WHEN SOMEONE ASKS YOU TO READ A BADLY WRITTEN MANUSCRIPT
This article was inspired by another member of my writer’s group who had just this issue which she posted on Facebook. Her cousin gave her a very intriguing plot for a story but when she received the actual manuscript, the writing was awful and she couldn’t get through the first few pages.
If someone approaches you with a sizzling idea for a book, then presents you with the manuscript, only for you to read the first few pages and cringe, what are you to do?
DON’T GIVE IN TO FIRST TEMPTATIONS
Many of us, unless we’re innately diplomatic, have a tendency to speak our minds. The first words out of our mouth might be, “This sucks.” Or “This is absolutely awful.” Or “Why did you write this?” The list goes on.
Some of you might even get mad and do worse.
What’s that old saying? You get more with sugar than vinegar?
NO BLOOD ON THE FLOOR
The philosophy of our writer’s group, and one I strictly adhere to in my personal life is No blood on the floor. When someone is doing something wrong, there’s no need to rub their noses in it. There’s no need to make them feel bad about it. The whole point of asking for an opinion should be to give them guidance, not slam them and tell them they are the lowest of the low or to give them fake kudos to stroke their ego! Neither will do them any good.
IF YOU CAN’T BE TACTFUL, DON’T SAY A THING
If you’re the type of person that can’t hold back, if you’re the type of person that has to say what you think regardless of anyone else’s feelings, I suggest you don’t say a thing. You really have no place critiquing anything.
A critique should be constructive, not destructive.
Do I mean lie and candy coat something? Not at all! However, there’s a big difference between truthfulness and cruelty. Saying “This writing sucks” instead of saying “This writing needs work” means you have no tact and if you can’t tell the difference, you need to shut the hell up. That’s what I’m talking about.
Another example is getting impatient and disgusted while taking about the writing. “I can’t believe you wrote this that way.” Or “How can you say this?” Or “How can you write something so lame?”
Snarky or impatient putdowns are destructive.
CONTRUCTIVE CRITICISM
Like I said, you get more with sugar than vinegar. You’ll never get anywhere when you browbeat or put someone down.
The best way is to approach it in a positive way. “Your story has a lot of potential, but the structure needs some work.” Or “The beginning needs to start with a bang.” Or “The writing is a bit passive. You need to make it more active.” Or “The story needs to start here and move this part further down.”
These are all constructive phrases that don’t put a negative spin on the writing or the preson. If the writer still takes it as negative, they either need to toughen up or they have too thin a skin to be writing in the first place. Maybe they need a reality check in this writing passion.
SOME PEOPLE JUST WON’T GET IT
Some writers will never get it. Face it. You can instruct and advise them all day long and they’ll never get it. Some writer’s will truck right along and never change a thing and always wonder why they can never get published until they self-publish and end up with a garage full of books. Others will chug along and completely depend on a paid editor to clean up their mess.
The good ones will actually listen and learn, hone their chops and get better with time. The job of their critiquers and editors will get easier as the writing gets better.
SUMMARY
There is the possibility that the awful writing is perfectly fine, but it’s just something you hate to read. There are plenty of published novels I find unreadable. However, a likely case is that if you get the offer, it will be a first-time writer who has plunged into their premiere novel. More than likely, they’ll appreciate any positive suggestions you can give them.
Happy writing!
WRITING A DEDICATION AND THANKS PAGE
It’s hard to believe I’ve finally reached that point. My publisher is finalizing the manuscript and is ready to send it off to the printer for the first galley. The artwork is done. The only thing left for the inside is the dedication and thanks page.
What to do?
SOME KEEP IT SIMPLE
How many books have you picked up and come to the dedication and thanks page only to find:
For ___.
That’s it. One line.
Or, in plenty of cases, there’s nothing at all. I know that in some cases, a thanks/dedication was intended, but because of a publisher mixup, it was omitted.
THEN THERE ARE THE MORE ELABORATE…
It’s quite understandable for a first novel to have an extensive thank you and dedication page. After all, to get to that first novel, the author didn’t do it alone.
On the other hand, if they’re an established author, if their dedication and thanks is five pages long, is this a case of loving to hear their own voice (or read it)?
WHO READS IT?
I wonder who actually does read these pages. It may surprise you to know that I always do, from the short to the long. Of course, my eyes tend to glaze over at the long lists of names, but once in a while, I catch a familiar name amongst the telephone book listings. After all, I’m as curious as the next person.
