Friday funnies - March 1

 

 

 

 

 

 





 

 

Have a great weekend!

 



Becoming real

After sixteen years in portables, the school where I teach moved into new classrooms last week.
The addition is attached to our gym/office building, which means I was front-and-center watching the construction. My room was right next to the new hallway and it was great to see each stage: the walls go up, the sheet rock hung, painted, the carpet installed. Anyone who's build a house can relate... think of 250 of us anticipating moving in! Our students and their parents were elated and showed up in droves last week to help us move. We moved almost everything - seven classrooms plus a library - in one night and had classes in the new building the next morning. Talk about enthusiasm!

But it was nothing compared to the staff. Years of enduring frozen or burst pipes, wonky heaters, sticky doors, uneven floors, zero storage, poor lighting, constant dust meant a clean classroom with built-in storage and new bathrooms was like heaven. And my own room - although not in the new wing but new to me - is twice as big as the room I left. I was teaching in the old library, complete with shelving pushed to the sides. There was barely room to turn around when my students were in class. Now I have a real desk. With plants! And pretty pictures on my walls! I can walk between  desks without bumping into someone! 

"It's like we're a real school," one of my colleagues told me. Now, the charter school where I teach is one of (if not the) top schools in our district when it comes to test results. Our staff has won numerous awards and many of them are pioneers in the field of education in our state. We have a waiting list of students dozens long for each grade level.

Yet it took a building to make them feel real. Like they'd finally arrived. Validated.

I felt validated as a writer back when I was getting paid to write. And even then, I had my doubts. "You're a journalist?" one woman asked me once when I was covering a story. "Isn't that what people do who can't get published?"
Ouch. And here I'd thought I was getting published...

Four years later, do I still feel validated? Sometimes. Do I feel like a real writer? *stares at huge rejection letter pile* Yup.

How about you? When did you feel you were a real writer?

Friday funnies - Jan. 18

I need a laundry cat...

Have a great weekend!

Why a long marriage is like being a writer



Marriage  = adjustment

 

Hubs and I celebrated 20 years of wedded bliss last week. I've almost been married half my life, which is a little scary, considering we're in the first round of divorces among our friends.

Because you can't experience twenty years of commitment without some kind of why-am-I-still-here evaluation. I started to think of all the things nobody ever told me  before I wore a ring, and it occurred to me that most of these life lessons pertain to the writing life.

1. When people say "marriage is work" what they mean is "marriage is a constant choice to stay committed." As in a daily choice to love, honor and care for your partner. It's a fight to constantly stay interested, to find something about your partner to fuel excitement.
    And the same is true for writing. Every day I have to choose to sit down, to make the mental space to build my story world. And if I hit a wall, my commitment to the story is tested. Am I in this MS for the long haul or not?

2. Marriage isn't always fun. (This one is a shocker.) The notion of happily ever Disney once promoted and has now abandoned -  notice how Brave did NOT end with a wedding? - comes from the disllusionment of a bill of goods gone bad. Unfortunately, this disillusionment has also suggested in popular culture that an unfun marriage should be dissolved. As if character development or maturity or patience has no place in a long-term relationship. 
        The same goes for the middle of a draft. The middle-doldrums hits every author and the successful ones simply cry "onward!", put their heads down and type like crazy people. Being in the middle of anything - cleaning house, raising kids, changing oil, marriage - isn't a fun spot to be in, and the same is true for writing a novel. The payoff will come eventually.

3. Laughter is as important as sex...and more reliable. This lesson is a hard sell in this age of Fifty Shades, but let's face it: there are lots of obstacles to great sex. Sickness, travel, kids in the house, exhaustion, job obligations, etc., etc., etc.  There aren't hardly any to a good laugh. I firmly believe one of the reasons hubs and I have stayed married is our ability to laugh in the middle of an argument. It's impossible to take ourselves too seriously.
    Any writer knows the dangers of obsessive navel gazing. We're in our heads all day long, which leads inevitably to a narcisstic type of self-doubt. Rejections make us bawl, drink, get paranoid about the publishing world in general. A writer's world is me-me-me...which means the ability to step back and get perspective is key to mental health. Laugh, Writer, and the words will come.

4. My spouse does not determine my self-worth. Let me clarify: he's not in charge of whether I'm happy in life or not. Don't get me wrong - when things aren't going well for hubs, I'm sad for him. I listen to him, and do what I can to support and love him in times of crisis. Sometimes, the best thing I can do is just let him stew instead of trying to force the issue.
     Writer's block can be similar. Sometimes my brain hits a wall. It balks, shies, refuses to churn out a scene. My creativity vanishes like fog on a summer day. It makes me crazy. I used to try to push through it. Occasionally, that worked but more often, the harder I tried, the worse/more elusive the story became. I'm learning to let it go, and reminding myself that my worth as a person does not rest on how many words I write that day. 

