Tag Archives: writer’s process

School Visit: Questions of the Week

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kids with booksThis week I embarked on something that I didn’t think I would do for a while: visiting a school as a writer! And boy, did I learn a lot!  The fifth grade students at Westview School in Champaign were a great and patient audience!  (My timer was accidentally set to vibrate so I never heard the darn thing go off!) Nonetheless, I enjoyed the visit a great deal and hope the students got something from it too.  I was asked to speak on the writing process.  My adventure in writing coupled with my years teaching gave me the confidence to do this.

Just as I do with my kids at dinner or bedtime, I will share my highs and lows.

High: Learning new technology!  Thank you, Donna Moores for introducing me to Prezi!  Love it!!!

Low: The darn timer!!!!!

High: Favorite part of the presentation was when the students helped me create an impromptu story to demonstrate goal-conflict-disaster followed by reaction-dilemma-decision (and of course that decision creates the next goal!)

Low: lack of concrete examples that the students could relate to (next time – get a list of books in advance that the children are familiar with)

High: Take home questions that I will answer ON THIS BLOG!  There were a ton of great questions that I didn’t have a chance to answer (ahem, use an actual kitchen timer next time!), but will answer a few every Friday until they run out.  There are two questions, however, that will not be answered here: What’s the title?  What are the names of my main characters? As I am keeping most information about my actual story fairly private while its still in creation, I would rather not post that here.  But I will tell Mrs. Moores. 🙂

So here are the first five questions (names will not be posted for security purposes).

1.  What inspired you to write a story?

I have been fascinated by the Great Chicago Fire for a long time.  The more I’ve researched, the more compelling it has become.  It’s a story that should be told and there are not many children’s books on this topic.  When I was in high school, an English teacher was very complementary of the things I had written.  That coupled with my own pleasure of reading and writing gave me the courage to go for it.  Thanks Mr. Pusateri!

2.  How hard is the process when you don’t think you have any more ideas?

This is similar to writer’s block.  When you are feeling stuck go back and look at the conflict.  Did you have the steps? Does the main character have a goal? Does conflict get in the way? Does a disaster occur that knocks the main character off track? (Disasters don’t have to be big, just a big deal to the character.)  How does the character react to the disaster?  What emotions come out?  Is there a dilemma?  What choice does the character make?  His decision will lead you to the next goal.  Then you can figure out who or what will get in his way.  (more conflict, more disaster).  So, in short, conflict keeps the story going.  If you are stuck CHECK THE CONFLICT.

3.  Why would you walk away if your still working on it?

While I was busy writing the verbal vomit (rough draft) I would write for forty-five minutes and then do brainless activity (like laundry, dishes, take the dogs for a walk) for fifteen minutes.    I did this to give my brain a chance to rethink what I had written and think about where to go next.  Writing is mentally exhausting and it is good to take breaks.  But if you are on a roll, keep going.  Once I finished my whole rough draft, got all the way to the end of the book, I took a month off of writing.  I read a lot, but I didn’t look at my story at all!  I did this so I would be able to look at it through fresh eyes.  Since you are writing a short story, you won’t need to take so much time off.  A good night’s sleep should be enough to give you a fresh look at it.

4.  How long does it take to write it and publish it?  Also, how much time does it take until the book is in the stores?

Different writers take a different amount of time to finish.  Since this is my first book and I’ve had to do extreme research it is taking me three years of working on it inconsistently.  Some writers do this for a living and are very quick.  I’m hoping to get faster for my next books!  Finding a publisher can be tricky – so I will answer that question in a future post.  But once you find a publisher it takes between one and two YEARS before it’s on the shelves in bookstores.

5.  What is a good beginning sentence?

Authors battle this same question every time they start new! First of all, take the pressure off of yourself.  It’s okay if it’s garbage at first.  Just start with what comes to your mind.  You can always go back and change it once you see how your story is coming to life.  But there are some things to think about.  What kind of story are you writing?  Is it action? Then you may want to get your character moving from the start.  Is it a mystery? You may want to give a hint that all is not right in your main character’s world.  Do you want to shock your audience?  Do you want to ease your audience in by painting the setting?  Remember you are the creator of the world your main character lives in.    So consider the type of story you are writing and how you want your readers to feel from the very first sentence.  That should give you direction.  Then give yourself peace of mind because you can always change it!

