Z is for Zen

Got Zen?

There is that list of popular books on the craft of writing that get bandied about frequently. Being the happy little consumer that I am, I buy them all. One such book is Ray Bradbury's Zen in the Art of Writing, hosting a collection of essays on the craft and one essay sharing the book's title.

I've had this book on my shelf for a while now, and admit I read this essay last night because of the Z factor, but it didn't take long for the truth of Bradbury's words to really touch me.

Bradbury tells us the elements of writing are work, relaxation and 'don't think!', this is what will bring you to a attitude of Zen (Buddhist belief that practicing meditation, self-contemplation and intuition will bring you enlightenment). Writing towards financial gain or fame are false goals and begets a product which is a lie. For writing to be worthwhile it must be truthful, come from what you feel and not be a manipulated outcome aimed at a lucrative market. I can accept this philosophy because it fits with my own on life matters: 'nurture the relationship you have with yourself and others, everything else, belonging, love, happiness, money etc will sort itself out.'

The essay also makes good points about getting into the creative flow by first working through the chore. The only way to improve writing is to write, "Quantity gives experience. From experience alone can quality come." Writers should not look at discarded works as failures, but as studies towards perfecting their art. "Work is done. If good, you learn from it. If bad, you learn even more."

The way we bring truth to our art is to "don't think", allow your subconscious to create and your fingers to transcribe. Bradbury points out that a surgeon can not consider the money as an athlete can not focus on the crowd when they each perform. It is only the act that matters.

If you can gain this perspective on your writing then relaxation will follow, because the writing becomes a natural extension of your truth and no longer a task or chore. Bradbury puts it simply:

"There is no failure unless one stops."

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Y is for Young Adult Fiction

Cartoon by Debbie Ridpath Ohi at Inkygirl.com

YA fiction is HOT. Probably because it's not a restricted market. Teens like teen books, and so do adults, even the more advanced young readers like YA. YA fiction can be written in any genre; Fantasy, Sci-fi, Romance, Mystery, Adventure, etc and etc. 

What does a good YA book need?

• A character the reader can relate to. Protagonists are generally between 12-18 (but you can stray from this) and experience some of the same daily problems faced by the reader, struggling with schoolwork, fighting with friends, crushes, etc. This does not mean boring! Perhaps the school they go to is for wizards or the setting of their first kiss is a village surrounded by a fence to keep out the zombies. Make sure you have a believable voice for your character. I recently read an action story about a 15yr old boy who talked about climbing into the hospital bed with his dying father and putting his head on his chest - this scene was a complete dichotomy to my understanding of the character and didn't work for me at all.
• A significant problem for the protagonist. This will drive the conflict. There needs to be something for your character to overcome. It may be a puzzle to be solved (like a murder) or feelings to overcome (being in love with your sister's boyfriend) or perhaps they simply need to stay alive (because evil scientists are harvesting teen organs). A small tiff with their best friend is not enough, unless it leads to a bigger, life-threatening problem, a 'me against the world' situation.
• A non-judgemental voice. Yes teen pregnancy is a good edgy topic for a novel. No, we do not want to encourage a bunch of teens to rush out and get pregnant. BUT. If you are writing from the teen perspective, you have to be honest about their feelings, you have to be truthful about describing the rush of endorphins experienced with a first kiss, and the desire to take things further. You can't just skip straight to the consequences, otherwise you'll be like the coach in Mean Girls, "Don't have sex because you'll get pregnant and die." 
• Desire. Like in all fiction, the protagonist must want something. Teens know about wanting. They want lots of things they can't have due to their age, lack of independence, or not enough pocket money. Create a goal that the significant problem will block.

If you can have a believable protagonist, a significant conflict, refrain from preaching morals and give characters goals, then you're well on your way to satisfying the YA market.

Need more resources for writing YA?

For more links:

http://www.cherylrainfield.com/linksforwriters.html#books-writing

For Reviews on YA fiction:

http://www.grouchy.com/angst/

http://www.teensreadandwrite.com/

For Books:

There's a few on the sidebar for Amazon, today I'm reading (on my new Kindle!!!!):

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X is for Xyster and other fun stuff.