So: if you've been married a while - and/or are a writer-with-history - what're YOUR tips for surviving? Share them in the comments!


    

Friday funnies - Nov. 9

 

Because this still makes me laugh...

 

 

 

I cannot WAIT!!! Only five more weeks, people! *dons hairy feet*

Have a great weekend!

 

In over my head

Life as a teacher is a bit like juggling a progressively higher number of firesticks each week.

Each fire stick represents: writing the curriculum, giving the lessons, training for expectations, keeping up a web site, attending professional development, going to meetings, etc., etc.

Add in grading/planning and suddenly, I'm juggling as fast as I can to keep from getting burned...not to mention running ahead of a blizzard of grading each weekend.

My writing time? Yeah, it's shot, unless you count 1-hour intervals once a week (sometimes). That's the bad news.

The good news? I FINISHED my last revision...which means we can go out on sub soon. Whew. So I can turn my attention to my YA mystery, which is with its final beta.  I'm also very close to finishing my latest WIP. Last year, I finished a WIP every three months. This year, I'm clocking in at six and it's still not done because I have no time.

My next opportunity to do any sustained writing will be over Christmas break.  That's when my school gets to move into our new addition so I'll probably be spending that time organizing and moving stuff out of my classroom, rather than doing much writing.

 How's your writing going? Are you doing NaNoWriMo?

Friday funnies - July 20

HIATUS: I've got family visiting this week so won't be posting July 23. See you next Friday!!


For those who live in the midwest humidity of summer, I feel your pain...

This makes perfect sense to me.

Yeah, somebody played with their food.

                                           I admit it: I shop like a guy. Actually, I hate shopping, which is why I adore catalogues.

Have a great weekend!

How to write like a guy when you're a girl

To start off the week, I give you the trailer to The Silver Linings Playbook, based on the book by Matthew Quick, whom I interviewed here. Starring Bradley Cooper, Jennifer Lawrence and Robert DeNiro, this movie looks AWESOME. Now I have to re-read the book to see how close the screenplay is because I'm a book nerd that way. The movie opens in November.

So my topic this week is How to Write like a Guy when you're a Girl, mainly because it's dawning on me that there's a good possiblity the MC for my newest WIP is actually a guy. I'm writing her as a girl and having a hard time. She's just so...guy.  How can you tell? you ask.

A few ways. All of these are gleaned from the fact I've been married for half my life, and am currently raising two boys. Granted, men/boys are as varied as we are in their approach to life but after many discussions with  Hubs on this topic, I've uncovered a few Secrets to Being a (heterosexual) Man. (The qualification is due to the fact I've not lived with or had a long discussion on this topic with any gay guys.)

•        Guys are direct. They don't hide who they are. If a guy finds something interesting, he'll go after it no matter what society thinks. The push to conform so many girls feel at this age generally doesn't apply. I realize there are exceptions - there are always exceptions - but this is a major difference in the teen years.  
•        Guys fight...like guys. There's no long-term pouting or cold shoulder treatment. They may dance around the topic but when it comes up, they confront it. Head on. Boys deal in physical violence like girls trade in barbs, insults and petty put-downs - an emotional violence that studies show does more serious long term damage than a punch to the face.  
•           They don't obsess over the opposite sex.*  Guys are just as direct with girls as they are with their friends. The problem is, that directness gets distorted because girls are hearing them through the hormone phone. Remember the movie "He's Just Not that Into You"? If he likes you, he'll call you. If not, he won't. He may not use words (because guys are chicken and seriously hate getting yelled at) but the message gets through.  
•         Guys speak with actions a lot more than words. And if allowed, they won't talk at all. Unless you're a girl whose attention they want and then they get all goofy. Which is an action all by itself. 
•        Guys will take what's offered without thinking they are required to give anything back. In a word: selfishness. Teenage guys have it in spades. (This is why they need to be trained. ;) There's no worrying if he hurt someone's feelings, no automatic obsession over how he came across. Guys spend way less time being embarrassed than girls. (See: guys are direct.)
•         Guys live in the present. They go after what they want without fear of the consequences. Of course, this changes as boys turn into men but when they're young and single, they're pretty single-minded. Studies show the female brain is much better suited to considering long-term consequences, to picturing all possible scenarios in a second or two. This is why, when my toddler son went sledding down the hill heading toward a tree, I went racing down after him while my husband simply watched him go by.
•       Guys don't notice the details/specifics. The baby was a girl, the food tasted good, you smell nice, that dress is pretty. Etc.

