Editing the Mystery Novel.

I'm editing Dog Show Detective, a novel aimed at kids between 8-10yrs about 11yr old Kitty who takes her Miniature Schnauzer to dog shows and solves mysteries. This week I started the editing process. Okay, I skimmed the manuscript and made a coupla' notes. It's the festive season, time has been short.

Last week I told you Kitty's dog would go from being called Shakespeare to Spade because it had more significance to the story. This week I've found a few more necessary changes.

Sometimes ideas come to us after we've already written a scene, so I make notes in my notepad. For each manuscript I dedicate a MS Word document for chapters, another for notes and ideas, a Plot Builder file to see how the manuscript is shaping together and a handy-dandy notepad (tip I learned from Steve in Blue's Clues), to jot down ideas when out and about. I find ideas and corrections come when I don't plan them, so the notepad gets filled and the doc file stays empty.

I was halfway through the Dog Show Detective mystery before I realised I only had one suspect. Not much of a mystery then. Instead of going back, I ploughed on and wrote in more characters as if they had been there from the start. Now in edit time I need to find ways to believably introduce them and start to drop hints about motives.

Motives act as clues, they tell us who we can suspect and who to dismiss. A character's motive must be realistically weighted for the crime, for example, most people won't commit murder these days just because they've fallen out of love with their spouse. Divorce seems a much easier solution. BUT, if the person stood to loose a lot financially, they were dedicated to a religion that forbids divorce, they are scared their spouse will beat or kill them if they try to leave, or if they're having an affair with their under-aged student and their wife has discovered it, then you have a strong enough motive.

Writing-World has a great post about dropping clues into your mystery narrative and explains the different types of clues you can use. Another great site is Perpetual Prose on Crafting Twists and Dropping Clues.

You will need to have several characters with strong motives for the crime, which is where I originally went wrong with my manuscript. Once I placed in a few more characters with various motives, I discovered two chapters from the end that my original suspect would not be the perpetrator at all! I love it when our narratives surprise us.  :-)

For newbies to mystery I strongly recommend reading and dissecting Agatha Christie novels, she had several formulas that worked well. The Christie Mystery is a site that has some very helpful tips for mystery writing, including a post on 'The Least Likely Suspect', one of my favourite Christie novels had ALL the suspects commit the crime.

Point of view is important for a crime novel, the most popular being limited third person (that's what I have chosen) or first person. The reason for this is because in most mysteries you don't want the reader to know the answers before the detective. You can experiment with different styles if you are little bit clever ;-). Check out Sylvia Dickey Smith Books if you need the different point of view possibilities explained.

This may sound repetitive, but reading mysteries is a great way to work out how to craft a mystery. I've been reading a couple of kids' mysteries such as Trixie Beldon, Nancy Drew and The 39 Clues (1st book by Rick Riordan). This has shown me another flaw in my narrative. I've focused on setting the story up to mislead and eventually lead to the solution, I've tried to have fun and exciting chapters, but I haven't had enough DANGER. 

Kids want action, they want their mystery fast paced and exciting, they want to worry about the characters. Don't underestimate your young reader, they learn quickly how to spot patterns. I'm often informed by kids that they know the main character will survive, so they don't worry so much about them, but when secondary characters are in danger, that can be scary because you just don't know how necessary they might be. I'm going to write in a few more near misses for Kitty's friends, family and even Kitty's dog.

Kids also love stereotype characters, Scooby-Doo almost always included a scary, old grounds-keeper that would seem really mean, but not end up being the villain.

Okay, so lots of work to do for me this week - I have to actually get onto making changes to my manuscript and I'll be reading How to Write Killer Fiction by Carolyn Wheat and Youdunit Whodunit by Nicola Furlong.

Time to edit - let's turn that good idea into a great narrative.

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Editing - What comes after the 1st Draft?

During November I wrote a 60k first draft of a YA fantasy novel, The Costume Maker, a tale about a group of teens thrust into a magical world of fairies, gypsies, dragons and danger. My plans were to spend December editing, so first I needed to spend some time researching approaches for revising a novel. That's what I've been doing this week.

Here's what I've found so far and some nifty resources:

Universally across my research I came across a common theme for step one. Put your finished first draft aside and don't read it for a period of time. 

James Scott Bell calls this 'letting it cool' in Plot and Structure (I liked this book so much, I ordered Revision and Self-Editing in the same series and am keenly awaiting its arrival). The idea is to gain an objective approach when you read through your novel for editing.

If you're a visual person like me, you see your story unfold in your mind as you write it. This has its benefits and can create its own obstacles. Seeing your story may mean that you don't get stuck for plot ideas, but it could also mean you miss describing things that you see, leaving gaps in your plot.

By putting your manuscript aside for a few weeks or longer, you can read your words with fresh eyes, allowing you to be more critical of the narrative, structure, language, characters, etc.

Even though I'm not ready to revise The Costume Maker just yet, I printed out my manuscript anyway. There is a certain elation that comes with seeing your writing in print, the thickness of all those pages, your creation. This is your reward for finishing.

In Word by Word, Anne Lamott (I downloaded the audio-book from iTunes) says you should never think of printing your drafts as wasting paper. Value your words, they deserve it, you deserve it.

Before November, I was working on my novel Dog Show Detective, so in a 'here's one I prepared earlier' moment, I'll be working on revising my first draft of that novel this month.

The best advice I found was from Christopher Vogler in Using Myth to Power Your Story (also available from iTunes). Vogler suggests thinking about the story you've written and coming up with one word that it's about. This is harder than it first seems, surely we wrote our stories with a theme in mind? I'm pretty sure I started with a premise for Dog Show Detective, but lost it somewhere in the writing process. I can't decide if it should be 'Loyalty', 'Mystery' or 'Identity', I suspect it may be as lame as 'Dogs' at this stage.

