Z is for Zany Bloggers

I really thought I'd be blogging Z is for Zip it this post, 'cause I get a bit lazy by letter 26, and the only book I've read on the craft of writing starting with Z is Zen in the Art of Writing, but I blogged about that in the last A-Z challenge in:

Z is for Zen

But then came the Zany. Alex J Cavanaugh is hosting another (yes, another) blogfest and this time it's all about fun and games. Don't start shaking, I know what you're thinking. You'll get a rest, this is not until June, click on the linked picture to go to Alex's site, or sign up below:

Now, I intend to cash in on a few owed Zzzzzzs. 

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Y is for YA Writing

I'm very excited :)

I need to take my girls to Sydney in May for a dinosaur show, and it just happens to be the same weekend there are some great events happening for the Sydney Writers Festival!

I've signed up for a day's workshop on writing for YAs hosted by Jeni Mawter:

Acne is Optional, Attitude is Not: Writing for Young Adults

Do you try to attend workshops, or writers festivals? I get so much out of them, even if the information is not new (and there's always something new), I get so motivated to write by being in the presence of other writers. If you need an excuse here's my post:

8 Reasons to Attend Writers Festivals

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X is for Xenophobia

Xenophobia is the fear of strangers, but has come to mean the fear of any person or group that is foreign to our own comfortable assumptions. It can develop as a hatred towards races at a cultural level, or at a more micro level it could be the unreasonable hatred of people not within your social group (cheerleaders hating chess club members). 

We all make assumptions about people, that's our overactive imaginations showing they work, but how that manifests into our behaviour will reveal whether we are xenophobic. Most of our stories will have at least one xenophobic character. In my fantasy novel The Costume Maker, my trio travel to another world where they come across three very different communities, each hating the other. I'm not sure if wars start from xenophobia (or if they are more politically devised for more sinister ulterior motives), but they are certainly propelled by it. Governments have been known to use people's mistrust and fear of the unfamiliar to allow them to differentiate themselves from the target culture, the way we disassociate ourselves from a different species. I guess this just makes it easier to hate.

So who's xenophobic in your novel? Matilda just posted a book review on Paper Dolls about a novel where a family find a bunny and take it in, the suspicious cat thinks this bunny is a vampire and therefore fears it, it turns out maybe a little understanding was needed instead. Check out Bunnicula.

X also marked the spot yesterday - it was my birthday and I had some wonderful surprises. It was also sweet to see many good cheers sent my way via Facebook. Thanks Facebook, I would forget many of my own family's birthdays if it wasn't for you.

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W is for Writing Manuals

I decided for W, I would do a few of my all time favourite books on writing. If you're a regular, you may have seen them mentioned before. These are the ones I think are brilliant value for money, broken down to function or genre:

Writing for Children:

The Writer's Guide to Crafting Stories for Children by Nancy Lamb

I love this book so much, I'm re-reading it at the moment. It advises you all steps and aspects of writing a story for kids (and YAs). This guide even devotes a whole chapter to finding inspiration and ways to turn an idea into a story. There's also a great section helping you through the mid-story crisis, where you need to introduce momentum, and how to make your scenes page-turners. You'll learn about plots and sub-plots, suitable characters, dialogue and how to work your way through getting stuck with you WIP. It's easy to read and has lots of examples.

Mystery Writing:

Writing and Selling Your Mystery Novel by Hallie Ephron

This book is like a workbook and guide in one. Ephron provides charts and worksheets for your to fill in along the way as well as exercises for you tighten your mystery novel. A lot of planning goes into mysteries, you have to have your villains, detectives and victims all sorted, not to mention the clues and red herrings. Say a body turns up dead in your first page - have you bothered to do a character profile on that person? If you go to the extra trouble, you'll find more motives and suspects you can weave through your story.

If you are writing a mystery, you may get some help from my previous post:

13 Best Links for Mystery Writers

Fantasy Writing:

Adventures in Fantasy by John Gust

A text book designed to be used in the classroom, this book is actually great for all ages. The main premise is to start your Fantasy story by creating a map of your world. From there your landscapes and natural elements will help you decide how to populate that world and what ecological conflicts your characters could face. To read more of my review, you can see my previous post here. And for those who read it previously, I did overcome my problem of the Kindle version having worksheets I couldn't print; I view the page on my Kindle for Mac, then open the program Preview (this is Mac, not sure for PC users sorry) and take a snapshot of the page by selection.