*mostly. John Green's male characters tend to do a lot of obsessing but there are life or death circumstances going on.
Bottom line: if a girl's emotional landscape is a mountain range full of peaks, valleys, glaciers and fast-flowing rivers of emotions, a boy's is more like a rolling plain. The peaks and troughs of a boy's inner life are (generally) much slower, gradual and less dramatic.
  Compare and contrast your favorite male/female  heroines. How are they different?
Next week, we'll discuss how these attributes translate on the page.

Friday funnies

Apparently, my clock reads between 2 and 7 most of the time. :)

This fun little pic is courtesy of www.hopewellstudios.com/images/stories/geekings/whereswalle1450.jpg »

It took me waaaay too long to find him. I kept getting distracted by all the shiny robots.

Always good advice:

Have a great weekend, everyone!

How I start a WIP

The 4 versions of my brain on new idea

Thanks to all our veterans present and past for your service. Happy Memorial Day.

Last week, I came up with a shiny new idea for another WIP. Sometimes those come from reading a news article, or hearing a folk tale or meeting a person so interesting, I wonder what would happen if that person were in such-or-so a position. This idea simmers for at least a few days while I decide if it's good enough to put any more effort into it.

I ask myself three questions.
1.  Where would this story end?
 2. What's the main conflict?
3.  What kind of person is my main character?

You'll notice I start at the end. Always, always, always. Because if I don't know where I'm going or if it's worthwhile to go there, I have no story.

If the possible answers to these questions have me interested to the point where I'm losing sleep at night and/or waking early to think over plot for an hour or so on a daily basis, I go to the next step: writing my blurb.
 The blurb is what sells the idea, whether you're pre-agented or you've already signed.( Check out the 'WIPS in my life' pages for samples of mine. Blurb writing is a whole other post, so I won't go into that here.) The blurb forces you to describe the character, the setting and the stakes in an exciting, concise style. When that's as sexy as you can make it, it's time to get outside opinion.

Before I had an agent, I did that in two places: an agent pitch contest and in a query I sent out to an agent I'd queried before, whom I knew responded quickly. (I don't necessarily recommend this because I knew I'd blow a request. My MS wasn't close to ready but my goal at that time wasn't to sign. It was to hook.) Now I send the blurb to Tricia, who gives a thumb's up or down. If she's not hooked, it's doubtful an editor would be.

Once my blurb is a go, I write the first chapter. Lots of people do more prewriting, such as character sketches, random scenes, etc. but I just dive right in.To a point. When the first chapter is on paper, my characters need places to go. So I write a timeline with entries and the necessary research for each chapter. Before doing this exercise, I was like a lot of writers who gave themselves a set time or word count each day, rather than a plot goal. But without direction, I spent the time doodling or staring at the screen feeling frustrated. Since I write a chapter a day, I don't stop writing until one of two things happens: either my chapter ends with a cliffhanger and an obvious lead-in OR I write a brief paragraph reminding myself of the next day's goals. That way when I sit down later, I don't lose momentum.

So that's my process. What's yours??

Friday funnies

My mindset these days:

Because this isn't totally a joke:

And I think I'm represented by the bottom right of this:

And also the dog here:

See you Monday, when I'll wonder out loud about swearing in YA lit. Have a great weekend!

T is for: Time Management

My weekdays are pretty structured - in fact, if I posted a schedule, it would look like one on this clock with every minute accounted for. I have certain days I clean and do laundry, certain days I grocery shop, and keep a calendar for afternoon/evening kid activities so I'm not a slacker mom.
This spills over into my job as a teacher.  Since I teach PE for grades K-8, my weekly lesson plan looks like a spread sheet, with equipment and activities carefully planned so I have time to transition between say, an eighth grade class and kindergarten.
So I've always been okay at time management. Once I decided to start seriously writing again last summer, it wasn't a huge deal for me to set aside a few hours each day and stick to them. I knew that if I didn't, I'd never reach my goal. I don't have a word count goal per say - although I do have an average- but if I don't reach that average, it's not cause for disappointment. Any words are better than none.

I've also found that my enthusiasm for writing is in proportion to how much time I read for fun. Giving myself the reward of curling up with a great book (instead of doing something productive, like organizing the closet) keeps me motivated.

So how do you manage your time?   If you struggle with finding time, why?
How do you stay motivated to accomplish whatever goal you've set?

C is for: Creating a monster

One of the biggest books I'm anticipating for 2012 is Bitterblue by Kristin Cashore. I fell in love with Cashore's world while reading an ARC of Graceling in 2009 and her companion novel, Fire, did not disappoint.