Also look at how some of your favorite books were started.    I guarantee those authors questioned their beginning and probably changed it a few times too.

Great questions Westview!  I will answer more next week.

Until then,

Enjoy Playing with Words!

On Dialogue

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dialogue bubblesThere is much for me to learn!  So very much to learn!  The more I read about writing dialogue, the tougher it seems to do well.

So here is what I’ve figured out so far.

What dialogue isn’t:

  • a way to relay information to your reader.  That really stinks, because we aren’t suppose to “tell” our readers either.  Somehow we are suppose to sneak information into the text without being obvious about it.
  • a recap of street dialogue.  Real conversation often gets heavy in the kind of details that would bore a reader to no end.  We can probably think of a friend that could use adding commas and periods when they talk.
  • natural.  Alice LaPlante said, “You want to make it sound natural, but that doesn’t mean that it is.”
  • filler space

What dialogue is:

  • reader friendly.  Dialogue quickens the pace, puts white space on the page, and gives the reader a little relief.
  • balanced with action and description.  You are not writing a play (talking to myself here).  Dialogue cannot stand alone.  The full picture is painted when dialogue is followed with action and description.
  • moves the story forward.  It has to have a purpose that is related to the plot.
  • filled with subtext.  Trust your reader to be able to read between the lines.
  • built on the history of the characters.  Consider the things that you don’t need to say when talking to your best friend that you would if you were talking to an acquaintance.  Or when you are meeting someone new, the guarded superficial dialogue still carries a tone.  There is hidden dialogue built on history, intentions, and hopes and that will be true with characters.
  • conveys emotions without telling the emotion.
  • elliptical.  I heard Lin Oliver say this before, but I’m not super clear on it.  What I understand this to mean is speakers respond not just to what was said, but also to what wasn’t said.  They interpret the line, the subtext, the history, the intentions and tone, and reply with all of this in mind.  So the characters are filling in the gaps in the conversation in their minds and reply to each other in this form.  Is this right?
  • unique to each character.  Each character must be well defined in your head so the dialogue sounds like him/her.
  • brief
  • what is said is a glimmer of what isn’t.  And sometimes it is a complete fabrication.  Our characters are far more mysterious than most people are in real life.  But if we write dialogue that is true to how people really sound, our characters are flat, puppet-like, and the veil that has been hiding the author is ripped to shreds.

I think there is a giant asterisk over this whole thing.  Know your reader.  If you are writing for young readers, even as old as middle grade,  a little more needs to be transparent.  We don’t want to frustrate our reader to the point they put down the book.  Especially when they may only be reading because it is SSR (silent sustained reading) time and they have to read, so they picked your book off the stack.  Writing for kids is tough.  There are many who are resistant to reading for many reasons.  We want to intrigue, but not frustrate.

That was the ol’ teacher slipping out.  But as I write, I keep in mind very specific students who struggled to read, would never do it on their own, but nonetheless enjoyed literature circle.

So with that it mind.  Next time: Making your story worth talking about.

Til then, enjoy playing with words!

One more thing – What children’s book has great dialogue that is worth studying?

Show, Don’t Tell, using Body Language

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Non-verbal communication makes up the majority of how we express ourselves.  So easy in person.  Such a different beast when trying to make a story come to life on two dimensional pages. 

Body language is intended to communicate emotion in the story without TELLING the emotion.  During my reading of my rough draft and in my first rewrite, I find myself relying on some of the same body language over and over.  I am not sure how many times my characters shrug, nod, furrow their brow, and purse their lips.  SOMEBODY HELP ME!

Learning to write is certainly a steep curve!

Where to turn to first? Well, body language is about the body.  So let’s begin by thinking about body parts and what they can do.  Hair: bounces, falls in the eyes.  Eyebrows: lift, squeeze together, arch.  Lips: purse, curl, press, whistle, pucker.  Shoulders: sag, shrug, raise up to the ear.  Hands: clench, fidget, fold, tap.  Feet: stomp, tap, stand on tippy-toe, shuffle.  What about knees? ears? chest? arms? nose? neck? eyes? stomach? toes?

What else? Well, bodies move.  What are some common movements?  (Stories need to keep the action, so how can we keep our characters moving in non-redundant ways?) walk, sit, look, run.  A thesaurus is a good place to start, right?  But what about what movement implies?  A lean in – we are engaged, a step back – we are considering the big picture when making a decision, doodling – we are thinking, a hand to the forehead – we have forgotten something, annoyed with ourselves.

