5 Top Reasons to Live THE ARTIST'S WAY

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Progressive Book Club yet?

The more books on the craft of writing I read, the harder I am to please.

All I want from a how-to manual is just one good, useful, life-changing tip - is that so much to ask? Just one. But it has to be a doozy. 

Many writing manuals are packed chock-full of tips and advice, in fact too many. At the most, my scattered little brain can only remember up to three good points, otherwise I get sparks and steam coming out my ears as the cogs grind. Most are good tips, but really, once you've read half a dozen writing guides, you've probably heard them before.

No, it must be an earth-shattering, mind-blowing piece of advice. And this book has it.

The Artist's Way Handbook was already listed on my Ten Best Writing Workbooks post, but it warranted a revisit. Why did I like it? I got my one good tip. 

Morning Pages - this is the term Julia Cameron uses to describe a daily task. First thing you do when you get up in the morning is to write three pages in longhand. It doesn't matter what you write, as long as you fill three pages. This was amazing for me. Here's my top reasons you should try writing morning pages:

1. Focus. This small act lets me know my day is set for writing. When I don't complete my morning pages, I find I have a disorganised day.
2. Capture dreams. If I get started quickly enough I can hold onto that vanishing story from my dream time. Last night I dreamt of a flat cat, that once I administered first aid, it inflated back up again. I can't make that stuff up.
3. Inspiration. By delving into my aspirations, I can clarify my career desires.
4. Stories. Sometimes my writing pages are blessed with stories, I don't even understand where they all come from. One of my favourite sassy characters, big Rosie, manifested on these pages.
5. Info dump. Sometimes my head becomes overloaded with clutter. I get so frazzled with the hundred different aspects of my life that I can't sit still and work on my WIP. On those days, my morning pages dump all the garbage out of my head and leave a nice clear space for the creative.
6. To-do list. I'll often finish up my three pages with a quick to-do list for the day. Once I get the kids up and off to school, I feel like I have a guide in place so I know exactly where to start when I get back.

This time I got further with the book. Some tips I enjoyed, such as listing things I love to do, other lives I could have lived, but then there were other activities I couldn't get into, such as remembering someone who wronged you from the past and pondering what blocks your creativity. I found the later too negative for me, I'm all about bouncy happy bunnies, no time for doom and gloom.

Coming up with your own writing affirmations is also a big winner for me. They serve as a reminder that my writing and teaching writing is a professional career and deserves respect.

In summary? Get yourself this workbook. There are several editions, but I recommend the workbook. Do the activities that speak to you, and miss the once that don't appeal to you (like the downers). Go for it. The Artist's Way is a fantastic workbook. 5/5 for me!

Don't forget to sign up for our awesome blog hop!

Imagination Sparks Blogfest

Starts August 1, sign up now!

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4 Essential Elements of a Successful Logline

Blake Snyder is well-known for his screenwriting advice. Turns out what works for film also works for novels! This guide offers advice on using index cards to write your scenes, finding that one saving trait in an unlikable character, marketing your manuscript and much more. My favourite advice is on writing the logline. Not only do you need a killer log line, but Snyder says write it before you write your novel. This will check if your story idea is strong enough.

What do you need for a killer logline? There are four essential elements every logline must have:

Irony - Character sets out to do/avoid one thing, until circumstances flip that plan on it's head! Look for key words like 'until', 'but', 'however'. Shows your characters original motivation/intention and the conflict that changes everything.

Promise - A good logline suggests a whole story. It promises big things to come. It should set up more than just the start of the story. For example, don't write: Sarah moves to France to open a flower shop. Put in the twist: Sarah moves to France to open a flower shop but finds reality does not match the dream when she is swindled out of her life savings for a run down store, can't speak the local language and discovers she's allergic to roses.

Audience - Suggests the market, who will want to read this book, who does it appeal to? Snyder suggest including an idea of the cost in production - if it's an epic film that will promises amazing special effects and big stars. That's helpful for scripts, but books have the equalising affect of all requiring the same medium to deliver (digital or paper), unless you have a specialised app with personalised games, or other expensive elements.

Killer Title - Your title should say what the story's about. Don't be vague. The title should 'nail the concept' without being overly obvious. When a reader spots your title they should start imagining the plot. This one line will show if your character and conflict are strong enough for an appealing story.