Young Writers:

Juicy Writing by Brigid Lowry

This was a hard one to pick because there's a few books I love for young writers, but this one is new for me and I'm loving the practical yet motivating exercises in there. Adult writers could enjoy it too.

There are lots more books I love, but this blogpost would get way too long, so, I may have to save some for another time. Only X, Y and Z to go!

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V is for View - Blogger Tip

Looking for a new way to view blogs?

There's one app on the iPad that I love - Flipboard. What it does is display your blogs in a magazine fashion, so you see snippets of stories and such. Did you know that there are different ways to view people's blogs from your computer?

If you go to the url in the address bar right now (says http://www.clancytales.blogspot.com/) and add to it:

view

You'll probably get the sidebar view of this blog, down the sidebar of this blog is a list of all the previous blogs. Now at the top of the page towards the right side, there's a blue button that probably says Sidebar. You can click on that and choose the other layout designs as well. I quite like Snapshot for when you want to try to find a previous post.

Does this work on your blog? If you have blogger or blogspot blog, you need to go into the Settings menu (from your dashboard). Your blog must be public, not one that people need to sign into to see. In Settings, choose Site Feed, and make sure your 'Allow Blog Feeds' button is either 'Full' (that's what I have selected) or 'Jump Break'. Also in Setting, choose Formatting and where it says 'Enable Dynamic Views', choose Yes.

That's all you have to do (most are set this way by default anyway, so you might not have to tamper at all). Then view your blog and type the word 'view' at the end of the url. I just think it's cool.

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U is for Unwind

Time to Unwind

This A-Z has been great for social networking, but I'm assuming I'm not the only one finding it quite time-consuming at the moment. Not far to go, then I can go back to posting about three times a week. Like a lot of bloggers, after Z I intend to take a few days off to unwind.

Here's my ways of unwinding:

• Switch off the computer. I can't help myself and will start jumping from site to site if I have access.
• Read a new book that is not useful for my writing or in anyway literary. Something fun, maybe even smutty (okay, I'm lame, it'd be very mildly smutty or I'd get embarrassed that someone would recognise the novel).
• Download a TV series and watch all episodes in a veg-day marathon (these school holidays I've discovered Veronica Mars and Fringe).
• Do some writing exercises that are not about my current WIP. Riff-writing helps me to unthink too. Fantasy writer, Ursula Le Guin has a great book for strengthening your writing by breaking it down to smaller exercises (it's also great to use in the classroom) called Steering the Craft.
• Visit bookstores. This can be a bit of an expensive past time for me.
• Spend time with my dogs and an audiobook. I'll take one of my dogs for a nice long walk around Yass and listen to an audiobook at the same time. Today I was listening to book 3 in The Dresden Files series, Grave Peril by Jim Butcher (awesome detective style series with a slight difference, instead of a PI, the protagonist is a Wizard with a few bad debts).

My ways of unwinding always involve me doing things. I have a lot of trouble just relaxing, bubble baths just stress me because I think of all the things I need to be doing. Mind you, if I'm reading in the bath, then it's okay.

Another Unwind is the most awesome Scifi/dystopian novel I've ever read. Unwind by Neil Shusterman is masterful and the story will sit with you long after you finish (especially one particular scene, anyone who has read it will understand).

Click here to read a review of Unwind from Paper Dolls

Okay, now I've got a LOT of blogs to catch up on!

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T is for Titles

What's in a name? Can the title of your novel really decide how successful it is?

There's lots of things to consider when choosing a title.I've been doing some research and here are some tips I've unearthed from people in the know.

A novel title should:

• Express the genre. A Shallow Grave would suit a thriller or horror story, but I don't think it would be a great title for a pet memoir.
• Be Concise. Convoluted titles will only bore the reader. The Night We All Went into the Woods after Sarah Jane went Missing and Came Across a Scary Psychopath with an Axe might cover all the aspects of your story, but your book browser will probably put it down before getting halfway through the title.
• Be Original. Calling your book Silence of the Lambs might get you a few accidental purchases, but it won't win you long time readers. You can however rip off cliche's and quotes as titles.
• Be Funny. Humour is a great way to attract a reader (but only if your novel promises more humour within the narrative). Read this post by McSweeney to see why you must include the word Alchemist in your title.

Of course for every rule, there are plenty that break them, such as The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, Paranormalcy (good read, but I find it so hard to say) and Pride and Prejudice and Zombies.

