in my story. I do something to ramp the tension in that moment. A snappier piece of dialogue, etc. Something to keep readers' attention.
Also to tighten the writing, I'm reworking sentences. Omitting every and all unnecessary words. I'm ruthless with "ly" adverbs. LOL! If I originally wrote, "she moved quickly to hide behind him." I changed it to, "She darted behind him." You get the same meaning while giving the reader the correct visual. She didn't saunter behind him. She didn't crawl. She didn't hop on one leg. She darted. Just by changing one word in a sentence, you can form images in the reader's mind. I also omitted the part that said "to hide behind him." Give your readers credit to be able to figure stuff out on their own without you having to tell them.
On that note, if you've ever received a critique or a contest comment that used the words, "RUE" that means you need to Resist the Urge to Explain. If you've crafted your sentence well enough, you won't have to explain things to your readers. They'll get the picture. In this case, it was a little girl hiding from a DCFS caseworker. She darted behind my hero's leg and peered at the woman. Then I changed it to "Wide-eyed, she shot Miss Harker looks that said she was up for a showdown of wills if necessary." So you see, not only is the child scared, she's strong-willed and defensive. Probably how she deals with her fear. I can show this without saying it or having to explain it to the reader. The hero feels her trembling hands clutching him. So he knows though the child is acting defiant, she's really scared. If he knows, the reader will know. On second pass, that sentence was shaved down to "Wide-eyes shot Miss Harker looks revealing Reece was up for a show-down of wills if necessary." Basically, the caseworker was trying to woo her to come with her, but the child only felt safe with my hero.
You never want to write a scene where you talk (as the author) to your reader. Well, anyway, this is just my personal preference. I don't like when a story has an author intrusive feel.
Another way I've tightened the writing is rearranging sentences. Seeing if I could replace three words with one stronger one, such as the above example. Other examples are: "He reached down and picked her up" became "He lifted her." Stuff like that. Saying the same thing with less words. Gives the writing more punch in my opinion. You can experiment with sentence structure in this manner. Use how you construct your sentences and your paragraphs to convey tone. For instance, if something is really, really, really important....put it in a line by itself. But do that sparingly, so the reader understands the gravity of the sentence. If you use that technique too often, it will lessen the effect when you really need it.
Same thing with exclamation points. I have a personal rule not to use more than 5-10 my entire manuscript. I'm serious. I've seen over twenty in the first three pages alone. That gets old and lessens the effect for when you truly want to convey stuff. I always use it in dialogue or internal monologue. Never in narrative. You can show tension and suspense by making shorter sentences. Long rambling sentences describing the landscape when someone is being chased through a forest will seem odd.
For instance, in Ben's story, in one tense scene, I had one sentence written something like this: He reached for the door handle and pulled but it was locked. Here we have a woman passed out in a hot, locked car. I can't ramble. So I changed the sentence to this: He jerked the handle. Locked. Not only did I break one long sentence into two, I put "Locked" on a line by itself.
Yesterday I went through the line edits of my other two books to make any stylistic corrections to my book. Such as, I wrote USAF just like that. But the copy editors switched it to U.S.A.F. in the first two books, so I switched it to U.S.A.F. in this book to make their jobs easier if they decide to buy the book.
There's much, much more that I've been doing, but as I am swamped the next two weeks so I can't put more at this time. Hopefully there's something here that you can use.
Warmly,
Squirrel
Moving onward....
What I've been doing the last three days is:
I let the story gel for about a day and a half. Separated myself from it so I could see it with fresh eyes. Then I went through tightening the writing. More on that in a second.
Normally I do that after the book is finished, but since I only have to turn proposals (three chapters versus a completed book) into my editor from now on, I've changed the way I normally do it. I usually write the mess draft in a matter of days. No editing or proofing, just write, write, write straight through and get the story down.
This time, I've been polishing and proofing as I go. When I finish a scene, I go back through and polish/proof/correct errors. Then I do this when I finish a chapter so what I'm writing the first pass is actually pretty clean.
I actually got on a roll though and in the past four days have written 27,000 words even though I only intended to write the first three chapters. Out of those, I may have 20,000-25,000 usable or keepable words though.
Regarding the tightening: I am aware that I almost always over write by several thousand words. I usually end up having to cut between 3000-10,000 words...and that is before I even send the book to my acquisitions editor for consideration. So I've gone through and made sure that every single sentence belongs there. Every sentence must serve at least one purpose for being in the book. I also make sure that sentence needs to be in the book right then. I had a couple paragraph passage where I must have gotten off on a back story tangent, so I cut and pasted all but one or two sentences of that to the back of the book. I will break it up and sprinkle it in as I go, just not in the first three chapters.
One thing we often do as beginning writers is put too much back story or background in at once. This is called a back story dump and it bogs the reading. You want the story to have forward momentum as much as possible. If, while I'm reading any portion of my WIP (Work in Progress) and I find my mind wandering from the story, I know that I have stumbled upon a problem area in my story. I do something to ramp the tension in that moment. A snappier piece of dialogue, etc. Something to keep readers' attention.
Also to tighten the writing, I'm reworking sentences. Omitting every and all unnecessary words. I'm ruthless with "ly" adverbs. LOL! If I originally wrote, "she moved quickly to hide behind him." I changed it to, "She darted behind him." You get the same meaning while giving the reader the correct visual. She didn't saunter behind him. She didn't crawl. She didn't hop on one leg. She darted. Just by changing one word in a sentence, you can form images in the reader's mind. I also omitted the part that said "to hide behind him." Give your readers credit to be able to figure stuff out on their own without you having to tell them.
On that note, if you've ever received a critique or a contest comment that used the words, "RUE" that means you need to Resist the Urge to Explain. If you've crafted your sentence well enough, you won't have to explain things to your readers. They'll get the picture. In this case, it was a little girl hiding from a DCFS caseworker. She darted behind my hero's leg and peered at the woman. Then I changed it to "Wide-eyed, she shot Miss Harker looks that said she was up for a showdown of wills if necessary." So you see, not only is the child scared, she's strong-willed and defensive. Probably how she deals with her fear. I can show this without saying it or having to explain it to the reader. The hero feels her trembling hands clutching him. So he knows though the child is acting defiant, she's really scared. If he knows, the reader will know. On second pass, that sentence was shaved down to "Wide-eyes shot Miss Harker looks revealing Reece was up for a show-down of wills if necessary." Basically, the caseworker was trying to woo her to come with her, but the child only felt safe with my hero.
You never want to write a scene where you talk (as the author) to your reader. Well, anyway, this is just my personal preference. I don't like when a story has an author intrusive feel.
Another way I've tightened the writing is rearranging sentences. Seeing if I could replace three words with one stronger one, such as the above example. Other examples are: "He reached down and picked her up" became "He lifted her." Stuff like that. Saying the same thing with less words. Gives the writing more punch in my opinion. You can experiment with sentence structure in this manner. Use how you construct your sentences and your paragraphs to convey tone. For instance, if something is really, really, really important....put it in a line by itself. But do that sparingly, so the reader understands the gravity of the sentence. If you use that technique too often, it will lessen the effect when you really need it.
Same thing with exclamation points. I have a personal rule not to use more than 5-10 my entire manuscript. I'm serious. I've seen over twenty in the first three pages alone. That gets old and lessens the effect for when you truly want to convey stuff. I always use it in dialogue or internal monologue. Never in narrative. You can show tension and suspense by making shorter sentences. Long rambling sentences describing the landscape when someone is being chased through a forest will seem odd.
For instance, in Ben's story, in one tense scene, I had one sentence written something like this: He reached for the door handle and pulled but it was locked. Here we have a woman passed out in a hot, locked car. I can't ramble. So I changed the sentence to this: He jerked the handle. Locked. Not only did I break one long sentence into two, I put "Locked" on a line by itself.
Yesterday I went through the line edits of my other two books to make any stylistic corrections to my book. Such as, I wrote USAF just like that. But the copy editors switched it to U.S.A.F. in the first two books, so I switched it to U.S.A.F. in this book to make their jobs easier if they decide to buy the book.
There's much, much more that I've been doing, but as I am swamped the next two weeks so I can't put more at this time. Hopefully there's something here that you can use.
Warmly,
Squirrel
Thursday, May 10, 2007
WORD COUNT-GOING UNDER THE KNIFE
I am finished with the rough draft of Chance's story, which is the plotstorm we've gone through together. (For those of you joining my blog readership late, you can find the PLOTSTORM label to the right to view the Plotstorms for the third book in my Wings of Refuge Series).
As usual, I am 5,000-6,000 words over. Meaning, my publisher wants the books to end up between 55,000 and 60,000 words.
So major cutting is what I'm doing now. I thought I'd post how I do this in case any of you struggle with what and where to cut.
First off, I have critiquers going through the entire ms right now. They bring an outside perspective on the story. Any places they think drags, I cut large portions (several paragraphs at a time) from those sluggish areas. Areas where it feels like the flow stops, or the story bogs. I condense what I said in a paragraph down to a sentence, etc. That sort of thing.
I also get rid of unneccesary words such as, "So, And, But, Then," Etc. from the beginnings of my sentences. I also nix nearly every "just" and "that" I can because most of the time, it will tighten the writing, and sound better without it. There are other throw away words, but I'll get into that later.
I am to page 50 of a 300 page manuscript and have already cut 2100 of the necessary 6000 words. Cutting 6000 words seems daunting until you break it down to what you need to cut per page, or per chapter if you prefer to do it that way.
In a 300 word manuscript, to cut 6000 words, you need to cut 20 words per page. That's it. That averages to about one or two sentences per page. See? Sounds much more doable. And some pages I've cut 50 words, so if I only cut 10 on the next page, I'm still where I need to be within parameters.
I also go through and omit most "ly" adverbs, and strive for a stronger verb instead. I especially try to stay away from "was" with "ing" words, and exchange that for a strong "ed" verb. For example. He was staring at her. Change to: He stared at her, or better yet: He stared. "was" with "ing" tends to make writing passive. We must strive to make writing active.
Another way I bring my word count down is to reconstruct sentences. Tighten the writing and omit wordiness. I will post some examples here. The first sentence is the sentence as I typed it rough draft. The second sentence is the reworked sentence, with how many words I was able to cut from the sentence by recrafting it.
Examples:
1. "Bitsy, are you really going to go leave this house looking like that?" Sasha asked, looking at her outfit with disdain. (21 words)
2. "You really going out like that?" Sasha's scowling eyes swept her outfit. (Cut down to 12 words, and shown intead of told. Also cut the tag ("said") since I have a beat, tag is not necessary. Only use one or the other to denote speaker, not both.)
1. He turned around and went to go look for Bitsy. (10 words)
2. He whirled, intent to find Bitsy. (6 words-cut 4 total)
1.She had on combat boots that came all the way up to her thighs. (14 words)
2.She wore thigh-high combat boots. (down to 6 words, cut 8 words by reworking)
1. They reminded Bitsy of the thigh-high Gor-Tex wading boots that Sasha wore to delve into hip-deep water inside the caves that she explored to catch a glimpse of her beloved vampire bats. (35 words) EEK! (Sheesh! I know THAT needed cut. LOL! But remember, it's the ROUGH draft. LOL)
Sentence reworked: 2. Reminded Bitsy of Sasha's Gor-Tex wading boots. (8 words, cut 27 words!)
