Getting Going Again by Christine Duncan

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Yep, it happened.  My writing has been lapsing again.  It seems that it is always the first thing to go when things get hectic and lately the dentist, my income tax return and just stuff have kept me from doing what I should be doing.

    What to do? What to do? 

 First off, this is such a normal occasion for me, the temptation is to blow it off.  Oh, I’ll get going again as soon as I file those taxes.  Not!  I know for sure that means the start of garden season, which has a million more reasons why I won’t be at the computer.

  So first off, I have to commit again.  Then I need to make sure I do what I say I will.  Soooo….long story short: I’m looking for another critique group.  Nothing fancy.  Doesn’t have to be sponsored by National Writers or Sisters in Crime.  Doesn’t need to have award winning writers in the group, but I do want it to be a group of folks who really are interested in improving (like me) and willing to do the work. 

   It also has to be in my area, since I am more apt to blow off an on-line group.  And weather tends to make me stay home from critique groups that aren’t close by. 

   So…I already looked at the library and the local bookstore.  I’ll let you know how it goes.

 

 

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Just to Keep You Going

There are times when you feel like writing, but are sick of what you’re working on, or stuck with what to do next. Or maybe you don’t have a current project, and don’t want to start a new one just yet, but still want to do a little writing just to keep in practice. That’s when a few little ‘exercises’ can come in handy.

On of my favourites is to write a drabble. This is a story that is 100 words long – exactly that. I used to write dozens of them when I wrote fanfic. I loved them. It’s a wonderful discipline – which words are really necessary, what do you actually need to write and what can be left unsaid? Do you write a whole story, or just s snapshot of one? you can base them around anything – a book, a TV show, something you can see out your window, anything.

One good way to use a drabble is to look at an idea you’ve already had but done nothing with. Write in a 100 words. If there’s nothing more to the idea, the drabble will get it on paper. If there is more, the drabble will be the basis for a longer story.

Another exercise I use is one I have blatantly stolen from Agatha Christie. It is to choose a person on the bus (or train, or street). It must be a person you don’t know. Look at that person, note everything about them – the green hat they wear, the newspaper they are reading, what catches their attention outside. Eavesdrop their conversation if you can (but don’t get caught!) Then, once you have all that, write a story around them. The story can be anything, but it’s starting point is that stranger on the bus, and the little you’ve learnt about them. Agatha Christie said this was a much better source of inspiration then people she actually knew – in fact, if she used someone as inspiration, then came to know them later, it ruined the whole story for her.

Those are just two ways to keep writing when you don’t want to, or can’t work on a big project. It’ll keep your inspiration flowing, whilst changing your subject. And it’s true what they say, a change is as good as a rest.

Promo Groups for Authors by Christine Duncan

Promo is something you can do on your own but having help definitely helps. Blogging is definitely an example. I could blog every day of the week in an ideal world. But I don’t live in that world.
There are a bunch of groups out there for promo. MurdermustAdvertise on yahoogroups is one that has been around for years. You can go there even if you are not a mystery writer and ask promo questions. The moderator will not let you promote to the group but fair is fair. That’s not the group’s purpose. But just about any question you want to ask on promotion can be and will be answered there.
Another group I like is Marketing for Romance Writers also a yahoo group. You can subscribe They have specific routes to help. You can guest on their blog, they have “talks” about promo, you can find places where you can blog tour or do a chat. It’s all there and again doesn’t seem to limit itself to just the romance genre.
Twitter and Facebook are great tools, but a friendly internet group can help you use them better.

The Ending Part Two

There was, for once, a segment about books on the news this morning. It was done the way they normally handle news about books – in a jokey, we-knows-this-is-not-really-news way (unlike the endless news about football transfers, which is handled with deadly seriousness. I get very annoyed about the uneven coverage of arts as compared to sport).

The news was an author had written a book that had not only one ending, not even three, but eleven.

Eleven?

That’s right, eleven. You can choose your own ending. She had been writing a book, and thought this could go one of two ways, and decided to write multiple endings.

They had another author as guest, who said he also found a point in his book that it could go either way, but he usually settled on one just ending by the time it came to writing. Then he went back and planted hints to the ending all the way through the book. (I do this too)

She said she had also planted clues through the book to all eleven endings.

I’m still focused on that number. Eleven!

Surely some truth is lost, if there is that many possible endings? In life, things end one way, and one way only. Whilst I wish we lived in a world where we could go back and do it again, in the end, the ending is inevitable.

She did say if she could change the end of a classic story, she would change the end of Romeo and Juliet so they lived happily ever after. That made me shudder. Whilst we might wish that Romeo and Juliet lived happily, the fact we don’t get that wish is an essential part of the story. Changing the ending is missing the truth of the story.

