Writing Books

One shelf in my library is devoted to books on the craft of writing. As an instructor, it's easy to justify their purchase. As an author, it's easy to justify their purchase. As a fan of so many writers, who eventually share their writing wisdom with the world, it's easy to justify their purchase.

But the truth is, I haven't read most of them.

These are my two most recent additions:

I bought the Warren because of (digital) cookies. After perusing it at Amazon, it kept popping up on my entry page. I had looked "inside the book" and copied from it a short list of character questions that I wanted to answer for my own characters, and I felt beholden. Also, that subtitle is brilliant. What's the "one powerful question"? I simply must know.

But I've had the book for three weeks now, and I haven't opened it to find out. 

I bought the Nanowrimo young writer's guidebook because I have an enthusiastic student interested in writing his first novel. It is VERY geared toward the novice, young writer, which fits him well. During class, I have to ask him to put it away and rejoin our classwork. So, yeah. He's thirsty. 

I know this: Even though (most days) I feel accomplished as a purveyor of words, there is much to be learned. 

Maybe I'll dive in this weekend.

The Season's Harvest

Tomatoes have been picked, sunlight hours are growing noticeably shorter, and my day job has resumed. It's already past Labor Day, the unofficial end of summer. Seems like a good time to consider the "labor" that occurred this past season.

I had a decent summer of writing. Better than most. Spending my fun money on house repairs rather than travel and feeling the internal pressure to have more to show an agent kept me focused.

June was my most productive, with 18,600 words written and the first draft of a novel (Aco) revised and finished. I wrote for 4+ hours each day, which added up nicely.

July was okay, with another draft (Haven) mostly revised, though left without an ending (for now).

August FLEW by, and I didn't make as much progress as I planned or hoped. It doesn't help that my day job recommenced exactly halfway through the month. My most satisfying accomplishment was listing out my chapters, with POV and summaries, in an effort to see the chronologies of Queenswood and Storm side by side. After fixing some of the timing, it does look like I will be able to switch back and forth between storylines without too much confusion for the reader.

Goals for this fall:

I am hoping in September and October to finish revising Haven. As I work, I'll weave Queenswood and Storm together to see if they gel. Then in November, when my students are finished with their writing workshop, I can make a final push to write the ending. It may be a Nanowrimo year.

The middle volume will probably have to wait for 2020. But we'll see. It doesn't have a name yet, though there are various large concepts that define parts of it... Overall, I still call it "the middle book," "the quest section," or "the coming of age part." Wolf, Burn, and Crossing are potential section titles.

I'd also like to watch more Masterclass videos, as I'm a full member right now but not taking advantage of the masters' expertise. I've watched all of Aaron Sorkin's brilliant videos but only dabbled in Baldacci, Patterson, and Gaiman.

Personally, I am working on more restful sleep (a new mattress is helping immensely) and daily exercise (I've made my step goal ten days in a row, which is a record). I should also have a goal of eating less bread, but the BLTs are too tempting of late.

It's important to enjoy the fall harvest, however lean or fattening.

Abstract Thinking vs. Knowing

This summer I read, back to back, two books that made me rethink my writing practice and how I teach writing.

The first is Tara Westover's brilliant Educated. She is a thoughtful, wonderful writer.

The second is Range, David Epstein. I can't stop thinking and talking about this book.

One of Epstein's propositions is that we too often teach and test concrete, knowledge-based skills (well) to the detriment of abstract thinking skills that would be more useful throughout one's life. Not new, as an idea. I remember particularly the "Dimensions of Learning" trend that pushed for teaching HOTS: Higher Order Thinking Skills. That was one education trend I really liked and continue to consider as I plan lessons. I especially like the author's insistence that better learning is SLOW and looks like poor learning (in the immediate). Which leads me back to Tara Westover.

Tara's elementary and secondary education experiences were extremely limited. She mostly learned what she was curious enough about to explore on her own, which led to a narrow understanding of what most Americans would deem "general knowledge". But she was a reader, and her mind is able to make fascinating, imaginative leaps. She learned the skills that Range's author deemed essential. She is able to transfer knowledge and make connections.

In the long run, teachers who lead students toward the right answers and reward them are less effective than teachers who allow students to be wrong and struggle toward true understanding. As I start a new school year, I plan to keep these truths in mind.

Facebook Revelations

What does my personal Facebook page say about me?

I recently did a quick data analysis on the types of posts and topics posted on my Facebook page so far (2019). Here's what I found:

Topics*:

0% Political
2% each: Current events, Weather, Local interest, Travel, and College
6.5% Shakespeare related
6.5% Movies/Television
9% Events
11% Poems/Poetry 
13% Humorous
13% Education
17% Books

35% Family

Genre:
2% each: Announcements, Advertising, Graphic, Invitation
4% Shopping related
9% Memes
11% Text
13% Articles
17% Videos
37% Photos

Posters:

35% Shared by someone else

65% Posted by me

My most common post is family photos posted by me. In my opinion, that's Facebook's most convenient use.