The reason I cut so much of that sentence is: Sasha is a secondary character, so I'm trying to bring my heroine front and center more, and not have so much emphasis on secondaries. When Sasha gets her own story, then I can paste (since I do cut and paste cuts into a separate document for future reference) those details into my scene index and character charts and incorporate it into Sasha's story, since it really doesn't apply to Bitsy's story. If Sasha's story were going to come next, I'd focus on her more heavily than another secondary. Since it isn't coming for awhile, I really don't need to plant these details in here. I have several more books (please, Lord?) to write before Sasha's, so I can plant a sentence or so in each one about her, so readers can start bonding with her, and hopefully request her story. That's how I'm hoping I'll know if readers are endeared to secondaries, is if I get requests for their story. I've heard many authors get reader letters, requesting that a particular secondary, or minor character get his/her own story.
Anyway, I'm going through EVERY sentence of my ms and cutting ALL words that are not crucial and serve a purpose in the story.
I may post more reworks later, but hopefully this'll help you once you go to edit your story.
Back to hacking,
Squirrel
--
Cheryl Wyatt Gal. 2:20 Pouring my vial of words over Him.
www.CherylWyatt.com www.Scrollsquirrel.blogspot.com
A SOLDIER'S PROMISE~ Steeple Hill Love Inspired~ Jan. 2008
A SOLDIER'S FAMILY~ Steeple Hill Love Inspired~ Mar. 2008
http://www.Steeplehill.com www.Loveinspiredauthors.com
As usual, I am 5,000-6,000 words over. Meaning, my publisher wants the books to end up between 55,000 and 60,000 words.
So major cutting is what I'm doing now. I thought I'd post how I do this in case any of you struggle with what and where to cut.
First off, I have critiquers going through the entire ms right now. They bring an outside perspective on the story. Any places they think drags, I cut large portions (several paragraphs at a time) from those sluggish areas. Areas where it feels like the flow stops, or the story bogs. I condense what I said in a paragraph down to a sentence, etc. That sort of thing.
I also get rid of unneccesary words such as, "So, And, But, Then," Etc. from the beginnings of my sentences. I also nix nearly every "just" and "that" I can because most of the time, it will tighten the writing, and sound better without it. There are other throw away words, but I'll get into that later.
I am to page 50 of a 300 page manuscript and have already cut 2100 of the necessary 6000 words. Cutting 6000 words seems daunting until you break it down to what you need to cut per page, or per chapter if you prefer to do it that way.
In a 300 word manuscript, to cut 6000 words, you need to cut 20 words per page. That's it. That averages to about one or two sentences per page. See? Sounds much more doable. And some pages I've cut 50 words, so if I only cut 10 on the next page, I'm still where I need to be within parameters.
I also go through and omit most "ly" adverbs, and strive for a stronger verb instead. I especially try to stay away from "was" with "ing" words, and exchange that for a strong "ed" verb. For example. He was staring at her. Change to: He stared at her, or better yet: He stared. "was" with "ing" tends to make writing passive. We must strive to make writing active.
Another way I bring my word count down is to reconstruct sentences. Tighten the writing and omit wordiness. I will post some examples here. The first sentence is the sentence as I typed it rough draft. The second sentence is the reworked sentence, with how many words I was able to cut from the sentence by recrafting it.
Examples:
1. "Bitsy, are you really going to go leave this house looking like that?" Sasha asked, looking at her outfit with disdain. (21 words)
2. "You really going out like that?" Sasha's scowling eyes swept her outfit. (Cut down to 12 words, and shown intead of told. Also cut the tag ("said") since I have a beat, tag is not necessary. Only use one or the other to denote speaker, not both.)
1. He turned around and went to go look for Bitsy. (10 words)
2. He whirled, intent to find Bitsy. (6 words-cut 4 total)
1.She had on combat boots that came all the way up to her thighs. (14 words)
2.She wore thigh-high combat boots. (down to 6 words, cut 8 words by reworking)
1. They reminded Bitsy of the thigh-high Gor-Tex wading boots that Sasha wore to delve into hip-deep water inside the caves that she explored to catch a glimpse of her beloved vampire bats. (35 words) EEK! (Sheesh! I know THAT needed cut. LOL! But remember, it's the ROUGH draft. LOL)
Sentence reworked: 2. Reminded Bitsy of Sasha's Gor-Tex wading boots. (8 words, cut 27 words!)
The reason I cut so much of that sentence is: Sasha is a secondary character, so I'm trying to bring my heroine front and center more, and not have so much emphasis on secondaries. When Sasha gets her own story, then I can paste (since I do cut and paste cuts into a separate document for future reference) those details into my scene index and character charts and incorporate it into Sasha's story, since it really doesn't apply to Bitsy's story. If Sasha's story were going to come next, I'd focus on her more heavily than another secondary. Since it isn't coming for awhile, I really don't need to plant these details in here. I have several more books (please, Lord?) to write before Sasha's, so I can plant a sentence or so in each one about her, so readers can start bonding with her, and hopefully request her story. That's how I'm hoping I'll know if readers are endeared to secondaries, is if I get requests for their story. I've heard many authors get reader letters, requesting that a particular secondary, or minor character get his/her own story.
Anyway, I'm going through EVERY sentence of my ms and cutting ALL words that are not crucial and serve a purpose in the story.
I may post more reworks later, but hopefully this'll help you once you go to edit your story.
Back to hacking,
Squirrel
--
Cheryl Wyatt Gal. 2:20 Pouring my vial of words over Him.
www.CherylWyatt.com www.Scrollsquirrel.blogspot.com
A SOLDIER'S PROMISE~ Steeple Hill Love Inspired~ Jan. 2008
A SOLDIER'S FAMILY~ Steeple Hill Love Inspired~ Mar. 2008
http://www.Steeplehill.com www.Loveinspiredauthors.com
Monday, March 19, 2007
METHOD TO THE MADNESS PLOTSTORM
Okay, so I'm back from stalking Mickey Mouse just in time to explain my last post. LOL!
I cut and pasted it from a journal entry I wrote over 15 years ago....only I didn't realize part of it was missing and there were actually TWO journal posts in there instead of one.
But let me save face here and turn this around. As I read through what I sent...I resisted the urge to delete the embarrassing thing because I realized something.
That last post STRONGLY resembles my rough drafts. No kidding. That's sort of how the patches of scenes go down into the computer. If a person were to read through Chance's story (the one we've been plotstorming together) right this moment...it would seriously resemble that last Nurse Bible and the Dumb Waiter post. It wouldn't make a lick of sense. But in my first pass, I resist editing. I concentrate all my effort on getting it written instead of getting it right. Then on second...and third...and fourth pass to infinity..I somehow (hopefully) pull it all together into a cohesive story sequence that ends up making sense. LOL! I go in usually on first or second pass and put in transistions (sentences linking scenes if I haven't already) and fill in the places that are sparse and incomplete.
I do sometimes get scenes out of order, and I hate that, but there seems to be no help for it. If I don't write down the scenes as they appear in my mind I often mentally lose or forget them, so what you saw in that last post is strikingly close to how my rough drafts look.
So there you have it...a method to my madness.
Incidentally I started plotstorming the book after Chances on the way back from Florida on my Alphasmart. After I finish Chance's story and send it off to my editor, I will begin posting that plotstorm as well. It will be interesting for those of you who've followed the plotstorms, or who come back and read them later, once you've read the books. So hopefully they'll sell! :-)
I'm also going to try and figure out how to rearrange my blog to make it more user-friendly. I will try and lump all my plotstorms together, as well as my Blush and Cringes, etc. If anyone knows how to do that on blogger...by all means explain it to me. LOL! I would like to give the reader the option of reading the posts progressively or reading them by subject.
Okay...off to answer three hundred more emails.. EEEK.
Thanks for supporting my blog with your readership!
Blessings,
Cheryl (Squirrel)
--
Cheryl Wyatt Gal. 2:20 Pouring my vial of words over Him.
www.CherylWyatt.com www.Scrollsquirrel.blogspot.com
A SOLDIER'S PROMISE~ Steeple Hill Love Inspired~ Jan. 2008
A SOLDIER'S FAMILY~ Steeple Hill Love Inspired~ Mar. 2008
www.Steeplehill.com www.Loveinspiredauthors.com
--
Cheryl Wyatt Gal. 2:20 Pouring my vial of words over Him.
www.CherylWyatt.com www.Scrollsquirrel.blogspot.com
A SOLDIER'S PROMISE~ Steeple Hill Love Inspired~ Jan. 2008
A SOLDIER'S FAMILY~ Steeple Hill Love Inspired~ Mar. 2008
www.Steeplehill.com www.Loveinspiredauthors.com
Sunday, March 04, 2007
REVISIONS OFF! BACK TO OUR REGULARLY SCHEDULED PLOTSTORM
Mailed my revisions the end of last week despite my computer crash. Thank God for flash drives. LOL!
Okay, so now I'm going to come back to our regularly scheduled plotstorm for book three.
Most of the story is rough drafted. What I'll be doing this week is called layering. Since I'm below my word count (which is good considering I haven't really added in all my sensory and setting descriptions) I will go through and layer in stuff***. So right now, I have the basic bones of the story down, broken up into chapters, and I know my characters upside down and inside out. So let's go over what we've done so far. Characterization was pretty much complete on first pass. The main issue there is to be sure your characters are likable and sympathetic, but not perfect since they need to grow during the story, and have some kind of spiritual or emotional epiphany. With the characters being well-developed, I have also (in the story) established in the readers' mind my characters' goals(what do they want to obtain or accomplish by the end of the book?), motivation (why do they want this goal? What is driving them to obtain this? Why is it so important to them?) made clear in the story by different means###. The different means### can include during dialogue (short snippets), brought up on introspection (briefly, you want NOT to have huge dumps of backstory. No more than a few sentences at a time. Sprinkle it throughout, don't dump it all at once on the reader.). I have also tossed major wrenches and hurdles at my characters throughout the story.
Conflcit: I've upped the stakes and made it seem to the reader like there is no way things are going to work out okay between the characters. Not only relationally, but with their individual story goals. And though this is romance, your heroine's sole goal can't be to get the guy and vice versa. They need personal goals, and it's great if their personal goals clash with or challenge the developing romance. Just a note here about relationship conflict. It's best for the conflict not to be based solely on misunderstanding (meaning with good communication, the heroine and hero's probs can be worked out). It's also best if your characters don't constantly bicker. I mean they can, but don't make that THE conflict. It's a mistake I made when starting out. I thought argument mean conflcit and conflict meant argument. Be creative. Even positive things can bring about conflict.
Okay so I'm going to be going through the story right now and making sure it is coming across as cohesive and in a logical progression. I'll also be making sure I've tied up all loose ends(such as the fact I started out chapter two having a cat and forgot about it at some point in the story until chapter 12 LOL!), and addressed all issues(such as feeding and nurturing the poor forgotten cat). I'm going to be adding in (layering) stronger setting and sensory description. For example: A scene as I have it now may read:
Okay that's a quick and rough and extreme example but you have all sensory in the scene now so the reader will FEEL like they're RIGHT THERE WITH CHANCE.
Sights (snowflakes), sounds (crackling and gurgling, french roast), smells (Coffee & pine), touch (softness of footstool, warmth from fire), taste (sugar and cream).
I've also deepened the emotion by giving him the peace and by having that snippet of internal monologue (It's going to be okay). I've also deepened his characterization by showing (not telling) the reader that he trusts his fellow teammates. I've also nixed two unneccesary words (That and just.) MOST of the time, you can take those words out of the sentence and still maintain the effect you want. And your text is less clunky. About the only time I'd leave a "that" or "just" in there is in dialogue if a character has a tendency or a quirk of using one or the other. Then I'm make certain no other characters have that same quirk or use that particular word in their speech. You want your characters to be as distinct from one another as possible.
