Category Archives: Writer’s Craft

Twelve Days and Twelve Ways to Brainstorm that Novel

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countdown

NaNoWriMo starts in twelve short days.  Here are twelve ways to get ready to write that novel.

Keep in mind that even with elaborate planning, your novel will likely morph into a completely different beast than what you initially set out to write.  That’s ok.  Roll with it.

Day 1: Most novels are character driven.  Spend some time getting to know your main character (MC) better.  Take the Myers Briggs Test as your character.  This one is only four questions, so it is not the most thorough, but it is quick.  There are sixteen personality types based on those four questions. Find out what your character’s personality type is like.  This gives you a baseline perception of your MC.

Day 2: Create your character’s photo album. Include selfies, friends, home, school, places that are special.

Day 3: Write your main character’s diary.  Complete a few entries.  Try to find your character’s personality, likes, dislikes, what her friends are like, what she thinks and feels about things.  You could also complete a character questionnaire ( a lot available online, including the NaNoWriMo site), but the diary gets you writing, starts the flow, gets you thinking as your character.

Day 4: Setting: If you are writing in contemporary times in a place like where you live, than you have it easiest.  The further you deviate from the here and now, the more research you’re going to have to do.  Spend an hour researching your setting.  It won’t be much time.  Generate two lists: important info and questions I need to answer.  I keep my questions on index cards, hole punch them, and use a binder ring to keep them together.  But that’s just what I do.

Day 5: Setting: Pop culture – learn the music, books, and movies of the time.  Check out some of the books and movies from the library.  Make a playlist of the music your MC would listen to.  Surround yourself with things of the setting.

Day 6: The Antagonist: I wish I could remember where I once heard that the antagonist in your story, is the hero in his.  Head back to Myers Briggs and get to know your antagonist really well too.

Day 7: Write the scene where the MC and antagonist met.  This does not have to be used in your story, it could have happened before your story started.  If they do meet in your story, this will give you something to play with once November rolls around.

Day 8: Let the MC and antag write to each other – text, email, letters.  What are they going to say to each other? It will be interesting to see what comes out of the conversation.

Day 9: Conflict: The worst thing that can happen has to happen, and then the stakes have to be raised.  Try to come up with at least three ripple effects, what-if situations that is 5 layers deep.  Start with a small problem, how might your character handle it? What would happen next that raises the stakes? Repeat until there are at least five steps, making it harder and more uncomfortable for your MC.  You’ll learn more about your MC by putting her through conflict than from any character development chart.

Day 10: Research: It’s gotta be done.  You started a list of questions on day 4.  Find the answers to your key questions that must be answered before writing can commence.

Day 11: Cram day.  Hang out on the NaNoWriMo website.  Under the Inspiration tab, you’ll find NaNo prep.  A lot of good resources here.  Keep your brainstorming journal nearby.  Who knows what will pop in your mind.

Day 12: The most important day.  It is the day before life gets turned upside down.  And it is likely the day those movies you checked out from the library on day 5 are due.  Grab a loved one and watch one or two.  Then apologize to your loved one for what may occur over the next month.  Promise you will practice good hygiene and that you will try to visit this world as much as possible. Over the next month you will be living in the time and place you are creating and, though your ramblings may not always be coherent, they are writer’s code for “I love you!! Thank you for hanging in there with me through the worst draft.”

NaNoWriMo – no, no not Nanu Nanu

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It’s lurking.  I can see it lingering over there.  Ready to pounce.  I’m tempted.  But I’m also scared!  Maybe I’m just crazy!!! It’s not a greeting from Mork from Ork, although it is kinda insane, it’s NaNoWriMo! (For Millenials and younger catch the nanu nanu reference here.)

NaNoWriMo

NaNoWriMo starts in two and a half weeks and I might just be out of my mind enough to do it this year.

What is NaNoWriMo?

National Novel Writing Month! The challenge is to write a novel from beginning to finish in one month’s time.  While you could do this challenge any month (I would chose October over February!), the official NaNoWriMo is November.  Yes, I hear you saying, “There’s so much going on in November with Thanksgiving and Christmas at its heels.”  I know!  That’s why it calls for a healthy portion of insanity to do this.

So Why do this?