You probably have more than one word that your novel is about, but you could prioritise those theme words. Next you have to decide the premise surrounding that word. If your word is 'Love', is your premise 'Love conquers all', or 'Love is blind'? Then using that premise as a guide you go through your story scene by scene and make sure each one relates to that theme.

Using this technique, I have already realised a major change that I want for Dog Show Detective, if I use the word Mystery as a theme word and 'Things are never what they first seem' as a premise, I've decided my sidekick's name must change. Shakespeare is Kitty's Miniature Schnauzer that she enters in dog shows and together they solve mysteries. Now Shakespeare's name will change. My favourites so far are Spade, Poe or Doyle.

Another way of approaching your edit is to look at your plot structure, do you have an introduction of the characters, climb of action, climax and resolution? Or break your plot lines down to the individual character's plot chart, visit How to Plan, Write, and Develop a Book to hear more about this.

The Complete Idiot's Guide to Writing for Young Adults has a complete section on revising and suggests using a critique group or writer's group. This book suggests sample questions to ask when getting people to review your work as well as providing overall areas to review in your narrative.

If you can't join a local writer's group, you can find critique groups online. I sometimes use Critique Circle, you upload your chapters for review and critique other people's work in return.

When revising your manuscript, keep in mind who you are writing for. Dog Show Detective is aimed at young novel readers, about 8-10, so I write the story specifically for what my 8yr old daughter would enjoy. If you write for kids, then let kids critique your manuscript, then you'll know what works and what doesn't.

And as I said last week, read what you write. I'm reading young girl's detective novels, like Phillip Pullman's Ruby in The Smoke and  Julie Campbell's Trixie Beldon series.

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Pens Down

Today is the last day of NaNoWriMo - The month of novel writing, where authors and would-be writers frantically try to complete a minimum 50,000 word novel in 30 days.

I planned to keep writing till the last day, even when I passed my 50k mark a week early. But when I found my story finished just over 60k, I felt a little flat. I still had several days to go but did not have the urge to write as frantically as I had been.

Why?

I think you need to take time to celebrate that feeling of being 'finished'. Of course there's gaps in the story that need filling, extra scenes you thought up later and a whole lotta editing to do. But I just wanted to sit on that sensation of finishing this book. I hadn't finished a whole novel before, although I'd started plenty.

Finished your NaNo novel - what now?

If you still have time to write, then write. I took one day off. This was not easy. For some reason my mind finds tormenting me a great lark, it kept suggesting writing ideas and scenes for the book that wouldn't come when I needed them earlier.

The next day I wrote a short story, in a genre and style that is completely different from my novel. The old 'change as good as a holiday' routine. The fast pace of NaNoWriMo can leave you feeling a little burnt out from writing this one novel, so why not start a notebook, forget the NaNo novel for the day and just jot down weird and crazy ideas for other stories instead.

Then what?

My tact on approaching what comes after NaNo will be two steps.

1. Leave it alone for two weeks.

I'm going to print my manuscript, save it in a million different places for safe-keeping and let my mind lose the attachment to each and every word. This is the only way I'll be able to approach editing.

I won't stop writing though, whether it's ideas, dialogues, blogs, working on other WIPs (I'll be writing up the final chapter to Dog Show Detective and starting that book's edits), the idea is to keep the imagination cogs oiled and moving.

2. Read, a lot.

Prior to November, I took on the task of reading books in the genre I wanted to write. This gave me a feel for the common language used and understood by the readers and writing devices used for the narratives. Time now to return to that task before I edit the book. My NaNo novel is YA fantasy, so I'm reading similar novels to look for the type of character arcs, the places where the narratives reach a climax and what stands out from each novel. I'll keep notes on this too.

For example.

The Book Thief - Markus Zusak: Tells a story set in Nazi Germany, but manages to find a new angle, the story is narrated by Death (whom we learn is a very sensitive being).

The Alchemyst - Michael Scott: (I'm now on the second book, The Magician), There are immortals, mythical creatures and magic. What stood out for me with this novel was the magical creatures were all from historical legends and mythology, some will seem familiar and some, I hope, will have the young readers jumping on the internet to research the stories surrounding these myths.

Malice - Chris Wooding: I haven't read this one just yet, but what excites me is that the narrative is about children being taken to another world that exists inside a comic book. The novel is a combination of text narrative and intermittent comic graphics. When students struggle with reading, English/Lit teachers can sometimes encourage them with graphic novels. There is however a gap then in getting students keen to move to text narratives, and easier text usually means a less mature plot. I would love to see more novels like this one to help move students gradually from experiencing success with graphic novels and moving onto text novels. There's a niche out there author/illustrators!

Magyk - Angie Sage: During November, when I wasn't writing, my eyes were usually too tired to read. So, I downloaded this book from iTunes. You can listen to books while driving, doing the dishes, hanging out the washing or walking the dog. I also downloaded some writing style books this way. This narrative's best feature was the action. It started early and kept at a fast moving pace.

My hint on audio books - listen to the sample, a good reading voice makes a difference, one Podio (podcast) book I'm listening to now features a guy who sounds like he's trying to sell me a set of steak knives).

I have also discovered Amazon Kindle for PC. How did I not know about this sooner?!

It's great. I download books straight to my PC.

Being in Australia and having books cost so much over here, this is fantastic, not only are the books cheaper, but I have no freight costs. So far I'm finding I prefer to read non-fiction online and still like a hardcopy book for reading fiction. But the application is free so give it a go!

Next:

I'm looking at a few books and sites for editing your story.

I'll let you know what I find and we can start slashing and rebuilding our novels!

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Creating Character Flaws

Hmm, those characters are really... nice. Time to ruin them and make some fun!

Now, there are flaws that work and many that are just irrelevant. 