Writers are said to be voracious readers, keen observers, and compulsive writers.  So, alas, I must assign homework because I am surely not the expert on body language.  Ah! Dang! I said homework!

1.  Take your favorite book down from the shelf.  Skim for use of body language.  Record the author’s words and your incites in your journal.

  • “Papa suddenly crossed the room and put his arms around them both. He kissed the top of each head. . .” – nurturing, reassuring, parental, security
  • “The street soldiers were often young, sometimes ill at ease, and Annemarie remembered how the Giraffe had, for a moment let his harsh pose slip and had smiled at Kirsti.” – a pose can slip, someone can momentarily reveal their true self before wearing their mask once again.
  • “Mama put a hand on Papa’s arm.”  – concern, protective
  • “Annemarie relaxed her clenched fingers of her right hand, which still clutched Ellen’s necklace.  She looked down, and saw that she had imprinted the Star of David into her palm.”  Yes!  SO GOOD!  The picture is painted and I can sense how completely petrified Annemarie was and the relief she now feels.  Bonus- GREAT VERBS: clench, clutch, imprint!

2.  Go on a field trip.  Hooray!  Go to your favorite coffee house, mall, or to be really effective, somewhere similar to a scene in your book.  OBSERVE and RECORD body language.  What is it telling you?  If you can hear the dialogue, how does the body language extend the meaning of the words?

3.  Watch TV! (Didn’t you love it when the teacher said you could watch tv for homework, but then the let down, “Watch the State of the Union.”) Here I am telling you to watch “Lie to Me.”  It is a show that specializes on analyzing body language, especially facial.  Or watch a movie.  I am thinking about watching “Pursuit of Happiness” because my MC is always on the go.  Record the body language that stands out to you and what it communicates.

Sorry to have to give homework, but I have to do it too!  Think about how much our writing will improve if we actually do these things!

So Read! Observe! and Write!

Next time: Effective Dialogue

Til then, Enjoy Playing With Words

Bonus: Three websites I found (though there are certainly more out there).

Tackling Character’s Voice in 3 Ways

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Who am I? courtesy uskidsmags.com

Who am I?
courtesy uskidsmags.com

Which is easier: creating life or performing total reconstructive surgery where no vital organ or system is left untouched?

The nice thing about writing the rough draft was the liberty to write garbage just to move the story forward and find the end.  Now it’s time for surgery.  We’ll be hanging out in Revision Step Three: First Rewrite for a little bit.

During my reread, one of the things that stood out to me was the feeling that the main characters did not have a strong enough voice that easily identified them.  I don’t want my reader to rely on dialogue tags to know who is speaking.  The three characters I most need to focus on are my main character, the antagonist, and my main character’s sidekick.  These guys get the most words on the page, so they better count.

There are three things I am doing to help me craft their separate voices.

1.  Write a scene that occurs outside of the story.  Stories generally start on the day when life changes for the MC.  To help learn the character’s voice I have written scenes that occurred prior to or outside of the story, when life was normal, an everyday kind of conflict, an everyday kind of event.  No high drama, just take a look at your character before their world gets turned upside down.  I wrote a scene for my sidekick eating breakfast with her family the morning of the Great Fire.  It was lovely and funny, and I hate that there is no purpose for it in the story, but it’s nice having this special scene just for me.  It made me more familiar with the sidekick by helping me see her in her natural environment.

2.  Change the point of view. My story is being written from the third person, omniscient to the MC, but not all characters.  For a while my MC was not turning out the way I wanted him to be and, honestly, I didn’t really like him.  I rewrote the opening scene in the first person and I really got inside his head.  This naturally changed other parts of the opening scene, but I think it was all for the better.  I am keeping the story in third person, but stepping out and writing “diary entries” brings me tighter to my character without so much of the author’s filter getting in the way.

My Favorite:

3. Determine your character’s personality type.  There is a lot of research that goes into writing.  One of the golden nuggets I happened upon was The Myers Briggs Test.  Four short questions later and I found out which of sixteen different personalities my MC fell into.  Then I found High Level Description of the Sixteen Personality Types.  What do I like about this?

