Writers as Readers A Catty piece by Christine Duncan

Before I get to my rant for today, I wanted to shout from the mountain tops! Safe House is out in print. You can find it on the Trebleheart book site, or it should be on Amazon and the other usual places soon.

We’ve discussed this before but a recent discussion on a writing forum brought another dimension to this discussion that I hadn’t previously considered. As many of you who saw my original post on the subject know, I am more than a little appalled by writers who don’t read. Or who can’t be bothered to read much. And yes, there were those in this  discussion who proudly proclaimed that they weren’t readers.
But the rest of the discussion was the part I hadn’t thought much about.  Some of these writers wanted to read but since they had learned so much about the craft itself, were unable to find books that interested them. Many times they were forced to put books down because of the craft problems.
Frankly, I don’t think I’ve ever done that. It’s not that I don’t read some terrible stuff. I do. But then something in me kicks in to wonder why the book sold despite its obvious problems. And the writing part of me is busily re-writing to avoid the problems. The what if syndrome.
I don’t know that it helps my writing any. But it makes me feel superior. :->
And I can sympathize with the reasoning behind those writers who can’t find much worth reading.  Sometimes you don’t want to pick a piece apart. You just want to lose yourself in a good book.
As to the writers who don’t read. I think their excuse is universal. They all seem to think they have something to give. What I want to know is, if they don’t read, how do they know it hasn’t already been done to death?
Are you a reader? Do you think it helps your writing?

Those 4am thoughts.

.It’s the 4am thoughts that are the worst. If I happen to wake around that hour, I will lie there, and all the worst, most depressing thoughts and feelings will bubble to the surface, and lay there, dragging me down to the depths of despair. I lie in my bed, in the dull grey pre-dawn light, and I cannot help but go over all my failures, all my defeats, and that’s when I truly believe that I will ever succeed, never be published, or even sell a single story.

I used to think I was the only one who felt like that at 4am, and that was I was feeling was honest truth – I would fail, I wasn’t good enough, nothing I did was ever going to be good enough.

Then I discovered that everyone feels like that at 4am. That’s the time when most deaths occur. For some reason, that is the time when the human spirit is at it’s lowest, and almost anyone who finds themselves awake at this time feels despair and weakness.

So I cope with these draining, depressing 4am thoughts by planning. And this week I had a lot to plan. Time to send off some work, to finally stuff those envelopes and get the stories out there. And even if the answer was no, at least I was DOING something, not just wishing and hoping. All that planning proved a good antidote, and I happily drifted back off to sleep.

Of course, when I woke up, I’d caught a virus, leaving me too exhausted to do anything but sit there, staring into space (and it turns out the virus was the reason I woke up at 4am in the first place – along with 2, 3 and 5am).

But plans have been deferred, not cancelled. My work is printed out and in nice little piles, waiting to be posted. And if I wake up at 4am again, I can plan out my covering letter, instead of sinking into those dreaded, deadening thoughts.

When is it too much stress? by Karen Fainges

We all have very busy lives. Sometimes it gets a bit too much. So how do you tell when you have writer’s cramp or you are just too stressed out to write?

Everyone has different symptoms. The main thing is to become aware of yours. Do you start biting your nails, or scratch at skin irritations? Do you get cold sores or catch every sniffle going around? My husband worries every time I listen to a particular piece of music or watch a certain video. For some reason I return to them like a child’s comforting blanket without even being aware of it sometimes.

And sometimes, despite taking care of yourself, things happen that make it all too hard. When that happens – you have to take care of yourself. Make that doctor’s appointment or visit to a counsellor. Stress is a medical condition just like a cold or a broken leg. Just like those, sometimes you have to take medicine and healing takes time. Don’t discount it just because it is something you can’t see.

Now those empathic ones amongst you are thinking – ah, she has had to deal with stress. Yep, diagnosed with depression. And guilty of letting it go on way too long. Don’t let yourself drag on, get help. It is actually a really good feeling when you realise, ‘ hey  a lot of people feel like this’.

It is possible to stop feeling down and get back on your feet. It isn’t just a normal part of a busy life, but something you have to work at, just like keeping to a diet, or regular exercise. And then everything – including writing becomes easier.

Winging It? by Christine Duncan

This post is a bit of a gripe and is not related what I was trying to say last week. But do you ever sit down to a deadline (for say, your blog) knowing you have to write something and yet you have no idea what to write?