Snyder suggests holding off writing your story until you've written the killer log line. If you have to keep fudging your logline to include all the elements above, you may spot something your story is missing.

This review is part of the Progressive Book Club hosted by M L Swift. Want to challenge yourself to reading more writing manuals? Join up!

Want to learn more about writing loglines? Check out these links:
Gaston Broadcast: Logline examples
Creating Bomb-proof Loglines by Lenore Wright

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Reviewing Writing Guides - Bird by Bird

Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott is a writing guide for budding novelists.

Just as readers can be diverse in their choice of fiction genre, I find text guides also have different styles and readers preferences are individual.

I rarely read memoirs. I have zero curiosity about the dramas and problems of real people's lives, unless it's a friend, in which case I'd rather not read about it in a book. I like fiction. Stories. Fun. With guides, I like clear instructions, examples, and exercises. Bird by Bird is not a clear instruction manual.

For me it read less 'to-do' and more depressing memoir with vague suggestions of advice hidden amongst passages weighted heavily with flashes of parties, alcohol, and personal disdain. Not that the advice wasn't spot on. You can use index cards to capture ideas (just as easily as a notebook, iPhone, or the back of your hand), and yes, your first drafts can be crap. Research does help strengthen a character. My problem was the ambiguous nature of the advice. Exercise is good for your health, so is eating fresh fruit and vegetables, but I'd expect more explicit instructions in a diet manual. Sadly, I also found the author's attitude to life a little narcissistic and felt uncomfortable about her priority of recording events in order to write about them later, especially when it referred to a dying friend.

Now, I said I rarely read memoir and don't usually enjoy these narrative-style writing guides. However, I did quite enjoy The Happy Hooker, so there's always exceptions. I also appreciate Writing Down the Bones by Natalie Goldberg (I have the audible version and listen to it often). Goldberg does a better job of combining memoir narrative with hard writing advice in a way that is entertaining and informative.

There you go, my review. A negative this time, but hey, it might be your favourite book? And I know my next review will be positive, because the chosen book is Save the Cat! This review is written as part of the Progressive Book Club blog hop, all the members have reviewed Bird by Bird, so pop about and see what they thought. I dare say most would have enjoyed it more than me.

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Read Books on Writing

ML Swift is hosting the Progressive Book Club

I don't join book clubs. Inevitably if I find a book boring, everyone else in the club finds it literary genius. Reading is solo for me, personal. But (well of course there had to be a 'but', otherwise this would be a short gripe post), I've joined an online book club and you should too.

Why? The Progressive Book Club will be reading and discussing books on the craft of writing. If you're anything like me, you love buying books on writing. I've over 50 of them on my shelf. The only thing is reading those books is a whole different matter. I usually start and something shiny distracts me. Then they sit, getting dusty on my shelf, little bookmarks crying softly half-way through chapter three.

Because you'll be discussing the book, you'll want to finish it. You don't have to read every book suggested, just the ones that interest you. Hey, if you don't get around to reading one, you can still find out what everyone else thought of the book. It's just once a month, you can join at any time, you'll learn more about writing and connect with writerly friends.

So sign up at ML Swift's page today! Or use the linky thingy at the bottom of this post:

Our first book is Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott

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10 Best Writing Workbooks

You can get great books on the craft of writing and learn to write a novel at home, but there's so many, how do you pick? My favourites are the workbooks providing exercises to try yourself. Here are the top ten workbooks for writing that I couldn't do without:

Writing the Breakout Novel Workbook by Donald Maass

You could write your whole novel with this workbook. Now don't be confused, there are two releases under this title. Writing the Breakout Novel is probably a good book too, but I prefer the workbook. It's condensed on the chapter lengths but has the added bonus of exercises for you to complete.

Steering the Craft by Ursula Le Guin

At first glance this seems like a run of the mill how-to book on writing. Nope. Le Guin has a magical way with words that transcends her fiction and makes a technical book a pleasure to read. She tackles the usual devices for good writing, but goes beyond and looks at elements that make beautiful writing. For example, her first chapter is on the sound of your writing and includes an exercise titled: 'Being Gorgeous'. It's not all airy-fairy though, you will cover punctuation, syntax, sentence length as well as some fun things like repetition, switching your point of view and using adverbs and adjectives (come on, we could all use some improvement with those). Her examples come from some of the greatest writers. I could read this book again and again.

