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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