Do you know what a xyster is? It's a tool used by surgeons for scrapping bones (for grafting or preparing for a biopsy). What does this have to do with writing? Good question. It brings me back to yesterday's post of mistakes writers make (as told by Mark Twain).  

One rule Twain held for fiction writing was "crass stupidities shall not be played upon the reader". What this means is you shouldn't assume your writer is ignorant about the setting or topic of your novel. Do your homework and make sure the information in your fiction is fact.

If you have a story about a surgeon falling in love with his nurse, it may be that you were just interested in a hunky doctor love story, but you better write realistic surgery scenes. The surgeon would not prepare the bone with 'file-like' instrument, he or she would use a xyster (a file-like instrument).

X is also for XXXX, which is a popular beer in Australia:

Relevance? Well, I thought I might need a few to come up with an X post, but decided drinking wasn't the answer, otherwise my post might turn XXX  ;-).

  

X is the mark on my calendar today:

Why? Because it's my birthday! And X is also a symbol for kisses and I had plenty of those for my family, because they got me:

A Kindle!!!

So hopefully you'll understand the brevity of this post - I need to play!

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W is for Writing Wrongs

Timeless Advice

In 1895, Mark Twain produced a scathing critique of Fenimore Cooper's The Deerslayer, outlining 18 key mistakes in his writing. Those 'literary offences' make for a good list of what not to do, or how not to 'Write Wrong'. I've reworded the list in 2010 lingo, and put the emphasis on what you should do, but if you'd like to see the whole article click here.

1. A story must accomplish something (confirm a premise) and arrive at a conclusion.
2. Every scene must be a necessary part of the story and help develop it (move the story forward).
3. Characters should be alive (even vampires/zombies should be vivid with depth), except for the corpses and the reader should be able to tell the difference.
4. All characters must have a valid excuse for being there.
5. Dialogue should be realistic for the character in that particular situation, have a meaning and purpose, be relevant to the story and stay on topic, maintain the reader's interest, propel the story and stop when they have nothing more to say.
6. The personality of your character fits with their actions and dialogue.
7. A character's manner of speaking remains consistent throughout the story.
8. Do not assume the reader is ignorant - check your facts.
9. Refrain from relying on miracles (or magic) to solve the protagonists problems, if they do employ magic, then it should be written in a way that suggests it's plausible and reasonable.
10. The reader should be able to feel a deep connection with the characters, love the good ones and hate the bad.
11. Characters should be so clearly portrayed that the reader can almost guess how they would react to a particular situation.
12. Make sure the premise is clear in the narrative and not just come close.
13. Use the right word, not its second cousin (I couldn't edit that - it was too cute).
14. Cut all surplus text.
15. Do not hold back necessary details (especially in mysteries!)
16. Have a well edited manuscript, the writing should not be sloppy.
17. Use good grammar.
18. Keep the structure and style simple and straightforward. 

Thank you Mr Twain, and on an irrelevant note, I want my house to look like the Twain residence:

I'm sure I'll only need a few renovations - this is what I have to start with:

Sigh.

The girls have received such a great response at their book review blog Paper Dolls, thank you for encouraging these young bloggers!

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V is for Virtual Workshops

I've gathered a few video clips on writing - watching videos on writing workshops is a great way for me to avoid actual writing. These are the ones I felt carried significant messages:

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U is for Utopian

Utopia is actually a Greek word for 'not place', but has come to be used as a term for a perfect society, something that has been explored in literature, although not nearly as often as dystopia (tragic, nightmarish world).

I've notice a huge trend in YA fiction featuring dystopian worlds, like The Forest of Hands and Teeth, the setting is a future where zombies plague the earth. Another popular dystopian novel is Unwind by Neal Shusterman set in world where it's acceptable practice to harvest body parts from unwanted teenagers. But I found utopian fiction a little scarce.

 

When utopian worlds are explored in fiction it is usually to question their validity. In H G Wells The Time Machine, the protagonist visits a future world that appears utopian, only to discover the idyllic gentle souls living in a state of euphoria were actually just food for the society that lived beneath the ground. Certainly the utopian suggestion by Cadburys that the world would be nice if it were chocolate is all fun and games in winter, but come summer...