If someone were trying to figure out my interests, they would have a pretty good snapshot based on these results.

Though I do hit the like button on others' partisan political posts, I consciously refuse to post political content (articles/memes). I acknowledge this is a matter of privilege. It's a choice I make to safeguard my mental health. Still, would someone be able to guess my political affiliation based on Facebook posts? Probably. My focus on public education and intellectual pursuits probably give it away. It's not that I'm a Democrat, so I have certain interests. It's the other way around. I care about all Americans doing well, not just myself, and actively work to raise the "least" to their best lives, rather than focusing on what's merely best or most profitable for me. A focus on the group over the individual often marks the difference between Democrat and Republican. I think it's particularly sad that the highly educated in our nation are now considered "elite" to be trashed rather than exemplars to be revered.

The same is true for religion. I don't post my religious beliefs or link to articles that are particularly religious, though my faith is an important part of who I am. Again, I think it's sad that one party considers itself the "religious" one, assuming that all members of the opposite party are Godless heathens. It is my Christian faith, above all, that leads me most of my political beliefs. Especially Jesus' call to live humbly, love my neighbor, and be a servant to others.

What surprised me? I think movies and television take up more of my daily life than this shows, as does travel. I had no idea that a third of the content on my page was posted by friends and relatives, although that doesn't surprise me.

I have posted 15 times to this blog in 2019. Had I linked to each blog, about a quarter of my posts would have been about writing. That's more than my percentages for books or education. I sometimes flirt with the idea of transitioning to a full-time writing career. This data analysis is a bit of an eye-opener. Retiring from teaching is not just a fleeting thought. It's born out by the numbers.


* Some topics comprised more than one topic

Breaking the Rules

I've probably posted about this before. It's a problem I have that is not going away with experience. I am the master of making stupid (cliched) plot decisions that cannot be undone.

First example: In SPOTD, each day starts at the start. For 30 days in May, Chase Cooper 's alarm rings and he wakes up with a new superpower. Because the new powers kick in overnight, there wasn't a way around this problem. And it IS a problem.

I tell my writing students all the time, "Start in the middle of things. Start with action. Don't start at the start."

The only way I could have solved this was to make his powers kick in either at a fixed time during the day (I can't imagine all the rewriting that would have entailed) or randomly (kind of kills the whole SPOTD premise). So I just embraced my faux pas and made it work. It became the story.

Second example: In SPOTD, I needed a more exciting start. I added a dream scene. It showed Chase's inner desires (to be a hero) and allowed me to write a huge action sequence. And although the diminishing of Chase's superhero dreams is important to his character arc, they were definitely a ploy on my part.

I don't allow my students to write stories where the main character wakes up at the end. It's too overdone. I tell them to just make the plot really happen. The problem with "It was all a dream" is that it robs the main character of agency. Once they wake up, readers realize the characters they were so worried about were mere bystanders all along. The danger of the dream plot wasn't real danger after all. It says to the reader, "Haha! Gotcha. You felt the feels, but it wasn't even real!" That's pretty rude. It makes the reader disconnect in the future, not wanting to be fooled into caring twice. And although the character may wake having learned a lesson, if the story ends there, the reader doesn't get to see the change/growth in action.

The kicker: When I am reading stories where characters dream, I hate it. I usually skim over those paragraphs.

And does this stop me from having characters dream in my new series? Nope. I keep their dreams as short as possible. But I have no excuse for not cutting them.

Last example: Who on earth wants to read an action-packed adventure story starring... a shy, not-that-attractive pregnant girl? And then, a formerly pregnant girl on the run. With babies. And her grandpa. Seriously? Adventure stories are supposed to be centered on young heroes. Teenagers. Maybe they age into their twenties, but rarely past that.

I never pitch that angle when people ask what my new series is about. I don't talk about the escape/pursuit plot of book 1, I talk about book 3, which is basically Agatha Christie in a castle. THAT they "get."

And what is book 1 except another case of me starting at the start? Like, THE START. I skipped a conception scene, but just barely.

In any case, I wonder what other cliches and bad plot turn offenses I have committed or risk committing in the near future...

* Hero evades certain death
* Villain is actually good
* Actual villain was pretending to be a good guy
* Dead character is miraculously alive
* Deus ex machina ending

I have no plans to incorporate any of those, but my track record says otherwise.

Note: As a writer who prides herself in smart, tight plotting, I do work especially hard to specifically avoid the last one. I think I'm quite good at subtle foreshadowing and building to an ending that is logical.

Cutting My Darlings

The more I write, the more I grow as a writer. Duh.