Okay, that's it for today. We'll talk more about writing in Deep Point of View another time.
Hope this helps.
Warmly,
--
Cheryl Wyatt Gal. 2:20 Pouring my vial of words over Him.
www.CherylWyatt.com http://www.Scrollsquirrel.blogspot.com
A SOLDIER'S PROMISE~ Steeple Hill Love Inspired~ Jan. 2008
A SOLDIER'S FAMILY~ Steeple Hill Love Inspired~ Mar. 2008
www.Steeplehill.com www.Loveinspiredauthors.com
Okay, so now I'm going to come back to our regularly scheduled plotstorm for book three.
Most of the story is rough drafted. What I'll be doing this week is called layering. Since I'm below my word count (which is good considering I haven't really added in all my sensory and setting descriptions) I will go through and layer in stuff***. So right now, I have the basic bones of the story down, broken up into chapters, and I know my characters upside down and inside out. So let's go over what we've done so far. Characterization was pretty much complete on first pass. The main issue there is to be sure your characters are likable and sympathetic, but not perfect since they need to grow during the story, and have some kind of spiritual or emotional epiphany. With the characters being well-developed, I have also (in the story) established in the readers' mind my characters' goals(what do they want to obtain or accomplish by the end of the book?), motivation (why do they want this goal? What is driving them to obtain this? Why is it so important to them?) made clear in the story by different means###. The different means### can include during dialogue (short snippets), brought up on introspection (briefly, you want NOT to have huge dumps of backstory. No more than a few sentences at a time. Sprinkle it throughout, don't dump it all at once on the reader.). I have also tossed major wrenches and hurdles at my characters throughout the story.
Conflcit: I've upped the stakes and made it seem to the reader like there is no way things are going to work out okay between the characters. Not only relationally, but with their individual story goals. And though this is romance, your heroine's sole goal can't be to get the guy and vice versa. They need personal goals, and it's great if their personal goals clash with or challenge the developing romance. Just a note here about relationship conflict. It's best for the conflict not to be based solely on misunderstanding (meaning with good communication, the heroine and hero's probs can be worked out). It's also best if your characters don't constantly bicker. I mean they can, but don't make that THE conflict. It's a mistake I made when starting out. I thought argument mean conflcit and conflict meant argument. Be creative. Even positive things can bring about conflict.
Okay so I'm going to be going through the story right now and making sure it is coming across as cohesive and in a logical progression. I'll also be making sure I've tied up all loose ends(such as the fact I started out chapter two having a cat and forgot about it at some point in the story until chapter 12 LOL!), and addressed all issues(such as feeding and nurturing the poor forgotten cat). I'm going to be adding in (layering) stronger setting and sensory description. For example: A scene as I have it now may read:
Chance sat in the chair and faced the window while he sipped his coffee. He just knew that everthing would be okay. He trusted Manny and Joel.
Since it's best to show readers instead of tell them, and also you want to strive to write in deep POV (Point of View) I may rewrite or change that to something like: White snowflakes glistened in the lamplight as Chance stared out the window. Mesmerized, he lowered himself to the oversize footstool. Its plush softness enveloped him like a hug from a friend. Warmth from the fireplace rested on his back. Pine wood crackling and coffeepot gurgling another pot of French Roast were the only sounds both competing with and calming his thoughts. Chance lifted the cool ceramic to his mouth and drained the cup of the last drop, running his fingers over the silver scroll cross embelleshing the white enamel. Sugar and cream sludge doctored his taste buds as a sweet, overwhelming peace flooded his emotions. It would be okay. Joel and Manny said so. And he trusted them with his life . . . and hers.
Okay that's a quick and rough and extreme example but you have all sensory in the scene now so the reader will FEEL like they're RIGHT THERE WITH CHANCE.
Sights (snowflakes), sounds (crackling and gurgling, french roast), smells (Coffee & pine), touch (softness of footstool, warmth from fire), taste (sugar and cream).
I've also deepened the emotion by giving him the peace and by having that snippet of internal monologue (It's going to be okay). I've also deepened his characterization by showing (not telling) the reader that he trusts his fellow teammates. I've also nixed two unneccesary words (That and just.) MOST of the time, you can take those words out of the sentence and still maintain the effect you want. And your text is less clunky. About the only time I'd leave a "that" or "just" in there is in dialogue if a character has a tendency or a quirk of using one or the other. Then I'm make certain no other characters have that same quirk or use that particular word in their speech. You want your characters to be as distinct from one another as possible.
Okay, that's it for today. We'll talk more about writing in Deep Point of View another time.
Hope this helps.
Warmly,
--
Cheryl Wyatt Gal. 2:20 Pouring my vial of words over Him.
www.CherylWyatt.com http://www.Scrollsquirrel.blogspot.com
A SOLDIER'S PROMISE~ Steeple Hill Love Inspired~ Jan. 2008
A SOLDIER'S FAMILY~ Steeple Hill Love Inspired~ Mar. 2008
www.Steeplehill.com www.Loveinspiredauthors.com
Monday, February 19, 2007
HOW VERY INTERESTING
At least to me.....HEEHEE
Remember in one of my last PLOTSTORMS for book three how I mentioned I hate the story?
Well today in working revisions my editors requested for book 2, I ended up cutting a scene which focused too heavily on a secondary character (who just happens to be the hero of book 3) because it detracted focus away from the hero and heroine. (I always do that by the way. Go on minor character tangeants. Gotta be more mindful of that.) However....I realized one of the chapter opening hooks COULD actually start out book three and be a stronger beginning chapter than what it is now.
I think that's why I'm not yet happy with book three because the opening isn't what I'm used to writing. It starts out too calm, too lacsidaisical (Sp). I prefer to start with a major disaster, or turning point, crossroads, point of decision or chaos in the character's life. If I use the scene I cut to open book three, the book will start out better I think. So I killed the proverbial two birds with one stone today....not only did I get some major revising accomplished, I now no longer hate book three. LOL!
Squirrel
Remember in one of my last PLOTSTORMS for book three how I mentioned I hate the story?
Well today in working revisions my editors requested for book 2, I ended up cutting a scene which focused too heavily on a secondary character (who just happens to be the hero of book 3) because it detracted focus away from the hero and heroine. (I always do that by the way. Go on minor character tangeants. Gotta be more mindful of that.) However....I realized one of the chapter opening hooks COULD actually start out book three and be a stronger beginning chapter than what it is now.
I think that's why I'm not yet happy with book three because the opening isn't what I'm used to writing. It starts out too calm, too lacsidaisical (Sp). I prefer to start with a major disaster, or turning point, crossroads, point of decision or chaos in the character's life. If I use the scene I cut to open book three, the book will start out better I think. So I killed the proverbial two birds with one stone today....not only did I get some major revising accomplished, I now no longer hate book three. LOL!
Squirrel
Monday, February 12, 2007
PLOTSTORM UPDATE
Well I am over 60 thousand words into the story and still need to flesh out some scenes. That means I have the basic bones of them, but some need meat added. Meat can be setting and sensory descriptions, etc.
Also, right at this particular moment I HATE MY STORY and am severely DISGUSTED with it.
But....I get that way with EVERY story I write at some point in it.
So what do I do? Banish it to the recycle bin? NO....I push through this barricaide no matter how much I don't want to.
I received my revision notes on the book that just sold (book 2-USAF PJ series) and one of the things my editor wants me to do is strengthen the ending of the book. I had to laugh because I remember about thirty pages before the end of the book I got SO sick of it, I just wanted out of it. LOL! So I wrote the quickest ending possible, plus I always overwrite by several thousand words so I had to be brief. So I'm going to try really hard not to do that abrupt Scooby Doo ending with book three that I did with book two....NO MATTER HOW SICK I AM OF THE STORY!
LOL!
No matter how ready you are to be done.....let it brew before you send. Take my word for it...your story will be MUCH stronger.
On the other hand...don't edit it to death.
So I am trying to go through book three right now and read for pacing and to cut unneccessary words. I'm also making sure passive sentences are active and that I haven't overused certain phrases, and that I have strong verbs. I set the story aside for a few days so I could see it with fresh eyes. Once I get all the scenes fleshed out the rest of the way, and make sure everything makes sense, I will go through and proofread the entire thing about three times, giving myself several days between times. Occasionally I will set it aside for two or three weeks, so I can really see it with fresh eyes. But since I'm sending it to Robin and my critters, I don't necessarily have to do that this time until after they send me their suggested changes and I complete those. Then I'll set it aside and let it gel. Then whip it back out to polish anything that needs polished.
So I'm fleshing out scenes right now and flushing out gunk...which this story seems to have a lot of. I tend to repeat myself in several forms, almost like I forgot I already wrote a certain scene and I rewrote it a different way or something. I've found several instances in this Plotstorm story that I have been annoyingly (to me) repetative or running certain themes into the ground.
I think it's because I'm taking a couple weeks longer to finish it. It would have been less trouble in the end if I would have been able to write the rough (mess) draft in under seven days but I've been avoiding the story like the plaque because I'm to the hard part.
I'll also layer in emotion with the fleshing out, so with flesh comes heart to the story.
Hope these plotstorms are helping you all!
Squirrel
Also, right at this particular moment I HATE MY STORY and am severely DISGUSTED with it.
But....I get that way with EVERY story I write at some point in it.
So what do I do? Banish it to the recycle bin? NO....I push through this barricaide no matter how much I don't want to.
I received my revision notes on the book that just sold (book 2-USAF PJ series) and one of the things my editor wants me to do is strengthen the ending of the book. I had to laugh because I remember about thirty pages before the end of the book I got SO sick of it, I just wanted out of it. LOL! So I wrote the quickest ending possible, plus I always overwrite by several thousand words so I had to be brief. So I'm going to try really hard not to do that abrupt Scooby Doo ending with book three that I did with book two....NO MATTER HOW SICK I AM OF THE STORY!
LOL!
No matter how ready you are to be done.....let it brew before you send. Take my word for it...your story will be MUCH stronger.
On the other hand...don't edit it to death.
So I am trying to go through book three right now and read for pacing and to cut unneccessary words. I'm also making sure passive sentences are active and that I haven't overused certain phrases, and that I have strong verbs. I set the story aside for a few days so I could see it with fresh eyes. Once I get all the scenes fleshed out the rest of the way, and make sure everything makes sense, I will go through and proofread the entire thing about three times, giving myself several days between times. Occasionally I will set it aside for two or three weeks, so I can really see it with fresh eyes. But since I'm sending it to Robin and my critters, I don't necessarily have to do that this time until after they send me their suggested changes and I complete those. Then I'll set it aside and let it gel. Then whip it back out to polish anything that needs polished.
So I'm fleshing out scenes right now and flushing out gunk...which this story seems to have a lot of. I tend to repeat myself in several forms, almost like I forgot I already wrote a certain scene and I rewrote it a different way or something. I've found several instances in this Plotstorm story that I have been annoyingly (to me) repetative or running certain themes into the ground.
I think it's because I'm taking a couple weeks longer to finish it. It would have been less trouble in the end if I would have been able to write the rough (mess) draft in under seven days but I've been avoiding the story like the plaque because I'm to the hard part.
I'll also layer in emotion with the fleshing out, so with flesh comes heart to the story.
Hope these plotstorms are helping you all!
Squirrel
Wednesday, February 07, 2007
PLOTSTORM GONE WILD
LOL!