We, as authors, like to give credit where credit is due. Therefore as a reader, I like to see who helped the writer get from point A to B. As often as not, I take note of a writer’s group among the list of names, even from some of the big-name writers. You’d be surprised.
PREPARATION
Though I tend to remember a lot of useless trivia, I should write more things down. As for Meleena’s Adventures – Treasure Of The Umbrunna, I thought I started a file to list all those that not only critiqued the story at the writer’s group, but beta read it. Well, if I did start that file, I can’t find it. Also, since I originally wrote it, I bought a new computer and though I tried to transfer my e-mail to the new one, I’m not sure it all made it, including my sent and received files of the original manuscript to friends who beta read it. I had to rely on that rusty steel trap of my mind. I think I covered all the bases, but I have a sneaky feeling I missed somebody here and there. Because of that, I had to add the inevitable “If I missed anyone, I apologize.” I really hated to do that, but without my references written down, and possibly faulty memory, I didn’t have any choice.
THE THANK YOU SECTION
Because this is my first published novel, the thank you section went a little longer because it became a mini-story about my struggle to get to this point. Subsequent novels may or may not be as elaborate, depending on how I feel and the context.
THE DEDICATION
This time around, the dedication was the shortest part, only two sentences. It didn’t need to be any longer than that. It followed the pattern of the Keep It Simple section.
SUMMARY
It probably wouldn’t be a bad idea to start writing your thanks and dedication page when you complete your first draft and keep it filed away for constant tweaks as you progress on your quest to get the book published. That way, you have less chance of missing someone. Since I haven’t quite finished the sequel, Gods of the Blue Mountains, I have a jump ahead, this time.
Happy writing!
E-READERS
A lot of people seem to be giving in to the “inevitable,” that everything is going electronic and are giving up on printed books. They’re going for the little plastic devices that can hold admittedly thousands of books.
Not everyone.
I HATE THEM
Last year, my wife bought a fantasy novel but hated it. It was too much thriller/adventure and not enough intrigue. She said I’d probably like it. The temptation to read it came from the third-person narrative. She knows how much I hate first-person. Since I’d never read an e-book before, and she had a paper book she wanted to knock off, she lent me her Nook and I gave it a try.
The things I liked about the e-reader were that I could change the font size. Besides that, when I read at commercials, I could stop right where I was at and didn’t have to worry about a bookmark. Sounds pretty cool, right?
Well… that was the good stuff. Though I have to admit I liked those features, there were too many other things that drove me nuts.
First, I had to hold a warm piece of plastic. It had no tactile feel of a book, no particular smell to it.
Second, I couldn’t jump to the end if I wanted to peek and see if the characters die. If I’m reading and get a bad feeling, I want to know if I’m wasting my time.
Third, I went onto Amazon and checked some other books I was interested in. One little problem. The ones that did have page samples, didn’t have enough to judge the writing style of the author. Why is this a problem? Some authors like to change not only from third to first person, but sometimes from past to present tense. Not only that, but I couldn’t flip through the pages looking for empty spaces. I like to check multiple spots in the book for full-page paragraphs and endless narrative. That’s usually a red flag that the author is not only wordy but has a literary bent. Not for me.
MY ONE EXPERIENCE
As for the one fantasy novel I read, it turned out okay, the heroes didn’t die and I rated it a good four stars, though there was a lot of head-hopping. However, I kept lifting that darn reader and trying to smell it. Just didn’t work.
Oh, and once in a while it would freeze. I’ve never had a solid book freeze on me.
GIVING UP TOO SOON
I think too many people are giving up to the inevitable that isn’t really there. They’re in a mindset that they’re being forced to go electronic when they’re the ones that are perpetuating it in the first place.
On the other hand, there are those advocates that love the fact they’re not killing trees and are saving lots of space. I see both sides of that issue. I think there’s room for both but a lot of that has to do with the publishing world pulling their head out and learning to live with both worlds. They’re still having a hard time of it with their old world mentality, I think that’s where the smaller publishers are getting their chance to shine.
CLEANING OUT
The weekend before last, I finally got rid of my library of books. I took them all to the Goodwill for a tax writeoff. I’d thought of trying a used bookstore but didn’t want to hassle with it. So, taxes instead. I took over one hundred books, hardback and paper. Emptied a lot of shelf space. I only kept autographed copies and a few special ones.