  • It’s fun – who doesn’t like to take multiple choice personality tests?
  • It validated my perception of my MC, antagonist, and sidekick when I started reading their descriptions.
  • It gave me ideas to consider to make their personalities deeper.  None of them are the same personality type as I am.  (Of course I took it too.  How could I resist?)  Therefore, I don’t think exactly as they would.  For example, my MC is an ISTJ (Introverted Sensing with Extraverted Thinking), which the High Level people termed “The Duty Fulfiller.”  In the research I read, “The ISTJ’s word is as good as gold, and they honor their commitments faithfully.”  Well, I have a scene where my MC goes back on his word.  Even though this needs to happen for the sake of my book’s pacing, the MC has to be really conflicted about it.  AND the sidekick has to show the MC the value in the changed plan or else there is no way an ISTJ  would go for it.  A couple lines of dialogue and the text will be richer and the MC will be deeper.

OK – two bonus ideas

4. Raise the conflict.  Every conflict the character is in reveals more about him.  Keep making life harder for him and you will find out who he is.

5.  Skip the dialogue.  Once I start writing dialogue a scene can get away from me, a bit like chasing rabbits.  Write a scene (with conflict of course!) but very limited dialogue.  Stay close to the character’s thoughts, body language, reactions. You are most likely making this kid up, the more you know about him, the more you can reveal, the better the reader can identify with him.

What tricks do you use for developing your character’s voice?

I know you are going to take the personality test.  I’ll tell you mine, if you tell me yours 🙂

Next time:  Show don’t tell, using body language (I don’t know how many times my characters shrug and nod.  Somebody help me!)

Til then,

Enjoy Playing with Words!

BTW – I am attending the Wild Wild Midwest Conference with SCBWI this weekend.  Of course they have the no blogging policy, but who knows what ideas will spin from it!

Revision Step Two: Read through Rough Draft

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Read Through   Relatively painless.  But I know its the calm before the storm.

What I did:

1. Treated it like a book.  I sat somewhere comfy, usually on my couch after my whirlwinds were in bed.  Sometimes with a glass of wine.  But unlike reading for leisure, I had highlighter,  red pen, post-it tags, and notepad ready to go. Oh and a very critical attitude!

2.  Made a list of notes/symbols I would use.  My goal is not to do  major notes or writing scenes at this point.  I want to get through this bad boy in a few sittings.  The tags I used:

  • <—> reorder
  • zzzzz dragging
  • (  ) confusing
  • ?? cut/change
  • highlight – awkward/take another look at
  • + add details
  • – make concise
  • BL add body language
  • VIS visualize/add sensory details
  • 🙂 keep

3. Get reading.  The goal of this read through is big picture kind of stuff.  There is no point to line edit now, it would actually be a big waste of time.  I need to be merciless nonetheless.   I am not married to these words.  These characters work for me!  (Ever get evaluated on the job? Nothing like having a surprise observation by the principal when you’re having an off day!)

These characters and scenes have a job to do and if they’re not making life more complicated for my MC (main character), contributing to or setting up conflict, and making me want to turn the page, then I need to go back to them and consider their value – do they get the pink slip or remediation?  Yes, there are characters and scenes that are absolutely delightful.  The picture was painted vividly and the characters sounded really real.  But if they’re not doing their job, I have to be tough.  And I will keep these scenes in a deleted scenes folder for me to go back to and enjoy the beauty of my thoughts some other time.

Through the course of the read through it became very clear the parts I enjoyed writing and the parts I forced myself to get through!

4.  After reading I took some time for an essential part – more reflection.  It’s a best practice in education for a reason.  People need time to process and absorb what they’ve learned.  This is true for revising as well.  I am learning things about my writing while I’m reading it.  I need to grant myself time to reflect on my writing and not just jump right into the rewrite.  My rewrite will hopefully be more thoughtful and accomplish more if I take time to formally think about it.

Reflection questions after the first read through:

  • What glaring issues stand out?
  • Are there any scenes that can be cut? What needs to be done in order to cut them?
  • How’s the MC? Do I like him? Do I cheer for him?  Is he relatable? What changes need to take place to make him more attractive as a MC?
  • Is my antagonist believable?  Do I really dislike him?  What more needs to be done to make him more undesirable?
  • What are the really weak scenes that need a lot of attention to be saved?  What do they need?
  • What research still needs to be done?
  • Is the climax/resolution all it should be? Did I feel tension? Does it wrap up the ongoing conflict from the story? Is my end in my beginning?