One key ingredient to a good flaw - it moves the story! And before we begin, 'brooding' is not a strong enough flaw for any character, human or otherwise. There's a good reason viewers preferred Spike to Angel in 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer', he was bad. 

This brings me to another key ingrediant - balance it with a good trait. Spike was funny, funny enough we could overlook the years of slaughtering and kitten consuming.

Here is how my NaNoWriMo characters are shaping up and problems I've had with character flaws.

My NaNoWriMo novel (which has now passed 50k - Yay!) is called The Costume Maker and began with an idea of characters. I first had two characters in mind, a gypsy woman who makes amazing costumes, is a bit magical and has a short temper, and a teenage girl who is completely rude, selfish and yet somehow, adorable.

Missy, the teen, is so rude to the gypsy woman, Rosa, that Rosa sends her to a magical world with Dragons and Fairies and magical Gypsies.

These two characters are working well in my story. Rosa is fiery and sentimental. Missy sees each experience in relation to herself, and is always looking for personal gain, she is also totally unaware that she has any flaws at all and wonders why people treat her as if she's stupid.

Next I needed some heroes to go and save Missy. I sent in her new almost boyfriend, Lance and a shy girl called Lucinda, that Missy considers a 'freak'. These two characters are the ones that will need a lot of editing in my second draft, they're just too... nice.

I've started to show Lucinda's shyness and feelings of inadequacy as a flaw, but it needs strengthening so there can be a bigger character arc over the story. A character arc is where your characters start out the story one way, but undergo changes throughout your narrative. Lucinda should be extreme in her shyness and self-doubt, and through discovering she has the blood of magical Gypsies, she will start to grow into a confident young woman. How can I use this to move the story though? Still playing with that.

Missy propels the story because her personality causes hitches in the heroes' attempts to save her. They find her in a Fairy castle, but discover Missy is actually reluctant to leave. More problems follow.

Lance is also a bit cardboardy at the moment. He's captain of the school footy team and is hugely popular, but I want to deepen him to be some kind of closet nerd or something. Again, I need to find ways to make this move the story, perhaps he can be a science nerd by heart and his knowledge helps them in a dangerous spot in the story? Or maybe his online gaming comes in handy when they actually meet a dragon? Food for thought.

I've also mentioned the need to balance flaws. 

With our heroes it's usually the other way around. We start with their good points and then throw in some problems. With Missy I started with the flaws, I don't even intend to arc those much, I want Missy to stay pretty much the same right to the end. What I will do, is throughout the story, reveal great traits Missy has, like bravery and loyalty, that the others didn't know were in her.

Where can you find great flaws?

There's always the original sins. Biblical sins as flaws can add a deeper theme to your narrative as well as a moral.

Phobias can be fun flaws which must be faced for the character to progress through the narrative.

Everyone thinks I'm a very calm character, but the smallest things can freak me out:

Hairy spiders, flying (don't give me the safer than a car lie. If a car's engine dies, you just get out), balloons (waiting for them to 'pop'), milk that's been in the fridge for more than 24hrs, middle aged man in supermarket isle wearing a Superman t-shirt, identical twins (not the people, but the concept of one person splitting into two freaks me out) and hanging my clothes on the line (too hard to even explain).

If you must have a nice character - then go whole hog and make them really namby-pamby, then have a piano land on them, because that's what your reader will be wishing for.

Webs and blogs on character flaws:

Dark World - Character Flaws
This one has the most extensive list of flaws possible. You'll find one perfect for your story.

Killer Hobbies
More about how to make your characters stand out, than flaws, but very helpful.

Men with Pens
One of the best sites to explain character flaws and how they work.

Here Goes...
A more artistic approach to writing flaws.

If you know a blog covering character flaws, share it in the comments.



And, as with all things NaNoWriMo, the idea is to get the story told in November, it's easier if you know your characters up front, but if not, you can rewrite flaws and situations in your first edit.

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Writing Resources & Distractions

Occasionally I like to share websites and resources that I find helpful for writing (or for entertaining me while I pretend to write).
Halfway now through NaNoWriMo and I'm starting to pick up the pace. The Costume Maker is moving along well, although I'm finding I need to deepen two of my main trio's characters. The irony is the most shallow character seems the best hashed out. I think the other two need deeper flaws, so I'll do some research and that may be the topic of my next post.
For now, here are links I'm enjoying:

The Stoakes-Whibley Natural Index of Supernatural Collective Nouns
Did you know a group of Unicorns is a 'fondle'? Alan Baxter's page has a chart of most supernatural creatures and their collective nouns. I find it great for suggesting mythical characters for my Fantasy stories.

Writing Advice
Mostly geared towards Sci-fi and Fantasy, this site has got interesting content. Also a complete section for those who are not sure about the defining difference between Sci-fi and Fantasy (like my bookshop that always mixes them).

Mastering the Long Flashback
Anna Staniszewski's site is a little difficult to read because of the dark background, but the content is extremely helpful for those of us (me, I mean  me), who are clumsy with flashbacks.

Language is a Virus
Designed specifically for NaNoWriMo, this site has loads of widgets to cure writer's block. Games and plot generators.

Thirteen Ways to Write With Magazine Cut-Outs
Valerie Storey has put together a great blog post with incredibly imaginative ideas. Check it out and have your paper, scissors and glue handy!

The Art of Misdirection
The Gotham Writers' Workshop site has an endless number of scholarly articles on the practice of writing. Impressive resource for fiction writers.

The Magical Writer Journey
I've always believed that you can do anything. Sounds naive I know. For me writing is a skill that you can improve by... writing. Sure there are some people born more creative than others, but actual story structure, grammar etc, it can all be taught (otherwise I'll be wasting my time teaching highschoolers English). Legands about writers scribbling notes on a napkin and then making millions is not good for my moral, I don't want to strike it lucky. I want to provide a great product. This blog post puts it in perspective.