Lately, I've been thinking about a piece of advice that made no sense to me in 2006. I was at the Iowa Summer Writer's Conference, and Sandra Scofield was my teacher/mentor. Anytime a writer complained about a piece of story that wasn't working, Sandra said, "Cut it."

She said it was even feasible that an entire text might need to be cut. The writer would then start over. I was SHOCKED.

I thought, "There is no way."
I thought, "I write well enough. I won't ever have to cut so drastically."
I thought, "I will not take this advice."

I was wrong.

I have blogged about this before. I remember trashing an entire chapter of SPOTD (the fishing chapter) and later recreating it. That was the right move. Though I struggled a lot with the chapter, more than one reader has mentioned that chapter as a favorite.

As I am writing Lio and Lamb, I find myself revising and cutting in equal measure. My touchstone questions are, "Do I need this information?" and "Can this be said more simply?" If the answers are no and yes, respectively, I cut.

It's not hard. I put all "my darlings" in a doc called "cut lines," so I'm really not getting rid of them. I'm just shuffling them away. Like my old tee shirts, piled in the hall closet, waiting to go to the thrift store. But not yet. Not until I realize I don't really need them.

Matt Bird gives the same advice in The Secrets of Story. In his chapter on revision, he shares several notable drafts of movies that were drastically changed, for the better. I will note, however, that his advice is to set aside a draft for a week to let it settle, then to go back and fix it. My drafts settle for months at a time. A lot of the drastic changes and fixes that he advocates do happen over time, without having to scrap much.

A New (Laser) Printer

I like to revise on paper.

Here's why:

1. It's easy to see typing and grammar mistakes and easy to mark them for editing.
2. There is plenty of white space in the page margins for brainstorming and multiple, recorded efforts at new approaches to problem sentences.
3. Words, sentences, or even whole sections can simply be marked for later revision, especially if I don't see/hear an immediate solution.
4. Physically, I can see more of the text more quickly, moving my eyes and not the mouse cursor or screen.
5. Reading on paper can be done while sitting outside in the sun. For someone who lives in the North, where half the year is spent indoors, getting outside in the summer is essential. Very few things in life bring me as much joy as sitting in the sun, reading.

This past year I have printed the various pieces of Lio and Lamb twice: once just before Christmas in preparation for submission to agent Matt Bialer and once this summer as lead-in work to finishing the two drafts.

I could have printed them on my home/office inkjet printer. However, that machine was on its last leg. What should have been printed in crisp, black ink was instead gray and blurry. Every tenth line or so was so blurry as to be unreadable.

I tried cleaning the printer heads, replacing the ink with new cartridges (official brand, not "refilled"), and using better quality paper. Each "fix" bumped the quality of the printing, but only marginally and temporarily. So...

Each time I printed the Lio and Lamb texts, I drove 50 miles to access an affordable same-day printer/binder. Though not terribly expensive, adding up what I have spent so far plus another printing would equal the cost of a new printer.

I bought a new printer.

After an entire morning of setup, including 57 minutes on the phone/online with hp customer support, it's ready to go.

PS
Truthfully, this summer's writing and revising has been the most intense since I was actively drafting SPOTD, ten years ago. I feel like my revision game has stepped up. I am seeing better digitally. If only computer screens worked well in the sunshine.

Queenswood and Storm

I have to decide whether the two separate plot arcs that I've written in the second half of Lio and Lamb: Haven are better presented separately (like the two halves of Tolkien's The Two Towers) or intertwined and presented chronologically.

As a writer, I am tempted by the first option. That's primarily because I wrote it that way. So it's essentially "done." Also, it does create some suspense for the main characters in Queenswood to not know what is happening with the other characters (off in Storm) until they show up.

Is that too contrived? Honestly, the second time I read The Two Towers, I rearranged it for myself, going back and forth in the text to reassemble it chronologically. I hated that big jump backward to fill in the story and catch up. It felt like too massive a flashback.

So as a reader, I prefer the second option. I'm just worried that it might get too complicated to follow... I have main characters who remain consistent (easy to follow) in each half of the story, but my POV also switches to minor characters, and each section introduces new minor characters. That could be confusing for readers.

Maybe I need to add setting references to the titles? e.g. ISLE OF DOCQ, JOSSE. That could help.

One factor in deciding what to do is knowing that if I intertwine the plots, going chronologically through events, I can easily split them again if beta-readers find the intertwined stories too complicated to follow. The more challenging task would be the initial intertwining, not the undoing.

One more thing: Although I have yet to list the chapters and POV in a spreadsheet (that will happen soon), at some point last fall/winter I did mentally map out the days and line them up. I'll have to search around a bit to see if I can find that doc. I remember planning that on any given day, intense moments happened in just one of the storylines, not both. I also planned their chronology with consideration of climate. In the story, weather events move from west to east. So a storm that happens in the western storyline eventually affects the characters in the eastern storyline. In other words, the two pieces should fit well together, pacing-wise and logically, without too much fiddling.