Okay, I'm to 52 thousand words but I had a problem in that the hero's sister got bossy and started demanding her own story. So I let her run amok and about 2500 of those words will be transplanted into her story. Maybe even more than that because as I look at my word count cap, which is 65 thousand, I am going to have to cut down on my subplot. So one plot thread can actually be transferred to the sister's story.
I had no intention of writing the sister as a heroine of a book until she came to life on the page and took over. Then my mind went ablaze with her plot. I tried, really, really tried to only pay attention to her brother and his current story....but she wouldn't leave me alone. That strong and persistant of a character deserves her own story. She made a special place in my heart and now I can't wait to get the PJ series finished so I can do her story. She's an avid caver and I can actually launch another series off her caver and rappelling friends.
Now, if they'll all just LEAVE ME ALONE for a couple more days so I can finish Chance's story.
I haven't heard back yet on whether they're gonna buy book two, but I did get to add more input to the cover ideas of book one.
I'm SO excited about it and let me tell you a neat story!
The cover I envisioned for A Soldier's Promise had to do with a soldier hugging a little boy. I was getting ready to email my editor with that idea, as well as picture images similar to what I was envisioning when they asked me for ideas and an email poppedup from her. I hadn't told her the idea yet. I read the email from her and guess what it said? The art department were leaning towards a cover with a soldier hugging a little boy!
How cool is that!
So I hope that's what I end up with.
The folks on the books vision team thought up the title A Soldier's Promise and I am SO pleased with it!
I am freaking out because some of the writers I've known for years, who were unpublished with me, but contracted before me...their books are starting to hit the shelves!!!!
Another person who was unpubbed when I first joined ACFW and I just saw her book in Lifeway today!
She has several out now and I whoop and holler every time I see her name on the spine!
www.kimvogelsawyer.com/
and there are SEVERAL, SEVERAL more in the works!
It is SO totally awesome and amazing to begin to see their names on the covers!
I cannot wait to see more and more of my writer friends' names adorning covers of books they've labored over, literally for years and years some of them. Pouring their heart and tears and time into these stories and to be able to see tangibly a dream coming true that God put in a person's heart.
That's how it's gonna be when I hold my own book in my hands. I'll probably freak and be removed from the store the first time I see my book on a shelf at Wal-mart. OHMIGOSH!!!!!!
OHMIGOSH!
It's ACTUALLY going to happen! I'm really, really, really not dreaming!
OH what am I saying! Yes I am going to dream...because I know the giver of them and am believing in faith that He has many, many more books in store for me.
I can't wait to connect with my readers. I think that's the one thing I'm looking forward to more than anything. For even one letter from someone saying the book touched them in some way.
Check out these covers of my friends' novels!
And by all means....go pick up these books! Petticoat Ranch is out NOW and so is Abby's book.
You can get them anywhere books are sold.
Squirl
Sunday, February 04, 2007
FEBRUARY PROMPT CONTEST
Well here it is....the moment you've all been waiting for.....
(Drum roll please....)
FEBRUARY's PROMPT CONTEST:
Write a 500 word scene beginning with one of the below scene starter sentences, using at least 5 of the 10 prompt words. (See bold items below)
Email submissions to me at Cheryl @ CherylWyatt.com (lose the spaces before and after the "@") by February 28th, 2007.
As always, you retain all rights to your work and I do not print or publish it anywhere.
Winner will receive a new Steeple Hill release of their choice.
HAPPY WRIITNG!
Scene Starters:
"Last time I went there it was a disaster."
"Please do this one thing for me?"
"I can't go there if he's gonna be there."
Prompt words:
Old
Flame
Photograph
Mystery
Dance
Crash
Car
Illness
Forgiveness
Moth
Squirrel
--
www.CherylWyatt.com Gal. 2:20 Pouring my vial of words over Him.
A SOLDIER'S PROMISE~ Steeple Hill Love Inspired~ Jan. 2008
www.Scrollsquirrel.blogspot.com
Thursday, February 01, 2007
ABOUT AUTHOR SUSAN MAY WARREN
SUSAN MAY WARREN BIO
Susan May Warren is the award-winning author of seventeen novels and novellas with Tyndale, Steeple Hill and Barbour Publishing. Her first book, Happily Ever After won the American Fiction Christian Writers Book of the Year in 2003, and was a 2003 Christy Award finalist. In Sheep’s Clothing, a thriller set in Russia , was a 2006 Christy Award finalist and won the 2006 Inspirational Reader’s Choice award. A former missionary to Russia , Susan May Warren now writes Suspense/Romance and Chick Lit full time from her home in northern Minnesota.
BLOG TOUR AND INTERVIEW WITH AUTHOR SUSAN WARREN ABOUT RECLAIMING NICK
I'm thrilled today to have Author Susan Warren here talking about her new release: Reclaiming Nick.
From back cover:
Nick Noble hadn’t planned on being the prodigal son. But when his father dies and leaves half of Silver Buckle—the Noble family ranch—to Nick’s former best friend, he must return home to face those he left behind. And to make sure that the Silver Buckle stays in the Noble family. Award-winning journalist Piper Sullivan believes Nick framed her brother for murder, and she’s determined to find justice. But following Nick to the Silver Buckle and posing as a ranch cook proves more challenging than she first anticipated. So does resisting his charming smile. As Nick seeks to overturn his father’s will—and Piper digs for answers—family secrets surface that send Nick’s life into a tailspin. But there’s someone who wants to see the Silver Buckle leave Noble hands, and he’s willing to do whatever it takes to make that happen, even if it means taking a life.
Hope you enjoy the interview!
1. Okay my first question, is WHERE DID THEY FIND THAT COVER MODEL? LOL! Seriously, how much say do you, the author, have in the choosing of the cover? It really depends on the book and the publisher. I have been very fortunate that all my publishers have let me have input on my books, but usually their design ideas are much much better than mine. I was privileged to be able to sit in on the brainstorming for covers and titles for Nick, and my editor really embraced the concept for the series, and let me bring to the table some bold cover ideas. I'm so thankful for Tyndale's support in this series.
2. What was your first reaction when you saw the cover? LOVED it. LOVED LOVE LOVED it. It's still one of my absolute favs.
3. I understand RECLAIMING NICK is Book 1 in the Noble Legacy series. When writing a series, do you plot the entire series out before writing the first book, or plot the next two as or after you've written the first one? I try to plot out the entire series, so I can plant seeds about the other books in books one and two. For sure I have ideas and blurbs and a framework of where I want to go.
4. The theme of the book seems to be a prodigal coming home. How do you come up with themes for your books? They really flow from what I am studying in scripture at the time I put the proposal together. I happened to study Philippians during this series, and this book is based on Phil 1:6, which is about God continuing His good plan for us.
5. How many books are in the Noble Legacy series? And can you tell us anything about them, theme-wise? Are any characters in Nick's story revisited in the next books?
There are currently 3 books slotted. Nick, of course is first, and then Rafe (a bull-rider) and Stefanie, who is a horse trainer. Much of the story is about their struggle to hang onto their ranch which has been in the family for generations. Rafe's story is based on Phil 2:13, and the idea that God is at work in us, whatever circumstances we find ourselves in. It's about our impact in the world as Christians. And Stefanie is about strength, and what that means – Phil 4:13 And yes, all three siblings appear in each book.
6. When can we expect to see the next book on the shelves and where can interested readers order/buy one? I believe Rafe comes out near about September. But you will be seeing excerpts and fun Rafe promos about June. It should be in your local B & N and Christian bookstore.
7. How long have you been writing? When did you know you wanted to be a writer? Oh, I've been writing all my life, but I never thought I'd be a novelist. Not until I moved to Siberia and needed something to read – so I wrote it! I've been writing for publication about five years .
8. What means do you use to research your novels? Hands on! I love interviewing people, and if possible, to experience the lives they live. I went to Montana and lived on a ranch for a few days to research Nick. And I went to Gilly's and climbed on a mechanical bull to get a feel for Rafe. And I'm spending a couple days with a horse trainer for Stefanie. I've been very privileged to get some valuable first hand experience, as well as to run weird questions by the "people who know."
9. Given the choice of an evening out with a groupe of friends, or a quiet movie evening at home, which would you prefer? Oh, wow – I guess I prefer to go out with friends. Although I love good movies!
10. What about character Nick? Nick – he's probably a move buff. John Wayne westerns, and the Fugitive.
11. What was the funnest part of writing this book? Piper and her horrible cooking scenes. I laughed out loud.
12. If Nick Noble could blurb you as the author who wrote his story, and how well the two of you worked together, using typical Nick style, what would he say if he had to write a back cover author blurb?
Oh, you're requiring me to be creative!
This here's Susan. She's the gal who wrote about me, and reckon' she got most of it right. She did learn to throw a rope, which I guess gives her some spunk, although she was more ornamental than useful on the ranch. Even so, she shore 'nuf got her done. She lives somewhere in the woods, with her family and kiddos. I don't know how many books she's written -- this is the only one I read.
THANKS SUSAN! I cannot wait to read the next book in this series!!!!
Thank you for letting my stop by and chat about Nick, Cheryl! And don't forget to stop by and Meet Nick! http://meetnick.susanmaywarren.com
--
www.CherylWyatt.com Gal. 2:20 Pouring my vial of words over Him.
A SOLDIER'S PROMISE~ Steeple Hill Love Inspired~ Jan. 2008
www.Scrollsquirrel.blogspot.com
Saturday, January 27, 2007
PLOTSTORM 12 aka Writing Spree
Halfway!
I hit 30k last night around nine then my arms started to blurr and my eyes went numb.....I drank a bowl of chili mac and ate a cup of cold coffee with texas toast.
Yes, getting into the zone and going on a writing spree like this short curcuits my brain for every other activity.....what was my name again?
As of now, the story is slowing momentum. So I'm at a point where I will skim through what I have, resist the urge to edit or write in the middle because I always repeat or mess something else when I do that, then reevaluate where I am in the overall plot. Right now I'm just trying to be sure the story flows in a coherent, cohesive manner, and that I'm spacing all my major plot points ro inciting events in a logical manner. Consistant pacing, etc, so I don't have to do major revisions by the end. I almost always overwrite by several thousand words and right now, I don't worry if I get to the end and go over or under. Right now, I'm just focused on getting the bones of the story down, which for me at this point consists of mainly dialogue, a few action beats or tags so I can figure out who's speaking, and narrative/introspection.
Stronger setting and sensory descriptions will come later. I am doing all my chapter beginning and ending hooks as I go along, and often have most of those secure before I start.
Last night, when I got near the middle and needed more conflict (since my characters were getting along way too well) I thought of some major wrenches to throw at my characters. What I like to do is put them in a calm, serene scene where everything seems peachy then WHAMMO! Something happens to tilt their equilibrium and chaos erupts.
I'm striving to have conflict on every page if I can, whether it be internal(character against him/herself), external(character against another character or outside force), spiritual(character's faith struggle with church or God or their belief system). Robin Miller and Camy Tang taught me how very important it is to have conflict on every page. If you struggle with this in your writing, and can scrape up the money for an edit from one of these gals, I can almost guarantee what they teach you will help you in all future works of fiction. Plus it will be one of the best things you can do with your money to further your writing career, or calling.
Check out my links to the right for Camy's Story Sensei and Robin's Critique Boutique.
Another author with a wellspring of great writing tips on her site www.margaretdaley.com taught me that it's best to have at least three solid reasons for a scene to be there. If each scene doesn't have at least three reasons for being there, then either build the scene up so you do, or omit it altogether.