Cashore said it's taken her three years to write the final in this trilogy in an interview with Enchanted Inkpot blog. One of the reasons she said she struggled was having to deal with Leck, a horrible, sadistic character that overlaps in all three books (and actually, his appearance makes them companion novels). Leck enjoys twisting people into doing his bidding.

" I can’t imagine ever writing more than a few pages from Leck’s viewpoint; I honestly think it would be bad for my mental health to try to do more," Kristin told her interviewer, Cindy Pon. "He really doesn’t have a single redeeming quality, and writing the glimpses into his psyche was a disturbing experience for me."

That reminded me of a scene I'd struggled with a few days before. Creepy Guy wasn't even an MC - just a character I'd created to keep tension high. Oh, and he made my skin crawl. He had really bad urges and smelled like blood and  he had pustules all over his skin...ugh. I couldn't wait to kill him off. And I didn't wait. One brutal, gory scene later and bye, bye Creepy Guy.

I also avoid stories with characters like that who narrate. There's enough awful stuff in the world today without entering into the mind of a fictional killer, IMO. But there's no denying that they drive a whole genre of mysteries/thrillers, which is my preferred genre to both read and write. So sooner or later, I'm going to have to have a more than passing relationship with a nasty.

So...what do you do when you've got to pull a Dr. Frankenstein and crawl inside the monster of your own creation? How do you keep that slimey feeling from coating your brain while you plot?

Reality Check

The title of this post should more acurately be called: when you can't figure out why you're not getting any (or more) requests.  But that's a bit bulky for a title.

Although I've been blogging only since last summer, I've noticed there isn't a bloghop that goes by without evidence of the awesome writerly community online. Comments are filled with encouragement and statements of how talented we all are. Taken from a nurturing standpoint, this is wonderful.
 
Taken from a business/reality standpoint, it's awful. And here's why.

Say you're an emerging writer who has a great idea for a first book. You've stayed up late writing so fast, your fingers smoke. You follow blogs that cover technique, you track your favorite authors. You've started a blog and are dipping into the Twitter waters. You critique, comment, contest and campaign your little heart out. You've even sent your MS off to a few betas who all respond with hearty applause, so you gird your loins and start writing a query. A few months - and hopefully revisions - later and off it flies to agent inboxes.

And...nada. You might get a request or two out of every fifty queries sent but after that? Crickets. Or rejections. And those few requests end up months later in form rejections.

Because, despite what all your readers have said (and they're great people, they want you to succeed) you're not ready. Your idea has too much competition, your MS rambles like an out-of-control freight train and you are the rule, not the exception. It's the equivalent of going in public with your fly down and nobody telling you.  Or having something green in your teeth and everybody smiling vaguely while avoiding looking directly at you. Or....well, you get the picture. Your blogging buddies, your betas, your family, aren't telling you the truth - either because they can't see it or they don't know.

You realize this in stages as the months go by. First denial, then anger, then tears - all the stages of grief encompass you and you wonder in despair if you just DON'T HAVE WHAT IT TAKES. *sob*

Here's the thing: you don't. Not yet. Not with this MS. Not with this economy/trends in the market/writing abilities you have right now.  I underlined that for emphasis because it's everything. 

This is the point when many emerging writers go for self-publishing. And I'm not knocking this. There are success stories every few months of self-pubbers who go on to land a publishing contract (and thousands more who sell ten copies.) If that's your choice, go for it. You'll learn a lot.

For those of you whose dream it is to go the traditional route, know this: Just because your current MS has more rejections than Jack Black at a super model convention doesn't mean your next story is doomed.

All these rejections are telling you now is to try harder. READ. Write something else, maybe a short story or a nonfiction article. Hone your craft by going shorter, learning how to trim, focus, target, plot. READ. Find a beta who isn't scared of hurting your feelings and will tell you what's wrong. READ. Grow a thick skin so you don't get offended, so you can actually learn from those comments.  Be suspicious of kind comments because, let's face it, you're not Shakespeare.  (oh..and READ. Set a goal for at least a book a week. I won't tell you how many I read bc it is kind of embarrassing in a holy-cow-she-has-no-life way.)

You will get better with relentless practice. In the meantime, the market might shift so your next MS is now the trend.

Realize this. Own it. Move on. There's a reason most professional writers look more like the Velveteen Rabbit than Barbie. It's just part of being real.

Elements of a great hook

First chapters are problematic for me. I rewrite them dozens of times – especially those first paragraphs, because they must do  many things well. Of course, they must hook the reader but ‘hook’ is a pretty big, generic word when applied to writing.