I feel like I have talked myself into a plan.

Fix List: A (Play-Along) Challenge

While writing, I try to keep my forward momentum going by not bothering overmuch with details that can be checked later. For example, if a character sits down in a chair in a room that was described earlier, and I vaguely remember describing something about the furniture in that room, I leave myself a comment in the text to check on that room's decor.

The next day, before my prose train gets rolling, I go through my comments and resolve all the issues I left for myself. I also reread and revise the newest text with fresh eyes. It's amazing to me what silly things I catch myself writing.

This June, a typical writing session started with 1.5-2 hours of revision, followed by 2-5 hours of new writing. I kept track of the number of words written and plotted them on a chart. This is a Nanowrimo-birthed habit. I was never able to meet the 1666 words a day goal of Nanowrimo, but I loved seeing my word count graph grow.

As I was writing (and revising), I often found more complex problems that needed time and attention. Instead of fixing them, I added them to a doc called "FIX." By the end of writing the draft, I had about a page, single-spaced, of messy bits to clean up.

While I generally enjoy revising, this type of work is so tedious that I couldn't sustain more than two hours a day. It took me a whole week to get through the list. In addition to unraveling a double introduction (a character who shows up and is recognized/remembered in two separate chapters instead of just the first time), here are some of the choices I had to make:

Feel free to play along; answers are at the bottom of the blog.

1. What do I call the main river in Aelland? Is it the River Aco or Aco River?
2. The word for a religious person's flowy garment can be spelled either "robe" or "robes." But within one text, it needs to be consistently one or the other. Which to choose?
3. Should the language of Irabazlea, a foreign country, be Irabazleaic or Irabazlean?
4. Do I capitalize references to the weekly court session?
5. I had variously described the main characters' eye color as "light," "pale," "bluish-green," "sea-green," and "light blue." That can't all be true. Pick.
6. Create a visual reference/description of the guard candidates, who haven't been given the official red cloaks to signify full standing.
7. Should I leave a single reference to Castellan Merek's heraldry (a falcon) or expand on it?
8. Should a visiting delegation bring its own guards? If so, do they need names, or would that be extraneous?
9. My POV requires any minor characters with POV chapters to be in proximity to or to see the main characters. Do I fix the one chapter that breaks this self-imposed rule or just leave it as is?
10. A key plot point is that one of the characters knows the foreign language of Samrian. I mentioned it already, but I could have her demonstrate by counting in the language (as her mother does in a prequel). Yes?

Most of these seem like no-brainers in retrospect. But making the actual adjustments generally required a lot of hunting through the draft and subtle revision. Like I said, tedious work. I'm glad it's done (for now). I'm sure I'll think of many more things to refine.



My answers:

1. Aco River
2. Robes
3. Irabazlean
4. Yes (Piat Court)
5. Sea-green or bluish-green
6. Simple black, wool cloaks
7. Add more references, preferably three
8. Yes, two guards with names
9. Fix it.
10. Yes.

Titles and Section Titles

I call the series I am writing Lio and Lamb. Or Lio & Lamb. Either way. I'll have to decide which at some point.

More pressing, I don't know exactly what to call each of the "volumes" of the series. I started with the story that has turned into the third book. As the original text, that one is just called Lio and Lamb. Of late, I've been subtitling it Murders of Castle Aco.

The other volume that I've mostly completed is a prequel. Sometimes that's what I call it. The prequel. It's in three parts right now, so sometimes I call it "Haven," "Queenswood," and "Storm," though those are more accurately section titles within the text. I can't imagine calling the first volume of a series the extravagantly long title of Lio and Lamb: Haven, Queenswood, and Storm.

I'm going to use this blog to brainstorm some titles and subtitles...

1. Lio and Lamb: Origins
Too much like "SPOTD: Origins of a Sixth Grade Superhero."

2. Lio and Lamb: Thora's Journey
I don't hate it. But it sounds too much like a quest, which is partially true, but mostly not. The second volume will follow the quest format more closely. And although I love Thora, I don't love her name. I think she'll stay Thora, but she might not.

3. Maybe a title that alludes to the plot's genre? "Murders of Castle Aco" tips its hat to the murder mystery genre. This one is a pursuit/escape. Possibilities:

Lio and Lamb: Escape
Lio and Lamb: Escape from Docq
Lio and Lamb: Escape to Aelhaven
Lio and Lamb: Escaping Jakon
Lio and Lamb: Thora's Escape
Lio and Lamb: On the Run
Lio and Lamb: The Chase
Lio and Lamb: Pursuit
Lio and Lamb: Flight
Lio and Lamb: Deliverance
Lio and Lamb: Take Flight
Lio and Lamb: Liberty
Lio and Lamb: Release
Lio and Lamb: Liberation
Lio and Lamb: Extrication
Lio and Lamb: Salvation
Lio and Lamb: Aegis of Aelhaven
Lio and Lamb: Shelter
Lio and Lamb: Sanctum

I like the bolded ideas best.