The “wyberry” got so big because I didn’t have an e-reader. I could’ve had a wyberry ten times as large on my little plastic device if I wanted. Well, you know what? I didn’t want that! My wife can have her massive wyberry in dots and dashes. I’ll have mine my way and then pass that legacy on to others through Goodwill or whatever. What I have left are tangible collectible items I can touch. You can’t do that with dots and dashes.
I SUPPORT E-BOOKS
I do support e-books. I just don’t personally care to read them myself. However when I get published, I want my books available and fully operational in every format available, be it paper, electronic, Braille, or chicken scratching. Whatever it takes to deliver my stories to whoever wants to read them, I’m game.
Happy writing!
CONFERENCE TIME OF YEAR AGAIN
It’s coming fast upon April and almost time for the Las Vegas Writer’s Conference. I’ve already paid in full. I have absolutely no agenda except to help out and have a good time. To me, this is a reasonable expense to have a good time, the culmination of a year of lots of effort and writing.
ANECDOTES
As with every year, between conferences I’ve chatted with others who’ve attended other conferences throughout the country. Some were much bigger and others smaller, more expensive and cheaper. From the feedback I got, and of course, you can take this with your own grain of salt (and I don’t care if it’s a cliché), none of them were any better than ours is. Sure, each had their own unique aspects, some pros but many more cons.
THE BIG ONES
The big ones are where you get to rub elbows with the best of the best of the best (I mean top-shelf agents, publishers and famous authors). Only one caveat. First, you have to pay up the nose just to get in the door. However, oh there’s more! Once you get in the door, to actually meet any of these “best of the best of the best,” you have to pay extra for your one-on-one pitch sessions (if that’s what you’re there for). Cha-ching cha-ching cha-ching!
Don’t be surprised to walk into the big room and squeeze into one of as many as 500 people or more. Every one of them is after the same thing as you and you’ll have to fight for your place in line with everyone else for your 30 seconds to 3 minutes to impress an agent or publisher who is probably already burned out by the time they get to you in that sea of faces. “Punch the clicker, on to the next face.”
Autograph sessions are not much different.
The sessions are the best part and you might actually get to see some of the “best of the best of the best” up close if they actually teach any of them.
THE LITTLE ONES
The little ones tend to be more intimate and usually don’t attract the high-end celebrity authors, agents and publishers. They usually last one day or maybe two and tend to be cheaper. They can be from a single session in an auditorium to a series of sessions with no pitch sessions.
They may be worth it for the short term but may be kind of pricy if all you get is some sessions and a bunch of book selling booths. Then again, you can get what you want out of them.
Most of those small ones have been pretty “meh” from the feedback I’ve had from those that attended them. I don’t recall many rave reviews though there have been a few. They’re not all bad. I do recall a few that were really good, though when they’re small, they don’t go into too much depth. Once again, you get what you can out of them.
THE INTIMATE CONFERENCE
The Las Vegas Writer’s Conference is a three-day event that’s always limited to 150 attendees. By being limited, the atmosphere is relaxed and everyone can talk to everybody. There are no lines and no rush. You get the same exact type sessions you get at any other conference or a wide range of subjects. You also get a chance to meet, greet and talk with just about any of the agents, publishers, editors and whoever faculty shows up.
The advantage of our conference is that not only do we have the specific pitch sessions, if you are seeking an agent, but you eat breakfast, lunch and dinner with them. Socially mix with them throughout the day, maybe attend a session they might teach, bump into them in the halls. You can get to know them a little bit, get a vibe as to whether they might be a fit for you. You can also talk shop with editors, publicists, marketers, or other authors… whoever is there.
By keeping it intimate, there’s no reason everyone can’t have the opportunity to see whoever they want. That’s the difference between our conference and the big ones. We’re also different from the little ones because we have three days to go into more depth.
Is this a sales pitch for the Las Vegas Writer’s Conference?
Call it what you like. They didn’t hire me. I’m writing this because I go every year and I believe it is something every writer should attend at least once to learn and hone their chops.
The link to the site is: http://www.lasvegaswritersconference.com
Happy writing!
BALANCING POINT OF VIEW
I’m in the middle of beta reading/editing a novel for some friends. It’s written in multiple-character third-person, much to my great pleasure! The story is a fun read. However, like all raw manuscripts, it needs lots of work to get it right.