Writing a novel is intimidating.  Period!  When I wrote my first novel I got stuck after completing the first act with rewrite after rewrite.  The best thing that happened to me was signing up for a conference in which I had to submit the LAST twenty pages.  There’s nothing like a deadline!  I know that awful feeling of having a story to write, but petrified to start. There is also the “I don’t have the time to write” excuse.  Clear your schedule for one month.  It’s just one month.  After 30 days of writing you will have a completed novel. Publishable? Highly unlikely.  But draft one is done. And done it time to take the next month off to let the story marinate while you hang the mistletoe and deck the halls.

I may be crazy enough to give this a whirl, so how do I do this?

The goal that NaNoWriMo sets forth is to write a fifty thousand novel.  Depending on your story this may not be enough, so you may have to adjust your daily word goal.  Take your word goal and divide by 29 because let’s face it, who’s going to write while in a turkey coma?

35,000 (a middle grade novel) = 1,206 words per day (wpd)

50,000 (NaNoWriMo goal) = 1,724 wpd

75,000 (YA novel) = 2,586 wpd

160,000 (the next Harry Potter – average length) = 5,517 wpd (yikes!)

Besides word count, what else should you keep in mind?

  • Spend these next two weeks planning.  Research settings, history, foods.  Get to know your characters.  Especially your MC and antagonist.  Consider story lines. Are you the outlining type? Do that now.
  • Also over these next two weeks, surround yourself with things of the genre you want to write.  Does that mean wearing 18th century garb?  Hey, if it helps you get into the mind of your story about Ben Franklin (yes, I mean you!) then I say go for it.  It’s October after all.  Halloween is not that far away, you can get away with it!
  • Once November starts, write fast and furiously.  Somedays those 1,724 words will fly out of your fingers.  Other days you will bang your head against the keyboard and hope something miraculous occurs.
  • Acknowledge that it may be crap.  In fact, it probably will.  You won’t really know your story, what your characters are made of, until you start writing it and putting them in impossible situations.
  • DO NOT REWRITE!  In fact, avoid rereading!  Just read the paragraph or sentence you left off with.
  • Tune into this blog.  I’m going to be in the trenches with you.

Who’s in?

Are you a NaNoWriMo veteran?  Leave a tip in the comment box.

For more tips, check out these pages:

You Know You May Be a Writer If . . .

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You know you may be a writer if . . .

Love my journals!

Love my journals!

  • you have an uncontrollable obsession with journals and writing utensils.
  • a trip to the library is a highlight of your week.
  • you are reading at least three books at the moment.  One is to research a topic that intrigues you.  One is in the genre you can see yourself writing.  One is just for you.
  • when a loved one asks you to watch TV, you agree because it’s important to spend time with living, breathing loved ones, and not just the darlings that are sitting on your nightstand tugging at your heart.
  • on your nightstand you keep a journal, writing utensil, and flashlight.  Great ideas that must be written down come before the sun.
  • you get caught reading over someone’s shoulder.
  • you know how some people get hangry? That’s how you feel when you haven’t had a chance to write in a few days.
  • you edit your text messages
  • your loved ones know that you are not hangry and send you off to write (because they are tired of your brooding).
  • you keep an inspiration journal close by.
  • you frequent thesaurus.com
  • you love to listen to others speak, waiting for interesting phrasing.  And then you hurry to that inspiration notebook to record it.
  • you keep a dictaphone in your car.
  • you secretly contemplate how to portray your middle school nemesis in a future story.  Haha! The written word lingers forever!
  • you never feel lonely if you have a book or journal with you.
  • you run late in the morning because you had to write down one idea, but that idea grows and you need to see where it takes you and you have to keep writing despite the ticking clock.  Then you rush through your shower because the idea percolated with the falling water and you hurry to that journal once more, dripping droplets on it (because ideas come best when its inconvenient.)
  • cutting your word count by 5% is as satisfying as getting a haircut.
  • you’ve been wondering if you are a author-in-waiting, but doubt yourself.

Doubt no more.  Get playing with words!

The wine . . . the ambiance . . . the notepad

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Though I’m sure I take after my mother in many ways, I’ll only admit to one.  I love to explore new territory and I’m not afraid to do it by myself.  This is something that I will attribute to my always-on-the-go mom.

In mid-October 2010 I accompanied my husband on a business trip to Quebec City.  While he busied his days with scheduled meetings, I stepped back in time within the walls of Old Quebec City (where they speak french and I think it is too lovely of a language to try to imitate publicly).