The Chase is pleasing because it sounds like a story that is action packed. Plus, it reminds me of SPOTD.

Deliverance works because of its double meaning: deliverance to safety and birth of the twins. Plus, it hints at a particular plot twist.

I like Aegis of Aelhaven because it is story specific. Plus, the word Aegis is strange enough to sound like fantasy, which is my overarching genre.

Of course, I could just call the whole thing "Haven," which fits well. I'd just have to add a section title for the first half, because I really like "Queenswood" and "Storm," and I can't just start having section titles partway through.

So...

Lio and Lamb: Haven
     Prologue (super short)
     Deliverance
     Maybe another section here? Somehow referring to the threat of separation...
     Queenswood and Storm (or separate, if I don't twine them together).

Okay, so now I need another section name. More brainstorming?

Flight
Discovery
Peril
Jeopardy
Quarry
Raider
Midsummer
Menace

Again, I like the bolded ideas best.

My favorite is Discovery; it hints at the plot and it's what prompts the flight of the next sections. Plus, it has a double meaning again. Characters are literally discovered/found, and characters can learn about themselves. I could play that up even more.

Midsummer. My created world has fairly traditional seasonal celebrations at Midwinter, Midspring Midsummer, and Midfall. The Midspring and Midsummer rituals play important parts in this first story. But I think I'd prefer to use Midsummer as a section title if I were using all four to divide a work. Maybe I could use them as a framework for the second volume.

Final plan (for now):

Lio and Lamb: Haven
     Prologue
     Deliverance
     Discovery
     Queenswood and Storm
     Epilogue

After I revise what I've written, my next task is to decide how to order Queenswood and Storm, either one after the other or intertwined. That's a subject for another blog...

Ta-da!

You know that feeling when you finish a great novel, or fantasy series, or Netflix binge? That sadness akin to grief that these characters are going away? That driving away from the weekend and into the workaday week feeling? It takes a good, full day for me to wallow in my post-fiction hangover before I am ready to face the real world or jump into another story.

I started feeling that satisfying loss after writing the climax of the story. I knew there were several more chapters to write, but it still felt like I was saying goodbye. I hoped to tie up all the loose ends more quickly that Tolkien did in LOTR (the ending of which goes on and on and on...). The feeling only lasted a day. Then I attacked the final chapters. And here we are!

First draft, done.

After I go through as much of my "FIX" file as I can, my next move is to wrap around to the start of the series and reread Haven, Queenswood, and Storm so that I can figure out how to merge together and finish that opening volume in the series. I stumbled upon the ending to that book a while ago. I hope I can remember enough of my plan to make it happen. I'd estimate I have only 15,000 words to go, so my goal is to post another report like this before summer is over.

The best part is that I'm excited to keep writing. I wish the next month could stretch on and on and on... I'll just have to enjoy the time I have.

Outlining

A few weeks ago, a friend asked me about my writing process.

It's a common question. People always ask writers about their process. Always. It's a question I have asked of other writers, myself.

The question is often framed as a binary: Are you an architect or a pantser? In other words, do you like to plan/outline or discover your story while writing (writing from the seat of your pants)?

Of course, all writers do some measure of both.

Personally, I like to make sketchy outlines. I like to know the 2-7 most important things that need to happen in a scene before I start writing it. That helps me know why the scene matters. Then as I write the scene, I usually let the characters do their own things. It's funny how often they surprise me. That's actually one of my favorite parts of writing -- because it's more like reading.

While writing SPOTD, I had a tight time frame. The entire story had to take place between the two blue moons, so 30 days in the month of May. I created 30 docs and dated each one. Then I listed the superpower for each day, how it would be used, what bits of foreshadowing were needed, and what other events needed to happen. Each doc eventually became multiple chapters.

My process for Lio and Lamb has been a little more discovery writing. I often sketch out the next 3-5 chapters by planning who the POV characters will be and what should happen within those chapters, but until lately, I didn't have an exact end in my sights, so I hadn't planned too far ahead.

A great thing happened at the beginning of the summer. I was driving home from somewhere and vaguely thinking about the end of the story. That is, the end of the entire trilogy. And it came to me.

Since then, I have been outlining like crazy, writing double and triple my usual word count, and having a lot of fun. And as I am writing, I still discover characters in places I didn't expect them to be doing surprising things. It's delightful!