MULTI-CHARACTER POINT OF VIEW
When you’re writing in any point of view, there’s nothing wrong with having more than one character represented. In fact, it almost goes without saying in third-person except on rare occasions. My Meleena’s Adventure series is one of them. In first-person, often the entire story is driven solely by one character. However, I’ve seen and anecdotally heard of stories told in multiple first-person viewpoints, and have read mixed first-person/third-person narratives.
The key is balance, making it flow, making it fit. If it’s jarring, you need to can it (the jarring parts), simple as that.
How can you tell? Sometimes, it’s a third set of eyes that will see it. When someone else reads it and raises the flag, don’t ignore it!
THE CASE OF THIRD-PERSON
To simplify this discussion, since the inspiration for this article was a third-person novel, we’ll delve into the mechanics of that one.
This story has multiple characters and each chapter, for the most part, switches between characters. The issues are that the POVs are mixed. This is a common forest-through-the-trees problem with any rough draft. You get into a writing frenzy, and even though the grammar may be relatively clean and the prose in pretty decent shape, the structure and what comes out may be a little mixed. You tend to head-hop and mix characters up and run thoughts together.
One character starts driving a scene, but before you know it, one of the other characters creeps in and takes over, only to have the other character take over again. I’m, of course, describing head-hopping, but in this case, it’s unintentional.
What this leads to is a weaker scene overall. With no focus, it leads to telling more than showing.
I also found a lot of the narrative was just action and then dialogue, but no thoughts and feelings. It switched from one character to the next with no particular character driving the scene. All tell, like a screenplay where it’s up to the actors to show all the emotion. In this case, it was up to the reader to fill in all the emotion.
It’s easy to fall into this trap, where you just want to get the story out and forget that there are people involved. I’ve done it plenty, especially on early drafts of my first Gold series novels. I’ve still wrote occasional stretches where I forgot to add in feelings and emotions and thanks to other sets of eyes, they called me on it. I’m simply returning the favor with this story.
Just like with my stuff, the whole novel isn’t that way, just parts. That’s, of course, where the work comes in, cleaning it up.
By solidifying the point of view to specific characters, these little dry areas will stand out and can be corrected with ease.
IN THIRD PERSON, IS OMNISCIENT A CHARACTER?
This is where things can get tricky. It was common back in the day, especially for adventure stories to have a third-person story with an omniscient prologue to set up the story. Then Chapter One would dive right into the main character POV. Sometimes there’d be further scenes in omniscient scattered throughout.
In a way, those omniscient scenes are a character, just like every other POV character that drives a scene. These scenes have purpose and function and drive the story, if done properly.
In the case of the story I’m beta reading/editing, that’s exactly the case. Though most chapters are driven by specific characters, there are a few scenes that are blatantly omniscient.
You know what? They work. They work well. They drive the story, they convey everything they need to, and they do it well.
The thing that makes them work is that these omniscient scenes are separated by being their own, they’re well-written, they’re relatively short, they’re funny and they have no internal thoughts or feelings from any one character to cement them to a POV or break the omniscient viewpoint. They’re pure. This is a case where no internal thoughts or emotions actually works.
Some agents and editors hate omniscient, even a little bit of it. However, when it works, it works. I personally am no fan of an entire story in omniscient. However, omniscient scenes can be great tools for your story. I use them in my Gold series. I even use them in my icky bug stories. Just don’t overdo them or mix them with a character driven scene. Also, keep them short!
FIRST-PERSON
Why should the rules be any different for first-person? I’ve seen authors mix POVs just as much with first as with third-person. However, you need to be more careful with a first-person narrative. Since the majority of the story is inside the main character’s head, when you shift to third or omniscient, it can be jarring since you’re taking the personal stakes out of his or her head into another realm. You’re taking it out of their eyes and into la-la land. To make it even more challenging, when you have multiple first-person point of view, that can either make or break a story if not done carefully and with great skill. Balance is just as important there as with third-person. A few authors have made it work.
Happy writing!
BLATANT PASSIVITY DRIVES ME NUTS
This is a familiar subject and nothing new on my web site. Once in a while, I get “farred up” about it. The latest spark came from working the Las Vegas Astronomical Society Observer’s Challenge.