Thinking about genre, I thought I'd try and express Dog Show Detective in different genres (you know, for the fun).

Tail of Love Lost

Dognapped!

In Space No One Hears You Bark

Beware the Dognapper's Fangs

Okay, I suck at impromptu titles!

Check out this cool Internet Show on book titles:

http://www.getpublishedtv.com/best-book-titles-come-up-with-a-compelling-book-title-episode-038/

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S is for Synopsis Bleh

Need some motivation to write that synopsis?

I would have loved to share with you the inside secrets of writing the perfect synopsis. But, as I am currently working on the crappiest synopsis ever, I think I'll steer you towards some that know better than I.

From the Holly Lisle course, How to Revise Your Novel (my all-time favourite course on editing), I found the key is to have a conflict sentence for each scene you write. This conflict sentence will outline what the character is doing and what is stopping them or making it worse. Here's some examples from my novel Dog Show Detective:

• Kitty is nervous about entering the dog show with Spade, but forgets all that when she finds a lost dog.
• Miss Norfolk explains that her grandmother left her a fortune in her will - but only if nothing happens to her beloved dog, Ozzie.
• The Walkers attend to the mess left by the intruder, wondering why nothing is stolen, until Kitty realises the intruder was after the dog.
• The killer is unconscious and the girls could escape, but Jack has a broken ankle. Kitty decides to stay with him and let Jessica go for help.

A conflict statement will usually be MC tries to.... BUT Mr X...... or MC gets into trouble..... AND ........ makes it worse. Holly Lisle refers to this as 'The Sentence'. 

If you need some help making sure there is conflict in every scene, you can check out my earlier post:

Get a Little Conflict in Your Scene

There seems to be different advice on how long your Synopsis should be, but in Australia, most publishers advise they want 1 page double-spaced.

Some sites to visit for your synopsis writing:

Author Aaron Paul Lazar outlines how he wrote his synopsis at Murder By 4

Elana Johnson's How to Write a Synopsis

A Synopsis Workshop by Sheila Kelly

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R is for Reality and Writers

When my kids first got excited about Pokemon, I was disappointed. Within a short amount of time they had learnt the species name, stages of evolution, habitat, strengths and weaknesses of hundreds of these creatures. I kept thinking, if they'd put that effort into learning about real animals, it would at least be useful information. Sometimes I get too hung up on useful.

You can find lots of posts and information on the web about the reality of writing, what your chances are to land an agent, how hard it is and how much rejection you'd face before you ever get published, and, if you self-publish? Forget about becoming the next Amanda Hocking.

Big raspberry at reality. Who needs it? I invite you to come and live in the land without reality. In this nation, all you need to do to get your book published and out in the world is simple. Write it. Write it, finish it, edit it, finish it again. Then do up a synopsis and an awesome query letter. Rewrite those a few times too. Readers? If you write it, they will come.

Of course, time is more salient in the not real world, so we don't panic about how long it takes, we just write another book, and another, so they'll be ready when the publishing world catches up to us. The big rule in the not real world? RELAX. Enjoy the experience.

If you do have your feet planted firmly on the ground and you want to know how to get back to reality? You can't get there from here.

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Q is for Query Letters

I told you about the Query Letter blog hop over at:
http://aliciagregoire.blogspot.com/2011/04/need-query-letter-help.html

Well, after much agonising... here is my attempt at a query letter for Dog Show Detective. I am actually sending this out soon (like this week), so I need criticism!

I'm not thin-skinned when it comes to feedback, I see my craft as something I'm constantly learning and am very open to improvement. Critiques were a life-saver during my edit stage. My query:

Dear...

I would like to introduce you to my middle-grade fiction, Dog Show Detective, in the mystery genre aimed at 9-12yr. old readers. It is complete at 30,000 words.

12yr old Kitty Walker decides to enter her Miniature Schnauzer in a dog show to impress her mum. Kitty expects it to be embarrassing, Spade is not the best-behaved dog, and Jessica Jones is sure to win, but she doesn’t expect it to be so dangerous!

At the show, Kitty finds a lost dog, but, when she returns it, the owner insists it's the wrong dog. Only Kitty believes the owner and sets out to uncover the mystery of the missing dog. There are clues along the way, but why is someone trying to dognap the little terrier she found? And would they really kill just to keep the identity of the little dog hidden?

This story stands alone, however, there is the potential for the characters to go on to solve more mysteries (I’ve outlined the plots for future Kitty and Spade mysteries).