Streets of Old Quebec

Streets of Old Quebec

Around lunch time I picked a small restaurant that sat on a narrow cobblestoned street that was too narrow for motor vehicles, but perfect for the throngs of footing-it tourists.

The restaurant where it all started.

The restaurant where it all started.

Though there was a slight chill in the air I opted to sit outside where I could overlook the small park decorated in pumpkins and fall colors.  And so I could people watch.  I was on vacation so I treated myself to french onion soup and red wine.  Wine for lunch!

The view from my table.

The view from my table.

In the park, an older couple played folk french music.

Listening to French folk music.

Listening to French folk music.

Was it the wine?  The ambiance?  The foreign land where I was discovering a new side to myself?  Whatever it was, I pulled a notepad from my purse and began writing.

They were most likely the most awful words ever scribbled down, but they were my beginning.  Old Quebec City will forever be my most favorite place to write and I hope to make it back there again.

Questions to Critique By

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I am handing out a story that I have revised once to my critique group.  Whenever I give them a full manuscript to read I like to attach a suggestion sheet of questions they can ponder while critiquing.  We are a pretty green group and I want to get constructive feedback, not just a pat on the back.  I limit the questions to two to three per category.

These questions are also helpful for when I am self-editing.  I would like to say these are all original questions, but I once heard someone say, ideas are original when you can’t remember where you first heard it.  Many of these questions have been taken from a checklist I found on line here, but I narrowed it down and added some of my own.  So from my bag of tricks, I give you Questions to Critique By.

(FYI – I start by giving my critique group an idea of what I feel is pertinent information about the story like intended audience and what I am trying to achieve in plot and character development.)

Characters:

  • Are their voices consistent with their characters? Do you see places where their voice slip or where it can be amplified?
  • Are the characters rich and developed or flat and stereotypic?
  • Are there too many characters or too much time spent on secondary characters that detracts from the main plot of the story and the focus on the protagonist?

Voice

  • Does the writing style seem fresh, original?
  • Does the mood of the characters influence how they see their world?
  • Does the overall tone and style of the writing work well for the story?

Pacing

  • How does the pacing of the story feel? Does the book drag in spots due to excessive narration or from uninteresting scenes?
  • In faster action scenes, does the pace speed up with shorter sentences and paragraphs?
  • Are the scenes moving at a good clip or do they need some trimming?

Conflict

  • Is there an overarching conflict present in the story that is key to the premise and grows to a climax and resolution?
  • Do the protagonists face one conflict or obstacle after another (each worse than the previous) that force them to have to make tough decisions?

Plot

  • Does the overall plot come across clearly in the novel?
  • Are there scenes in the book that do not serve the plot and don’t seem to have a point?
  • Is the plot interesting and engaging?

Tension

  • Is tension created at the outset of the book?
  • Are the protagonists compelling enough to heighten tension by the reading caring about them?

Fantasy

  • These are creatures developed in my mind, do you have a clear understanding of what they are, what they do, what they look like?   (Keep in mind, I expect this will be an illustrated book, so I am leaving some room for the illustrator to help create my character’s appearance.)
  • What questions would you want answered in this book about these creatures that have not been addressed?

Show and Tell

  • Consider the sensory detail. What parts overload the senses? What parts could use more sensory detail?
  • Is the language vivid?
  • Were there scenes where your mental movie projector had problems seeing the scenes? If so, which ones

Humor

  • Did you have laugh out loud moments? If so, where?
  • Are there segments where the humor could be pushed? Or dialed back?
  • It was intended to be funny (at least some parts). Did it happen?

That’s it.

What questions would you add to the list?

 

Quick Tip

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As I was finishing my rough draft for a gentle fantasy chapter book (whoop! whoop!WIN_20150130_145337 big goal met this week!) I discovered a great trick.

Scrivener Users:

Did you know you could press “ctrl /” and a text statistics box pops up for the selection that is open?  The best part is it tells you the frequency of your words, so you can easily identify words you over use.

You already knew that didn’t you?  You’re so clever!  I happened upon it when I meant to hit “Shift /” to make a question mark.  Sometimes clumsy fingers pay off.  It usually just results in awkward auto-corrects.  #notsofunnywhenithappenstoyou 😉

***If you don’t know what scrivener is, you can check it out here***

Squash Your Outer Adult to Write For Your Inner Kid

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Help!  I’ve lost my imagination. I know I had it not that long ago.  Then all of this adult-life stuff kept happening and adult-life does not play nice with writing for children or creativity.