Right now, this third story is closing in on the magic 90K words. It will end up having approximately 125 short chapters, of which 115 are written. I'll probably be done with the draft early next week. The funny part is that I'll have the third book in a trilogy mostly done, while the first book is only 80% done and the middle volume barely exists. I'm a reverse Martin/Rothfuss!

Red Herrings and Guns on the Mantle

The main challenge of this part of writing a novel, the last 25%, is pulling off the magic trick that is a tight plot. I had to create a lot of foreshadowing, placing several of Chekhov's "guns on the mantlepiece" so that characters can pick them up and "shoot" now. I had to introduce a few red herrings, so the reader wouldn't get bored by seeing too clearly exactly how it would all unfold.

It's like...
...getting to the point where you can see the picture behind the puzzle pieces, but essential chunks are still unpieced. You hope you haven't lost any pieces (under the table, behind the box).
...weaving a tapestry, where all the threads are aligned and all you have to do is pull them taut for it all to come together.
...decorating the house that has been built.

I read somewhere, or perhaps I heard it on a podcast, that a reader wants to anticipate a good plot twist or reveal about a paragraph before it happens. That way the reader thinks, "I'm so smart! I figured it out before the characters did!" and stays engaged to solve the next piece of the plot puzzle. I like that idea.

One of my favorite parts of writing SPOTD was assembling the plot. You know how the final Marvel Avengers film drew on all the previous films, fitting together what seems to have been an intentional resolution? It was so satisfying. That's what I strive for. And that's the fun part of writing for me.

But it's also tough as diamonds to do. My aging brain doesn't hold as much information simultaneously as it used to. I have notes everywhere -- on little pieces of paper, on rambling voice messages, and in an inch thick of printed notes. It's probably time to start ONE doc called something like "THE END." Then I'll reread the whole story and take notes on what has been set up, what needs more setting up, and what needs to happen in the end.

Oh my. I just realized that this is work I can do while sitting outside in the sun. YAY! Can't wait!

Writing Violence

It makes my students laugh when I casually mention how fun it is to kill off a character.

But the truth is, I struggle with writing violence.

I once wrote a short story in which a cowboy did NOT get into a bar fight. He clearly should have.

There's no big fight scene in SPOTD, just a lot of running away from danger and (spoiler) one well-thrown punch. What kind of superhero avoids the epic battle?

Last November I wrote a scene where a character goes off (into the woods) and returns injured. I didn't write the scene where the injury takes place, just the reactions by the other characters when she stumbles back into camp. And I don't have any great desire to change my approach. Since then, I've been revising heavily and working more on the original chunk of the series, so I haven't written past that particular injury. I don't even know if the character survives. I only know that she's been languishing away these past seven months. It would have been more merciful to finish her off right away, I suppose.

So my attempts at violence have sometimes been weak.

Then again, the original Lio and Lamb opening, from the middle volume of the series, begins with an instigating act of extreme violence that shadows the entire novel. And that novel is, essentially, a murder mystery. It is full of killings.

I guess I'm all over the map.

There is one place I won't go, however.

I've been so frustrated lately with television shows that break audience members' hearts by offing the characters that they identify with most. And it's one of Matt Bird's rules to avoid that, as he specifically states in Law #6 of Writing for Strangers: "It's very hard to get audiences to care about any hero because they're afraid of getting hurt." To paraphrase: Once you earn the audience's trust, don't betray it.

So here's the deal. I promise not to kill off Lio or Lamb. Even though their names allusively suggest that it could happen (à la Jesus/Aslan, sacrificial lambs), this will not be a "heroes sacrifice all" story.

I make no promises for the others, however. After all, sometimes it is fun to kill off a character. 

Is That Sunshine I See?

It seems the last time I looked at a calendar it was mid-February, and here we are in JUNE. Which means...

...my day job has reached its annual hiatus. Already, I have celebrated various life events with loved ones, attacked house and yard jobs with the short-lived glee of early summer freedom, and requested a pile of books from my local library. The best part is finally being able to sit in the midday sunshine reading.

Over the course of the spring months, I didn't make the writing progress I had hoped for, but small Lio and Lamb adjacent projects were on my mind daily. For example, I was constantly looking up the derivations of cool words that I ran across in order to make up new words and names for the story. I've also been on a brain-hunt for nicknames for various occupations, ranks, and positions in my realm.

Alas, I have decided not to travel this summer.

I'm grieving a bit over not being able to see the RSC reverse-gender Taming of the Shrew or Aaron Sorkin's adaptation of To Kill a Mockingbird on Broadway. There will still be Minnesota trips and lots of theater to see, but no long plane flights or overstuffed luggage.

