What Parts Do You Skip? by Christine Duncan

When I was a little kid, I loved to read, but I always skimmed the description. To me, all of the action was in what the people had to say. So when I grew up and was trying to write my first book, and heard the famous Elmore Leonard quote:”Leave out the parts people skip.” I thought I knew what the heck the guy meant.

The more I write, the less I think so.

When I ask friends about their reading habits, turns out the parts people skip can be worlds different than just what the character was wearing that day. One of my friends confessed to me lately that she had read a book by three authors working together. The book was written in three points of view and my friend loved…only one. You guessed it, she paged through the book and kept reading only that one pov. She claims she got the gist of the whole book. When I looked at her funny, she said, “I hate when authors do that. Why do authors make you fall in love with one character and then change like that?”

When I thought about it, I understood what she meant. When we begin a book, we have to like the person whose viewpoint we’re in. We’re planning on spending some time with them. I also find it jarring to find myself switching to another character. (Although I must say, when it came to the multi-viewpoint story she described, I think I would have tried to read it.)

I have often thought about writing a book that way since I tend to write short anyway. Think about it, you could combine a couple of the stories you have really wanted to write and weave them together. And it does seem like a nifty way to co-author stuff with your friends. But the conversation with this friend talked me out of that brilliant idea.

Another friend admits to getting maybe half-way or more into a mystery and then peeking at the end. If it doesn’t end the way she thinks it should, she shuts the book. Her explanation? “I don’t need to be pulled down by a book. I have enough to deal with. If the book isn’t going to have a happy ending, then I’m moving on.”

That one puzzles me a bit, I must say. Skipping the whole middle to last part of the book? C’mon! You can tell if it’s one of those dark worlds well before you get that far and move onto cozies (or romances or comedies or….) But then writers often complain about writing the middle too–maybe it comes through the writing?

So what do you skip? And how does it affect your writing?

No blog, just a sick note.

. I’m afraid this week, I have been suffering a rather virulent flu (despite getting the flu jab), and so, am not capable of writing anything longer than quick Twitter posts, and certainly not anything intelligent. I suppose I could write something about how micro-blogging keeps me writing at difficult times, but it wouldn’t make any sense. Maybe next time. In the meantime:

Dear blog readers and co-authors. Please excuse me from writing my blog this week as I am very ill. I promise to be better next week. Thank you.

Michelle.

Inspiration

in•spi•ra•tion   (noun)

1. a. Stimulation of the mind or emotions to a high level of feeling or activity.
     b. The condition of being so stimulated.
2. An agency, such as a person or work of art, that moves the intellect or emotions or prompts action or invention.
3. Something, such as a sudden creative act or idea, that is inspired.
4. The quality of inspiring or exalting: a painting full of inspiration.
5. Divine guidance or influence exerted directly on the mind and soul of humankind.
6. The act of drawing in, especially the inhalation of air into the lungs.

The above definition of inspiration comes from freedictionary.com.  I agree with the full definition and have experienced everything mentioned at various points in time. 

However last Friday night, I attended a concert which faciliated an encounter with inspiration in the form of  point 2: An agency, such as a person or work of art, that moves the intellect or emotions or prompts action or invention.    I could feel my creative battery being recharged as I stood in the audience in awe of what was unfolding in front of me.   I could feel the artist’s creativity entering my body through my skin and proceeding directly to my spirit.  It was joyful and I’ve have been using that energy to write ever since.  

If I thought this artist would have the same impact on you, I’d share the links to the YouTube uploads of her concert immediately.  Truth is you probably wouldn’t like her.   My point is that pure creative energy is sharable and transferable so may I encourage you to “fill your creative well” (as Julia Cameron would say) by hooking into some art/music/writing that resonates with you.

Coming up with ideas by Karen Fainges

Every bit of advice I have ever come across on beating writer’s block seems to boil down to two things. Read and write.

 

Just forcing the pen onto the paper even if it is nonsense does seem to help free the blockage. More of that next post. In this one, let’s concentrate on the reading side.

 

It is important to read authors to examine their craft. See what sentence structures work for you. How do they turn a phrase? What pacing do they use? Punctuation, page layout, literary tools – the list goes on.

 

I find an even better reason to read. It gives you ideas. Something they say will strike a chord with your own characters or set them off arguing in your head. An issue too difficult to raise will suddenly become clear.

 

The important thing is not to plagiarise. I often read over some of my work after rereading one of my favourite authors and see phrases or ideas coming almost straight from them. Of course I remove them, or quote the source, but this kind of mistake is very easy to do and I am sure some stolen words still seep through.