So at this point, I'm striving to keep my internal editor off as far as grammar and sentence structure, etc. And focus on making sure my characters are consistant with who I envisioned them, as well as making sure my scenes have sufficient conflict and three reasons for being there.
Some reasons I have/ things I strive to accomplish in a scene:
Hook the reader into the story (opening scene) and keep them reading (ie-hooky chapter beginnings and ends)
Introducing or endearing my characters to readers
Furthering the plot
Ramping conflict
Building on characterization
Revealing character Goal, and Motivation
Advancing the romance
These are just some of the main reasons I write particular scenes. I'm sure there are others, but as I said before, my brain is in story mode and I can't quite think logically when I'm in that deep creative realm.
This morning before I even got out of bed, and while I worked out I prayed for God to give me what He wants me to write today. I prayed He'd help me write real characters that people will remember, because it's very, very important to me for my characters to be memorable. So I really try to do that in my scenes. I also ask Him to let His character flow naturally from the story, through a character's struggle or epyphany or relationship with God that I've fashioned. The relationship, not the God. He's already Supremely fashioned. LOL! See? Told ya my brain was fizz. I'm also asking God to help me think of ways to create a page-turner of a story. I heard a prayer once by someone, and I'm so sorry I cannot remember who said it, or I'd give them credit for it, but they said, "I pray people like my books so well and are so entrenched into the story(my paraphrase) that they walk into poles going down the street because they can't put the book down."
Yes and amen. I'm hoping people need ice packs and a box of tissue when they read mine, too. I hope to evoke emotion and in this stage of the writing spree, that's my goal if even a spark of it. I can perfect it later. The main, number one thing though at this point is just to:
Get the story down. Not getting the story perfect.
Okay, I'm off to write again.
Squirrel
--
www.CherylWyatt.com Gal. 2:20 Pouring my vial of words over Him.
A SOLDIER'S PROMISE~ Steeple Hill Love Inspired~ Jan. 2008
www.Scrollsquirrel.blogspot.com
I hit 30k last night around nine then my arms started to blurr and my eyes went numb.....I drank a bowl of chili mac and ate a cup of cold coffee with texas toast.
Yes, getting into the zone and going on a writing spree like this short curcuits my brain for every other activity.....what was my name again?
As of now, the story is slowing momentum. So I'm at a point where I will skim through what I have, resist the urge to edit or write in the middle because I always repeat or mess something else when I do that, then reevaluate where I am in the overall plot. Right now I'm just trying to be sure the story flows in a coherent, cohesive manner, and that I'm spacing all my major plot points ro inciting events in a logical manner. Consistant pacing, etc, so I don't have to do major revisions by the end. I almost always overwrite by several thousand words and right now, I don't worry if I get to the end and go over or under. Right now, I'm just focused on getting the bones of the story down, which for me at this point consists of mainly dialogue, a few action beats or tags so I can figure out who's speaking, and narrative/introspection.
Stronger setting and sensory descriptions will come later. I am doing all my chapter beginning and ending hooks as I go along, and often have most of those secure before I start.
Last night, when I got near the middle and needed more conflict (since my characters were getting along way too well) I thought of some major wrenches to throw at my characters. What I like to do is put them in a calm, serene scene where everything seems peachy then WHAMMO! Something happens to tilt their equilibrium and chaos erupts.
I'm striving to have conflict on every page if I can, whether it be internal(character against him/herself), external(character against another character or outside force), spiritual(character's faith struggle with church or God or their belief system). Robin Miller and Camy Tang taught me how very important it is to have conflict on every page. If you struggle with this in your writing, and can scrape up the money for an edit from one of these gals, I can almost guarantee what they teach you will help you in all future works of fiction. Plus it will be one of the best things you can do with your money to further your writing career, or calling.
Check out my links to the right for Camy's Story Sensei and Robin's Critique Boutique.
Another author with a wellspring of great writing tips on her site www.margaretdaley.com taught me that it's best to have at least three solid reasons for a scene to be there. If each scene doesn't have at least three reasons for being there, then either build the scene up so you do, or omit it altogether.
So at this point, I'm striving to keep my internal editor off as far as grammar and sentence structure, etc. And focus on making sure my characters are consistant with who I envisioned them, as well as making sure my scenes have sufficient conflict and three reasons for being there.
Some reasons I have/ things I strive to accomplish in a scene:
Hook the reader into the story (opening scene) and keep them reading (ie-hooky chapter beginnings and ends)
Introducing or endearing my characters to readers
Furthering the plot
Ramping conflict
Building on characterization
Revealing character Goal, and Motivation
Advancing the romance
These are just some of the main reasons I write particular scenes. I'm sure there are others, but as I said before, my brain is in story mode and I can't quite think logically when I'm in that deep creative realm.
This morning before I even got out of bed, and while I worked out I prayed for God to give me what He wants me to write today. I prayed He'd help me write real characters that people will remember, because it's very, very important to me for my characters to be memorable. So I really try to do that in my scenes. I also ask Him to let His character flow naturally from the story, through a character's struggle or epyphany or relationship with God that I've fashioned. The relationship, not the God. He's already Supremely fashioned. LOL! See? Told ya my brain was fizz. I'm also asking God to help me think of ways to create a page-turner of a story. I heard a prayer once by someone, and I'm so sorry I cannot remember who said it, or I'd give them credit for it, but they said, "I pray people like my books so well and are so entrenched into the story(my paraphrase) that they walk into poles going down the street because they can't put the book down."
Yes and amen. I'm hoping people need ice packs and a box of tissue when they read mine, too. I hope to evoke emotion and in this stage of the writing spree, that's my goal if even a spark of it. I can perfect it later. The main, number one thing though at this point is just to:
Get the story down. Not getting the story perfect.
Okay, I'm off to write again.
Squirrel
--
www.CherylWyatt.com Gal. 2:20 Pouring my vial of words over Him.
A SOLDIER'S PROMISE~ Steeple Hill Love Inspired~ Jan. 2008
www.Scrollsquirrel.blogspot.com
Friday, January 26, 2007
PLOTSTORM 11
So I'm up to 18, 000 words on the third book in my USAF PJ series. So far the scenes are flowing in order, so it's going faster. I'm averaging about 2000 words an hour, even with chaos erupting in every corner of my house. LOL!
If you don't write this fast, please do not let my speed discourage you. Each writer is different and you have to find your own groove.
Remember I said GONE WITH THE WIND took ten years to write. Ten. And look what a classic that is. So please don't fret if you can't spit a story as fast as I can. I've always been blessed with fast labors. LOL!!!!
But I agonize over the pregnancy. They always give me trouble. In life, in writing. The process for each writer will be different.
For me, the faster I can get the story down, the better the story flows, the more cohesive the plot ends up, and the less scattered and splotchy the story ends up.
Thanks for those of you who helped me figure out who the Sweet Home Alabama guy is.
I talked to my editor via email today and she thuoght as I supected, that I should veer away from any mention of abortion in the story since it's a minor subplot and not a crucial element to the story.
So I've stripped it out and moved onward in the story. Not ony did I strip out that thread, I made her UN-pregnant too. Highlighted that whole scene, about a page and a half, and omitted it. Revisions the easiest thing in the world with delete key. He he.
Of course I didn't read over the scene before cutting it. And for scenes that I just can't bear to delete, I will cut and paste them into a different document titled "Cuts from PJ3" so it doesn't totally feel like I'm getting rid of it. Just transplanting it out of the story. Granted I'll probably never use it anywhere else, but there's always that chance, and it makes edting easier when I don't feel like I've nixed a scene I love completely.
So if something has to go in your ms, you may want to try this method. There is, after all, a method to my madness.
So in this plotstorm, I'm just letting the characters take over. Letting them tell their story. I'm not referring to any of my plot notes, my character charts, because by now I feel I KNOW them.
At this point, the only other thing I have when I write is my laptop, a cup of coffee, a healthy snack, Donald Maas' workbook to "Writing the Breakout Novel" (Thanks Robin!", and my Bible as I go through Chance's spiritual arc. He's coming to a place in the story where he begins to realize he's been seeing God through a clogged filter=giving him a distorted view of God as he is, and himself as God sees him.
I am looking forward to writing his spiritial epiphany. Speaking of....
I'd better get off here and go write again. I'd like to hit 20 k today.
Hope you've found something helpful in my plotstorm.
Please feel free to email me with questions, or post your question in the comments if you have any about how this process works for me. Oh, and did I happen to mention the most important part? I pray, always, always, before one word goes down. I have a team of people praying me through writing this story. Each story really. If you don't have that, I hope that will be your next step. Depending on God to inspire you will do wonders for your writing. I know it has mine.
Praying you find your perfect groove in Him,
Squirrel
--
www.CherylWyatt.com Gal. 2:20 Pouring my vial of words over Him.
A SOLDIER'S PROMISE~ Steeple Hill Love Inspired~ Jan. 2008
www.Scrollsquirrel.blogspot.com
If you don't write this fast, please do not let my speed discourage you. Each writer is different and you have to find your own groove.
Remember I said GONE WITH THE WIND took ten years to write. Ten. And look what a classic that is. So please don't fret if you can't spit a story as fast as I can. I've always been blessed with fast labors. LOL!!!!
But I agonize over the pregnancy. They always give me trouble. In life, in writing. The process for each writer will be different.
For me, the faster I can get the story down, the better the story flows, the more cohesive the plot ends up, and the less scattered and splotchy the story ends up.
Thanks for those of you who helped me figure out who the Sweet Home Alabama guy is.
I talked to my editor via email today and she thuoght as I supected, that I should veer away from any mention of abortion in the story since it's a minor subplot and not a crucial element to the story.
So I've stripped it out and moved onward in the story. Not ony did I strip out that thread, I made her UN-pregnant too. Highlighted that whole scene, about a page and a half, and omitted it. Revisions the easiest thing in the world with delete key. He he.
Of course I didn't read over the scene before cutting it. And for scenes that I just can't bear to delete, I will cut and paste them into a different document titled "Cuts from PJ3" so it doesn't totally feel like I'm getting rid of it. Just transplanting it out of the story. Granted I'll probably never use it anywhere else, but there's always that chance, and it makes edting easier when I don't feel like I've nixed a scene I love completely.
So if something has to go in your ms, you may want to try this method. There is, after all, a method to my madness.
So in this plotstorm, I'm just letting the characters take over. Letting them tell their story. I'm not referring to any of my plot notes, my character charts, because by now I feel I KNOW them.
At this point, the only other thing I have when I write is my laptop, a cup of coffee, a healthy snack, Donald Maas' workbook to "Writing the Breakout Novel" (Thanks Robin!", and my Bible as I go through Chance's spiritual arc. He's coming to a place in the story where he begins to realize he's been seeing God through a clogged filter=giving him a distorted view of God as he is, and himself as God sees him.
I am looking forward to writing his spiritial epiphany. Speaking of....
I'd better get off here and go write again. I'd like to hit 20 k today.
Hope you've found something helpful in my plotstorm.
Please feel free to email me with questions, or post your question in the comments if you have any about how this process works for me. Oh, and did I happen to mention the most important part? I pray, always, always, before one word goes down. I have a team of people praying me through writing this story. Each story really. If you don't have that, I hope that will be your next step. Depending on God to inspire you will do wonders for your writing. I know it has mine.
Praying you find your perfect groove in Him,
Squirrel
--
www.CherylWyatt.com Gal. 2:20 Pouring my vial of words over Him.