Uh huh. Me too. There are some days when it feels as though every topic, every thought in my head is already covered and copyrighted somewhere by someone else. And yet, I have to write something. I tend to go looking for ideas at Crimespace or in my research when that happens. Or I go looking through my hard drive. Often I have jotted a note down somewhere about a blog topic that I ‘ve thought of but don’t have the time to research or write about just then. Yet many bloggers and tweeters seem to just…write whatever comes into their heads.

Over the years there have been a number of writing exercises out there like this. You know, the warm-ups where you sit down and just write with out stopping, without censorship, without planning it out-whatever you’re thinking about at the time so that once you’ve done your ten (or fifteen or whatever) minutes, you will be primed to write on your WIP. I believe Bird by Bird has an exercies like this, and I’m sure I’ve seen it in writing magazines and the like.

It may prime the pump, folks but it’s not necessarily great reading. I don’t want to read blogs just for the sake of reading. I don’t what to see tweets on the clouds you just saw outside your window. Hey! I’ve got my own clouds.

K-Love quoted a study out this week stating that 40% of all Tweets out there are about the minutia. (Okay, they were nicer–they didn’t use the word minutia. I’m paraphrasing, okay?) I have to say, if all you got to write about is what the cute girl who was riding past you on the bike was wearing, I’d rather you took a blog/tweet vacation. I’ll catch you later. I promise.

Go ahead. Tell me I’m cranky. I know it.

Dropbox: Online storage by Jeanne St. James

It’s devastating to lose your hard work, whether it is one chapter or several manuscripts. As writers, we are always reminded by others (who have experienced that loss) to backup your data. For a long time, I was emailing myself my work and putting it on a second computer. BUT, I wanted something that would synchronize both computers, to make sure that I had the latest file (I frequently got confused which computer had the most recent file).

Then one day on Twitter (I love that site) someone mentioned Dropbox. My cyber-ears pricked up. A way to have online backup storage and a way to synchronize my laptop and my desktop for FREE? That’s for me!

Some of the benefits of using Dropbox (besides getting 2 GB of storage for free) are:

• You can publicly share files and photos.
• You can access your files from any computer with Internet access
• You can synchronize multiple computers automatically
• You can drag and drop files to Dropbox
• You can recover deleted or previous versions of files
• You can upgrade (for a fee) up to 50 GB of storage

Once you have Dropbox installed on your computer(s) and you connect to their server, Dropbox is just like any other folder on your computer. You simply drag and drop to move files around.  Any files or folders that are uploaded to Dropbox will immediately be synchronized within your account. Dropbox also keeps track of every change made to the contents of your storage and any changes are instantly updated to all computers linked to the account.

The Dropbox web interface also remembers all the changes you make to your files and allows you to restore to any previous versions of the file. You can even undelete files you may have accidentally (or not-so-accidentally) erased.

If desired, every individual folder can be shared with other people and the people you allow access to that shared folder can add, edit, and delete the contents inside but can’t access anything outside of that specific folder. In terms of writers, this file sharing system is perfect for critique partners to access each other’s works, or for writers who collaborate on manuscripts.

You are also able to share files with non-Dropbox users by using a public folder, which is made accessible by a hyperlink. This gives writers the option of making their excerpts, blurbs, and other information on their upcoming releases available to potential readers.

I keep all of my manuscripts and “works in progress” in separate folders like I would on my computer. It’s easy and organized. I love it. So get rid of the flash drives and stop emailing your files. Give Dropbox a try!

You can try Dropbox at http://www.getdropbox.com/

Jeanne St. James is an erotic romance author who loves to write about an Alpha male. Especially one in uniform: cops, Feds, or even football players! She resides in south central Pennsylvania near Hershey chocolate and the Amish. Her hot and steamy contemporary romances can include a male/female, a menage (male/male/female) or male/male relationship. It depends on what’s floating her boat at the moment. She has two releases in Fall of 2009: a m/f contemporary, Banged Up, with Liquid Silver Books (September 21st) and a m/m/f menage, Double Dare, with Loose Id (November).

You can find her on the web at www.jeannestjames.com. Also, come friend her on Facebook, MySpace and Twitter. Check out her blog for her upcoming events and great guest authors.