The Writing Book: A Workbook for Fiction Writers by Kate Greenville

I use some of these exercises in my writing group. The book's a bit wordy for my short attention span, but good if you just use one section at a time (each section looks at a writing skill, such as dialogue, character, description, etc). The topic is explained, examples given and then you are asked to try your hand at writing with a guided exercise.

Don't Forget to Write: For the Secondary Grades by 826 National

Created by an amazing writing centre for young people, this workbook offers lesson plans for high school teachers wanting to offer their students some amazing creative and persuasive writing workshops. You don't have to be a teacher to use it, try the exercises yourself. There is also a Don't Forget to Write: for the Elementary Grades, if you've got some younger writers at home (5-12yrs).

The Art and Science of Light Bulb Moments by Tom Evans

Evans is an amazing speaker, just look for him on YouTube and you'll find many interviews. This is a writing manual with a difference, it's not about technique it's about sparking amazing creativity and ideas. You'll get amazing exercises but also find out the psychological or scientific reason these exercises work for us. Even simple acts like breathing can inspire creativity and kick start our imagination. 

The Artist's Way Workbook by Julia Cameron

Whenever there's a workbook available for a text, I'll just buy that. This is great to get you living the creative life rather than making small slots of time for creativity. Do the exercises even if they feel silly--my experience has always been the tasks I'm reluctant to try always harvest the best results. Each week you'll be assigned small tasks to promote creativity.

Specialist Subjects: 

Writing and Selling your Mystery Novel by Hallie Ephron

I'm still working my way through this workbook but it is perfect if you're writing a… well mystery obviously. Learn all the tropes and gain an insight into the necessary structure of a well-planned crime novel. There are charts for you to fill in and exercises that will take you right through the planning stages.

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

This book is such a good guide it could be helpful for writing any kind of novel, but does offer a lot of insight into the children and YA book market. Find out exactly what kids expect from fiction. The text was suggested to me during a writing course I took and I'm glad to have discovered it.

Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain Workbook by Betty Edwards

I know what you're thinking: 'But this is an artist's workbook!' Yes it is, and trust me, I'm no artist, however, drawing inspires creativity. Try a drawing exercise right before you sit down to work on your manuscript. There's something about allowing the pencil to flow over the page that helps release the words.

Adventures in Fantasy by John Gust

Another resource for the classroom but just as good for adults. This book is a whole workshop starting with planning your fantasy setting map to filling the world with characters and conflicts. Great for someone setting out to write their first Fantasy novel. There's lots of sheets to print or copy, so I recommend getting the physical book rather than the ebook version.

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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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Cinders

Cinders by Michelle Davidson Argyle

Most of my followers would know of Michelle Davidson Argyle, a writer who's been prominent in the blosasphere. Perhaps you've seen her columns on The Literary Lab hosted by a team of talented writers offering advice. Michelle also has her own blog at The Innocent Flower and now has her own Author Website Michelle Davidson Argyle.

Michelle has been blogging, twittering and Facebooking about her experience writing and editing her new novella, and finally the time came to release it to the public. I've found Michelle's experiences quite motivating and appreciate her dedication and the hard work she has given to her writing passion. I couldn't wait to read this story because I'd seen it develop through her blogposts and because I'm a big fan of 'bring back the novella'.

Making the novella available on Kindle immediately upon release was a brilliant idea. Lately I've tried to purchase many new release novels that are published through traditional publishers, only to find their Kindle release is held off for too long. I want to read a story when it's new, when there is lots of buzz about it (I'm a dedicated consumer and am happily influenced by hype). So within minutes, Cinders was mine to read!

This is quite an unexpected development on the original fairytale - if you like the Disney version with birds tweeting and happily-ever-afters, then you might be in for a shock. This story is much more inline with the style of the Brothers Grimm with dark twists and tragic consequences for many characters. What was beautiful was the imagery provided of the harsh reality of living like a princess and the increadible development of this almost Hamlet-ish protagonist into maturity.

Definitately worth a read, and you can knock it over in two bedtime sittings easily (if you get page hungry, like me).

So Hooray! for Michelle, taking the responsibility of her career in her own hands and setting such a great example for writers like myself. If you'd like to give her novella a whirl, go to Michelle's author website:

Michelle Davidson Argyle

(I just wanted to add that I know some bloggers have reviewed the book in return for a free copy, but I was more than happy to purchase mine, I love supporting fellow writers and feeding my consumer addiction at the same time!)