I wonder if this method of questioning paradise is also a way of questioning religious beliefs about perceptions of heavens or afterlife. Perhaps it is a way of raising awareness of our own views of our culture, the way we think our practices are the acceptable ones. Then again, it might just be because without conflict, there would be no story.

The Sky Inside is a story of a utopian world (well, utopian until the conflict arrives) by Clare B Dunkle. I like the look of this one and might have to add it to my 'list of books I'm allowed to buy once I've actually read some of the ones I've already got'. Have you come across any recent utopian novels? Does all speculative fiction assume we're doomed?

I also have a new personal project. I want to find all the blogs hosted by kids and teens on writing and book reviewing so I can share their links and encourage their efforts (because I have been so humbled by the bloggers supporting Paper Dolls - my daughters' book review blog). Whenever you come across a blog you want to recommend, let me know!

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T is for Timelines and Thanks

T is for Timelines. The online editing course I'm taking, How to Review Your Novel, has gotten me to use my scene cards (a previous exercise of recording each scene on a separate index card) and note down the day and time the scene takes place. I'm including the start time and finish time.

The object of this exercise is to catch yourself up on parts where the story does not flow cohesively, but also to think about time of day for your descriptions and actions. Things are easy to find in the daylight and night time is best for sneaky characters.

What did I gain from this exercise? Once all my cards were laid out in time order, I saw ways to shorten the overall timeframe of the story, down from three weeks to just over one week. This provides my narrative a faster moving pace.

Another part of the exercise was to decide exactly what time of year this is all happening, which makes you think about scenery (snow or falling leaves?) and the temperature (bikinis or sweaters?). The full rewrite of Dog Show Detective starts next week!

T is also for Thanks and I have to thank some lovely bloggers for awards! I try to get to everyone's blog every couple of days, the A-Z blog challenge is fun, but when I get back to blogging every couple of days, I'll be able to keep up with leaving comments :-). The awards:

From Mason Canyon at Thoughts in Progress

From Niki at Wool n Nuts

This award is from Angie Paxton at Answering the What if

It was easy to work out who I should pass them onto, because I owe great thanks to my beautiful followers who have made the effort to also follow my daughters (8 & 12yrs. old)  book review blog at Paper Dolls. The girls are absolutely thrilled when they get new followers and a comment is like christmas for them. I appreciate the supportive enthusiasm you've shown (and always feel free to post a link in the comments here, if you know of a young person's blog we should visit), so I want each person to receive all three awards, THANK YOU to:

• Book Dreaming
• Answering the What If
• Writing in the Crosshairs
• Wool N Nuts
• Unedited
• The Watered Soul
• Neat Zine
• The Innocent Flower
• Head in the Clouds
• Dutch Hill News
• Literary Rambles

And, because I've seen the girls working hard to finish books and spend hours on each review, I'm also passing the awards onto Milly and Tilly at Paper Dolls - keep up the good work girls!

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S is for Stories from the Subconscious

S is for Stories from the Subconscious

S is also for sceptical, and that's how I've always viewed hypnotism and subliminal messages in the past. But, boredom will open our minds to many things. Once I realised I was running out of options for audiobooks on iTunes on the craft of writing (there really aren't enough), I decided on a whim to download: 

Inspired Novel: Creativity Hypnosis for Novelists by Maggie Dubris.

My review? This audio-recording is designed to be listened to at bedtime. Background sounds of a rainforest and a soothing voice guide you through. You relax, listen to the instructions and inspiration will follow. Apparently the recording is over 26 minutes long, but I can only vouch for about the first 5. I've listened to this tape six nights in a row and six nights in a row I fell asleep and didn't get to hear the good bits. Or did I?

I have to add this week I have had vivid and imaginative dreams every night, each one providing interesting plot ideas (unfortunately none that relate to my WIPs). Also, I remember every dream clearly the next day. So perhaps I am hearing the tape subliminally? I've heard hypnosis can be helpful for writer's block, quitting smoking or raising suppressed memories, I can tell you it's great for getting to sleep :-). Have you tried relaxation methods for inspiration?