A SOLDIER'S PROMISE~ Steeple Hill Love Inspired~ Jan. 2008
www.Scrollsquirrel.blogspot.com
Thursday, January 25, 2007
Blond guy in Sweet Home Alabama movie?
Okay it just hit me who Chance could look like in the face only younger and with lighter blonde hair. I'm having a brain fart, someone please help me. Who was that blond actor who played the lead guy role in Sweet Home Alabama?
Poor Chance...who has no face.....
Come on blog readers...HELP!...give my guy a face?
Squirrel
--
www.CherylWyatt.com Gal. 2:20 Pouring my vial of words over Him.
A SOLDIER'S PROMISE~ Steeple Hill Love Inspired~ Jan. 2008
www.Scrollsquirrel.blogspot.com
--
www.CherylWyatt.com Gal. 2:20 Pouring my vial of words over Him.
A SOLDIER'S PROMISE~ Steeple Hill Love Inspired~ Jan. 2008
www.Scrollsquirrel.blogspot.com
PLOTSTORM 10
Okay, did I happen to mention that with stories....I am a S---L---O----Wwwww starter?
But once I kick it into gear.....
I'm now a little over 8000 words in the PJ 3 book.
Since I know my characters, it's going really, really fast. Unfortunately, remember the outline I mentioned where I mapped out my scenes? Um, yeah...so far I haven't used any of them. Sigh. I do this almost every time. I make a scene index...then the characters take the story in a different direction. I don't know why I spend the time trying to plot or do a plot outline.
I never use it.
Okay, rant over.
I told you I wasn't real happy with my opening. So another writer pal offered to read it. She said it was so boring that she went into a coma...okay, so no she didn't exactly say that. She said she loved my characters and would keep reading because of them.
Read: Slow start. LOL! No actually she said she thought people who hadn't picked up my first two books would think this opening was a bit slow. She had a totally kick-butt idea for a better opening line, which I asked her permission to use. So I'm much happier with the opening hook, or sentence one. YEEE!
So now I'm to about chapter four in the story and I feel I know my characters enough to take them through the rest of the story. Or actually it seems they're taking me the rest of the way since they're not obeying the plot I set out before them.
Anyway, the way I imagine my characters is to fashion them physycally after a celebrity. Doesn't have to be an actor or actress. Can be a singer, or an athlete, etc. Anything just so long as it's someone in the public eye. But I then keep that info to myself. I don't portray that to my readers anymore because some people may not know who George Eads (CSI actor I fashioned Joel after) or Paul Walker (8 Below actor who I fashioned Nolan Briggs after) are. But the thing is, I have to be able, as the author, to really see and hear these characters so I watch movies with them in it as research. Like, I've watched Sharktales for four hours straight one day because one of the characters in my Navy SEAL series (Joker Covelli) has a voice nearly identical to Will Smith. So though he doesn't look like Will Smith (he's latin), he uses the same inflections when speaking. But I got LOTS of compliments on getting Joker's voice down to a fine art and nearly everyone who read that story (Covenant SEAL-my 2005 Noble Theme first place winning story) could tell when Joker was speaking even if they had no beats or tags to identify him. Of course I put beats and tags in there but you get the point. I really, really strive to make my characters real and come to life on that page, and hopefully they will soon eek their way into reader's hearts.
When I can clearly picture and hear the characters, like having a hero look like Vin Deisel but sound like Mathew McConoughey (Sorry I'm probably butchering the spellings) that makes for an interesting combination. Or how about someone who looks like George Clooney but walks with the swagger of John Wayne, etc. You can mix and match mannerisms to voice and physique to a different personality, etc. You can have lots of fun with this.
So in plotstorming this, I'm sort of stuck because this in the only story in which I haven't been able to clearly picture (physically) Chance Garrison. (Hero-PJ 3) I want my PJ's to be as distinct from one another as possible. I know that Chance has light blonde hair, nearly bleach blonde like a surfer dude. And I'm pretty sure he has a sort of boyish quality to his face. So I looked up photos on Google Images, typing in Blonde Male Celebrities. Now, WARNING: You have to be really careful with this because occasionally an image will pop up that is definitely NOT G rated. I have no need to see my characters with their clothes off, and neither does my reader since the house I write for is extremely conservative and careful. I'm talking little to no sensuality in these stories. Because though owned by Harlequin, the imprint I write for is teh Christian Imprint and they are very strict on their content because they have a very conservative readership. So all I need to know is basically height, approx weight, body build type, and mainly what their face and hairstyle looks like. You can tell a lot about a person by their eyes and I go into the most detail about eyes and mouths because every guy's grin is unique. I have one heroine who has almond shaped eyes. I have a hero with ebony eyes that seem to see right through a person.
The eyes are a window to a person's soul so I give more detail to them than almost any other physical aspect. Did I happen to mention you can tell a lot about a person by their eyes. This is just something in my style of writing. You may not be big on eyes in your stories, and that's fine.
Moving onward, so I googled images and went to safe sites to look for pictures and now I kind of have a vague idea of what Chance looks like. I'd like to solidify that before I move too much forward, but I won't let that impede my story. I can always go back and layer in descriptive detail about him. Besides, you really only need to describe your character (usually best to do this from another character's POV) once in order to give your reader a visual to go by. Anything more than that I think can border on overkill. I know some authors who intentionally leave their character description vague so the reader's imagination can form the character how they want. It's up to each writer to decide how to execute this aspect of writing.
I also stumbled on an issue that may be too sensitive a subject to leave in my book. I emailed my editor to ask her. Depending on what she thinks, I may strip out that thread because of two reasons: I'm a newbie author and it would be risky for me to push the envelope. When I've sold several hundred thousand copies of books, like say, twenty books LOL! then I could probably tread into these contraversial areas. My hero had taken his girlfriend to get an abortion in high school and it comes out in the novel. Though it happened eons ago in his life and he's remorseful, the very word abortion can cause contraversy. Plus if I have a reader who's had one, I certainly don't want to bring back memories or make them feel condemned, though I don't preach or patronize about it in the book. My intent with that 2 paragraph scene was to have the heroine overhear that aspect of his past because she never knew that about him. I have a feeling my editor will suggest I nix the entire thread though. If I were a known author, I could probably risk it. We'll see what she says and I'll let you know.
For now, I'll just have to write on or write around that issue, or write a different version of that scene that excludes any mention of abortion. That means I'll have to take the plot in a different direction. And that's okay. It's called revision.
For now, I'm going to press onward with the story and try to solidify what my hero looks like to completion. This will be interesting because I've never delved this far into a book without having a concrete image of my characters. Google Image...here I come! LOL!
More another day,
Squirrel
Okay,
I'm gonna go try to write.
--
www.CherylWyatt.com Gal. 2:20 Pouring my vial of words over Him.
A SOLDIER'S PROMISE~ Steeple Hill Love Inspired~ Jan. 2008
www.Scrollsquirrel.blogspot.com
Wednesday, January 24, 2007
PLOTSTORM 9
I think we're on 9 anyway.
Sorry I haven't been able to blog every day but I've been very busy coordinating American Christian Fiction Writer's contest for published authors. www.ACFW.com
I am now on a first name basis with every DHL, FedEx, and UPS driver in the region. LOL!
My Postmistress was forewarned so she's cool with it. I think. He he. My FIL goes to pick up the books for me since I still can't life after surgery. It's funny because I hear the doorbell chime, go to the door and here stands this stack of boxes with legs. LOL! I can't even see my FIL's face or head due to so many packages of books in his arms.
Anyway, that has nothing whatsoever to do with Plotstorming so let me get back on track.
I've only had about four hours of writing time but in that four hours I've managed to get to 3, 200 words. I'm nearly through Chapter Two.
I'm not really happy with my opening, but I'm REALLY picky about my opening. My first line has to be perfect and I do seriously agonize over it for WEEKS before getting it right. Yes, one sentence causes me such grief. Actually I LOVE coming up with opening hooks and usually scored REALLY high on that in contests. Most people who read my stuff compliment my hooks so the hard work pays off. So I'm semi happy with the opening line but I may end up changing it if something better comes to mind. I groveled over my opening scene for the past two weeks and finally decided to just jot something down to get the story rolling. I may end up going back and revamping the opening because I really feel it is SO important to hook readers. So I agonize over my first chapter....then try to write every chapter as if it were my first. I use hooks to end the chapters and to begin them, but the most important hook is the one in chapter one.
So that's my progress. I am finally getting a better picture of what Chance (my hero) looks like. Since there are 7 USAF PJ's in this series, I want each guy to be as distinct as possible. Since they are all basically Alpha Males and Special Forces Soldiers, they all have some of the same traits and qualities, so it is an extreme challenge to make them each distinct. That's been fun. The hardest part has been deciding Chance's personality and physical appearance. I see the story in my head like a movie in moving picture with color, sights, sounds, everthing so that's how I try to write the story. So my reader can "see" the story like a movie when they read the book. So in order to help my reader picture everything, and feel, hear, see, smell, etc with all their senses, I have to be clear on how things look, smell, etc.
That chasm of constructing words and sentences in such a way to show the reader instead of tell them is one of the hardest things, because I'm not sure until an outside reader reads the story if I'm accomplishing that or not. What I see as a sympathetic character, three out of four judges in a contest thought he was stuffy and rude. So I gave him a personality makeover. I saw him as sensitive and compassionate but obviously that wasn't coming across in the writing. So bridging that chasm between what I see and hear in my mind and portraying that on paper...or in Word actually since I type my stories instead of write longhand...is one of my greatest challenges. And yes I obsess about getting it right because I'm a perfectionist. On the other hand, I know the story will go through many rewrites and revisions before I send it to my agent and editor, so I don't stress on self-editing issues while I'm penning my mess draft. As an author I know says, "No Rules. Just Write."
That's how I am approaching this first draft anyway. The one thing I do is change the font to pink and blue depending on whose POV I am in.
Okay, I plan to write a bunch this week, so hopefully by Saturday, I will have gotten pretty far into my rough draft.
I am writing in scenes at this point. I'll smoothe out the transistions as I go along because I'm anal like that. But as far as adding layers of setting description, and sensory description, the bulk of that will come later. Right now, I'm getting the basic dialogue snippets down and character introspection and their action beats.
Ex:
"You gonna eat that bagel?" (Dialogue snippet)
Shauna shrugged. "Nah. Go ahead."
Nick eyed the bagel with deadly intent. If he ate the last one, would she think him rude? Was she just saying she didn't want it since this was their first date? Most girls didn't like to eat in front of guys on their first dates, right? (<--Introspection) Nick reached for the bagel, tore it down the middle and handed her the biggest half. (<--action beat)
Shauna grinned and pink tinged her cheeks as she took the bagel. "How sweet. Thanks."
Her smile caused his stomach to do a little flipper thing. "You're very welcome," he said. (<-Dialogue tag)
FYI: One thing I used to do and one thing I see many beginning writers do (more beginning than me I mean...he he) is they use many creative words other than plain ol' "said" for dialogue tags. Such as: He Spat, She sputtered. He hissed. She yelled. He countered. She explained. He proclaimed. She argued.
I've heard many, many, many editors say they prefer the use of plain ol said unless you need to use a different tag word for emphasis or to set tone, such as this:
"Did you hear that?" she whispered, crouching behind the barn.
He stilled, nodded and held his arm out, prohibiting her next step. She froze. A flash of light shone through the trees. Like a streak through the yard, he dropped his arm and bolted after the would-be intruder. "Stop!" he yelled, already on the heels of the hulking form.
Okay so that was sort of a cheezy example but you see that "whispered" and "yelled" helped set the tone for the scene.