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Writing from Reading

Favourite genre - not me. I grew up addicted to Stephen King novels (before they got weird), fell in love with The Great Gatsby and raved to you about the YA novel Unwind (in Read to Write). I like to share all the non-fiction books on writing with you, but today I've another novel I must praise:

Peter Temple's Truth

This novel has won the prestigious Miles Franklin Literary Award and is well deserved. If you write crime fiction, mysteries or urban stories, you must read this novel. Not even optional, you must. It seems at first a grimey cop story, with our protagonist trying to solve a murder at all costs, despite a corrupt environment, but it becomes so much more. Truth shows human weakness. Especially in our protagonist. Modern urban life is contrasted with rural bush culture. Conflicts come in the threat of man and nature and at one stage we even have to question our protagonist - could he really be capable of what is suggested? Even the title is so cleverly woven from threads of the protagonist's life.

I try to learn from good literature, and this writer has given me two gems of wisdom - flaw your characters and flaw them some more (Lousy Characters Rule) and don't let the written language stand in the way of the story. Temple plays with grammar, many sentences are structured so short they remove definite/indefinite articles and qualifiers. In a previous post, I spoke about power positions in sentence structure (First Impression and Lasting Impact). Just looking through this post, I can see my powerful first place of the sentence is taken up with: I, this, if, not, it, the and so on. Poor use of a power position. "Truth reveals human weakness" carries more impact than if I'd said, "This novel reveals human weakness".

I'll read more from Temple, but tonight? I'm settling into bed with my Kindle edition of:

Cinders by the talented Michelle Davidson Argyle

Check out her author site:

http://michelledavidsonargyle.blogspot.com/

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Got Audiobook?

I'm taking the girls up to Queensland to visit my Dad in a few days, and as usual, my bag-packing panic has nothing to do with clothes. Which books will I choose to read while I'm away???

I'll be sensible this time and take the Kindle, after a frenzy whirl of book-downloading-fever, I have plenty to keep me busy, both in novels and writing books. The trip is also acting as a good deadline for me. I'm working through the first (and thanks to 'How to Revise Your Novel', the last) edit on Dog Show Detective and I can get the girls to read it while we are away (they are my harshest but most encouraging critics).

The drive to Brisbane takes a good 13hrs, so for this trip I've stocked up on audio-books! On the playlist for me:

I originally searched iTunes for a 'Sookie Stackhouse' mystery, I've heard so many people talk about this series and I figured it was a good time to catch up. But, when I saw the blurb for this book, I knew it was for me!

Though a small town at heart, Lawrenceton, Georgia, has its dark side - and its crime buffs. One of them is librarian Aurora "Roe" Teagarden, a member of the Real Murders Club, which meets once a month to analyse famous cases. It's a harmless pastime - until the night she finds a member killed in a manner that eerily resembles the crime the club was about to discuss...

I'll also be listening to The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson. I'm keeping the plot a secret from myself for now, but there's been enough hype to suggest it's a 'should read'. 

Meanwhile, the kids will be kept entertained with:

and

They should have something to blog about when they get back on their book review site:

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Flexing the Creative Muscle

Always stretch your brain before a writing workout

A common problem I see writers online facing seems to be getting themselves out of a non-writing funk. You've been on holidays, busy at work, sick or there's just been a great season of Castle showing non-stop for a week on pay-tv, whatever the excuse, sometimes we take a break from writing and have trouble picking up the pen again.

I also see loads of advice online for this problem. There are many techniques to get your WIP up and running again, but they all boil down to one simple solution. Just write. Writer's block seems to have  a lot less to do with a lack of ideas than time and motivation. Write anything, journals, riff-writing, clustering, letters, short stories or scenes. Once you get yourself started you'll be amazed at how silly it seemed to procrastinate.

This week I've been reading Now Write! (edited by Sherry Ellis), a collection of fiction writing exercises guaranteed to spark ideas. Several writers and creative writing teachers have contributed to this anthology of writing exercises on topics that cover point of view, character development, dialogue, plot and pacing, setting and description, revision and more. 