Instead, I've decided to commit to finishing both Lio and Lamb drafts. It's slow going so far. But I feel like I'll get back in the groove today. As long as that lovely sunshine and the pile of library books on my kitchen counter don't tempt me outside all day.

Writing Excuses

I am a fan of Brandon Sanderson for four main reasons:

1) Mistborn.
         One of my favorite series.
2) His BYU writing class lectures (on YouTube).
         I enjoy his nerdy, kind, wise teaching style.
3) The idea of authors having a 'Brandon Sanderson File".
4) The Writing Excuses podcast.

Link to the podcast website.

Lately I've been listening to "crunchy" episodes while cooking or doing dishes. I don't take notes like I do with the Bird book. In fact, I'm often distracted and not listening as well as I should.

Authors and hosts (2017) Mary Anne Mohanraj, Brandon Sanderson, Mary Robinette Kowal, and Wesley Chu

As often as I think, "Ah! Great idea. I'll have to remember that," I find myself nodding and thinking, "Yup. I do that," or "Right. That's how it works for me too."

Overall, listening to the podcast makes me feel more like a writer than a student of writing, though I'll probably always be a student of the craft. That's a pretentious word I've started to use, by the way. Craft.

Some lessons...

Groups of people within a culture are not homogenous (i.e. all wearing hats).
Remember that there is variation within religious belief and practice.
Doing diversity well means adding intersectionality within characters to avoid stereotyping.
Minor characters need quirks and interests beyond their plot function.
Various authors write in various ways. I mean, duh. But seriously.
And they really use each other as alpha and beta readers. A lot.

The best part?
"You're out of excuses. Now go write!"

Tad Williams Crushes It

So begins The Dragonbone Chair by Tad Williams. 

On my personal journey of learning in preparation for writing a created world series, I felt ill prepared to write about life in a castle. But I had a vision of a medieval Minnesota, and that included stone forts and palaces.

I raided my local library, read a lot online, and imagined what it would be like to live and move about within a castle's walls. Still, a sense of inadequacy stopped me from actually writing scenes. So I went to England, twice, specifically to tour castles and take notes. Those trips were wonderful -- inspiring, clarifying, and solidifying my vision.

I'd say the most influential of the castles I visited were Hampton Court Palace...

HCP: These pies figure into my story in a clever way.
They are also the bane of my revising process. 

HCP: When I picture the main Aco Castle kitchen oven, this is it. 

Onr of imagined kitchens has this type of "stovetop."

...and  Conwy Castle, in Wales...

These are the castle walls in my mind, built on a rock foundation.

A view of Conwy from one of the castle's towers.
This perspective is essential to the plot of my story.

...though each one I visited added some small, important bit to my cache of castle knowledge. 

The inspiration for an important "window nook."
Leeds Castle

Also at Leeds, an undercroft cellar. 

I love the artistic hardware in most castles.
This lovely example is from Arundel Castle.

The bailey at Caernarfon Castle, Wales.
Here, the size influenced my thinking. 

I sketched my realm's map, including half a dozen important castle locations. And I finally got down to the business of writing scenes in one of them, Acomount/Aco Castle. My writing was informed by what I had seen, and I was pleased with my efforts.

Then I read the opening of Tad Williams' novel. In four quick sentences, he invokes the images, sounds, and most important, the feel of a castle. IN FOUR SENTENCES. In that opening paragraph, he creates as much atmosphere as my first four CHAPTERS. If you can't tell by my flagrant use of capital letters, this astonishes me. 

Lately, my emotions have been swinging wildly back and forth between "Lio and Lamb is the best story ever -- I love writing it and people are going to love reading it!" and "What a load. There is so much to add and fix and improve in this draft -- it'll never be ready for other eyes. It'll never do, in all its chapters, what Williams did in that one paragraph."

I guess what I need is some perspective. 

I am not a beginning writer, but I'm not an expert. Yet. I can't compare my work to the illustrious Williams without falling short, so I need to read it and be inspired instead of downcast. Then I need to keep writing, keep revising, and grow into expertise. I need to recognize my strengths (plotting, mechanics, leanness, and commitment) and work on my weaknesses (incorporating what I know in beautiful prose, letting readers see and experience the scenes as I do in my imagination, and commitment).

I'll get there. 

Matt Bird's Book: A Vacation Tradition

A few years ago, I started reading Matt Bird's The Secrets of Story. I must have been on vacation in Florida because I remember sitting in the sun while reading and needing to stop and search for a highlighter because everything Bird wrote was so applicable, practical, and wise.

Highlighter in hand, I got a few chapters in and was so inspired that I put down the book to go write.

A year later I packed it for a return to Florida. While sitting on the lanai, I reread all my highlighting, read/highlighted a little further, and was inspired (again) to go write.

Last week I packed for Florida. I made sure to include Bird's book and lots of highlighters.

You'll never guess what happened.