TAKING OVER
In a way, this article could also go on my Astronomy page, but this isn’t just about “astrominny” as I like to call it. At a recent event in Death Valley at Furnace Creek, I was discussing completely taking over the Observer’s Challenge with a friend, David. My partner, Roger resigned as of February so I became the sole editor and driving force.
We were talking about the ins and outs of editing it and how much fun I’ve always had with it. This discussion started around my insistence on deleting any mention of equipment brands, which was a decision my former partner, Roger and I made from the start. David said I should leave them (brand names) in while I, on the other hand always omit them to avoid a brand “love fest” which inevitably leads to equipment discussions and endless, stupid arguments about equipment. That’s not the intent of our Challenge.
That discussion led to the other “quirk” about astronomical writing, in that most of it tends to be very passive. That’s something I don’t allow and it’s pissed off some former contributors. Roger is of that school, writes passive and I always had to correct it, but he never protested or made a big issue out of it because he’s always trusted my judgment as the technical expert.
THE QUIRKS OF THE ASTRONOMICAL COMMUNITY
If you look at the observational notes of many famous visual observers in the astronomical community, you’ll see overwhelming passive phrases. It’s enough to make a knowledgeable writer of fiction and non-fiction have a meltdown.
“bla bla bla was noted.”
“The bla bla bla has been resolved.”
Instead of saying “I saw or I resolved it…”
Not all the contributors to the Observer’s Challenge write passive, but a good many do and I change their notes to active, while maintaining the integrity of what they say.
HOW PASSIVE IS PASSIVE?
Okay, let’s not go off the rails here and take out every bit of passivity from your manuscript. I’m certainly not advocating removing every was, has and every been with Word Search. Geez. You can sanitize a manuscript and suck the life right out of it. The words have to breathe.
The thing is that you have to develop a feel for passive and put it in its place. Extreme is just as bad as not enough.
Was, has and been are all words in our language and need to be used, as well as other words deemed passive (those aren’t the only three!). The key is learning when and where to use them.
Less in narrative and some in dialogue is a good balance.
When I edit the Observer’s Challenge, I rarely find passive writing that works. Sure, it matches the writing of the big boys, but it doesn’t match the standards I set for this project Roger and I started in February, 2009.
PASSIVE DOESN’T WORK IN MOST CASES
Learn to write active but with life in your work. That means practice, practice, practice!
Passive doesn’t work in fiction and most non-fiction. It weakens the prose.
Happy writing!
LINE EDITING – A WHOLE DIFFERENT ANIMAL
For those of you who’ve never gone through it yet, once you get that brass ring and a publishing deal, you’re in for a real treat when you get to the editing stages! Content editing is where you hash out the plot, major and minor story tweaks. If you’re not prepared, that can be a real blow to the ego. If you’re a true writer, it’s just part of the process and can actually be fun.
If you think content editing is a blow to the ego, wait until you get to line editing! When you get your pristine manuscript back full of red ink, that can be an even bigger blow to your ego if you think you’re hot stuff!
BEEN THERE DONE THAT
As an editor myself, I’ve been on both sides of the coin. I’ve bled as well as been bled on. Recently, I was on the receiving end. Not long ago, I talked about Meleena’s Adventures – Treasure Of The Umbrunna and going through content editing. With that out of the way, it went to the line editor and she did an outstanding job. I received it not long ago and she bled all over it!
FOREST THROUGH THE TREES
If I had any sort of ego before, it would’ve been torn to pieces after I got a look at my masterpiece. It took a bit of time to go through the content edit, but the line edit is a very meticulous process. I was happy for the sometime four or five pages at a time with no changes, but then there would be ten or more with change after change. I’d have to go through each one, either approve or deny them, then move on.
The trick is to make the corrections in each paragraph, then re-read the whole paragraph to make sure it still makes sense. Then as I’m going along, I may catch a few more little tweaks that neither I nor either editor caught the last time.
Have I ever told you how many times I’ve gone through this MS before I ever got it to this publisher? Oh, and I also read the entire story to the writer’s group and made many of their recommended changes, on top of these read-throughs and several other people doing beta reads.
THE STRIVE FOR PERFECTION
There’s no way to make a book perfect, but the more sets of eyes, and the more times it gets read and re-read, the fewer obvious mistakes and blunders will show up in the final product. I strive to make Meleena’s story as perfect as possible, but I’m also a realist. Despite who I consider top-notch editors and my own skills, I’m resigned to the fact that something is going to slip by. I just hope it isn’t too egregious.