Another thing newbie (hey, I are one so I should know) writers tend to do is put both a dialogue tag and a beat when only one is necessary.
Here's an example:
"Are you going to the Parent-Teacher Conference after school today?" Miriam asked, leaning against the fence separating her property from her neighbor's.
Trina set the water hose down beside the plants and answered, "I think so. Want to ride together?"
"Sure," Miriam answered, pushing her sleeves up to help her new neighbor pull the overgrown weeds from her flower garden.
That could be rewritten as this:
Blessings,
Squirrel
--
www.CherylWyatt.com Gal. 2:20 Pouring my vial of words over Him.
A SOLDIER'S PROMISE~ Steeple Hill Love Inspired~ Jan. 2008
www.Scrollsquirrel.blogspot.com
Sorry I haven't been able to blog every day but I've been very busy coordinating American Christian Fiction Writer's contest for published authors. www.ACFW.com
I am now on a first name basis with every DHL, FedEx, and UPS driver in the region. LOL!
My Postmistress was forewarned so she's cool with it. I think. He he. My FIL goes to pick up the books for me since I still can't life after surgery. It's funny because I hear the doorbell chime, go to the door and here stands this stack of boxes with legs. LOL! I can't even see my FIL's face or head due to so many packages of books in his arms.
Anyway, that has nothing whatsoever to do with Plotstorming so let me get back on track.
I've only had about four hours of writing time but in that four hours I've managed to get to 3, 200 words. I'm nearly through Chapter Two.
I'm not really happy with my opening, but I'm REALLY picky about my opening. My first line has to be perfect and I do seriously agonize over it for WEEKS before getting it right. Yes, one sentence causes me such grief. Actually I LOVE coming up with opening hooks and usually scored REALLY high on that in contests. Most people who read my stuff compliment my hooks so the hard work pays off. So I'm semi happy with the opening line but I may end up changing it if something better comes to mind. I groveled over my opening scene for the past two weeks and finally decided to just jot something down to get the story rolling. I may end up going back and revamping the opening because I really feel it is SO important to hook readers. So I agonize over my first chapter....then try to write every chapter as if it were my first. I use hooks to end the chapters and to begin them, but the most important hook is the one in chapter one.
So that's my progress. I am finally getting a better picture of what Chance (my hero) looks like. Since there are 7 USAF PJ's in this series, I want each guy to be as distinct as possible. Since they are all basically Alpha Males and Special Forces Soldiers, they all have some of the same traits and qualities, so it is an extreme challenge to make them each distinct. That's been fun. The hardest part has been deciding Chance's personality and physical appearance. I see the story in my head like a movie in moving picture with color, sights, sounds, everthing so that's how I try to write the story. So my reader can "see" the story like a movie when they read the book. So in order to help my reader picture everything, and feel, hear, see, smell, etc with all their senses, I have to be clear on how things look, smell, etc.
That chasm of constructing words and sentences in such a way to show the reader instead of tell them is one of the hardest things, because I'm not sure until an outside reader reads the story if I'm accomplishing that or not. What I see as a sympathetic character, three out of four judges in a contest thought he was stuffy and rude. So I gave him a personality makeover. I saw him as sensitive and compassionate but obviously that wasn't coming across in the writing. So bridging that chasm between what I see and hear in my mind and portraying that on paper...or in Word actually since I type my stories instead of write longhand...is one of my greatest challenges. And yes I obsess about getting it right because I'm a perfectionist. On the other hand, I know the story will go through many rewrites and revisions before I send it to my agent and editor, so I don't stress on self-editing issues while I'm penning my mess draft. As an author I know says, "No Rules. Just Write."
That's how I am approaching this first draft anyway. The one thing I do is change the font to pink and blue depending on whose POV I am in.
Okay, I plan to write a bunch this week, so hopefully by Saturday, I will have gotten pretty far into my rough draft.
I am writing in scenes at this point. I'll smoothe out the transistions as I go along because I'm anal like that. But as far as adding layers of setting description, and sensory description, the bulk of that will come later. Right now, I'm getting the basic dialogue snippets down and character introspection and their action beats.
Ex:
"You gonna eat that bagel?" (Dialogue snippet)
Shauna shrugged. "Nah. Go ahead."
Nick eyed the bagel with deadly intent. If he ate the last one, would she think him rude? Was she just saying she didn't want it since this was their first date? Most girls didn't like to eat in front of guys on their first dates, right? (<--Introspection) Nick reached for the bagel, tore it down the middle and handed her the biggest half. (<--action beat)
Shauna grinned and pink tinged her cheeks as she took the bagel. "How sweet. Thanks."
Her smile caused his stomach to do a little flipper thing. "You're very welcome," he said. (<-Dialogue tag)
FYI: One thing I used to do and one thing I see many beginning writers do (more beginning than me I mean...he he) is they use many creative words other than plain ol' "said" for dialogue tags. Such as: He Spat, She sputtered. He hissed. She yelled. He countered. She explained. He proclaimed. She argued.
I've heard many, many, many editors say they prefer the use of plain ol said unless you need to use a different tag word for emphasis or to set tone, such as this:
"Did you hear that?" she whispered, crouching behind the barn.
He stilled, nodded and held his arm out, prohibiting her next step. She froze. A flash of light shone through the trees. Like a streak through the yard, he dropped his arm and bolted after the would-be intruder. "Stop!" he yelled, already on the heels of the hulking form.
Okay so that was sort of a cheezy example but you see that "whispered" and "yelled" helped set the tone for the scene.
Another thing newbie (hey, I are one so I should know) writers tend to do is put both a dialogue tag and a beat when only one is necessary.
Here's an example:
"Are you going to the Parent-Teacher Conference after school today?" Miriam asked, leaning against the fence separating her property from her neighbor's.
Trina set the water hose down beside the plants and answered, "I think so. Want to ride together?"
"Sure," Miriam answered, pushing her sleeves up to help her new neighbor pull the overgrown weeds from her flower garden.
That could be rewritten as this:
"Are you going to the Parent-Teacher Conference after school today?" Miriam leaned against the fence separating her property from her neighbor's.
Trina set the water hose down beside the plants. "I think so. Want to ride together?"
"Sure," Miriam answered. She pushed her sleeves up to help her new neighbor pull the overgrown weeds from her flower garden.
"Great!" Trina smiled.
Since I have action beats there, denoting the speaker by each new paragraph, I don't really need the "Said" or "answered" or any other tag. Likewise, if you say, "said," you don't actually need a beat if you've sifficiently shown the reader the character's stance and action and established the setting for that snippet. You want to be sure not to have very long stints of dialogue with tons of tags but no beats though. That's called "talking heads" and makes it hard for the reader to:
Keep track of who's talking.
Picture your character and what they're doing at that moment.
Hope this helps you in your journey.
Blessings,
Squirrel
--
www.CherylWyatt.com Gal. 2:20 Pouring my vial of words over Him.
A SOLDIER'S PROMISE~ Steeple Hill Love Inspired~ Jan. 2008
www.Scrollsquirrel.blogspot.com
Tuesday, January 16, 2007
PLOTSTORM 8
Okay, so I was on the phone with another writer buddy today who does my presubmission line edits (waving to Robin) and we were talking about giving my heroine a quirk that stands out. Because the heroine in my last book had such a strong personality, I don't want my new heroine to pale in comparision, so today in plotstorming, I'm thinking of ways to layer my characters. Things to give them more depth, and show readers (without making it obvious that's what I'm trying to do) that how Bits (heroine) feels on the inside is way different than how she acts outwardly.
So we discussed what quirk we could give her, something she does, thinks, or says when she's nervous or mad or feeling insecure.
Bubbles. She's all about bubbles. She blows bubbles for stress relief and she always chews bubble gum. Always. She's a hefty gal who is not at all happy with herself. She's discontent. But to look at her outwardly, you'd think she's happy because she's boisterous and bubbly and laughs loud and often. But inside, she's self-conscious and always questioning what others think of her. She's also very envious of skinny girls...to an extreme. To their faces, she's nice and sweet, but inside she's thinking thoughts and wishing for the day gravity takes its toll on their bodies and that they'd suddenly have a surge in weight. Like about a hundred pounds pronto. LOL!
So I'm envisioning a scene where she's talking to a lithe, female Drop Zone employee, and blows a bubble, letting it pop loudly. Nearly to the point that it could be borderline rude. Of course Bits is doing it on purpose to pacify and amuse herself, but then to cover it up, she puts smiles sweetly and acts gushy nice so no one suspects her secret thoughts.
I may end up hating my heroine if I can't execute this and still make her a likable, sympathetic character who seems real and like they have credible dimension. I want to make her compassionate, but she struggles with envy big time.
Incidentally, I just had an email pop up from my small group leader from my church who said in the email that this week's discussion is going to be on "contentment." LOL~
SO that's where I am in the plotstorming. Just talking through this in a conversational manner and hoping it's not choppy or confusing. Just trying to let you guys into my mind so you can see how the story comes together for me. Hope there's something in these plotstorming sessions that you can use.
When I start writing my rough draft, I may be sparse, but will pop in occasionally to let you know how it's going in regards to the plotstorm and working everything in that I came up with.
When I'm writing, I normally don't get on a computer that has email. I seclude myself from any distraction save my family. I bribe them for a few days writing time in which I can get the book done. LOL! But if you wonder how I can get an entire book written in a matter of days (8 days for book 1, 4 days for book 2). I prepare meals the week ahead of time, so they can be thawed out and baked and I save up casey's free pizza tabs too. LOL! So my cooking time is minimal that week I'm writing. I give my house a good cleaning before, and then after I write the book because it bugs me to have to write with clutter around me.
So that's what I did the last four days, clean from top to bottom. Clean out my desk, etc. Gather my research materials close. That consists of webpages, emails printed from my military sources, reference books on skydiving, and USAF PJ's, and Biblical notes on envy, contentment, etc. I am preparing to hybernate from outside activities, save church, and have stocked up on groceries so I don't have to shop for two weeks. Basically trying to set myself up for no interruptions.
Of course if someone gets sick that will change things, because my family is my priority, but I've spent a couple weeks away from the computer when my children are home from school, paying specialized attention, so they will be more merciful when I go to write my mess draft. I will have no TV, No IM time, No checking email even. I go digest on most loops and stay off the message boards I frequent, such as www.steeplehill.com
I cut myself off from all that temptation in order to get the book done. So if I'm gone for a few days from here, you'll know I'm diving in. When I come back up for air, I'll talk through the writing of the mess draft. I may break my "no online time" rule just to pop in a few times in order to post my word count or something.
As it stands now, I have a few scenes etched in a couple wordpad documents. About 2100 words. I need to aim for 60,000-65,000 words, so you see I have the entire book, save 2000 words, to write.
Any questions, feel free to email. I'll reconnect with you as soon as I come up for air.
Squirrel
--
www.CherylWyatt.com Gal. 2:20 Pouring my vial of words over Him.
A SOLDIER'S PROMISE~ Steeple Hill Love Inspired~ Jan. 2008
www.Scrollsquirrel.blogspot.com
--
www.CherylWyatt.com Gal. 2:20 Pouring my vial of words over Him.
A SOLDIER'S PROMISE~ Steeple Hill Love Inspired~ Jan. 2008
www.Scrollsquirrel.blogspot.com
Monday, January 15, 2007
PLOTSTORM 7
Sorry I've been MIA for several days, but let's play catch up.