 

The other way to beat the writing blues is read a book you hate. Pretend you are their editor. Ask yourself, how would you fix the book so it is less annoying. Now go back to your own work with your editor’s hat still on. See how many times you have made the same mistakes. Reading aloud is the ideal way to do this. For some reason, a line when it is merely ink on the page seems to transform when read aloud. Sometimes, it becomes beautiful – especially poems and plays that are meant to be performed. Sometimes, every note is sour. Try it, read your work aloud and see what you think.

Branding? Don’t They Do That To Cows? by Christine Duncan

In my never ending search for a way to market my mysteries, I keep coming across the concept of branding. The idea seems deceptively simple yet I find it hard to narrow it down to one sentence. Part of it seems to be that everything you do should be done with the idea of getting your name out. So use your name.

Are you on Twitter as Reader, on Dorothy L as Agatha C. and on your blog as Anonymous? Then you are not taking advantage of branding. You need people to see you and recognize you on all these places (and where ever else you hang out) so that they will be interested, remember your name, buy your books.

Along with this goes the rather old fashioned idea that you don’t do anything in public (the internet, your facebook page, your bookgroup) you can’t write home about. Don’t go on Goodreads and offend folks with your bad manners and language. Don’t go on Facebook and badmouth your publisher, your bookcover or your granny. Moms of the world are applauding loudly. Haven’t they been telling us this all along?

In other words don’t brand yourself as an idiot.

And if there is something unique about you and your work–trumpet that. But not so much that folks get sick of hearing it, if you can figure out where that dividing line is.

Some of this seems like plain common sense to me. Then again, I AM a mom. And we’ve all heard of folks who have had bad consequences from behavior online that was less than well thought out.

But it all seems so artificial. And I’d rather look for a way to really connect. Branding. Like a brand name. Like a product. Like I’m not really a person at the other end of the blog-o-sphere from you. It makes me feel like that cow.

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The Characters I’ve Raised by Chelle Cordero

I gave birth to my two fantastic kids in the 1980’s. I nurtured them, taught them, listened to them, and was surprised when they did the unexpected. Now as responsible adults, they are out in the world on their own, making decisions that have both made me proud and made me worry, and living lives that, even while I care and interject unasked-for advice now and then, are no longer within my realm of control.

While the depth of passion, labor pains and financial backing hasn’t been nearly as intense, the characters I’ve created in my novels have also been nurtured, taught and sent into the world to live lives beyond my reach. Each character though has been a labor of love and they became very real to me while I was recording their stories.

Especially since I allow my characters to make decisions for themselves based on the pasts I created for them, there are times that they have surprised me as well. The time that I spend immersed in their problems, laughing and crying along with them creates an emotional bond that doesn’t go away the moment I write the words “The End”. Blogging about my stories and promoting my books does help keep them “under my wings” for just a little bit longer.

Occasionally my characters will return for a brief visit just as Caitlyn and Brandon of Forgotten returned in Within the Law to support Caitlyn’s cousin Tom in his story. In my current WIP a supporting character from Final Sin, paramedic Matt Garratti, will return for his own murder mystery along with his previously unseen wife Sudah; I am not sure yet if Julie and Jake will come for a visit. In the long run I’ve sent several of my “children” out into the world often beyond my reach and the feeling of an empty nest settles over me until my next project.

Writers like me tend to live in a whimsical world where we have the power to create people and situations. My characters become so real that I “cast” my stories and give them faces I can look at and remember. We wind up sacrificing our omniscient power as we invest time and emotion caring as our characters meander their way through the hurdles we throw at them. I will sit here and cheer when they overcome, cry when they are in pain and scold when they do something foolish. Then there comes a time when we must move on and let others, our readers, experience the ups and downs and know them as well as we do.

Sending your offspring into the world is scary – Will they be accepted? Will they be understood? Will they be loved and remembered? For the characters in my books the only measurements are books sales and reviews. I take it all very personally. These are my creations, my progeny, characters that I hope will have some influence in someone’s life. My love for each remains even as I create new characters – but to move on and dedicate myself to my next group of beings I must “cut the apron strings” and it isn’t easy.

This blog is in honor of Paige, Lon, Caitlyn, Brandon, Ali, Tom, Davie, Adam, Julie, Jake, Deanna and Ryan. My publisher and I just introduced Samantha and Ben in A Chaunce of Riches. Waiting to pop into the world in February will be Layne and Justin; Matt and Sudah will be returning down the road. I do love each of my characters and I get a thrill each time someone mentions them.