Ink-fever
A writer friend of mine, who blogs regularly about her stories, writing process and insights. Has a wonderful e-book The 33 Worst Mistakes Writers Make about Dogs, I urge anyone who includes a pooch in their story to read this. Understand the psyche of your four legged character.

The Creative Penn
I've listed this site before, but it's really worth checking out! There are free downloads and one in particular talks about how to market yourself as a writer. Essential in today's online world. You can also buy her e-books from this site. I subscribe to the podcast through iTunes, always relevant, interesting and fun.

What I listen to:
There's a lot of talk about soundtracks people use when writing. I don't listen to music when I write, I either have silence or I listen to a Podcast about writing. Here are my favourites (you can search for them in iTunes)
The Writing Show - with Paula B.
The Creative Penn
Writers Talking
The Secrets Podcast for Writers
I Should be Writing
Litopia After Dark

I'd like to start listening to Podcast novels and would love to create one (if I ever have a fully polished manuscript, and my voice magically improves so I no longer sound like I'm six in recordings).

Do you have a favorite Podcast or writers' site? Add the link in the comments (then we can all have an excuse not to finish our NaNoWriMo novel).

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Opening lines and hooks.

 The first line of your narrative is your connection with the reader. You want to make an impact, build an interest so the reader commits to the narrative. Like all relationships, there will be ups and downs. Your narrative will require quick moving/action scenes but also need to give your reader a rest with easier paced sections and ways to pass on necessary information.  Make sure your reader has a strong investment in the narrative so they will see you through the slow times.  Fashion of narrative styles have evolved along with the medium and technology that delivers them. Today readers want the story to start moving straight away, and it's harder to hold their attention for long. Many experts are suggesting that the way we read is changing, see this great article: Does the Brain like E-books?So when we hear of opening hooks in novels today, the need has developed to have intermittent hooks throughout your narrative.  There are different techniques you can use for a begining paragraph, the main key is to give the reader just enough information to let them know this is the type of story they would enjoy reading, but not too much, they'll have to read more to find out what's going on.   Lets look at a few examples: Mark Twain started Buck Fanshaw's Funeral with:Somebody has said that in order to know a community, one must observe the style of its funerals and know what manner of men they bury with most ceremony.It's intriguing enough, but two paragraphs down is where I think Twain would begin his tale today:On the inquest it was shown that Buck Fanshaw, in the delirium of a waisting typhoid fever, had taken arsenic, shot himself through the body, cut his throat, and jumped out of a four-story window and broken his neck - and after due deliberation, the jury, sad and tearful, but with intelligence unblinded by its sorrow, brought in a verdict of death "by the visitation of God." Von Fiend's children's book Ock, the story of a young vampire, begins:Ock's place is hard to miss. It's the scary mansion, just outside of town. When you start getting the creeps, you know you're getting close. Those styles peak the curiosity of the reader, but there are other ways to build a relationship. Try putting the reader into the 'place' of your novel quickly so they immediately picture where they are.Cornelia Funke paints a vivid picture in the opening of Dragon Rider:All was still in the valley of the dragons. Mist had drifted in from the sea nearby and was clinging to the mountains. Birds twittered uncertainly in the foggy damp, and clouds hid the sun.The reader has an immediate phsyical sense of connection with the setting. Another thing to remember is: Make sure you live up to your promises!  I recently bought a book based solely on the opening line:When all is said and done, killing my mother came easily. Okay, this may reveal some Freudian state of mind about me. But the point is, I found the rest of Alice Sebold's The Almost Moon, a bit of a let down. For starters, killing her mother did not come easy at all, the actual act took a lot of effort, was clumsy and there were severe repercussions. Don't lie to your reader.  Stephanie Meyer's 1st chapter of Twilight begins with:My mother drove me to the airport with the windows rolled down. It was seventy-five degrees... Not very thrilling (especially for a thriller), and there are many chapters to come before things get exciting. So how did she get a commitment from so many young readers known for their short attention spans?  A great preface:I'd never given much thought to how I would die- though I'd had reason enough in the last few months - but even if I had, I would not have imagined it like this. Here's my go, this is how I began Dog Show Detective a story about an 11yr old girl who takes her dog to shows and solves mysteries:

Entering the Junior Handlers dog show competition would be difficult, it would take dedication and it might be embarrassing. But Kitty had no idea it would be dangerous. No, Kitty Walker did not expect her life would be threatened, Kitty had bigger worries.

Now I know its NaNoWriMo time, and that means don't fuss and edit, get the story down - plus you should already have a beginning by now. But think about starting a few key chapters with a great opening hook and keep a notebook of ideas for strong openings for when edit time comes around!

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Dialogue - What I'm trying to say...

Dialogue

This is my weakness in writing and can be an essential part of 'showing not telling'. I've been working on my dialogue for my NaNoWriMo novel The Costume Maker and this is what I have found helpful:

Watch out for 'Talking Heads'...

If your conversation between two or three people runs too long, you'll have endless he said/she saids, the reader looses the connection they've worked to build up of place. Your location fades and disapears - all the reader sees is floating heads rambling on.

The solution? Sometimes you might have a conversation that needs to be hashed out, it can't be short and sweet. To break it up, insert a few instructions and descriptions to remind the reader where the characters are. Make them short though, you don't want to draw the attention away from what is being said. 

These are the sort of lines you can insert.

"He makes me feel like a woman."

Max slammed his fist on the pine kitchen table, causing the china cups to shake. He pushed his chair out roughly and it fell - he didn't pick it up, instead he walked firmly out of the room.

Susan followed him."We need to finish this."

Swinging around to face her, Max's profile filled the doorway to their bedroom.....

