Royal Baby and Goodreads

I admit it—I’m a William and Kate fan, and I was keeping track of the royal baby watch. I thought Diana brought some much needed good looks into the Windsor bloodline, and I’m rooting for William and Kate to have the kind of marriage Cinderella dreamers hope for them.

But as for the baby’s name—I’ve recently seen THE KING’S SPEECH (great movie, by the way), and I understand the significance of George in the name of the king as well as the patron saint of England, but still…I guess it’s a more popular name in Britain than here.

Maybe they’ll call him Alex in daily life; it’s got to be better than Georgie. What do you think?

On another note, Goodreads recently emailed to tell me I’ve made their top one percent of reviewers. My first reaction was—Really? I’ve written reviews of over 180 books, which doesn’t seem to me to be a huge number, but okay.

I joined Goodreads because even though I’m a writer, I’m a reader first and I love books. Their recommendations have occasionally appealed to me and I’ve discovered some new authors that way. Plus, my Goodreads friends tip me off to new authors or established authors I think I should try. (That’s what got me into Jim Butcher’s Harry Dresden books. A number of my friends were reading them.)

How about you? If you use Goodreads, what do you use it for? What treasures have you discovered as a result? Any tips or recommendations?

Layering a Scene

When I write, I have a basic idea of a scene, and then I make multiple passes over it to add details and significance. The whole process may take days—or weeks—until I’m satisfied. I call this process “layering” and it’s something I’d like to share today.

Plot, or what happens, is the basis for a scene. If nothing happens relative to the overall plot, the scene should be cut. But just recording what happens isn’t enough to make a scene memorable or create enough of a hook to keep the reader involved. To do that a writer needs to put flesh on the bare bones of the plot. That requires using these tools in the writer’s toolbox: the five senses, the character’s emotions, elements of conflict, and symbolism (if possible).

Consider the following bit of plot:

She paused at the foot of the stairs. The doors above were open. Swallowing, she went in.

Let’s flesh this out first by adding the five senses with time and place:

• Who? Name the character.
• Where exactly is she?
• When? What’s the time of day? Day of the week? Year? Season?
• What does she see? Texture, color, temperature? Objects?
• What does she smell? Hear? Dialogue?
• Are there others—people, animals—in this scene?

 Now add the character’s emotions:

• How does she feel about being in this place?

 Bring in elements of the conflict, either main or contributing:

• Why is she here?
• What’s at stake? (story question)

 Enhance symbolism, if possible:

• Stairs can represent choices and decisions. A character can go up to something new, or down into something bad, or refuse to participate and remain aloof.

·         Are these stairs central to some particular conflict or memory?

Layering means to go through your scene as often as necessary to add pieces of “flesh” to it. From the bare bones you can construct something meaningful and evocative that also advances your plot, reveals character, creates conflict, and—even—suggests symbolism.

Here’s an example of what I mean:

Jennifer Bryant halted at the foot of the courthouse stairs.

Twenty-four granite steps, two flights of twelve with a six-foot wide landing in between, stretched toward the colonnaded portico above. As a child she’d raced up these steps and dashed from end to end amid three-story high pillars only to stand panting in the middle at the precise spot where the boulevard ran straight to the steps.

“All roads lead to Rome,” her grade school teacher had told her. McKintock County wasn’t Rome, but to her fourth-grade self, that spot up there had been the center of the universe.

All around her, a steady stream of people flowed upward, not a single one pausing at that special spot. Men clad in suits, ties flapping, women dressed in conservative brown, black and tan, all carrying briefcases in one hand and cups of varying descriptions in the other. The strong smell of fresh coffee wafted in their wakes.

She breathed the aroma, and wished for the third time in as many minutes she’d stopped at Coffee Joe’s for a brew of her own. Having something to cling to just might galvanize her into taking that first step.

When had the simple act of climbing these steps, passing under those Doric columns and entering her workplace of the last six years become so daunting?

From three starter sentences, we’ve expanded to a name, particular place, sights, smell, a memory, emotion, and a story question.

Now I invite you to share. What’s your process for fleshing out a scene? How do you make your plot come alive?

Why Writers Need to Go to Conferences

I’ve recently returned from my RWA chapter’s annual conference, and while I wondered several times in the previous six months whether I should spend the money and go, I’m glad I decided to attend.

First, no one understands writers like other writers. Writing is a lonely vocation by its very nature. It involves delving into one’s imagination for long periods of introspection which, to most of the members of the human race, looks like daydreaming. If you can’t show them ‘pages,’ they don’t think you’ve had a productive day even if you’ve finally gotten a handle on your main character’s deepest secret. Other writers get that. And they’re willing to talk to you about it. For a whole weekend.

And no one understands a romance writer like another romance writer. Let’s face it: not all writers think alike or value the same elements in their writing. For instance, poets are a whole other breed from fiction writers. And non-fiction writers, while their narratives share some of the same elements as those of fiction writers, their criteria for publication are entirely different. Finally, there’s a reason for genres in fiction—not all genres value the same elements in the same way. So romance writers regularly need to communicate with other romance writers, if only to maintain hope that what they’re doing is valued by others.

Put faces to names. Today’s writer spends a lot of time online, and it’s nice at a conference to finally put a face to the name of the person who’s given you a spot-on critique or a particularly useful piece of advice.