Just warning you, there will be no acting like adults here.  These times are too desperate.  It’s a matter of life and death.  I love my characters too much to let them die from a deprived imagination.  It may call for some rather awkward moments, but for the sake of the story, I must do what must be done.

Eight Ways to Push Down the Adult in You

1.  Ever notice how children dress themselves when they are first given permission to pick out their clothes?  They pick out the stuff they love best and makes them feel happy.  Go to your closet and pick out something that makes you feel twirly or like you could take down Megatron on your own, or whatever mood you are trying to establish in your story.

2.  Get out an art medium and paper.  crayons, oil pastels, finger paints, etc.  No oil paints.  Those are far too adultish.  Have at it, but don’t think.  Play.  See what pops into your head all on its own.

3.  Laugh.  What makes you laugh?  What makes kids laugh?  Surround yourself with it.  My kids need to laugh every night before they can go to sleep.  Bodily noises will always be funny.  But what really gets them going is pretending, especially if it involves taking down their dad.

4.  Pretend.  (You knew that was coming, didn’t you?)  Be your character for an hour, an afternoon, at dinnertime.

5.  Play with kids.  If you’ve got your own it’s beneficial in so many ways.  If you’ve got nieces and nephews offer to babysit.  Just play.  Let the kids lead.  NO MULTI-TASKING!  That’s an adult habit, not allowed here.

6.  Dance.  I don’t mean the kind of moves you tried at the club when you turned 21.  Have you ever watched kids dance?  They just get into it.

7.  Build a fort.  Bring your computer in there.  It’s too tempting not to try, isn’t it?

8.  Sit for five minutes before writing.  Imagine the mental movie of your story.  Listen to your story soundtrack.  Or listen to your story.  (You have to record it first.  Maybe after you write a piece, when you go back to read it, pull out the dictaphone and record it.  So when you are ready to start writing again, listen to the last bit you wrote.)  Imagine the story.  Fall into it.  Where does your mind take you?

Okay.  Did you shake off all that thick adultish scabby stuff that blocks creativity?  Good.  Have fun playing with words.

Middle Grade Book Length

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The dormant math teacher in me is needing to click at a calculator for a minute.  Word count.  This pesky thing is really starting to irk me.  Time to do a little math.  I’ll do it for you, no need to bring out your calculator too.

Wherever you look, it is estimated that middle grade fiction should be between 20K and 55K words.  The average number of words on a page is 250.  That means book length is between 80 pages for lower middle grade and 220 pages for upper middle grade fiction.

My middle grade novel is hovering around 70,000 words or 270 pages.  I would really love to get it under 250 pages.  With this in mind, I decided to take a quick survey of popular middle grade fiction and its page count.

book case

From my bookcase: Title, number of pages, year published, *denotes non-standard formatting

  • Johnny Tremain, 1943, 300 pages
  • The Cricket in Times Square, 1960, 151 pages
  • Bridge to Terabithia, 1977, 163 pages
  • Night of the Twisters, 1984, 153 pages
  • Number the Stars, 1989, 137 pages
  • Maniac Magee, 1990, 184 pages
  • Fever, 2000, 243 pages
  • A Single Shard, 2001, 148 pages
  • Penny from Heaven, 2006, 256 pages
  • Schooled, 2007, 208 pages
  • The Fabled Fifth Graders of Aesop Elementary School, 2010, 170 pages
  • I am Nujood, Age 10 and Divorced, 2010, 176 pages
  • Breaking Stalin’s Nose*, 2011, 151 pages
  • Dead End in Norvelt, 2011, 341 pages
  • Inside out and Back Again*, 2011, 260 pages
  • The One and Only Ivan*, 2012, 300 pages
  • Tua and the Elephant*, 2012, 202 pages

From this very small sample of middle grade fiction I can conclude book length is trending higher than previously.  So, let’s look at what came out this year.

From the Chicago Public Library’s list of Best Older Fiction of 2014

Out of the 30 books listed

  • two were written in verse
  • one graphic novel was 80 pages
  • of the remaining 27 books
    • 1 was under 200 pages
    • 10 were between 200 and 250 pages
    • 7 were between 251 and 300 pages
    • 4 between 301-350
    • 5 had more than 350 pages

This list was determined by librarians.  I figure they may have a higher tolerance for longer book length than the average consumer.  This brought me to the New York Times Best Seller’s List.