Anyway, you get the idea now. After you have several lines of dialogue, just get your character to move around, pick something up, stare at the sky... anything to put your reader in a physical place.

He said, she said...

If you've read any book on writing you will already know this rule. When writers start out, they often worry about their limited vocabulary and convince themselves there must be a better word to use.  J.C.Hutchins, author of 7th Son, admits in a podcast interview with The Creative Penn, feeling in the beginning he was a fraud, a 'hack' and talks about the doubting voice in our head that tries to tell us we're just pretending to be writers. 
As a result, new writers can abuse thesauruses in an attempt to find more loquacious ways of speaking. 
You can have characters yell, declare, admit or whisper, but if they are truly just 'saying' something, than use 'said'. It's simple and does not distract from the voice. The idea is to make reading easy for the reader and 'said' stays in the background.

Where to begin...

Don't feel like you have to start at the beginning of the conversation. Does the reader really have to hear: 
"Excuse me Mike, can we talk for a moment?"

"Sure Lacey, what it is it?" blah blah blah.

You can start halfway through conversation, or create impact by starting after one character has dropped a bombshell to the other. Jump straight into tension and drama. You can slowly reveal clues to the reader as to what the bombshell actually was.

Language...

Have fun with your characters, slip a joke in or highlight their personality in the way they speak. In any room full of people you will find a mix of personalities, funny people, rude people, boring people, shy people, etc etc etc. Make sure there's variety in your characters when they speak, don't have them all sound like one generic character voice.

Speaking out loud when you write the dialogue can help you create individual voices for your characters. Make sure you use the right words for that character, Bob the hairy plumber who scratches his bum, probably doesn't use words like loquacious (or maybe he does, because he's an international spy undercover?). Mur Lafferty emphasises the importance of appropriate language use in her podcast I Should be Writing.

Another point made by Sara (see the comments at the bottom) is not to overuse names, people who know each other do not usually use the person's name in everything they say. It's okay occasionally when you want to make it clear who's speaking, and Mum's often do it when they're mad at you (in fact then they usually use your whole name - no abreviations!).

Accents... 
I loved Wuthering Heights and the gothic but romantic language used. There was however, one character, a gamekeeper or some such thing, and I could not understand a word he said. 

Thick accent? Consider either not making it extreme, or making it extreme only occasionally. When this character has something important to say, make sure your reader can understand it. If necessary, include a translator.

How much dialogue?

I'm not a big fan for specific formulas on the percentage of dialogue in narrative. Stream of consciousness text may have almost no dialogue and others quite a lot. 
Think about your audience. Teens tend to talk a lot, so if you are writing about them or for them you may want to have lots of dialogue. 

If your descriptions seem to drag on, you may need more dialogue, or if your narrative looks like a script, perhaps you need less (or insert more movement between lines).

NaNoWriMo...
Okay, we're in a hurry, don't worry about creating the most amazing or witty dialogue right now. Just get down what you need your characters to say and you can embelish and decorate later (when you edit). If you have any funny or punchy lines, write them in a notes folder or at the end of your narrative with an * so you can insert it later.

Have fun writing dialogue, make it as different, quirky or dramatic as you can! As with all writing techniques, if it doesn't move the story along, cut it out.

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NaNoWriMo 2nd Week!

9 days into NaNoWriMo and all is well.

I've 16,336 words towards my novel The Costume Maker, so at this stage I am very confident of making my 50,000 word goal. In fact I'm planning to step it up a bit now and aim for 75,000 words for a good first draft.

The story is coming along well. My characters have found themselves in the magical realm and need to get home. They have encountered dragons, mystery forest creatures and Fairies. The three teenagers are very different characters, although they are just starting to find they do have some things in common.

What I have learned so far...

• If I can set aside the time each day, I can be a writer! Well at least with the quantity of words.
• The novelty of carrying a notepad and whimsically writing up chapters while in restaurants and on walks starts to wear off as far as the rest of the family is concerned.
• Book writing is addictive. My Dad turned up for a visit and has gone home with a notebook with paged filled for the book series I've talked him into writing.
• There are a lot of books on how to write, I can't possibly read them all. BUT, I can BUY them all!
• Plotting rules! see my post on PLOTTING. I wrote lists of anything that could possibly happen in the story and different places the characters would go. This has been fantastic, I've not had to stop to think about what happens next. I wrote all my ideas on index cards and rearrange them to change the story.
• Fantasy works well if every cause has an effect. E.g. through experiments of genetic engineering, my Fairies are almost human size, the consequence however is that they can no longer fly, even though they have wings.
• I like to write to podcasts, my pick are The Creative Penn and Litopia After Dark. Let me know if you have a favourite podcast about writing - I might do up a list soon.

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NaNoWriMo Writers Are Off and Running!

Today is November 2, over 24 hours into NaNoWriMo writing. I thought I would blog about my progress and my findings so far.

Nov1, got up early, but had an essay that desperately needed finishing and submitting. Nano would start straight after. No it wouldn't, took my daughters shopping instead.

Once the shops started rolling down their doors in a vain attempt to get me to stop spending, the girls and I headed into the Pancake Parlour, where it had been rumoured my local Nano group would be. The only other Nano-ers that came were my friends from uni, Inky & friend (ink-fever) and Penguin Girl (I'll get back to you with her blog if she's running one).

Still, the food was good (who doesn't like a big scoop of butter on their batter?) and the company fun. We even wrote a little. I was proud of Emily and Matilda because they both got their first chapters completed. So enthused were they that Emily was trying to continue writing as we walked back to the car.

I made up my word count to 2,000 before bedtime and my count is now 3027words for The Costume Maker. I intend to get to 4,000 by tonight.