My credentials include editing editorials of publications, Brisbane Business News and Gold Coast Living, and, working for a marketing agency. I have a degree in Professional and Creative Writing and have also studied for a Marketing Diploma. I currently teach English, Spanish and Media at my local High School and am passionate about providing opportunities for children to gain literacy skills. I've been building an online presence with my blog, Twitter, Facebook (see my header for links) and have my graphic artist designing my author website.

Thank you for your time and consideration.

Charmaine Clancy

Writing a query letter has made me think of my favourite poem:

He Wishes For The Cloths Of Heaven by William Butler Yeats

Had I the heavens' embroidered cloths,
Enwrought with golden and silver light,
The blue and the dim and the dark cloths
Of night and light and the half-light,
I would spread the cloths under your feet:
But I, being poor, have only my dreams;
I have spread my dreams under your feet;
Tread softly because you tread on my dreams.

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P is for Participating

There is a blog challenge I wanted to let you in on, and it's starting... now! You're probably thinking, I'm already up to my ears in posts about letters, yeah, I'm feeling that pressure too. But this A-Z challenge has been great, I'm posting, writing, I've got more followers and I've discovered more wonderful blogs on the craft of writing. Usually one challenge at a time would be enough for me, but not this time. I found this at:

http://aliciagregoire.blogspot.com/2011/04/need-query-letter-help.html

I'm trying to craft the dreaded query letter and this blog hop allows participants to post their query letter and let other bloggers critique it (a bit scary). Want to join in?

And, because today is the 19th in Australia, I'd better go and work on my Query letter and post my Qpost today!

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O is for Observing Outstanding Writers

 

O is also for the Opera House in Sydney. Emily and I headed there yesterday to see author Garth Nix interview mega-author Sir Terry Pratchett. OMG.

Apparently the Concert Hall seats 2,679 people, and it looked pretty darn full. Emily commented she'd never seen that many people before, that there were more people in that hall than in the whole of our hometown (Gross hyperbole Emily, there are at least 5,000 people living in Yass).

During the talk, Sir Pratchett's wonderful reader shared a section of his newest book in the Discworld series, Snuff. Emily and I only recently discovered Discworld, but, while we are about 30+ books behind Snuff, we still can not wait until it is released later this year. It was hilarious!

Although the talk was for just over an hour, I felt I gained a lot of insight into successful writing from Sir Pratchett. Here are just a few snippets I'd like to share:

• Terry Pratchett has FUN writing. It is obvious that he delves right into his fantasy world he has created and adores his own characters (or adores to torture them).
• A lot of his stories have connections with our own myths, legends and history.
• He sees stories as a lineage back through his own family and thinks the reason people get old is so they can say to the kids, 'back in my day...'
• He enjoys research - it's a break from writing.
• Terry Pratchett believes writing is a way of showing the reader another way to look at the world.

Some of Pratchett's books I prefer as an audio book (which I get from audible.com), because they sound so good read aloud. Emily and I are listening to the main Discworld books that way. Emily also loves Only You Can Save Mankind.

Click to see the Paper Dolls review

But, I did manage to pick up a few more books while I was there. Here's my latest stash:

   

And, because he's also very awesome, I got these Garth Nix books:

  

O is also for Opportunity. And, if you get the opportunity to see a professional author speak, then you should jump at it. You can learn a lot from the Sir Pratchetts of the world.

Yes, Emily has green hair. Only for the holidays, then all those green bits must be snipped off before returning to school.

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N is for NaNoWriMo

In 2009, I signed up for a contest called NaNoWriMo. NaNoWriMo is held over the month of November each year and the idea is that you start and finish a 50,000 word novel (minimum) in that month. It seems fast paced and the emphasis is definately on quantity rather than quality, but oh the whimsical fun!

I mentioned that this is a contest, but with a difference:

Who are you competing against? Yourself. If you beat the hurdles and excuses that prevent 50,000 words, then you win.

What do you win? Other than being listed as a NaNoWriMo Winner and receive some cool badges for your blog, you win 50,000 words of a first draft for your novel. Come join the madness, and friend me at NaNoWriMo. November will be upon us before you know it.

Fact is, I usually write two manuscripts a year. One takes me 11 months and the other takes me 4 weeks. Why? Deadlines. I make sacrifices and push myself for November, also my family and friends understand my pressure and give me the space and support to write. For some reason I just can't drag that on for the rest of the year.