Share a ride, share expenses, share meals. Everybody needs friends, but most of our long-term friends or work friends aren’t writers, so when we get stuck at the one-third point of our current story, they aren’t the people we need to call for help. Going to a conference and sharing the experience with writer friends from your area or from your online community can help form or cement those relationships so you know who to call upon when the writing gets rough.

Gain new knowledge and perspectives on craft, meet editors and agents. Those are the points of attending a conference, and we know we’re going to get that new information, do that networking, but I put this last because while it’s the stated reason we give our families, it’s not necessarily the most important or longest lasting reward.

Next time a conference opportunity comes up and you’re considering the cost vs. the benefit of going, consider the intangibles. There’s nothing like recharging your emotional batteries among like-minded people.

Auto-correct is NOT your friend

I’ve been reading a wide variety of published works and unpublished drafts. As we writers have adapted to technology that lets us type and edit electronically, programs have evolved to help us. Being a writer of fantasy romance with a tendency to make up names for people and places, it’s a given that I tend to overload the spell-check function on my computer. Nonetheless, I do find the program useful to help me spell a word I’m not sure about before digging out the trusty paper dictionary.

What I find both troubling and occasionally useful is the auto-correct function. As I’m typing, I appreciate it automatically capitalizing the first word in my sentences, for instance. However, I have to wonder who programmed some of the choices that pop up over and over in material I’ve read.

For instance, in what universe or language (other than teen-speak) does defiantly occur more frequently than definitely? I am constantly seeing this mistaken choice in material that isn’t even fiction, where defiantly might justifiably occur with some frequency. Apparently, auto-correct incorrectly interpreted what the writer wanted to spell—or jumped in too soon—and the author didn’t bother to proofread or notice the mistaken usage.

Next, what causes costumer to come up more frequently than customer? I hardly believe costume dressers are more common than customers in any retail establishment, yet auto-correct evidently believes this to be true.

Another commonly mistake I’ve unfortunately found in suspense novels is the use of grizzly for grisly. Unless a bear caused the murder, the scene of the crime is a grisly one.

What we as authors need to do is to be aware that auto-correct is sometimes not doing us any favors. Proofread, please.

Second Book Milestone

Lots of us worry we’re just a one-book wonder, especially if it took years to crack the publishing bubble with our first book. In most cases, that’s the book we sent to contests and polished until it shone with vigorous vocabulary and sharp characterization and cogent plotting. Then, once it was accepted for publication and we held our “baby” in our hands (insert a chorus of hallelujahs here), we finally set it down and the glow faded and we wondered, “What the heck do I do now?”

Well, if we were the busy, practicing writer we should always be, we had a second story. But you know, that one may not be as polished, having not suffered (or enjoyed) such a long gestation period. But we’ve got to put it out there because now we’re “published” and we have to follow up with another.

You know, this doesn’t get any easier. But if one book gave us legitimacy in the eyes of our non-writing extended family, two books says we’re serious about this “hobby.”

I’m pleased to say I’ve hit the second book milestone with a contract for my beauty-and-the-beast fantasy romance “BLOODSTONE.” So I’m celebrating tonight, and like Scarlet O’Hara, I’ll worry about the third book milestone “tomorrow.”

Confessions of a Fantasy Romance Author

That’s the headline for my guest appearance and giveaway at my fellow WisRWA member Mary Hughes’ blog this week. Drop in starting on Tuesday, Feb. 26, for some revelations about where THE PRINCE OF VAL-FEYRIDGE came from (besides my fertile imagination), read an excerpt, and leave a comment by March 1st for a chance to win an e-copy of the book.

Here's the link for when it goes live on Tuesday: http://maryhughesbooks.blogspot.com/2013/02/confessions-of-fantasy-romance-author.html

Hope to see you there!

Some Friendly Advice for Those Who Are Entering Writing Contests

I’ve judged WisRWA’s Fab Five and RWA’s Golden Heart multiple times, and I’ve learned a lot from doing so—sometimes what I SHOULD be doing, but more often what NOT to do in my writing.

The first and obvious piece of advice should be this: Read and follow the rules.

Now I know entrants are at various stages in their writing careers and have varied knowledge of the conventions of writing, but here are some items to pay attention to fixing BEFORE you submit because if you attend to these issues first, you give your judges a better chance to focus on your story rather than on trying to figure out what is on the page. And what you really want them to judge is the story and characters.

Paragraphing

Observe in published novels how dialogue is broken into paragraphs. Put the character’s spoken words in the same paragraph as his/her actions. Readers will be better able to follow who said what if you do this. And following who said what helps the reader see the story without getting lost.

He/She/They used too frequently without identifying who he/she/they might be.

If two male characters are talking, be sure to tag each one clearly with a name or descriptive title because if “he” appears multiple times in a row, you (the author) may be clear as to which “he” is which because you are visualizing the scene in your head, but the reader has most likely lost track. (The same goes for female characters and any time you have more than two characters in a scene.)

The unreferenced “it”

This useful little word can also be a source of major confusion if “it” is not placed close enough to the thing “it” is replacing or standing in for. We, the writer, know exactly what we mean. But readers can’t see inside our heads, so it’s our job to replace all the vague words in our text with clear ones.

When we enter contests, it’s partly because we want to be read, to connect with an audience. We want the judge to assess our story, our characters, our scene setting, our hook, and give us feedback on the story as a whole. The last thing we want to do is interfere with the judge’s ability to see those aspects of our work. My best advice is to pay attention to these few items when you polish that entry.

What about you? What advice would you add?