So what elements are there in hooking a reader?

I’m using 100-word (give or take) excerpts from three YA novels as examples – The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins, Imaginary Girls by Nova Ren Suma, and Looking for Alaska by John Green. Two of these are considered YA classics; Suma’s book just came out this year but her first few paragraphs are so well done, I'm including her.

As you read, watch for subtle manipulations of your psyche. The writer will go straight for your heart with his/her hook. They’ll appeal to your emotions – either through your feelings for your family, your friends or your pity.  They want you to fall in love with their MC and these 100 (or so) words are their first of a barrage of manipulation arrows aimed at making you react in certain ways.

1.       Identification. Look for the MC to be in a situation that you’ve been in or can picture yourself in.

2.       Emotions. The MC will react to the situation in an understandable way, a way that illuminates their character and makes you like or pity them in a good way. You need to root for the MC.

3.       Situation foreshadowing. There are clouds on the MC’s horizon. She/he may not know what they are yet but they know change is coming.

Imaginary Girls

Ruby said I’d never drown – not in deep ocean, not by shipwreck, not even by falling drunk into someone’s bottomless backyard pool. She said she’d seen me hold my breath underwater for minutes at a time but to hear her tell it you’d think she meant days. Long enough to live down there if needed, to skim the seafloor collecting shells and shiny soda caps, looking up every so often for the rescue lights, even if they took forever to come.

It sounded impossible, something no one would believe if anyone other than Ruby were the one to tell it. But Ruby was right: the body found that night wouldn’t be, couldn’t be mine.

1.       We all know a Ruby – a charismatic character so confident, life itself seems to bend to their will.  We’re naturally intrigued by such characters.

2.       We want to have such a character on our side.  If this person said something, it often became true.  People like Ruby open doors in life and being under her wing means safety.

3.       There is water everywhere in this scene, and now the assurance (the over assurance?) that no drowning would occur. Or at least, not to the narrator.  Then why mention rescue lights so early?

Looking for Alaska 

The week before I left my family and Florida and the rest of my minor life to go to boarding school in Alabama, my mother insisted on throwing me a going-away party. To say that I had low expectations would be to underestimate the matter dramatically. Although I was more or less forced to invite all my ‘school friends,’ i.e., the ragtag bunch of drama people and English geeks I sat with by social necessity in the cavernous cafeteria of my public school, I knew they wouldn’t come. Still, my mother persevered, awash in the delusion that I had kept my popularity a secret from her all these years.

1.       Those who've attended a public high school know exactly what Miles means here. The rigid clique system hasn’t changed much in fifty years.  The small group of ‘popular kids’ is far outnumbered by kids like Miles. Chances are, the reader is like Miles.

2.       We’ve all felt the terror of throwing a party where nobody shows up. Or imagined the humiliation.  Miles’ stoic acceptance of this – his lack of whining or hatred – move him out of pity territory and into admiration. We’re on his side.

3.       Miles’ life is about to change. He’s going to boarding school in another state very soon.  Also, that count down tells us there’s an ‘after’ and it probably isn’t good.

Hunger Games

When I wake up, the other side of the bed is cold. My fingers stretch out, seeking Prim’s warmth but finding only the rough cover of the mattress. She must have had bad dreams and climbed in with our mother. Of course, she did. This is the day of the reaping.

I prop myself on one elbow. There’s enough light to see them. My little sister, Prim, curled up on her side, cocooned in my mother’s body, their cheeks pressed together. In sleep, my mother looks younger, still worn but not so beaten down. Prim’s face is as fresh as a raindrop, as lovely as the primrose for which she was named. My mother was very beautiful once. Or so they tell me.

1.       Katniss and her sister share a bed, which suggests poverty.  Katniss wakes alone because her sister has abandoned her in favor of a parent, who offers more safety. ‘Or so they tell me’ suggests a rift between Katniss and her mother because Katniss has to be told of her mother’s beauty by others. She can’t see it herself.  There is something wrong there.

2.       Katniss wakes alone and observes them as one apart. Her mother is ‘worn but not so beaten down’ which, again, suggests poverty and a hard life.  The picture of the mother/child cuddled together cements their vulnerability as well as Katniss’s apartness.

3.       The word ‘reaping’ here could mean crops but the fact Prim has nightmares the night before suggests something more sinister.

Most importantly, notice what the writer does NOT include in these excerpts. They TELL us nothing.  Suma doesn't say that Ruby is dangerous. Green doesn't say that Miles's loner status is about to change. Collins doesn't say that Katniss loves Prim or has issues with her mother.  They give us just enough to figure this out, and now we want more.   