Studies now suggest Agatha Christie used hypnosis on her readers to make her novels difficult to put down. You can read the whole article by clicking on the link:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/devon/content/articles/2005/12/20/agatha_christie_study_feature.shtml

For some reason the link needs to be refreshed once loaded - it is worth it though :-)

Don't wake me... I'm writing.

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R is for Research for Inspiration

Research sounds like it'll be boring. Your muse gives you the imaginative plot and characters and research guy is just there to check your facts. But sometimes the fact-checker can have some good ideas too.

After a trip to remote country town in Victoria called Warracknabeal, I decided I wanted it as a location for a story. I just had no idea what story. After researching the area, I discovered the local racetrack had almost closed down forever in 1939 due to debts. Then a fire mysteriously swept through the track and burned down the clubhouse. This resulted in the club receiving enough insurance money to rebuild the clubhouse and pay the debtors. 

I had my background story - was the fire accidental or was it arson? I then built on that and inserted one murder-victim body at the scene of the fire, now I had a mystery to solve.

Further research revealed that 1939 also saw Black Friday, the worst bushfire experienced in Australia, with a terrible death count. This affected my story as well. If the fire was from a well-meaning supporter or organiser of the club, even if they were innocent of the actual murder, there would be no sympathy for such a character. Arson would have been an unforgivable crime after the massive bushfire. 

My research is actually shaping my story, The Waracknabeal Kids. I'm finding lots more interesting bits and pieces about country life during this time and it's providing plot ideas.  Have you found anything surprising in your research?

Still not sure you NEED to research a story? Maybe you should watch the following tutorial:

 

I'm surprised so many people use Twilight as an example of failure? Seems to have done well with sales and movie adaptations. I'm not into sulky vampires but I'm happy to see kids reading anything with words in it :-)

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Competition WInner!!!!

I'll post my R is for... (hmm don't know yet) later today - It's time to draw the winner of the book giveaway competition! After trying this method:

What hat?

I decided to stick to the original plan of using random.org to generate a number.

And the number I got is.....

(I know some people post up their random.org box to show the results but I couldn't figure out how to get it on here). Still not exciting? Okay... looking on my google list of entrants that is.....

Christine Danek from http://www.christinedanek.blogspot.com/

I will organise with the nice people at Amazon to send out your copy of:

and 

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Q is for Query

I don't query agents or publishers. I'm just not UP to that yet. I'm still working on polishing my novel, Dog Show Detective, and I'm plotting and developing characters for The Warracknabeal Kids. I know it's just around the corner, and yes, I'm a little scared.

I creative write. When I have to do non-creative tasks I shuffle my feet and moan like a zombie (okay still fresh from reading The Forest of Hands and Teeth and The Dead-Tossed Waves). I don't want to query, I just want to create fiction and have people come and find me and ask to read it (realistic?), but I realise as my edits progress on Dog Show Detective, that the time is coming, so I'd better do a little research.

Here are some links I've found about creating an effective query:

http://querytracker.blogspot.com/

http://www.agentquery.com/default.aspx

http://www.spacejock.com.au/QueryLetter.html

http://hollylisle.com/fm/Articles/agent2.html

http://jetreidliterary.blogspot.com/2010/02/query-letter-stats.html

I've also purchase this e-book (haven't read through it yet though):

http://querytothecall.elanajohnson.com/

I've also been working on my synopsis, How To Revise Your Novel (the editing course I'm taking) has made this process simple. This is a thorough course and I don't think I'd have been able to revise without it:

Maybe writing a query won't be scary after all - maybe I'll even enjoy it :-)

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Tomorrow I'll post the winner to the Book Giveaway competition!

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P is for Promote and Platform!

Sometimes You Have to Toot Your Own Horn

There is a lot of buzz in the writing field about building your platform as a writer. Put simply, this means promoting yourself and building a market for your books.