From December 12, 2014’s  NY Times best seller’s list for children’s middle grade

  1. House of Robots, James Patterson, 352 pages
  2. Wonder, PJ Palacio, 315 pages
  3. Percy Jackson’s Greek Gods, Rick Riordan, 336 pages
  4. Brown Girl Dreaming, Jacqueline Woodson, 336 pages – in verse
  5. The Fourteenth Goldfish, Jennifer Holm, 208 pages
  6. The Princess in Black, Shannon Hale, 96 pages (for 5-8 year olds)
  7. The Care and Keeping of You 1, Valorie Schaefer, 104 pages (non-fiction)
  8. The Contract, Derek Jeter with Paul Mantell, 160 pages
  9. The One and Only Ivan, Katherine Applegate, 300 pages
  10. Leroy Ninker Saddles Up, Kate DiCamillo, 96 pages (6-9 year olds)

It appears that book length doesn’t turn away the average reader either.

Ideally, it would be great to keep word count below 50,000. I know I love to zip through a book and when it’s shorter, it’s less intimidating to reluctant readers.   This data, however, suggests that it is not a gatekeeper.

The bottom line is: Write well, with vivid language that creates a mental movie for the reader.  Take the reader to a place they can’t go in their everyday life, help them have experiences they might not have on their own.  Don’t get hung up on word count, but make every word work for its space on the page.  Then, when your vivid writing with a strong voice attracts an editor, be ready to kill the darlings.  Until then, write, revise, write better, pay attention to word count, but don’t get hung up on it.

A few pages on word count if you want more information.

From writer’s digest

Literary Rambles

Young Adult verses Middle Grade

Out of the Drought

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Dust Bowl

When it rains, it pours and when it dries up, it’s like the dust bowl.  I am sure you are familiar with it. When writer’s block hits it can feel like you are enveloped in a thick cloud of dust and you can’t find your way out.  Yet, if you stay put, the dust settles around you, packing in, making it difficult to move forward.

After the dust

Some call it a muse, or inspiration.  I don’t know what I call it, but I’m feeling the need to write again.  Right now.  And my fingers aren’t moving fast enough.  Since I’ve stepped away from my blog during the drought, I figured I would start here.

The cause of droughts:

  • sick children (like one having his tonsils and adenoids out, then finally gets back to school and the other comes down with a monster cold!)
  • rejections
  • don’t have the right snacks in the house
  • my character falls into a plot hole and likes it down there
  • gray skies
  • the oncoming needs of the holiday season
  • reading your work and saying, “I wrote this garbage?”
  • your favorite writing spot has become overwhelmed by college kids whose procrastination is catching up with them and you can’t find a single seat at the cafe where the muse flows best
  • reading your work and saying, “This is so good, why can’t I find an agent who thinks so too?”
  • can’t find matching socks
  • and many, many more.  What’s yours?

What I did during my drought:

  • sucked it up and wrote anyway, though not very much, and not very well, but had to keep going
  • critiqued others’ writing
  • received critiques from others
  • cleaned off my husband’s desk and usurped it for Christmas central.  He said it felt like his desk was Ukraine.  I guess that makes me Russia!
  • started using Twitter.  Still trying to get the hang of it all. (By the way, @sususanti1871).
  • Read.  A lot 🙂
  • Found some great online resources (see below)
  • Joined on online course, to try to stir things up.

The key is – keep at it.  The flood gates will open again.

Resources I found that might interest you:

National Novel Writing Month

Query letter help from Chuck Sambuchino – What to include in bio portion

Pitch University

Twitter guide for authors and illustrators

Online course about pacing for picture picture books

Affordable online workshops

Jill Corcoran’s query formula

If you have an online resource that you treasure, please share it in a comment.

Gotta get back to writing now.  Hope you do too.

on the right track

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My kids love to listen to the soundtrack I made for my next WIP.  It conjures up thoughts of mischief, playfulness, sneakiness.  It makes them smile and act silly.  Now to just write the darn thing so it lives up to their expectations.  Two chapters down about eight to go.  Can’t wait to knock out this rough draft and see what becomes of this story! boy reading to snake