I brainstormed with my two author friends, which basically consisted of me telling them what I had so far, and then them shooting ideas at me. So both of them felt I'm at a point where I should just start writing the story and let the characters take over, since I've developed them fairly well.
Here's a great example of how God often comes alongside me, (or actually, brings me alongside Himself is how it usually works..LOL!) to help me plotstorm. I mean, He's the most important person in my life, and the entire reason I write, well besides for my future readers. Hee hee. Anyway, so His input is extremely valuable.
I was praying about my books theme, which I also usually like to have prior to penning my mess draft. (What I call my first draft--just ask Camy and Robin why it's called a mess draft...sigh.) Anyway, I like to be able to sum the theme of a story up in one word. So what I wanted with this was "Balance."
The heroine needs to learn the balance of contentment, and the hero needs to learn the balance that seeing God rightly can bring to his life.
So I looked up scriptures that will potentially be the scripture theme verse for the book. A couple days ago, after praying about the book's theme, and knowing it needed to be "balance" I go to weekend service at church and theyr'e talking about guess what?
Yep. Balance. Hee he. I just love when this happens because I felt it was confirmation, and believe me my hand was heating the paper taking notes.
THEN, earlier before the night service, there was a womens' event at church in which the speaker did a magnificent job of discussing what?
Contentment....and balance.
Cool, eh?
So even though I don't have all the scenes in sharp focus, I have some major ones etched in my brain, enough to start the story.
So what I will do now is morph into a panster. I will wait until I have a few days of uninterrupted time (yeah right...what's that?) and WRITE. Just get the bones of the story down. It flows better if I can write the rough draft in under a couple of weeks. Yes, you heard right. But don't feel bad if your rough draft takes years to write. We are all different and you have to do what works for you. Think of food...pot roast would taste nasty after being mirowaved..but slow-cook that baby all day and WOW! YUM! Delicious. Some stories NEED to be slow-broiled over time. So if you're more of a crockpot writer than a microwaver...fear not. I heard somewhere, wish I could remember where, that it took the author of Gone with the Wind TEN years to write that story....and look what a classic it is.
Now, my research is a different story. I reasearch a series for literally YEARS before writing begins and the research is then ongoing. 2-5 years is avg research time for me. I've crash-coursed a research for a book in 6 m to a year, but I did not at all feel as secure about that book, and will probably double and triple check my research and let the story gel prior to subbing.
Anyway, that's where we're at with plotstorming.
An questions, feel free to email me.
Squirrel
Monday, January 08, 2007
PLOTSTORM 6
I mentioned I had two friends I was going to plotstorm/brainstorm this book with. Last night, one friend and I brainstormed until the wee hours...and I had such a BLAST. We were laughing (on the phone at first) SO hard my husband evicted me from our bedroom. Sigh. So I tiptoed into the living room and Pammer www.pamela-james.com and I continued our brainstorm via IM. I feel MUCH more confident about the story now, and am looking forward to diving into this story, rather than dreading it, or feeling at a loss as to the direction to go. Tuesday evening I'll brainstorm with another friend and Love Inspired author www.margaretdaley.com who can help me determine if what Pammer and I came up with last night is workable, plausible, and acceptible to my publisher's guildelines, etc. etc.
So how did the brainstorm go?
I told Pammer my basic premise, and let her know the story set up. I introduced her to my characters (verballly speaking) by way of telling her their backgrounds and the roles they played, or the appearances they made in books one and two.
You may remember my mentioning the novel I'm plotstorming is book three in a series.
So after I brought her up to speed, she began asking me questions to get me to think, and to help offer suggestions. Some of her questions were:
What's your hero's goal? (His goal is to help his sister heal from an assaut.)
Why does he want this? (Because his parents were killed in a car accident when he and his sister were young and they were shuffled from house to house and they only have each other now.)
What were his parent like? (Before they died, they were solidly loving and stable.)
What does hero believe about God? (Hero went to church a couple of times when he was young, may have even made a decision but he guesses it "never took" or that "God forgot about him in the shuffle of life" because He let his parents die and he and his sister be separated, the ONE thing Chance asked God for was to keep them together.
Is your heroine a Christian? Which one of them is the stronger Christian? (Yes, in the beginning of the book she's the stronger Christian but the spiritual arc is such that she begins to be deceived, and hero recognizes it. In the process of studying the Bible, and asking Christians how to help her, he comes to a relationship with Jesus and understanding God never actually abandoned him. So at one point in the story, he's seeking God more than she is and helps bring her back when she gets caught up in her body image to the point it becomes an idol, and being involved in things that subltly steal her simple devotion to Jesus.)
We discussed a few scenes, (some HILARIOUS), then talked about the heroine. We came up with a goal for her: That she wanted to be healthy because someone in her family recently had a stroke. She gets her cholesterol checked and realizes it's dangerously high, and wants to be healthy.
Pammer asked what the relationship conflict was. (Relationship conflict is mostly on Chance's part. He's the resistant one to the relationship for several reasons. He doesn't think he's good enough for her. He knows his sister needs to heal and needs the heroine's friendship to do so. He fears if he and the heroine date and end up breaking up, that will compromise his sister's friendship with the heroine, which will be detrimental to his sister's healing. It's no secret to any of their friends that heroine is head over for the hero, but he only sees her as a friend.
We brainstormed some other stuff, but mostly went over GMC. (Two main character's goals (What they want), motivation (why they want it), and conflict (what keeps them from getting it.)
I now have a good handle on both my hero and heroine's goals and motivations, but I'm still a little sketchy on the conflcits which will arise to challenge their goals. Hopefully Tuesday I'll have all the bugs worked out and can dive into the story.
Indidentally, I critted a book recently, by Camy Tang www.Camytang.com which floored me in the sense of how she kept upping the stakes and adding conflict. Her book will release from Zondervan some time this year or next, and would be an excellent study in creating character conflict.
More another day.
Thanks for stopping by my blog!
Squirrel
--
www.CherylWyatt.com Gal. 2:20 Pouring my vial of words over Him.
A SOLDIER'S PROMISE~ Steeple Hill Love Inspired~ Jan. 2008
www.Scrollsquirrel.blogspot.com ]=9998644322312`
So how did the brainstorm go?
I told Pammer my basic premise, and let her know the story set up. I introduced her to my characters (verballly speaking) by way of telling her their backgrounds and the roles they played, or the appearances they made in books one and two.
You may remember my mentioning the novel I'm plotstorming is book three in a series.
So after I brought her up to speed, she began asking me questions to get me to think, and to help offer suggestions. Some of her questions were:
What's your hero's goal? (His goal is to help his sister heal from an assaut.)
Why does he want this? (Because his parents were killed in a car accident when he and his sister were young and they were shuffled from house to house and they only have each other now.)
What were his parent like? (Before they died, they were solidly loving and stable.)
What does hero believe about God? (Hero went to church a couple of times when he was young, may have even made a decision but he guesses it "never took" or that "God forgot about him in the shuffle of life" because He let his parents die and he and his sister be separated, the ONE thing Chance asked God for was to keep them together.
Is your heroine a Christian? Which one of them is the stronger Christian? (Yes, in the beginning of the book she's the stronger Christian but the spiritual arc is such that she begins to be deceived, and hero recognizes it. In the process of studying the Bible, and asking Christians how to help her, he comes to a relationship with Jesus and understanding God never actually abandoned him. So at one point in the story, he's seeking God more than she is and helps bring her back when she gets caught up in her body image to the point it becomes an idol, and being involved in things that subltly steal her simple devotion to Jesus.)
We discussed a few scenes, (some HILARIOUS), then talked about the heroine. We came up with a goal for her: That she wanted to be healthy because someone in her family recently had a stroke. She gets her cholesterol checked and realizes it's dangerously high, and wants to be healthy.
Pammer asked what the relationship conflict was. (Relationship conflict is mostly on Chance's part. He's the resistant one to the relationship for several reasons. He doesn't think he's good enough for her. He knows his sister needs to heal and needs the heroine's friendship to do so. He fears if he and the heroine date and end up breaking up, that will compromise his sister's friendship with the heroine, which will be detrimental to his sister's healing. It's no secret to any of their friends that heroine is head over for the hero, but he only sees her as a friend.
We brainstormed some other stuff, but mostly went over GMC. (Two main character's goals (What they want), motivation (why they want it), and conflict (what keeps them from getting it.)
I now have a good handle on both my hero and heroine's goals and motivations, but I'm still a little sketchy on the conflcits which will arise to challenge their goals. Hopefully Tuesday I'll have all the bugs worked out and can dive into the story.
Indidentally, I critted a book recently, by Camy Tang www.Camytang.com which floored me in the sense of how she kept upping the stakes and adding conflict. Her book will release from Zondervan some time this year or next, and would be an excellent study in creating character conflict.
More another day.
Thanks for stopping by my blog!
Squirrel
--
www.CherylWyatt.com Gal. 2:20 Pouring my vial of words over Him.
A SOLDIER'S PROMISE~ Steeple Hill Love Inspired~ Jan. 2008
www.Scrollsquirrel.blogspot.com ]=9998644322312`
Sunday, January 07, 2007
PLOTSTORM 5
Okay, we discussed with my last Plotstorm post that I needed to delve deeper into my characters in order to continue plotting the book. Yesterday, I filled out some of those character worksheets I mentioned. How I format my character worksheet is I have a list of questions, then a blank beside it so I can just fill it out. Below, I will put a few of the questions I have in my character worksheets. Only a few because I have literally HUNDREDS of questions for each character. I don't always fill out every blank, just what I think will help me round him/her out and tell their story.
Like this:
This method works for me because I am a list person.
I would like to note that I also learn about my characters as the story goes along. Once I know them strong enough to kickstart their story, they usually take over and I'm constantly surprised at some of the things they do and how they react and decisions they make.
That said, you want to be sure to keep your character "in character." Meaning, if I have a hero who can be described as "generous" then put him in a scene where someone in his life is in dire need, not a con artist, leech, loser or user (lol!), and he has the means to help but hearltessly doesn't....that would be "out of character" for him.
Okay, more another day.
Squirrel
--
www.CherylWyatt.com Gal. 2:20 Pouring my vial of words over Him.
A SOLDIER'S PROMISE~ Steeple Hill Love Inspired~ Jan. 2008
www.Scrollsquirrel.blogspot.com
Like this:
- Character's name______________
- Hair color____________________hair style___________________
- Eye color and shape______________________
- Body physique/type/height/approx weight_______________________
- Greatest dream______________________________________
- Greatest fear________________________________________
- Greatest accomplishment in their eyes_____________________
- Describe their relationship with God_______________________
- Current career________________________
- Education____________________________
- Personality type_______________________
- How their friends would describe them (three words)_________________
- How they'd describe themselves (three words)______________________
- Family history___________________________
- Relationship history_______________________
- Traumatic events that have shaped them_____________________
- etc, etc, etc.
This method works for me because I am a list person.
I would like to note that I also learn about my characters as the story goes along. Once I know them strong enough to kickstart their story, they usually take over and I'm constantly surprised at some of the things they do and how they react and decisions they make.
That said, you want to be sure to keep your character "in character." Meaning, if I have a hero who can be described as "generous" then put him in a scene where someone in his life is in dire need, not a con artist, leech, loser or user (lol!), and he has the means to help but hearltessly doesn't....that would be "out of character" for him.
Okay, more another day.
Squirrel
--
www.CherylWyatt.com Gal. 2:20 Pouring my vial of words over Him.
A SOLDIER'S PROMISE~ Steeple Hill Love Inspired~ Jan. 2008
www.Scrollsquirrel.blogspot.com
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