PS

My sister and I were discussing our recent disappointment with the current season of The Walking Dead, and something she said resonated. I grabbed the Bird book, and we read his rules for creating a hero together. It was astonishing -- the series is breaking all Bird's rules. No wonder we are both ready to stop watching.

More Snowy Days

It turns out the December snowstorm (see my blog post for December 28) was just the beginning. During that event, I revised the Haven section of L&L. Then, in January, I continued working and revised most of the Queenswood and Storm sections.

At the end of January, we had a blizzard that closed school for three full days.

I was kept busy online -- creating and posting assignments, correcting student work, and connecting with students -- from 6:30 in the morning until 3:00 in the afternoon. But once 3:00 rolled around, I was free.

Note: It's a common misperception that teachers only work to 3:00 in the afternoon. Usually, I leave our building around 5:00, brain weary and exhausted. I get home, cook, and sit down to eat. And once I'm down, I'm useless. Nanowrimo is a great motivator because once the month starts, I don't want to miss posting my progress a single day. I end up writing after 9:00 pm, when I get a second wind (composed of guilt, mostly).

But these snow days were so much less taxing. At 3:00 in the afternoon, I still had plenty of mental energy. It was wonderful.

Not a blizzard. This was just a nice, normal day in January. With a sun dog.

So, during the January blizzard, I dove into the "middle" story of the series, which is the first bit I drafted. I call it the Prison and Princess section. It was amazing. I hadn't read it in over two years. It was like reading someone else's novel -- engaging and even surprising!

I had more ridiculous glitches to fix, of course.

* One character's name was so dumb. So. Dumb. I plan to change it. The right name just hasn't popped yet. I'm not sure why this guy is so hard to figure out. Maybe I need to write a chapter from his POV and see what's happening in his head.

* Lamb's magic was too understated, so I had to pump that up. It took a good week of mulling to think of 4-5 possible "magic" moments. Then when I looked at the text, only 2-3 of those moments actually made sense. Drafting them was a challenge. When I'm in the zone, I usually write 400 words an hour. But writing a short paragraph (maybe three sentences) to insert into previous work took over an hour.

* And for some reason, a particular pie had various different meats -- pork, lamb, etc. -- each time it made an appearance.

After that blizzard, we had a balmy break.

Only in Minnesota is -2 F considered "Not as cold."

Now this week, in February, we had another blizzard that shut us down for two more days. Like before, when 3:00 rolled around, I was ready to dig in. I thought I would be able to make all the corrections I had marked while rereading P&P, but I ended up using my time to type up a list of chapters, by POV character, with short summaries for each. I needed to sort out that pie business (was it one meat pie, or several?), and seeing the timeline of events was the only way I could keep it straight.

After I finish my revisions, I need to outline the end of the novel. Since it has been two years since I shifted to the prequel, I don't remember all the particular choices/ideas I had planned for the middle story. So I guess my next step will be to ransack old files, looking for notes.

Fingers crossed for a March blizzard?

Art Project

Since my new series is called Lio and Lamb, I have started collecting pictures of lions and lambs. When I find an image I like, I track down the artist and purchase a copy to hang in my house for inspiration.

I wouldn't use them for self-promotion without contacting and paying the artists... So I decided to make my own art. At an art session a few weeks ago, created these with black paper and scissors:

and

I need a tutorial on how to do this next part better, but an initial attempt to convert my scans to vector art turned them into:

 I think they look fierce!

Odd Revisions

It's sometimes hard to explain to nonwriters (i.e. my mother) the odd bits that pop up and demand attention while I am revising.

Last week, it was capital letters. Deciding what was a proper noun and what was not took me an entire afternoon, especially for words that were created for the world of the story.

For example, I created a flower called the Dahna. Or should it be dahna? My first draft made it a proper noun, but the rules of capitalization for flowers dictate no capital letter unless the word references some other proper noun. As the creator of the flower, I can choose to have it named after a person or place and keep the upper case. But for now, I went through all chunks of draft and switched it to lowercase.

And then there's clothing. Sunday, I spent a good hour going down the rabbit hole of "coat" vs. "cloak" vs. "cape." And of course, "cowl" entered the picture at some point. Who wears what has to be consistent, and it turns out I wasn't.

Somehow, a character who had lost everything but the clothes on her back ended up with two pairs of shoes. Nope.

Now I'm ferreting out the various money purses, wallets, and coin bags strewn throughout the story. Plus money hidden in a boot and money wadded up and tucked into the folds of a dress.

At least I didn't put a pile of money in the second pair of shoes while the character wore the wrong outer garment, one embroidered in dahna blooms. But it was a near thing.

It's good to JKW (just keep writing!). But forging ahead without ironing out details sometimes leads to more work later.

I wonder what will catch my eye next?