Archive for the ‘From AJ’ Category:
How to Get the Right Critique
Deadline looming! Can’t write much . . . well not here. I have to write a LOT in Phoenix. Youch!
I did want to add this though: as I work with beta-readers and later with editors, I’ll have to deal with critique. This is always tough, and looking at docs that contain what readers thought I always take a deep breath. It’s like getting a grade on an essay – you don’t want to look at first.
To get the best critique, talk to your readers first. Let them know what you want. Personally, I like to have obvious typos pointed out. Editing is crazy and I’ve never seen a print book without some errors. But I don’t want them doing copy editing. Only if they see them. I like readers to ask questions – things like: why does this character do this? And I like them to make comments if something seems unmotivated or unclear. I also ask them to give me suggestions like this: Would you consider another way for this to happen? Rather than “I don’t like the way this character does this.”
Remember, in the end, you are the God of your story. And you can tell all your readers where to stuff it. But think about your motivation . . . if you want to sell, you need to be open to some of it. My rule of thumb is much like my driving rule of thumb: I shouldn’t be the fastest car on the road nor the slowest. And as a writer I should trust my gut and not take every comment made to me. And I shouldn’t take them all to heart. Nor should I ignore them all. If I find I’m doing either I take a breath and go back and look at the notes again. It’s still MY book.
Okay! Back to writing!
Don’t Info Dump
Backbuilding a cause . . . when your character needs something, your readers need it, too. But few readers like to have info spoon fed to them. Explaining why something is important or why it had the effect it had after the fact is not generally a hallmark of good writing. The problem is – as writers – a lot of times we realize that we need something only as we are right on top of needing it. But that’s okay. That’s why we have computers (thank goodness the days of hand writing manuscripts is over!) and it’s why we have editing. Rather than forcing the needed info into the story right where it’s suddenly needed (for example: why the red wire on that bomb is so important) you can simply park it. Yes, write yourself a note to go back and add it somewhere. You can use post-its for this. (Yes, I have a stack of them now. Remember I said the fire fighter told me two things to change? Well, I didn’t. But I wrote them on post-its. I’ll change them later!) You can also start a word doc or note about this. Make sure you note what you need the reader to understand and BY WHEN they need to know it.
My recommendation has always been one sentence of info at a time. I think I may have broken it in Phoenix a little bit. But I find this stuff fascinating . . . AND I’m going to edit it before I make you read it!
Note Taking
I’m not far enough along! I’m going to have to speed up! It’s amazing how fast your day can disappear just by getting groceries. So I need to write more each day. That’s all there is to it.
I thought that today I’d share my note taking system. I don’t do a lot of outlining on paper. I do a lot of that in my head, but a lot happens while I’m writing. Though I have always kept track of some things, I’m keeping track of a lot more after the fact this time.
I use an excel spread sheet. And I have always had one sheet dedicated to characters. It has these columns: name, first middle last, age, hair, eyes, ht, wt, notes. This time I also have rank and shift for the fire fighters.
Another sheet I always have is the chapter progress. It has just a few columns but has Chapter #, page count, word count, date finished. This time I have a note page that just has the chapter number followed by a handful of factoids that showed up in that chapter. I.e. the names of peripheral characters. So when I wanted to know if I had typed in the name of the coffee house across the street from Southfield Fire Station #2, I just looked there. This time I also turned a sheet into a grid and marked the layout of the fire house and listed which truck numbers were for what kind of fire truck.
I know a lot of people do more than that, but I don’t want to write a second novel of notes about how I constructed the first novel!
Down a Beta Reader
My beta-reader who is also writing for a Dec 31st deadline just informed me that he quit writing. He’s not doing his contest and he’s not finishing his novel. I’m debating whether or not to keep sending him chapters. I wanted this to be a back-and-forth and was enjoying reading his stuff (though it’s very different from mine) . . . but I have so many beta-readers on this one that it’s getting a bit crazy. Hmmm. Have to think on that one for a while.
Consistent Point of View
Let’s talk about voice and consistency of character – it’s something that I intended to write about here, but now something that I’m dealing with. With a single POV, I work hard to keep the vocab and word choice of the narration in keeping with the character. So I pay attention to the origin of the character – i.e. little things, does this person say ‘couch’ or ‘sofa’. Are there local phrasisms? – and I use that not only in the character’s speech but in thoughts and narration.