I am sure there is more I should be thinking about at this point, but what it is I haven’t figured out yet.  If you have any reflection questions you think should be added to the list, leave a comment.

One more thing, I found this blog by James Scott Bell on revision.  One of his suggestions: Consider what a critic would objectively say after reading your manuscript, write it in a short essay.

I would say: The bones of the story are good, but there’s a lot of flab!

Next time I will tackle one of my glaring issues: voice! making sure each character is identifiable without seeing the dialogue tag!

til then – Enjoy Playing with Words!

Time to Revise! Step one: Reflect

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Stormy Day

Rainy days are designed for reading.  So today is a great day to get to reading my manuscript!   I took the recommended few weeks away from it and am ready to tackle it once again.

Where to start?  There are a lot of ideas out there.  So my revision process is certainly NOT mine but a compilation of many who have been there, done that.   There is no point to reinvent the wheel, right?

During my break from writing I took the time to read Writing Fiction: A Guide to Narrative Craft by Janet Burroway and I gathered a lot of ideas to pay attention to during the revision process that will certainly surface during future blogs.  But before I crack the spine of the “Working Manuscript” binder, I needed to reflect on my book and focus on its big picture.  When I started writing it, I did not do a lot of pre-writing (besides researching the history side of it).  So now that the rough is finished I need to narrow the lens and get a tighter focus.

This brought me to a blog by Holly Lisle titled: One-Pass Manuscript Revision: From First Draft to Last in One Cycle.  Ya, I won’t even attempt to revise in one pass, but  I will probably turn back to the steps she shares many times.   I appreciate her suggestion to start the revision process by discovering what my story is all about.

Her first five tasks are:

  • “Write down your theme in 15 words or less.”

This was easier than I thought.  You know when you are given a word limit it adds pressure.  But I did it, and I think it is about right.

Obligation to family versus following your own dream.  Yep – that’s what I came up with.

  • “If you have sub-themes and know what they are, write them down too.”

It turns out I have about six sub-themes that I was able to identify off the top, there are probably more subtle ones that will come to the surface later.

We all have a story – societal positions – feminism (even though my MC is male) – overcoming fears – dealing with the death of a loved one – influence of religion  This feels like I’m missing something, but that’s OK.

  • “Write down what the book is about in twenty-five words or less.”

Twenty-five words is not a lot! About my story that has more than 60,000 of them!  (Ya, it’s way too long for my target audience – but it will get there!) This went through a few versions.

Boy aspires for things beyond family tradition, battles fears, fire, and family in pursuit of his own dream.  18 words!

  • “Write down a one-line story arc for the book’s main character.”

It turned into the longest run-on sentence in the history of run-on sentences.  Well, maybe not.  I used to teach fifth grade and I have seen the use of “and” seventeen times in one sentence.  But, is running-on a bad habit of mine?  No, I am one of the most concise writers I know.  (ha ha – remember the 60,000 + words I have to chisel!)  And I certainly never drift off topic!  (Hey, when you have two little children, you are used to having three or four conversations at one time.  It just so happens that may brain continues to do this whether I am with my whirlwinds or not!)

Anyway, I procrastinate . . .

MC battles fears, foes, fire, prejudice (couldn’t think of an F words), and family during the Great Chicago Fire and saves a few lives along the way, but ultimately sacrifices his own dreams for the sake of his family.

Then the biggy:

  • “Write down the main characters, and a paragraph of no more than about 250 words describing the story, sort of like the blurb on the back of a paperback.”

THIS WAS HARD! All of these previous steps certainly helped, but it was not pretty.  Started off with black ink, went to orange, then red.  With arrows and line-throughs everywhere! It turned into less than 200 words (oh-ya! 172 actually!) but I don’t think I would want it on the back of my book just yet.  And therefore, I am not putting it out here either.

But what did all of this really do?  It gave me the narrowed focus I need for my read through.  It also brought to my attention plot and character adjustments I want to make.  It was well worth the hour and a half it took to do this.

Next week I will discuss what I do during my read through of my rough draft, the second step of my revision process.

Til then, enjoy playing with words!

BTW, What do you reflect on to help you steer your manuscript?

And one more thing – credit where credit is due – the link to Holly Lisle in case you would like to see what else she says.