The hope and the terror

. I have re-written the third chapter of my book, which means, with a synopsis, I am ready to start sending it out.

This is the book I tried to get published over ten years ago (now very re-written)– the very first piece of original work I sent out there. I know so much more this time. I know the synopsis needs to be full, not just a line a chapter. I know to try a few agents and publishers, not just one I’ve picked out of the Writers Handbook (I know it’s probably better to use agents, but I’m stubbornly independent, and would rather deal directly with a publisher if possible. Still, I will try agents this time). I know to include another envelope of the correct size, and postage. But most of all, this time I’m not afraid.

That seems like an odd statement. Yet my overwhelming memory of the blazing hot sunny day ten years ago that I sent off my very first manuscript is of utter terror. I stood in front of the postal box, envelope in hand, shaking in fear, waves of cold washing over me.

I’m not quite sure what I was afraid of. Rejection? Criticism? New responsibilities, new roles? Aiming for something higher, something different from anything Id aimed at before, and failing?

I still don’t know. But as I stood there, I snapped at myself ‘What’s the worse that can happen? They can’t actually kill you!’ and posted my manuscript.

I was not published. The note that came back with my manuscript said the fantasy market was over-crowded (Harry Potter had only just been published, the Lord of the Rings movies weren’t out yet, and Philip Pullman, Lemony Snicket et al was still to come, so fantasy was still a niche market) but my work showed promise, and I should not give up.

It was a probably a standard note. But it wasn’t a ‘no’ and it wasn’t a blazing criticism, and it wasn’t mockery. It was hope – faint and indistinct, barely there, but hope of a sort.

Now when I send off a manuscript, my overwhelming feeling is of hope. But there will always be a faint trace of that paralyzing fear.

Using What You’ve Got by Christine Duncan

Are you ever not in the mood to write whatever it is you’re writing? I’m not talking about writer’s block here, but just those times where your life is not paralleling your book. So your next logical scene is a love scene but you’re in a foot stomping, let-me-at-’em mood and do not want to even think romance right now.
I seldom write linearly for just that reason. I have to work myself up to write scary (or even very sad) parts and some days I just don’t want to deal with feeling scared or sad. Lots of people force themselves to sit down and write it anyway. I figure there will be a day coming up when it will feel okay so I just go on to another part that I know must be coming.
Since I don’t outline, this is more difficult than it sounds. Sometimes this has resulted in the book taking turns that I never anticipated. Sometimes, it means that I waste a day writing something that will never see the light of day. But usually, I know in a general way where things are going. For instance, in my present WIP, my character has been building to having it out with her teenage daughter. If I’m feeling cranky (or chippy, if you’re Canadian) today, I can write that scene instead of the Christmas scene that I should be writing if I were keeping it in logical order.
The other trick to doing this is to somehow name or number the scene so that it is in your file somewhere near where you think you are going to need it. When I go back and do the next draft I put everything together and I may forget that I have written certain scenes. (Yeah, I’ve done it more than once.) So I have learned to have a file on the computer titled scenes I’m using. In it, I put the stuff that is out of order. The rest of the book is in (semi) chapter order with a file for each chapter. All of it is in one big folder with one folder per book.
I try to title the out of order scenes in some way so that I can figure out what the heck they are about. It makes putting everything together a little easier.
I would like to think that I am organized but the truth is, I seldom am. So I have learned to compensate and use what I’ve got. And if what I’ve got is a bad mood–well, better to take it out on the characters, right? And I get to stay productive.

To swear or not to swear

. Don’t worry, I won’t swear in this.

Swearing is an incredibly divisive issue. Some people are more offended by swearing than by sex or violence. Others think they’re just words, and people shouldn’t be offended by words. Still others think that swearing, whilst it isn’t meaningless, is sometimes necessary – if your hero’s house burns down, his dog dies and his wife runs off with the gardener and his only reaction is ‘oh dear’ – well, it seems a bit unrealistic.

The point of a swear word is that it usually a short sharp word that expels air. Say a few swear words, and feel the force of it – it’s blunt, and expressive. Even when we don’t know a language, we can usually recognise a swear word because of the way it sounds. It expresses a feeling no other word can, simply because of the way it feels when it is said.