What's happened so far... Missy has talked Lance into taking her to the school Halloween dance and to take her costume shopping. He puts his foot down though when she tries to get him to go as a fairy. No way. He's going as Bugsy Malone. Missy thinks he's getting a rabbit costume. The seamstress at the costume shop is a bit weird and mysterious, but the gowns are lovely and Missy demands a lot of attention. Lucinda comes to the shop to find her mother serving the mean girl who always makes fun of her at school.

Comming up next, Missy will find out that there are serious reprocussions for being mean to people, especially mysterious gypsy costume makers who have magical powers.

What have I learned so far? 

• I am so glad I had my general plot planned. I knew what I wanted to happen in the opening and where I wanted it to lead (the next scene), but I didn't have the details structured, so it just managed to evolve. This way there was not stopping and starting.

• Also, as I was on a roll, I just kept writing. I don't think I am going to worry about chapters at all, I can sort that out after November. By stopping for a chapter break I will also break my focus on the movement of the narrative.

• I also learned at the shopping trip that I buy more books than I could ever read. I might do some reviews soon on all the Fantasy fiction and 'How to Write' books I've bought.
  

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Pick up the Pace

I've written before about writing under pressure and thought I would share with you my new self-inflicted deadline.
This is my last week of university (next year I will be teaching high school English) and I've almost finished my assessments. I only have 2 essays and 2 forum posts due by Friday.
There is a bigger project waiting for me - NaNoWriMo!
I can not wait to take on the month of nothing but writing. I have my plot and my usually analytical mind will be making room for Fantasy writing.
So what happens with the novel I've been writing about the young girl who enters dog shows and solves mysteries (Dog Show Detective)? I'm so close to the end and I had promised (before discovering NaNoWriMo) that I would 'hire' myself as a writer to finish the first draft in November/December.
I'm not prepared to leave it for a month, but I want to focus on The Costume Maker (my NaNoWriMo story).
So.... I'm giving myself until midnight Saturday to finish Dog Show Detective. I figure I can end the first draft in about  10-12,000 words. Yep 10-12,000 words in 5 days. That's over 2,000 words a day. And I can't just forget about those darn essays.
If I can get this done, it will work well. I'll work on the NaNoWriMo novel in November and then by the time I get to pick up Dog Show Detective again for editing, it will seem fresh.
Today - finish Chapter 15 - Kitty must start to make an association between the mixed-up dogs and hear about her main suspect for dog napping - they've turned up dead!
I love stress, love it. Love the panic. Love the pressure and the amazing work it produces. Love the searing pain running down my left arm the clutching feeling in my chest... wait... that bit might not be good.

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Wave to the Writer

Give Google their due - they know how to start people talking.

Recently I received an invite to join the secret society of Google Wave testers. Once I had danced naked under the full moon and been annointed with the blood of a new lamb, I was able to delve into the online collaborative tool (okay not really, but it seems that elusive for anyone trying to get an invite). Google restricted access to Wave by only allowing people by invite, those people were in turn able to invite a select few (before you excitedly become my best friend, I'm on the B list, so I did not receive the ablilty to invite anyone).

What is Google Wave?

It's a communication and collaboration platform that is able to operate in real time. Contacts can send each other documents and messages and receivers can edit and/or add to those. Video clips, photos, website and more formats are easily exchanged. To read more about what Google Wave offers go HERE.

What does it mean for writers?

Initially it seemed that Wave was just another online chatting tool, not much different from Messenger, Facebook or Twitter (without the word count). But now I'm seeing the prospects emerge.

Certainly it is an easier application for sharing drafs of writing to allow a writers/editors community to critique. Comments can be inserted at any point by various members, all at the same time and each reflecting on the others' remarks.

And for those of us down in Oz, we can come into a conversation and still add our comments even when it is no longer 'live'.

Creating book trailers (something I haven't really got my head around yet - do people online really want to see more adds?) would be a smoother process with writers, media creators and publishers involved in an online wave during creation. This could also work for book cover designing. Authors having more input to the design - is that a good idea? I'm now picturing a pedantic author saying to the graphic artist, "A little to the left, no right, no, try lower, hmm, still no good, lets try it back where we started..."

A wave appears to be more focused than a twitter conversation, instead of having multitudes of like minded people randomly commenting, you would invite select members with skills and interest to that particular project. You can also have several projects with different members going at the same time.
The big thing that ponders around my head is how it may affect the process of writing.

There are plenty of studies revealing how online reading changes the way our brains process the information, so it would be assumed that writers would adapt their style to create for this new online-wired brain.

Will authors write their novels in wave in the future with their fans reading as they write? And probably jumping in to change the parts they don't like? That sounds like a mix of fun and scary.

Are you an author on Wave? What do you think this service offers for writers, editors or publishers? I'd love to hear your comments (or wave me at charmaineclancy). Don't have Wave yet? Are you wanting it - is Google working marketing magic by keeping it restricted at this stage?

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Fantasy in the Classroom

Took NaNoWriMo into the classroom today.

In my presentation to teachers of English (that's what we call Literature Studies in Australia) today, I suggested incorporating NaNoWriMo Young Writers Program as a class project. In Australia it is exam time, so I would do this with the year 7-9 class.

This project would be a perfect way to finish off a unit outline on creativie writing. I would not put too much emphasis on word count and would ask for a minimum of 5,000 words (with no maximum). Sounds too short to publish? No. I'd gather the stories together, once we've edited and polished, and print them in an anthology.

As a way of tying the stories together, I suggest writing in one genre - I choose Fantasy. This is welcomed by most students because it gives them a lot of freedom and includes magic or supernatural elements. For our class project I suggested we use a common world for our stories to take place.

The class brainstorms ideas for all the type of characters that could possibly be found in fantasy stories and all the elements found in fantasy worlds (such as dragons and castles). Kids will have loads of ideas for this.

I would then have the class collaborate in creating a map of the world - where will everything be located? And we could name our characters. Students can write about any character they want and create their own story set in that land.