I’m genuinely bemused by this. Is it wrong of me to insist the ending is the ending? Is having the reader choose one of multiple endings brilliant or a mistake? Does it strip the characters of all motivation and purpose if they could behave differently eleven different times, of does it make them more layered and more complex?

And will I read it, knowing if I don’t like the way it ends, I can go back and start again? To be honest, probably not – but will you?

Making it Worth Your Reader’s While by Christine Duncan

   Recently it was brought home to me once again just how limited we all are in terms of resources.  Yes, everyone is talking about the economy, money, jobs but time is limited for all of us too.  Today, I spent time on the tread mill and negotiated with myself how long I would do it–so I could have time to do this–write my blog.  Because I already had other commitments (call them what you will) for the rest of the day.

    What is the writing take home from this?  Make whatever you write worth your reader’s time.  Make the purpose of the writing evident from the first–don’t ramble. And take the time to make sure the point is obvious.  Because everyone is feeling hurried anymore.

The Book is dead, long live The Book

I’m sitting writing this in a coffee shop. I was struggling for an idea when I saw a man in the queue, holding a rather hefty book, look around and say scornfully ‘look at these people, tapping away on electronic devices. I’m telling you, the book is dead’.

Hmm. Well. It’s true, we are all tapping away on something or other. However….

When I have finished this, I shall be reading a book on my computer. It’s a book I was reading earlier, on my ipod. It’s a huge biography of Van Gogh, and whilst I love it, the print version was so heavy I couldn’t get it out of the library.

The man beside me is staring at his phone. He’s not reading texts, he’s reading a book (I peeked…). There are at least 3 people with ereaders. And behind me, there is actually someone reading an actual print book. And for all I know, the woman listening intently to her headphones is actually listening to an audiobook.

People seem to be reading more and more. It’s easier to access books than it ever was – rather than try to find a bookshop (which are getting to be a rare breed), you can download the book you want in seconds – impulse buying has gone through the roof! Well, it has in my experience. (Don’t get me wrong, I love bookshops. They are my heaven. But my closest one is over five miles away, and more are closing every day).

And you don’t have to lug around those huge heavy hardback books (which always put me off hardbacks) – you can fit them right on your tiny little ipod.

There’s always that old reason for not buying books – you just don’t have the space. Well, maybe not for seven 700 page books of a certain fantasy series, but electronic copies will fit on your little ereader that fits snugly in your bedside table draw.

I don’t think electronic devices have destroyed the written word.I think they’ve saved it. Not just saved it, but bought it back into waonderful, diverse, colourful. imaginative life.

Writing for Today’s World? by Christine Duncan

     It’s Superbowl Sunday as I write this and I have just heard of a new trend.  People are setting their Tivo to start further on in the game.  The reason?  They’re not interested in the sports, they want to see the commercials.

    I can’t even begin to tell you how depressed this made me.  Really?  The commercials?  What does this say about us as a society?

   Do we all really have so little on our minds?  

   Or are we all just zoning out? 

   How can we write for a generation who would rather watch the commercials than watch the game, rather watch the game than participate?

   

The Ending

For one reason or another, I’ve been talking about endings a lot this week.

What every story needs, what it must have, what it desperately wants, is a good ending. It doesn’t matter how good what went before was, if the ending is weak or bad, the entire story is ruined.

We all know those movies that were really pretty good – until the ending, which is usually some sort of cop-out, or unoriginal twist ,or ‘it turns out it was aliens all along!’. They just don’t work.

An ending should flow naturally from the story. You don’t necessarily have to know how a story ends before it starts ( I never do), but when you get to the final pages, your ending should be right there, waiting for you. If you have to struggle for an ending, you’ve missed something along the way.

Endings should not rely on something new that has suddenly popped up out of nowhere – the unexpected confession, a brand new character. It makes the reader feel cheated. The reader wants to feel like they could have foreseen the ending too – if something is held back from them, it annoys them.

I’m a big fan of the slightly vague ending, but that can annoy people. Some people like a very definite ending. There’s a balance to be struck between telling a reader every tiny little detail, and leaving them to work it all out for themselves.

At the end of Pickwick Papers, Charles Dickens says there’s a fashion for telling the reader what happened to the characters after the story – a fashion he deplores. I’m with him on that issue. I like to let the characters live on in my head afterwards, but not on the page. If the character is that interesting that you need to tell the reader what happened, maybe there’s another book in it.

Endings are vital. Everyone puts a lot of work into the first page, writing and re-writing, but the last page deserves just as much attention. Maybe even more, as it is the final page that the reader will see last, just before they close the book. First impressions are important, but last impressions linger longer.

My drawers are full of stories that started well, but that I just don’t have an ending for. One day I’ll read them, and perhaps think of an ending, but until then, they’ll stay in a drawer.