How do you promote your writing? There are plenty of resources for promoting yourself online my favourites are: 

• Blog - I know most of you do already, but it's important to have your blog professional looking and easy to read (yellow print on a hot pink background might be groovy, but if it's hard to read, there's a lot of blogs out there and your visitor can give up and move on). I love Blogger for all the widgets and easy templates, in fact, I'm more likely to follow a blogger blog - but there are other blog hosts so check out which one suits you.
• Twitter - a fantastic application for keeping in touch with writers, readers, agents, publishers and so on! Be focused on the type of group you want to create, if you have separate interests (such as writing romance and rebuilding old cars) then create separate accounts for each of those. I get access to a lot of great links from Twitter friends and you can let a large group of people know when your blog has been updated.
• Facebook - why not build a fan page for your writing that lets readers know when your next book is coming out.

Warning: A focused approach to marketing is better than a lot of random promoting. You need to remember when you put stuff online it can be accessed forever, and you may regret it later. Self-publishing is a viable option for many, but rushing in and putting out a badly formatted book which still requires a lot of editing before it's an acceptable novel, means in the future when you query an agent or publisher, they will also be able to see your unprofessional piece. Think carefully before you put any messages out there and consider how they will reflect on you in the future.

To find out a LOT more about platform building for writers today I recommend checking out Joanna Penn at The Creative Penn. This site has free e-books and plenty of information about building up your online presence as a writer.

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Onomatopoeia or Overwhelming Writing Devices

O is for Onomatopoeia

When I teach poetry as part of English/Literature studies, I always include a lesson on onomatopoeia, mostly because my students get a laugh because I can't pronounce it without 4 or 5 goes :-).

Descriptive words that sound like an action or noise when spoken out loud, create the effect of onomatopoeia. For instance, the word to describe water falling in small portions from a tap is called a drip - drip, drip, drip. Poets tend to have a natural talent for using onomatopoeia words, but they can be effective in fiction as well, especially if you're writing for a younger reader.

If you are anything like me, you can sometimes get overwhelmed by all these literary devices and rules that we should be including in our writing. My humble advice is... just write your story, when you go through in your revision you can tighten your plot, characters and writing style. These sound words are simply another way of showing instead of telling.

Imagine writing about a bad guy pointing a gun at his intended victim - instead of saying he shoots its, the simple word. 'BANG' lets the reader know what's going on and can make them feel like they are there. Here's an example of sound words I'm using in The Warracknabeal Kids:
CRACK (lightening hitting a gum tree)
THWAT (slingshot shoot at poor innocent chicken)
AUWK! (sound made by poor innocent chicken)

Sometimes I find examples that I don't think sound like the real action at all (like a dog saying 'woof' or 'Zzzzzz' for snoring). Really listen to actions and try to work out what sound they make, I've used: 'Hmmnn, Hmnnn?' for a puppy's whine. Have some fun with it :-)

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N is for Nostalgia

N is for Nostalgia

I've decided to take a little self-indulgent walk down memory lane and reminisce over the books that were special to me growing up.

The Monster at the End of this Book

A Little Golden Book range was so special to me, I remember The Rolly Polly Puppy and many others, but Grover's interactive book was my absolute favourite. I still have it! I even used this book as a reference for an essay on post-modernism, comparing it to Heart of Darkness.

According to Wikipedia, this book is the best selling of the Sesame Street series.  From a marketing point of view, this suggests if you can evoke nostalgia with your book, you will increase sales.

Enid Blyton provided my first novels to read at about 8 or 9. I would have my face glued inside the cover of the Faraway Tree books every day.

I bought this book (it had a different cover then - much less obvious) at an airport when I was 11! I wanted something to read on the plane for my first flight and boy was it an eye opener. Not something I'd recommend for my children, but it was a certain kind of rite of passage, seeing as I'd been reading Enid Blyton before that. 

Trixie Belden covers Then and Now

After being slightly mentally scarred from my introduction to sex through the novel Lace, I decided to switch back to something a little more child-friendly and collected the whole series of Trixie Belden mysteries. I could not get enough of them. The first cover is the one I had as a kid and the second is the one I bought for my daughter this year. She is yet to want to read it.