With omniscient POV, I’m having to have a more general narration voice. So it no longer has a specific regionalism to it . . . except it can. There are a lot of flex points with omniscient. There’s multiple character – so you don’t get everyone – and there’s sliding (more of what I’m playing with) and there’s scene omniscient (something I’m also working with.) My omniscient POV is from the view of the fire house shift. So it’s limited omniscient. You won’t hear from the girl running the coffee shop across the street unless she comes into the fire house.
I’ve re-written Chapter 2 three times, and will probably re-write it more before I’m done!
End of Year Deadline
I have a deadline – and it’s tight! Dec 31st is the goal. We just found out we are going to have a booth at ComicCon this year. Thank you Griffyn Ink! I debuted God’s Eye at DragonCon last year and I’d like to debut Phoenix at ComicCon. That means I need the first draft DONE by the end of the year. It’s the only way to get it through all the edits that a book needs and through all the actual printing (including advanced reader copies.) So . . . holy cr@%! That’s fast. Even for me. But I’m on it. I want it!
I have cut back my hours at work to focus more on writing now. And I’m struggling with chapter 2 (I know, it’s early for a struggle!) I’m messing with my usual Point of view. I know I can write solid 3rd person, but in order to have the story include all the POVs needed, I can A) have a cast of thousands – each of whom gets a paragraph here and there and sometimes doesn’t get revisited. B) give you fewer characters, but reveal the importance of some characters far earlier than I want to do. Or C) go with some omniscient POV. I going with option C. But it’s new to me and it’s taking some practice.
11-11-11
It’s Nigel Tufnel day . . . (from the movie Spinal Tap – Nigel says ‘most speakers go to ten, but ours goes to eleven!’) And I’m writing!
I have 2 chapters finished in first draft form. I have also read 2 chapters from my friend. It turns out his novel will likely be much shorter than Phoenix will be. So I’m not sure how to deal with that; it will definitely mess up our trade of chapter-for-chapter.
I also have another beta-reader who is a fire fighter. He beta-reads for a small handful of authors whom he consults for. He’s already pointed out two errors (one an error that I fixed, another something I knew but didn’t explain well) and a third thing that I need to make a decision about if I want it to be realistic. Oy!
NaNoWriMo
It’s November – which means it’s NaNoWriMo . . .National Novel Writing Month. And I have already started writing words on my computer. I don’t expect to finish in November. As fast as I can write sometimes, I’m still not that fast. And as much as I want to do this, I want to do it well. So today I’m starting.
I have more beta-readers this time than ever before, and I’m not sure how that’s going to go . . . I have Eli – always beta-reader #1. I have another friend who is writing his novel, too. He has a hard deadline of Dec 31st for a contest. We are going to trade chapters, but we’ve never done this before. So we’ll have to see how it goes.
Door Sign
I’m done with research. I’m done with mapping it out. I’m done with getting ready.
Research phase: Done! Writing phase: start!
I’ve set up my files: The excel info sheet (more on that later) and chosen my font (I write each book in a different font – it’s just for me. This time Bookman Old Style.)
And I’ve made a new sign for my office door. I’ve always had a green (Come in!), a yellow (Wait, I’m working. I’ll answer your question in a moment) and Red (it literally says: NO, I’m working. Fire or lots of blood required before you open this door!)
My new sign is hung and I am ready to begin. It says:
I’m writing. You may come in, but you may have to wait until I finish killing someone.
He Said, She Said
What can you do about dialogue? There are a lot of options.
Option one: write it however you want and get your beta-reader to tell you if it works as-is or if it needs to be changed. Fix things in edit.
Option two: think before you write. Plan out what’s necessary first, then write with more clarity. (Less editing.)
There are a few goals that need to be reached before the final edit, before your manuscript is handed off to an agent.
The reader needs to always be able to tell who’s talking. The dialogue needs to be dynamic.
Bad dialogue contains a lot of ‘he said’ ‘she said’, and you definitely want to avoid that. There are things to note that help minimize that.
1) There are a lot of other verbs that work. Yelled, whispered, murmured, croaked, insisted, harped . . . and so on and so on
2) Quotation marks go a looooong way. The quotes make it clear that these are spoken words. You only need designate WHO is speaking. So if you park the quote at the beginning or end of a paragraph clearly designated to a specific character, then the speech belongs to him.
3) Use words or ideas in the speech that only that character would use. Obviously, Carly would never say, “Carly, that’s the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard.”
4) If you have long strings of only dialogue, be sure that the reader never goes more than 2 lines without a designator of some kind.
If you can do these things, the dialogue can flow and never cause the reader to have to count back to see who said what!