Put your students into small work groups of about four. During November, the students can have time in their groups to bounce ideas off each other and after November they can critique and help edit each others work. 
Shared editing is a great way for kids to learn grammar.

After November, once the stories are edited, they can be published together in an anthology of Fantasy tales and sold at school for fundraising (the kids can even become part of the marketing process).
Thank you NaNoWriMo for inspiring me with my favorite lesson plan so far!

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World Building - Where the Action Happens!

My last family workshop for NaNoWriMo focused on Character Building. I'm still in pain over my heroine's name, instead of something mysterious, I kept creating names that sounded like female anatomy or flatulence. Darn it, they can all be called Bob and Sue until I do a naming workshop.

My next workshop for the family will be the first step in World Building.

You may have more than one world to build. My fantasy story will move from the real world to a magical realm. Emily's (miss 11) story will have her character travel through several different magical worlds. She will do a world building exercise for each of those.

Worlds are big things to create, Rome is just one city, but we all know that took longer than one day to build. My intial focus will be solely on the habitat.

I've broken this workshop into two parts, the lists and the drawing. You can do either first, I love the lists, my kids will probably want to draw theirs first. 

Download the free world building PDF form CLICK HERE (download the PDF, then you can edit it to suit your needs or print)

 Step 1: The Written World Description

I will create a worksheet with questions to answer about our worlds covering the following points. Everyone will fill one in for each world.

• Binaries and Parallels - What's the same as our world and what's different?

• Temperature - Is it below freezing or really humid? The temperature of your world will affect the type of vegetation you have, and even the action that can take place (imagine The Wizard of Oz without a tornado). Is your weather seasonal or is it always like this?

• Landscape - When your character stands still, what can they see and how far can they see? Can they see Mountains, ranges, hills or a horizon?

• Ground cover - Dirt, rocks, pebbles, sand, grass or snow? How does it feel to walk under your character's feet? What sound is made when they walk on it?

• Vegetation - Tree varieties, weeds, shrubs, edible fruits, mushrooms and flowers. This can create scents and colour to your story. Plants are used for more than shelter and food. Sometimes they can be medicines and sometimes they are just for enjoyment. Do your characters like to pick flowers? Or maybe there's a plant like tobbacco that they smoke? And maybe it's not good for them and they find out they could die from it. Maybe some yummy looking berries are poisonous.

Now beyond the ground.

• Laws of Physics - Will your land obey them? Is there gravity? How might this affect your characters?

• Sun/Moon/Stars - What is the natural light like or what alternatives are there for light? Does sun or moon or stars play a role in your character's religion?

• Civilisation - Is your world built up or entirely natural? Are there pathways, roads, houses, airports, industry?

Step 2 - Drawing

• Draw rough maps of the entire area and show how your different locations meet up.
• Draw up an outline of each town, where are the homes, the shops, the tavern, etc.
• Then go wild and paint or sketch lots of views of your world, be as artistic as you want!

Want to visuaslise your world but don't have crayon skills?

• Make a virtual world in a game like Sims3 or Second Life or perhaps you can suggest one?
• Search online, steal National Geographic magazines and travel brochures. Cut out all the elements that match your world and glue them onto a large sheet of cardboard. Layout the pictures to align with your map, showing where the rainforest is compared to the Castle and what you pass when you travel from one to the other. You can keep this by your desk while you write.

Next it will be time to populate this world with wildlife and people.
 

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Character Profiles

My last post was on Plot Building and I described the method that works for me. Just to quickly add to that, I also found watching National Geographic and the Discovery channel gave me a few good ideas and lines, such as “If you put the wrong thing in your mouth, you could die.” I now have a list of around 40 events that could happen in my story. Not in any particular order, but to draw on when I’m writing.

Now for my work on Characters. The other night I held a family workshop on NaNoWriMo as hubby and the kids are all taking on this task as well (with my coercion). We did up Character Profiles for each of our characters.

There are a lot of resources for this method, some suggest just focusing on the main characters and not so much the smaller ones. Others suggest very deep and detailed profiles. I’m going somewhere in the middle.

Step One: I did up a generic form to be filled in for each of the characters and on it I asked these questions:

Character Name:
Gender:
Age:
Hair: (include texture, length and colour, dyed or natural?)
Eyes: (colour and shape)
Nose: (shape, length, width)
Mouth: (colour, size, fullness)
Cheeks: (chubby, shallow, high?)
Ears: (stick out, small, pointed?)
Height:
Build:
Skin: (colour, marks, freckles, scars, wrinkles)
Clothing size:
Hands: (large, small, long nails?)
Voice:
Coordination:
Nationality:
Religious beliefs:
Attitude to technology:
Clothing style:
Skills:
Employment/education:
Likes:
Dislikes:

Click HERE to open a printable profile PDF form. (prints better if you click 'download' and then 'open' - it can print without url at top. 
I’ve seen a lot more in-depth profiles, but I want mine to be simple. If you want more questions to ask your character see this blog I found. All the information for each character should be on one page. And I want room in the top right hand corner to add a picture.

Step Two:
A picture helps you to visualise your characters. If you are artistic then create a picture of each of your characters with pencils, paints, crayons, whatever medium you like to use. If not, cheat. I will be cheating. Here are my ideas for pictures.
If you are doing the human variety, search through magazines or Google images to find a picture of someone that fits your descriptions.

Sims player? Create your characters in Sims and print a snapshot of them.

Second Life is an online game you can play where you create characters – they can also be non-human. I don’t have the patience for this one, but if you do, it could be a helpful resource.

There are also many more avatar creators online that you could use.

My plan is to keep a file near the computer with all my characters, so I can easily refer back. I will probably put mine in alphabetical order of last name - you do not need to be as pedantic as me.