In 2009 I worked out my plot by starting with a brainstorming (also known as Clustering) session. 2010, I had my story prompt from a character exercise I did at the CYA Writer's Conference (you can see my post about it at Character to Plot Workshop).

Already a NaNoWriMo participant? 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. Last year my girls did 6,000 words, Emily with her paranormal mystery (about dragons used for murder) and Matilda with her Greek God mystery (Greekafied). 

There are some great resources on the Young Writers Program site for beginners too. I found 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. And it's free! 

My tactics: 

• Don't tackle anything that needs constant research, and if it does, skip that and fix it later (you can edit in December, you won't have time in November)

• Plan your plot - If I try to write constantly for 50,000 I'm likely to start with a family story and end up with space porn, but only after going through a period of postmodern zombie/military action. I need structure.

• Don't start something you've been planning. Start something new that you are not yet attached to. Come December you can get crazy about your plot and characters, but you won't have time to dwell in November - there's writin' to do!

• Tell everyone you're doing it. Put it on your blog. It will make it a lot harder for you to drop out after 539 words.

• Drag your friends and family into it, or join a region group (you can do that on the site). If you have writing buddies you will urge each other on and help with plot barriers. 

What I love most about this challenge is that it is international and although there are would-be authors struggling over manuscripts every day, now I feel part of that group knowing we are all busily typing at once. Join me... join me.. join me....

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M is for Metaphors, Magic for Manuscripts.

Metaphors can be magic for your manuscript, spells that weave enchantment through figurative language. Okay, enough playing with the metaphor, it's when you say one thing is another, as a way of creating imagery in your writing. For example; Sophie lost all composure and became a pig at the dinner table, an aggressive sow, her snout greedily munching on the slops. Now, Sophie is not actually a pig, we are creating an image for the reader to picture Sophie eating in a way that disgusts the other dinner guests. If we wanted a simile, we'd say Sophie was like a pig, meaning she is similar.

Like all figurative language, metaphors can be a device that enhances your writing, but be careful not to overuse it (you will tire out your reader) or make it cliche like it's raining cats and dogs or people drowning in each other's eyes (hmm, like being a pig when you eat? Um, yeah. Okay, sometimes the cliches comes to mind first - sorry). But, they could be used effectively as dialogue for a character that would use a lot of trite expressions.

Another problem is when metaphors are mixed in a sentence or paragraph and provide conflicting or confusing comparisons.

For example: I could see by her expression she was a crazed dog with a chip on her shoulder. I tried to leave the shop but she drove at me like an angry bull. There are too many different images here that do not organically sit together well. The safest route is to keep metaphors simple, just one comparison for a passage, however, clever writers can continue with a metaphor and keep the flow cohesive. Take this example from English Essential (Mem Fox & Lyn Wilkinson): Writing is a bumpy road, full of obstacles, potholes and loose stones. ...If you can avoid these problem areas your writing stands a better chance of reaching its destination without being wrecked on the way.

So how do we master the extended metaphor?

In Manuscript Makeover, Elizabeth Lyon suggests:

• Use riff-writing (explained in an earlier post) to explore the connections that come naturally when you write without restriction.
• Look up your word in a dictionary and thesaurus to expand your 'language' on it.
• Consider your character from different angles, not just what you 'see'. Think about the geographical location, era, setting, and emotions. 

Start a section in your writer's notebook for cool metaphors and similes. Copy them from other narratives that work well and then try to add some of your own. If you want to build up a bank of metaphors/similes try doing some writing exercises finding metaphors for commonly used adjectives and adverbs. For example, find a metaphor/simile for fast, slow, happy, evil, white, black, red and whatever else you can think of.

Manuscript Makeover is a book I recommend to ALL writers. It's one of my favourites.

Some other links for metaphors/similes:

Copyblogger

Writer's Community

Infoplease

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L is for Learning to Write

My thoughts on the topic of learning to write is that it is the information and skill that matters, not the process in receiving it. And, ideally, we would gain information from academic resources and by hands-on training. I'm a bit of a study bug, I love doing courses on just about anything, but mostly writing. Here are some ways I think we can learn the craft:

Degrees in Literature/Writing. I've seen some writers poo-ha this method, saying that you can't learn to write by studying literature and you don't need a university degree to write. Of course you don't need one - but I learned a lot about the structure of novels and the various genres by studying. It's not for everyone, but it is rewarding.