Favorite child status, though, remains with the two I actually gave birth to – Jenni and Marc.

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About the author: Chelle Cordero is the author of Bartlett’s Rule, Forgotten, Within The Law, Courage of the Heart, Final Sin, Hostage Heart, and A Chaunce of Riches. She is published in two anthologies, With Arms Wide Open (VHP, 2009) and Forever Friends (Mandinam Press, 2009) and writes Living, Breathing, Writing, a Kindle blog designed to assist writers of every level. Chelle is also a partner in By-Lines, a freelance writing and photography business based in New York. Learn more about Chelle Cordero at her website http://ChelleCordero.com

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Chelle Cordero, Author

Chelle Cordero Website

http://bylines333.com/chelles-resume/Chelle’s Online Portfolio

Rather fantasy than reality

. I write in defence of fantasy.

I was bemoaning the fact I was finding it difficult to get my fantasy novel published, when someone said ‘Well, why don’t you write a proper book instead?’ This got me rather angry……

Good thing no-one ever said that to Shakespeare, or Lewis Carroll, or Kenneth Grahame. Then we’d no longer have Midsummer Night’s Dream, or Alice in Wonderland or Wind in the Willows. I know people say they are allegory – perhaps they are, but at their heart they are glorious, wonderful fantasy.

The best-seller shelves are full of Terry Pratchett, Philip Pullman, J.K. Rowling – all fantasy authors.

So why do people think they’re not ‘proper’ books? Well, mostly because what happens in them could never happen in real life. They’re not ‘true’. They’re an escape from real life, not a reflection of them.

Fair enough. But if I wanted real life, I’d look out of the window. What fantasy does is push back the accepted boundaries. It shows us not only worlds, but lives, and actions and possibilities we couldn’t even imagine in our day-to-day life. J.R. Tolkien writes of a woman who wants to fight, who can fight (Eowyn) at a time when women were kept as far away from the mess and dirt of war as possible. C.S. Lewis creates a wonderful world – and destroys it again. Terry Pratchett holds up a mirror to the way our world works, and makes us see the absurdity of it. Lemony Snicket deals with death and darkness, and loss, at a time when we want our children protected from this.

Philip Pullman made a remark that at a time when adult novels are about looking good, flirting, shopping, sex, it’s the children’s books that deal with pain, loss, war, death and love. And fantasy, no matter what it’s about, is always shelved in the children’s section. In the middle of our wars and lying politicians and scandals and mistrust, who is dealing with these issues? The fantasy authors – J. K. Rowling, Philip Pullman, Garth Nix. Adult novels? Shopping and losing weight.

And in the end – what’s wrong with escaping from the real world? To be honest, it’s boring. I’d rather read about vampires and werewolves, golden compasses and cunning children, strong women and the men who love them, swordfights and passion and dragons and fear and fairies and trolls. It’s just so much more interesting than who’s sleeping with whom, and the is so and so gay, and the internal conflicts of a bunch of heavily self-obsessed dullards.

Charlotte Bronte, my favourite author, recently had some of her juvenelia printed. Imagine my joy – they’re fantasy. A fantasy world of Angria and Glasstown, with 4 Supreme Beings, with spells, and spirit beings and secret passages and islands. And they’re good! (They could even be fanfic, as they have the Duke of Wellington as a character). And today – I bet she’d have written a few more fantasy novels, and be on my bookshelves alongside Garth Nix, Jonathan Stroud, Eoin Colfer, Tamora Pierce,Tanith Lee and all the others.

I enjoy other stories. A good crime novel – even just a good novel, is always a good read. Period novels, modern novels, Booker Prize nominees – I all enjoy them. But fantasy shoudn’t be shoved aside as ‘just silly made-up scribblings for kids’. Some of the most beautiful writing I’ve ever read was in a fantasy novel – and so were the best characters. So, if you really want to, you go ahead and write fantasy, and ignore those people saying ‘Why don’t you write a proper book instead? You know, one with real people?’ When it comes down to it, I’d rather read about Eowyn, Hermione and Sabriel than Bridget Jones.

Learning from a master

I’ve been reviewing my non-fiction manuscript and have decided to change the beginning. I’ve always felt like the beginning of the story lets me down a bit. Given that the MS I’m talking about was my first attempt at creative writing, it’s not surprising that my writing improved as the story progresses. While I think some of the storyline which takes place in the beginning needs to remain in the novel, there’s no need to be linear about these things. I was thinking about my options this morning and realised that I could weave it into the story later as a bit of a flashback.