So, what else should a writer accomplish in the first 100 words? What have I missed? What examples can you recommend?

Using the dark

We are three days before solstice (72 hours but who's counting?) and down to around five hours of daylight. By daylight, I mean the sky lightens a bit to a kind of twilight. At my house, Pioneer Peak effectively blocks the low sunrise except for an hour or two each day. Which means we get very little direct sunlight right now, and we have to be looking south to see it.

Downside: Most of us sleep a lot this time of year. Also, Alaskans don't produce as much vitamin D which means our bones don't heal as quickly as yours in the Lower 48. (I found this out when one of my kids broke an ankle.) And some get SAD - seasonal affective disorder from the lack of light. I've never experienced this but people who do generally leave the far north within a few years.

There are upsides to this time of year. *head scratching* No, really, there are. I'll get to them in a minute. I want to stay with the downside because it's when reality - like the writing life - fails to meet our expectations that our story begins.

Before I moved here, I had this picture of life in a cozy cabin, log fire roaring, deep in the wilderness with moose for neighbors. We'd ski every weekend, and my husband would bring home caribou bacon. We explore the backcountry on our four-wheelers. Our children would be rugged, able to handle a rifle and skin a large animal with their other hand.

Reality is a bit different. We skipped the cabin in favor of a reasonable commute to work. We don't have time to ski nearly as often as I'd like, and my husband has yet to go hunting. We do have four-wheelers but my youngest has been too young (until now) to go very far.  Our children are typical kids, although all of them have been on skates since they were four and they never get cold. (Seriously. All three have been known to go jump on the trampoline in a T-shirt when it's zero degrees outside.)

So - dreams on one hand. Reality on the other. And the gap between desire and fact is the stuff of fiction.  Because it's only when things aren't perfect that we recognize what is. 

It's only when the lights go out that you know what you're missing.

When this happens in your writing (and it should!) does your character react with disappointment or reconciliation? With anger or surprise? With hatred or love? Does the gap change your MCs heart or harden it? What thought processes or personalities naturally lean toward one or the other? And what signals do they leave to allow you to guess?

As writers, we are supposed to be students of human nature. As humans, we use one sense above all others - our eyes - to figure out the world. But in the dark, you're forced to rely on the others: feeling, touching, tasting, smelling. The dark teaches you what stuff you're made of.

This is where your writing gets good. It gets hard, but if you persevere, it gets good. You'll start to notice the upside of being in this place.

Where I live, if we happen to catch the sun after it rounds the mountain and before it falls below the horizon, the light is ethereal. A shaft of rainbow in the black. A glittering ray of heaven showing off the muscular curves of Pioneer Peak. Or, on clear nights, the northern lights move like liquid dancers across the sky.

here's a certain kind of beauty that only comes in the dark. Wait for it. Be ready to use it when it comes.

The elements of setting



Matanuska Peak and Lazy Mountain


My house is surrounded by two ranges - the Chugach and Talkeetnas. Mat Peak and Pioneer Peak are over 6,000 feet. You can hike them if you dare but there are no roads through either range. Each year, a dozen or so people die from reckless snowmachining - usually bc they caused an avalanche. And avalanche beacons don't work in 50-feet of packed snow.

My parents live in Nova Scotia on the other side of the continent.



Random Nova Scotia fishing village



Their 'mountain' is a 3,000-ft gradual slope in the middle of the province. I didn't notice it for years until my mother told me about this snowstorm that stranded about 50 motorists. Apparently cell service got knocked out and people waited for hours in their car for help that never came. Of course, it being a maritime province at all, the storm passed, the snow melted and nobody died. (Thankfully, you can't die from a hissy fit.)

Alaska: rugged, trackless terrain. 85 mph winter windstorms that last for days are common.
Nova Scotia: gentle, road woven coast-line. Windless, foggy winters are common.

So how does this setting affect people? In a very general way:

Alaskans (non-Native): ornery, independent, occasionally on the lam or half-crazed with stubborness, gun-toting individualists who are always on the move.
Nova Scotians: polite traditionalists, insular, law-abiding, family centered folks who live in the house their great-grandparents built.

While I started to write my last MS, I knew I had a lot of culture clash to work with. What I didn't know was how the conflict would develop my setting. Or how the setting would push my conflict. My MC is yanked out of her Alaskan lifestyle and into a new Nova Scotian family. On the surface, they're her blood relatives. But underneath, she couldn't be more different. One of my goals was to show how setting, where you live, the culture whose values you share, drives character.