Online Courses. I took on a course with Sydney Writers Centre, they have many great courses on creative writing, including Writing Books for Young Adults and Children. You get great feedback on your submissions and  lots of online support.

Self-paced Courses. This takes some time-management skills. I've enjoyed Holly Lisle's How to Think Sideways as a way to learn while I write. The information is extensive and the activities are directly related to your work in progress. My favourite self-paced course though is Lisle's How to Review Your Novel - this is an amazing course that teaches you absolutely the BEST way to edit that first draft.

Writers Festivals. I went to my first last year. It was AMAZING. I picked up so much in the CYA Conference in just one day, I'll be back again this year. I'm hoping to attend a few more this year too (if I can get the time from work). If you need to know why you should attend these festivals, check out my post 8 Reasons to Attend Writers Festivals.

Books on Writing. There are so many available (and so many on my bookshelf), that I won't list them, but you can judge books by the star rating that Amazon provides and read the reviews to see if they are helpful (or search through my blog, I often list the ones I recommend). Choose books that address your weak points. If you are new to writing you might want to try some writing exercises, or maybe you need help with plotting, or dialogue. There's a book for every step of writing a novel.

Audiobooks. How have I gone so long in my life before discovering these? There are some great books that include writing exercises. Those ones seem to work best for audio. The text book information is hard to focus on for long periods, but some run like classes. The best thing about audiobooks is the time-saving, you can listen while in the car, walking the dog, washing the dishes, etc.

Blogs. There is an endless depth of knowledge being shared through blogs. I am amazed and warmed by how friendly and supportive the writing community is. Mostly we search through and blog information is disposable, but when you see something really helpful, bookmark it or print it off and file these in categories such as plotting, character, dialogue, editing... etc. So when you do need help in that area, the information is easy to find again. I create pages of links under those headings, so I can use them again and can share them with you. For example, here is my list of links for Novel Writing Structure.

Reading Fiction. Take notes while you read of any great examples of dialogue, metaphors, writing style, etc. Try to mimic your favourite passages, this is a great exercise in strengthening your own writing style. Make lists of what you think the author did well and what you would have done differently.

There are many more ways to learn writing such as finding a great mentor, receiving feedback, practicing, etc.  You can check out a few more resources at 13 Best Resources for Writers.

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K is for Kindle Books for Writers

I'm a Kindle addict. Which comes as no surprise, I'm also a book addict and an audiobook addict. But, in particular, I am an addict of books on the craft of writing. Here are some I've found on Kindle for 99c. There's lots out there, but these are the ones I think show potential (I haven't read them all yet, but am reading  How to Write a Great Query Letter at the moment).

How to Write a Great Query Letter by Noah Lukeman

Write or Die by Scott Nicholson

Publishing Exposed by Daryl Sedore

Are You Still Submitting Your Work to a Traditional Publisher? by Edward Patterson

Ask a Literary Agent by Noah Lukeman

From Words to Brain by Liva Blackburne

The Nasty Little Writing Book by M. Rovenhauer

A Book Inside by Carol Denbow

Rather than seek help for my addiction, I choose to lure you in as well, come, buy, enjoy...

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J is for Jester

Readers like the bad boy more than the 'nice guy'. There's another character that wins us all over - The Jester.

The Jester, or the Fool is a traditional character that adds wit to a story. Their purpose is not only for laughs though, they are often pertinent to the progress of the narrative. Shakespeare's jesters were traditional political humorists, it was their job to keep the King grounded by mocking his political decisions (much like comedians do for politicians today - like The Chasers show). But what if you're not by nature a comedian? Is it hard to write humour? I think it's no harder or easier than writing any style you're not used to (my weak-writing is in romance). So what type of humour should you employ?

The one-liners.

The witty character that is always coming up with quick one-liners. Sometimes these remarks are at the expense of others, this makes the character seem a little heartless. Cordelia from Buffy or Dr House from House are examples. There's two ways you can deal with that; make the receiver of the wit deserve the line, or, make your witty one-liner character get their just deserts at some stage. This is the Trickster character, everything he does is for his own amusement.

The fool.

He's there for us to laugh at. He gets it wrong, but monumentally wrong. He's goofy and harmless, but at some stage in the story, despite all our assumptions of this character, he will actually help the situation where no one else could. No one will be more surprised than the fool. Think Ron Weasley from Harry Potter, or Morgan from Chuck.

The scenario.