In the written word, there are tricks to get around swearing. Lines such as ’she swore, expressively and fluently’ or ‘he used a word he would never have used in front of his mother’. They get the point across whilst avoiding the offensive word. Although taking that path means you miss the force and power of a really well chosen swear word.

Screenplays can be more tricky. It can be impossible to get away without swearing, in some situations. However, swearing can be overused, and lose it’s power. I saw a film recently where the main character said the f word twenty times in the first five minutes. After the first three, it was irritating. After five, it was boring. And by the end of it, I realised that the writer was using it so often because he lacked the skills to make his character seem dark and dangerous any other way. But the incessant swearing didn’t make the character dark or dangerous – it just made him boring.

The BBC series Spooks also uses the f word – but only once or twice a season. This means, when it’s used, that moment has incredible impact.

Do i swear? In real life, I swear like a drunken sailor on his last night’s leave in Portsmouth. In writing, I tend not to. I find it lazy, and normally pointless. But occasionally, my characters have no choice but to let slip that short sharp shock of a word.

The choice to swear or not is up to you. But do remember, these are words with more power to them – both because of what they represent, and what they sound like, so use them with skill and wisdom.

Rethinking the editing process

Let me be honest, until four days ago, my fiction manuscript (Plan B) had remained partially edited and untouched for a little over a year.  *sigh*

There are a number of reasons for this but the most relevant is that I don’t like editing. 

I find editing to be finicky, annoying and a total buzz kill.  It’s a function of the left brain so it’s analytical, critical and has all those sticky rules (grammar, punctuation, writing technique etc).  Editing is like a drill Sergeant with highly polished boots and a pristine uniform who marches up, clicks its heels, calls my story to attention and expects to be saluted. *sniff*

The creative writing process on the other hand is the right brain’s playground.  It’s like a free flowing hippie, happily twirling barefoot in the meadow with a flower tucked behind its ear.  It doesn’t care about rules, limits or conforming. 

The disparity between these two functions is clear.

Back to the edit of Plan B.  When I opened the file on Saturday, I noticed that I’d stopped editing a point where the story becomes laboured and dull.  This section of the book needs to either be deleted or edited right down.   I think my drill Sergeant and my hippie have been at a standoff over this matter and I didn’t even realise. 

What to do?

I’ve pondering over the past few days and decided that I’m going to rename and reframe the process from editing which sounds cold and harsh to restyling which sounds soft and more forgiving.  I’m hoping that I can negotiate a restyle which removes the slower chapters (they’ve really got to go) but create fun new chapters so that I end up with the same word count.

Elevator Pitch by Christine Duncan

The elevator pitch is useful to a writer at just about any stage. If you really want to sell your book–work on your elevator pitch. If the book is published but you’re trying to interest readers,(sell your book) work on your elevator speech.

The difference is, I think it’s easier when you’re not published yet. The elevator speech for an unpubbed writer should be short–really short. And it should be fun and pique interest. Think of it as a tweet for Twitter. Okay that sounds hard if you got a complicated plot and hero/heroine. But it’s important. You’ll use the elevator speech at conferences where you are trying to interest editors and agents and you use it in your cover letter. So it’s a little intimidating. You don’t want to stammer here.

Trust me though. Perfecting an elevator pitch tends to boil down what you think is important about your novel. That can really help you when you’re sitting down to write too–almost like goal statements, it tends to concentrate things. I know one writer who keeps her elevator pitch right in front, taped to her monitor so she doesn’t veer off track.

If you’re wondering why it should be so important consider this scenario: You come in and sit down in front of an editor stammering, “Well, uh, my work in progress is about this guy who ah, he doesn’t like himself much and ah….” (Yeah, the editor is bored already,and if you weren’t sweating it so badly, you would be too.) Or you can say, “I’ve got a techno-vampire mystery where the hero is troubled by his vampirism, has a mortal love interest who isn’t aware of his problem and is also trying to track down some guy killing all the vampires.”

Not that that is a wonderful elevator speech, but it tells genre and sub-cross genres, gives a bit of the plot, tells the editor you know where you’re going. And you can actually spit it out if you do accidentally meet an editor in an elevator. .

By the time you’re published, people want longer elevator pitches. The typical one I’m asked for now is for radio, so it is usually around two minutes. You know, you can say a heck of a lot in two minutes. Or not enough. It takes practice.

Give it a try. Try it out on us! Give us your elevator speech.