Beyond knowing the basics of each culture (which is key before any of the rest of this will work) here are a few techniques I used:

Weather. My characters' moods were mirrored in the weather. If the scene was happy or romantic, the sun was shining or setting. For murder/mayhem - fog/wind/rain.

Speech patterns. Check idioms and regional phrases - do people say 'some' instead of 'very?' How would someone from Australia say, "That's really cool" ? Authenticity will deepen the appeal of your writing.

Architecture. What's the typical home look like in your location? What makes it unique - high roofline, arched windows, cedar siding, big porches? Is there a widely known building/location you could write a scene around?

Local customs. Do people kiss each cheek when greeting each other? Do they kick off their shoes before entering a stranger's house? Maybe there's a favorite bumpersticker a lot of people from one area have. (Where I live, it's "Alaska Girls Kick A&*" among others....) How could you work those customs into your writing?

Food. If the way to a man's heart is through his stomach, the same is true for a reader. Tell us everything about a meal - the scents, the flavors, the textures and colors - and we're right there with you. Everybody loves a good meal. Think: Under the Tuscan Sun. Mmmmmmm....if you can make it work with your plot, go for it.

Clothing. I hesitated to add this last bc seriously, nobody walks around naked even in fiction, but I think clothing is an important part of setting - especially if you write anything but contemporary. From Katniss to Scarlett O'Hara, what our characters wear says a lot about what's happening to them and when.

IMO, these are the writers whose worlds make mine fall away, whose setting wraps me up in a nice blanket of escape: LM Montgomery, Elizabeth George, Beverly Cleary, PD James, Rosalind Pilcher, Maeve Binchy...plus two Alaskan writers, Dana Stabenow and Heather Lende. (Heather is joining me Friday in honor of Alaska Book Week. *squeal!* Check out this link for more goodies showcasing authors from the Last Frontier.)

So who are your favorite atmospheric writers? And how do they do it? What are the elements of your setting? (And DO sign up for the Casting Call blogfest over at Carrie Butler's blog. It's going to be a blast!)

Print v. blogging and call for guest posters!

This week, three friends who are former colleagues and I semi-launched a news blog to cover our small Alaskan town. I say semi-launched because we've yet to run our first news story. At this point we're soliciting input from our target audience to make sure whatever we do cover is what our readers want. We're attempting market research on the fly.

Although all of us have more than 50 years (eep!) of reporting between us, we're all newbie bloggers. And in case you haven't noticed, blogging is WAY different than print journalism. (The term 'citizen journalist' came about because bloggers who saw news happening wrote about it. The term makes me wince for the same reason a professional soldier would at hearing 'citizen soldiers' were running onto the battlefield. It's safe to say that 'citizen journalists' are responsible for putting real journalists out of work by the thousands. And before you shrug and think it's no loss, consider this - there are fewer journalists covering the halls of power, whether it be your city council, your state government or school district budget meetings. Fewer journalists = fewer gov't oversight = more corruption.)

*stepping off soapbox* Anyway, it's easy to SAY blogging is different than writing a news story but how is it really? As the Queen of Lists, I've started one. Please add your ideas in the comments, or share any thoughts you have about the difference between news blogging and newspaper coverage. And please share a link to your favorite news blogs. (Market research!)

1. Accountability. Professional journalists are accountable for what they write. They must have legitimate sources and verifiable information before going to press. And if they rush to press with bad info, careers are lost. Think Dan Rather.
Bloggers, on the other hand, are beholden to no one.

2. Sources. A good news story has at least three sources, preferably from different POVs.
Bloggers: generally one POV - the blogger's.

3. News worthiness. The city editor keeps a budget of story ideas. Before a reporter's story gets added, the reporter must prove it's worthwhile, interesting and valid.
Bloggers: anything is blogworthy. Anything.

4. Objectivity. A reporter cannot cover a story with a personal connection. Ever.
Bloggers: it's all about the personal connection. See #3.

5. Voice. With the exception of features, reporters write in a dry, methodical informative style. Every word counts - anything extra is axed for space.
Bloggers: The joy of blogging is to share your unique voice.

6. Organization. Reporters follow AP style, which is partly about language (#5) and partly about the way information is arranged within a story. The hook leads. The second graph is the nutgraf - the meat of the story. Always.
Bloggers: hook? *shrugs*

7. Editors. The scourge and savior of newsrooms, they slash, burn and encourage reporters to do better, get the story, stay on track. *sigh* I miss editors the most.
Bloggers: Unless you have a co-blogger with a yen for slashing/burning, you're out of luck.

And now, in the spirit of community blogging, I'd LOVE to hear from you if you'd like to guest post here.