Sometimes life is funny. We get ourselves into things that seem so absurd that we can laugh at them latter, these make great novel moments. You can draw on family stories or your own to create a humorous situation. 

For example, I don't swear, well, not the really bad words anyway. While at Uni, I took a course called Psychobiology of Sex, mostly it was about monkeys and alpha-males, but a little touched on the language we humans use. We were asked to write down all the names we knew, including swear words and slang for the female anatomy. Some of mine just used the first letter, followed by dashes. The teacher asked me to read my list. OMG. My face went red and I just read out the first letters. The teacher pushed me to read out the C word. No way. She kept at me and insisted it was just a word. She said it several times. No way. Next, she got the rest of the class to chant the word so I could join in. No way. This went on painfully for about 5 minutes, with the whole class chanting C..., C..., C... I kept seeing students walking past our open door and wondered what they must think of the situation. It was bizarre, like a weird dream where you realise you have a test for a subject you don't know and you're naked. Anyway, it was weird enough to be funny.

Humour can reveal an oddity in what we accept day to day. It can be used in fiction as a way of mocking itself (Pretty Little Liars had a scene in the woods with four scared teens, a branch cracks and a girl says to the others, 'Did you hear that?' This happens all the time in movies, but this time, one says "Well, yeah, I'm standing right next to you."). It can also break the tension, it's very common after a fright for people to laugh, it's our body's way of using up all that adrenaline. Humour is a good way of introducing the unexpected. Plus, humour just makes stories fun. (Click on the pic to read a funny)

Here are some more links to help you with writing the funny:

Make Your Writing Funny - A great post on All Freelance Wrting, with specific examples. I found this most helpful when trying to funny-up one of my characters.

Building Characters with Jung - One of my previous posts, includes a chart of character types and what their motivations are.

Top Ten Tips for Writing Humour - A few ideas for you to play with.

Write on the Funny - Gives some funny scenarios.

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I is for Ideas

Keep those ideas handy!

It seems almost every author interview includes the question 'where do you get your ideas?' Ideas spurt from our imaginations at an alarming rate, too fast to ever record them all. The trick is to find a plot worthy idea, one that can extend through a whole novel. 

One way to check your idea for substance is to dot point all the things that could possibly happen in that story. If you can come up with at least 20 points, then you could write a chapter for each and there's your novel outline. I like to aim for 40, because some will be rejected or changed as I go.

But if you really need some inspiration to kickstart your ideas (or more likely, just to recognise them as they surface - because I know you have them already), then try these:

Keep a Notebook

You hear it over and over again, but how many of us remember to carry ours around with us at all times? I try to, but if I forget, I have an 'inspirations' section in my iPhone notebook, or I can even record a message (if I'm driving). I've blogged about the sacred notebooks in:

The Writer's Notebook

Record Your Dreams

You will feel silly at first and have lots of random images that don't seem to tie together, but flesh it out and you'll see a possible plot emerge. My previous posts on dreamwriting:

7 Tips for Keeping a Dream Diary

Turning Dreams into Stories

Forgetting Dreams

Steal from Headlines

The newspapers and current affairs programs are filled with great ideas for stories. Take a headline, without reading the article and start to see what plot-line you can come up with. Who would the characters be and what would the main conflict be? If you want to try this, visit:

Plot Ideas from Headlines

Just Write

There are plenty of writing exercises you can try to come up with new stories. Here's one of the many books I use for writing exercises:

Now, get to that notebook and write! *Should heed own advice*

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H is for HTML for Writer Blogs

Um... yeah, sure.

Mention HTML and a lot of people break out in a sweat. It's really not that scary, it's just computer language. I can't claim to speak it fluently, but have learned a few greetings to communicate my needs with my blog design. Today I'll share a fairly easy code you can use. 

Blog link

Have you noticed some comments have the author's website or blog linked? Would you like a tag-line at the end of your comments that you can link back to your blog? Here's how you do it, below is the text for my link that I like to put in the bottom of my comments on other people's blogs:

It shows up like this:

Wagging Tales - Blog for Writers

All you have to do is change my url (http://clancytales.blogspot.com/) with your own, and, change Wagging Tales - Blog for Writers, with the name of your blog. All the other bits, like the <, a, ", / should all stay exactly where they are.

If you've mastered that, perhaps you'd like to make yourself a Blog Badge, that's the button that other bloggers put up on their blogs to link back to your site (mine's in the sidebar). Here's a previous post where I show you how I made mine:

Badge Craze

Good luck with it!

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