The workshop went well and we found out more about our characters. Some of our ideas will help to move our plot along as well.

Our next workshop will be on creating a setting for the story.

Let me know how you create your characters!

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Create a Plot Map

My last template went all haywire on me, so I had to redesign my blog again. I don't like change. Stay good blog!

My story for NaNoWriMo has been chosen!

Based on tweets, messages and comments from readers, I will be writing:

The Costume Maker

Gypsy woman makes the most beautiful costumes by hand and a spoilt teen treats her rudely and bullies her into making a costume for her. The costume maker has powers unknown to humans and can make gowns that whisk you away to her world (medieval, fairies, dragons, etc). She sends the girl there as punishment, but the gypsy's daughter witnesses this. The daughter goes into the fantasy realm to rescue the spoilt girl. Gypsy sends a boy they both like to rescue them. Adventures follow.

I've got some work to do on developing characters, and I'll post about that soon, but first I've taken one more step with the plot. 

This suggestion is a little bit of a mix from the 'First Time Author's Workbook' which I found free on www.thecreativepenn.com and brainstorming tasks.

I start with my previous brainstorming pages (a page of all things I love, hate, fear, crave, etc).

The idea is that once you have your basic plot - a vague idea of your subject matter, you start brainstorming ideas. Just write down anything that comes to your head (write randomly around the page, don't link them yet). Objects, characters and events.

The next step is another brainstorm; now that you have a few ideas, write dot point of all the things that can happen in your book, confrontations, romance liaisons, deaths, adventures, etc. Try to get at least 30 things that could happen. No particular order.

Then see if you can sequence those events, and if you could turn each one into a chapter. If you can write just 2,000 words for each chapter, you have 60,000 words planned for your novel.

You will get more. Because there will be chapters that will link those events. Perhaps when you've got your whole list you might only need 1500 words per chapter.

Get them in order and keep it by your computer for NaNoWriMo time. It will be a map to follow (oooh - put a map in your story!).

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Step 1 - A Plot

New NaNoWriMo writers, need help getting started for November's write-off?

There is much to plan this month (unless you are lucky enough to be able to write 50k words without planning).

Step 1 (for me) is to develop a plot. Do you have a general idea of what your story will be about? What conflict could arise?

If not, don't worry, there are plenty of resources to help you through the planning process.

Did you know NaNoWriMo have a Young Writers Program? It allows the junior authors to become involved as well. They don't have to do 50k of words though, they can pick their own limit. Matilda, (8yrs) is doing 3,000 and Emily (11) will do 6,000. If you have kids who would like to join up, or you are a teacher and want to join up your class - click here.

Where am I going with this? There are some great resources on the Young Writers Program site for beginners too. I'm finding the High School Workbook extremely helpful. It will take you step by step through the process of setting up your plot and characters in a lovely simple format. Priceless. Click here to get it.

Come up with a plot, it does not have to be fancy, you can build on it. Start with a genre or theme you can expand on. I'm still tossing up on a couple of last minute ideas, you can see them here (and I welcome your opnion). What sort of books do you read? Is there one that you wished had been handled differently?

In my next post I am going to work on my characters, create a background for the central ones. Come back with your plot and we can workshop our characters together.

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Planning your 50,000 word novel

October, time to plan for the NaNoWriMo challenge.

Will you be writing a 50,000 word novel in 30 days?


It can be a bit scary. I know. This is my first time too. You are not alone.


Click here to check out the NaNoWriMo site, when you sign up you can nominate your region and go to its forum, location groups organise writing get togethers and support.


As I progress through the challenge, I'll update this spot on my planning and executing of my NaNoWriMo novel. If you're feeling discouraged or overwhelmed, you can pop in and see how I've handled the pitfalls and hurdles. And believe me, if I can do it, anyone can do.


I've heard of people who can sit down and write a novel without planning, they just let their muse take over and the words flow. I've also read that plot is not essential to a good novel, that character development can be enough to carry a narrative. If that's the kind of story you want to develop and you are happy letting your imagination wander anywhere, then bully for you.


As for me, read Jack Kerouac's On the Road and Gertrude Stein's The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas - didn't care for them. I like a plot. I like planning. I plan my planning.


October is planning time.


November is writing time.


December we will edit.


January we will talk about submitting queries, publishing and marketing.

What first?


What do I want to write about?


I didn’t know. When I sat down with pen and paper, I still didn’t know. When I searched for inspirations from old legends and myths, I didn’t know. When my 8ry old and 11yr old girls came up with their amazing fantasy plots and detailed structure, I didn’t know – and now I was cranky.


Brainstorming helps me, writing random words, ideas, using cluster maps. Alternatively you can pick a genre to start with.

A good prompt for stories is to list all the things you love, like and admire. On my list of things I really like are dogs (we participate in dog shows with our Miniature Schnauzer, which was the inspiration for my WIP novel Dog Show Detective, about a young girl who enters dog shows and solves mysteries).

Or


Write all the things that scare or worry you. That could be the conflict in your story, even if it seems mundane, like debt. A story about a character who has to overcome extreme poverty can be a strong narrative, just check out Oliver Twist!

Once you get your word, ask questions, like – so what? Teapot. So What? Has arsenic in it. Why? Old lady is poisoning her husband of 50years. Why? She’s only just discovered his dark secret. What? He’s a monster… and so on and so on.

Or… Look at the latest technology and think about how that might change the world if taken to the extreme – will our morals be compromised? I recently read about the military robots being created that can fuel themselves on dead meat – hmm, nothing could possibly go wrong with that!

All you need for your first step is a paragraph about your story, your beginning characters, the main conflict and what your protagonist intends to do about it.

Do you want feedback? I’d love to know your plot! In the comments, put a link to your blog or write your plot out line there. If you would like to buddy me on NaNoWriMo click here.

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