What are your favourite memories  of reading as a child? Have you re-purchased those books out of nostalgia, can you think of ways to interweave nostalgia into your novel?

Don't forget to enter the book giveaway competition! In just a few days I'll be drawing the lucky winner! Click on the picture below to go to the entry form :-)

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M is the Motive

Motive in a mystery novel is obviously essential, we need to know why the killer was willing to risk everything to commit murder. The motive is usually the undoing of the murderer, once the protagonist detective figures out the motive, he can work out 'who done it'. But motive is not just for murderers. Motive is in every fiction character, or at least, it should be.

Motive drives every decision and every action for your characters. Why did the killer murder Old-man Hibbard? Stabbing him with scissors in the library no less? Did the man give the killer's new book a really bad review and suggested the pages be cut up for paper dolls or aeroplanes? There needs to be a motive, not just for the crime, but for the choice of tools and location. But what about non-murderous characters?

Why should our protagonist care enough to want to solve the crime? What is their motive? Perhaps they need to prove their own innocence, like in The Fugitive, or they need to protect the next possible victim, or maybe they're just addicted to adventure. There needs to be a strong enough reason for the protagonist to continue down a dangerous path, rather than just head home and turn on the telly.

This is true for all protagonists, no matter what type of journey they will be taking. Alice needed a motive to want to drink a suspicious liquid and shrink to fit through a tiny door, rather than just stay in the rabbit hole and wait to be rescued. Alice was curious. You can't have your character behave and then just explain the action later, you need to support the motive within the building of your character. We knew Alice was curious before she got to the door and the potentially poisonous drink. The author had built up our expectations so the only thing we would expect Alice to do is to move forward through the story.

Movement is the key to a good narrative, keep the characters moving forward through the narrative and you'll keep your reader moving through the book. For every character you should ask:

• Why are they there?
• What do they want most?
• What is stopping them?
• What are they prepared to do about it?

There are many motivators and people have different priorities for their life, so you need to choose the motive that best works for your narrative and make sure your character supports that motive (or you can build your character first and then work out what motivators best suit them). Here's a few motives:

• Greed - character is usually seen following the money
• Power/Fame - this character is all about control
• Fear - possibly through paranoia or perhaps the threat is real
• Protector - someone the character cares about is at risk
• Revenge - driven by anger, bitterness
• Passion - love is the motivator and perhaps it's unrequited or there is a love triangle
• Blackmail - this character has a shady past they want to keep hidden
• Shame - this character acts through a sense of being unworthy
• Faith - even if it is misguided, it can be powerful enough to push a character
• A Rush - wild and untamed, this character comes across as spoilt.

Once you know what your character's motive is, you can weave supporting suggestions throughout the text, little signs of the truth, so when all is revealed the reader will feel satisfied with the solution. Agatha Christie provides great examples of motive, for every crime there will be several suspects, all with different motives for wanting the victim dead.

Murder on the Orient Express - every passenger has a motive for murder!

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L is for Links - lots a' links

L is for LINKS!

I've collated some fantastic links here on the craft of writing fiction, these links are focused on tips for writing - the do's and don'ts. They're worth bookmarking and reading through:

• Short Stories: 10 Tips for Creative Writers
• Advice on Novel Writing by Crawford Kilian
• Bohemian Word Werks - Writing blunders
• 8 Unstoppable Rules For Writing Killer Short Stories
• Writerisms and other Sins: A Writer's Shortcut to Stronger Writing
• How To Write A Novel Using The Snowflake Method
• Ten rules for writing fiction AND Ten rules for writing fiction(part two)
• How to write a novel in 100 days or less - this is a calendar of tips and motivators

And... (because I didn't want to get left out) a link to one of my previous posts on opening lines:

Wagging Tales: Opening Lines and Hooks

L is for Love and I love followers!

Just a reminder that time is almost running out to enter the book giveaway contest - you get to choose two of the books I've found most helpful in writing and editing. I LOVE these books and want to send you a brand new copy! Just go HERE or click on the image below for the entry form and details - open worldwide but only to followers :-)

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