These exercises are simple but effective and force you to reevaluate the priorities in your writing, like character motives. If you're impatient (like me) and don't like creative exercises that take time from your WIP, you can even do many of these to expand your current plot and character depth.

I'll be using some of the exercises in the classroom with my students, so this book is both inspiring and practical for me.

Have you got a favourite tip to get the writing flowing again?

I'm so happy to be back online, and I am making my way through my blog list to catch up on all your writing and reading exploits!

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Read to Write

I Learn By Osmosis

I just finished (on my Kindle) Neil Shusterman's Unwind this week. WOW. Has to be the best written YA novel I've read. Big statement, I know, but Shusterman utilised all the best elements of storytelling:

• The story got started right off with the conflict. MC's parents have signed him over to be 'unwound', which means every part of him will be harvested for other people's transplants.
• Action and movement is frequent and spectacular. There are three young fugitives on the run, bus crashes, shoot-outs and more.
• It contains a dystopian element that gets you thinking about human nature and how bad and how good it can get.
• Everything mentioned matters. There are no vague stories because they sound cute. Every single anecdote, backstory, setting and prop is a smoking gun to show up later.
• All the characters are believable - even the ones you don't agree with.
• It ends with hope for a brighter future and human redemption. 

Unwind kept me on the edge of my seat, in one later scene, I literally kept putting my Kindle down away from me, scared to read on, but then had to snatch it back up to see how the situation would turn out. I don't mind telling you, there were tears (and I don't think I've gotten weepy in a book since Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men).

My intention is to study the style of the writer when I read fiction, to help me grow with my own writing, but this one was so good, I forgot to take notes. 

After finishing the novel, I felt a bit empty, so read a short story from a favourite author, Mark Twain's A Dog's Tale. Very different style, but it also included a scene revealing the weakness and cruelness of people, leaving me a little disappointed in us humans (but then I see the kids in my classes and I realise there is much more kindness and potential in the human race). 

What do you read to help you get writing?

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New Year Resolution - Finish Novels!

Happy 2010!

Blogging got forgotten during the holidays for me, I had a great time with my father visiting our little country home and even building an outdoor bar area for us, I think it'll be my favourite place to write!

Editing also got conveniently pushed aside over the last few weeks, but on the 2nd of January I sat back down at the computer, determined to finalise the last chapter of Dog Show Detective (the story of 11yr old Kitty who takes her Miniature Schnauzer to dog shows and solves mysteries). 

I've been stuck on this chapter for a bit, so, I had a crazy old guy pull out a gun and shoot a character, that got things moving! I then had my MC faint and wake up inside a caged and padlocked pen. How was I supposed to get her out of there?

The idea of the gun wielding lunatic is an old trick of adding  surprise to a narrative. In Revision & Self-Editing (James Scott Bell), surprising behaviour is a key way to liven a story that drags. Bell quotes Raymond Chandler as saying when things get boring, "Bring in a guy with a gun" (I sure did).

My puzzle now is how to get the Lead character out of the cage where she's trapped with her friend and a badly wounded boy. Bell has also helped me out with this predicament, he suggests the Lead character needs to show inner courage, experience conflict and act with honour. This great instructional book tells the self-editor to write a list of at least ten things that the Lead character could do, what would be unexpected?

So I wrote, keeping in mind all of the above suggestions, this is what I came up with:

When the old man returns with his gun, so does the wounded boy's dog. Just as the man raises his gun, the dog leaps and knocks him down, the bad guy hits his head and is unconscious. Kitty eventually gets the keys and opens their prison, they want to run, but Kitty won't be able to leave the boy bleeding with a bullet wound. Here is Kitty's conflict, she's only eleven, she wants to get to safety, but instead sends her friend for help and picks up the crazy man's gun, in case he wakes. Kitty chooses bravery and honour.

Bell also suggests if you come up with some outrageous solutions, it may be a good idea to use the 'Pull-Back Technique', basically you invent an over-the-top solution and then tone it down by about 25%. For example, I thought I would have the bad guy wake up and Kitty would have to shoot him. That's too extreme for a kids' book, so instead, I'll have Kitty think about what she has to do, get scared and decide that she can't kill a person. Kitty will lower the gun, and shoot his foot. That should be enough to keep them safe until help comes - extreme, minus 25%.

Revision & Self-Editing is proving to be a valuable tool for my first experience at editing a novel, I definitely recommend you check it out.

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