As a reader, I sometimes find flashbacks an irritating and unnecessary distraction. So in an attempt to hone my skill at transporting the reader to an earlier time in my story, I’ve decided to learn from a master. To that end, I went searching this morning for my John Irving novels. While he is a master of the flashback, his skill being particularly good in A Widow for One Year.  I remember reading that book and being so asborbed in his lenghty but absolutely seemless flashbacks that when the story returned to the present time, I had completely forgotten about it.

Wish me luck and I embark on the daunting journey of chopping and changing the first third of my novel. Seriously though – I’m just glad to be working again.

Hot enough for you? by Karen Fainges

Front Cover of The Children of Tamal

 It was strange reading Michelle’s post about winter. In Australia, of course, it is summer. And how! The whole country is having a heat wave. As I type, it is 10:am and 36 degrees centigrade and on its way to 42.  (That’s 97 going up to 107 in Fahrenheit).

So for me, I am fight not the doldrums but the sweats. I find it’s too hot to think much. So I tend to go somewhere else to write. I hop into the spa and bubble in the cool with a notepad and pen. My hubbie built a little cover to use as a table.

Or I sit under a tree in the breeze. Sometimes I take my daughter to the public pool and sit watching others and trying to make up stories about them or even just describe them as if they are a character. It makes for a great pool of secondary characters to feed into stories and on occasions I have had these develop into full blown characters in their own right. The great thing about Mount Isa is that we have over 70 different cultures, so there is always a different aspect of humanity to examine. One hint though, be sure to wear sun glasses so they don’t think you are staring.

And I try to trick myself into thinking it is cooler by listening to cool sounds in the background, water running etc. There are plenty of CD’s and downloads out there to help this http://www.listeningearth.com.au/albums/Nature_Sound_Albums.htm and they can set a mood without being distracting. So there is always an excuse not to write, but plenty of ways to get yourself started as well.

Getting a heads up on taxes by Christine Duncan

Since I am getting ready for the tax season, I thought I’d repeat this post I used on my other blog. Believe it or not, now is a good time for you to get ready for taxes for 2010.

I work as a tax preparer for one of those places you see advertised way too much on T.V. and I’m a bookkeeper. So I see folks come in all tax season long with their own businesses who don’t have a clue what they made or spent. And believe it or not, if you write and are published, you have your own business. All you have to do is make 400.00 from writing for the IRS to want to hear about it from you.

But hey, you say, I spent a lot of money on the writing too! I hear you. But the IRS will want you to be able to prove it. And it is easy and cheap enough. How cheap? How about under ten bucks, is that cheap enough for you?

First off, get one of those free bank accounts.It doesn’t have to be a business bank account. You can get one from your credit union or some bank close to you. Run all of your income and expenses out of it. In other words, don’t just deposit the royalty check from your publisher there, but also that 60.00 bucks you made from selling books in the back of the room when you spoke at the Senior Center. And use those checks (or debit card) to pay all of your writing expenses.

If you have to loan yourself money–deposit it into that account with a note in the register to remind you at year end. Then you have a record of all your expenses.

Already opened the bank account? Then go to one of your favorite office supply stores.Buy one of those vehicle expense books. They usually run around 2.00. Put it in the car on the center console. Every time you go somewhere for your writing, record your mileage. Make sure you record this trip to the office supply store and the bank. While you’re in the store, buy yourself one of those nifty accordion folders with sections. You need a place to store your receipts, like the receipt you’re about to get. You don’t need a big filing cabinet for this. If you don’t feel like using an accordion file, just use an old 10 x 12 manila envelope. (I told you this was cheap.) But label the sections: office supplies, computers & equipment, advertising (oh yes you do–you have a website don’t you? How about the Romantic Times ad?) Make other sections as needed.

Put this folder in your car trunk in that box where you store your extra books in case the bookstore runs out when you do a signing. Then when you make a purchase and throw your stuff in the trunk, make sure the receipt goes straight into your accordion file. That’s it. You don’t need a big accounting program. You have just made sure that you have a record of income and expenses for the year.

At the year’s end, total the receipts (or have the person who does your taxes do it, but that will cost you.) and total the deposits in the bank account. Voila! You are ready to file a schedule C without much effort or expense. And then filing your 2010 taxes will be easy. Yeah, right!