(See my bold print? that means I REALLY mean it!!) Email me at rewrighter (at)gmail if you're up for the challenge!

The success equation...or when the stars align

I’ve been thinking about timing the past few months. Both in the big scheme of things and in my MS.

Last week I was offered a job. It’s the perfect position for me right now: perfect place, time and expectations. The offer came about through two events: the fact that three years ago I changed careers and got an advanced degree so I could teach; and that four years ago, my son’s name was pulled from a lottery so he could attend a charter school. The first I definitely controlled. The second had nothing to do with me, other than the fact I entered his name in the lottery. The job offer came because preparedness met opportunity in my favor.

Luck = preparedness + opportunity + timing.

Back when I was a reporter in Seattle, I met Bret Lott, who wrote Jewel, one of Oprah's earliest book club choices. I told him that 99 percent of writers couldn’t possibly expect to have the same luck he did. “Of course not,” he told me (and I paraphrase bc this was a while ago). “But that’s no reason not to write. I never would’ve been lucky had I not been writing.”

Which was kind of nice to hear. Write, I can do. Revise, I can do. And if I can do nothing about timing, *shrugs* neither can anyone else.

Since my almost-finished WIP is a mystery, timing is crucial. I’ve got to build tension gradually, dropping clues like breadcrumbs at just the right intervals so I don’t lose/choke my reader. This is killing me right now – avoiding info dump in those first three chapters while keeping my word count low. There are certain things my MC must know right away and, since this is based on a true story, that translates to a lot of info.

It all leads to a really cool, suspenseful ending so there’s only so much I can cut or move to later. Which leads back to the info-dump problem.

It’s the revision catch-22, the endless merry-go-round I can’t get off.

So please, oh-gentle-and-more-experienced writer, what’s the equation to dropping key info in at the right time?

Timing = information + pacing + ???

Later this week or next, Cole Gibsen will share her publishing journey. Please join us!

How I snagged my agent AND crit giveaway!!

Today I’m joined by the lovely Becky Wallace, an aspiring author repped by Jenn Laughran at Andrea Brown Literary Agency. I’ve been following Ms. Becky’s blog for a while, caught by her upbeat, positive attitude in the midst of raising three young children at home…including an adorable new baby. Her book, Saw it Coming, a YA paranormal romance, is currently out on sub and to keep her mind off this terrifying/mind-blowing exciting fact, she’s willing to crit the first 10 pages of YOUR MS. You lucky ducks! To enter, please do three things: be a follower of this blog and post a link of this opportunity to Twitter or your blog. Then in the comments, post your name, genre, title and email address. Becky will pick a random winner!

How long were you seriously writing Saw It Coming before you decided it was time to query for your agent?

I’m a super sloooooooooowwwww writer. It took eight months of real, hard-core writing to get through the first 30,000 words. Then I participated in NANOWRIMO and wrote 35,000 words in November and the first two weeks of December. I was very, very, very lucky to find a critique partner who believed in the story as much as I did. She pushed me to write three chapters every day. It was insane. I was insane (probably still am a little). I ordered all my Christmas gifts from Amazon and fed my kids grilled cheese or mac n’ cheese pretty much every day. Then I spent two months rewriting, revising, beta-ing, and rewriting some more.

And this will probably sound crazy-masochistic, but I’d do it all again.

Well, we writers are all about masochism enjoying the creative process.

How did you know your MS was ready for querying?

I don’t think a manuscript is ever actually ready. I wrote six drafts, read it aloud a half-dozen times, sent it to five different betas, poured over every word. When I got to the point where I was quibbling over adjectives (or debating whether or not to rewrite the entire thing) I decided it was time to query.

How many drafts of your query did you do? Did you use any sites for feedback or just beta readers?

When I say I wrote 27 drafts of my query, I’m not kidding. The craziest part: the query that landed Jennifer Laughran was almost identical to the very first one I wrote. I posted my queries on AbsoluteWrite, Nathan Bransford’s forum, and on Writer’s Digest.

What were your query stats? Did you ever go back and revise your query based on those stats?

I sent out 35 queries, had a lot of form rejections, ended up with ten requests for fulls, and six offers of representation. I sent out two different versions of my query. A really, really short one (180 words total) and an average length one (256 words). I got three requests from the short query, but also the majority of rejections. Then I sent out the longer query and had much better results.

Good to know! I’ve heard the best length for Qs is right around 250 words…


To enter Becky's critique giveaway, please do three things: be a follower of this blog and post a link of this opportunity to Twitter or your blog. Then in the comments, post your name, genre, title and email address. Becky will pick a random winner!

Check in tomorrow for part deux!