BE PREPARED
If you think you can write sloppy and expect your editor or editors to do all the fixing, you’re being unfair to yourself, to them and ultimately to your readers. I try to write the best I can and despite that, stuff slips through, as evident from the many edits I’m seeing. If you write like crap, you are not only putting an extra burden on everyone else, but are leaving that door wide open for those crappy mistakes to slip through for the readers to find.
Don’t let that stuff happen. Hone your craft. Learn the basics and keep working at it.
Also, don’t forget that no matter how good you think you are, there’s always a second set of eyes that can bleed all over your perfect prose!
Happy writing!
FUNNY HOW THINGS WORK
I’ve talked a lot about inspiration. It can come from the most mundane places. I call it my “Polka-dot sewer.” One day, I’ll repeat that story for the newbies to my site, but for now, let’s just move on.
WHERE DOES IT COME FROM?
Sights, sounds, smells, an incident, those little things around us that most people take for granted, anything can be an inspiration. As writer’s, we’re observers. We absorb things around us and file them away in our mental file cabinet. Okay, some of us use actual file cards, cabinets or voice recorders, but you get the point. We take these nuggets of inspiration and save them for future use.
WHAT DO WE DO WITH THEM?
This is the key to any nugget of inspiration, any Polka-dot sewer you run across. You file away hundreds, maybe thousands of these cool little nuggets of information, but what do you do with them?
- Base an entire story on them.
- Use them as a plot device.
- Use them as a minor detail within a story, for color.
EXAMPLE – THE TAMARISK TREE
I just spent the weekend at the Las Vegas Astronomical Society “Night Under The Stars” at Furnace Creek in Death Valley. There’s a distinct feature found at Furnace Creek, and that’s the humongous trees that dot the landscape within the property. I’m not talking about the usual palm trees, seen at every desert location, stereotypical of anyplace dry. These are massive evergreen, almost mossy looking trees that bear a purplish fine (meaning tiny) flower in the spring. These threes grow wild throughout the Southwest.
The Tamarisk, also known as the Salt Cedar is an invasive tree, or weed that was brought from the Middle East in the late 1800’s to help stave off erosion in the watersheds of the desert. Unfortunately, with no knowledge of invasive species, what those early pioneers did was create the “kudzu” of the Southwest.
The Tamarisk loves the salty, alkaline soil, it has deep roots, and sucks up massive amounts of water, starving out the native bushes and desert plants. It grows along stream beds, roads and anywhere there may (or may not) be water. They start as bushes, but if left to their own devices, grow to massive sizes with trunk boles twenty feet in diameter.
They spread like Kudzu, just not in vine form. When they bloom, they release millions, if not billions of seeds that spread in the wind. I had a volunteer sprout in my back yard. It was kind of pretty and we let it grow for a while, but realized since it was so close to the brick fence, that in a few years, it would collapse the wall. When I tried to dig it up, that “little” shrub root went down six feet before I gave up and twisted it off (I had no room in the deep, narrow hole for a saw or even shears). Today, I still worry something will re-sprout in that spot!
I originally got interested in them for woodworking. I regularly visit a web site for exotic woods. When I went to the page on Tamarisk, the entry said it was only a shrub and the samples shown were small and mainly from the Middle East. I had to write the guy and tell him, ahem… Wrong answer!
The guv’mint has tried cutting, burning, herbicides and other methods to kill off the Tamarisk, all to no good. It’s destroying a lot of Southwest wetlands. All they can do is manage it and hope for the best.
This weekend, I was looking out our hotel patio window onto the golf course. Lining the fairway and hole next to the building were several massive Tamarisks. The boles were at least ten feet across. I thought of an icky bug novel where Tamarisk trees go crazy. The seeds infect people and mutate them into icky bugs (monsters).
#1 from the uses above: The plot for a major icky bug to file away for the future.
It was all because I knew the history of those (at the moment), stately and gorgeous trees with a “shady” history, and happened to look out the window.
ALL IT TAKES…
All it takes is the right situation, a little imagination, and you have yourself a plot, a plot device, or a detail to add to your story.
You just have to look, listen, observe.
Happy writing.
Here’s a photo of my grandson sitting on a fallen Tamarisk trunk. The live tree is still growing behind him.
WORDS WORDS WORDS
Whether we’re readers or writers, we have to love words to some degree. After all, they’re the medium with which we convey information, the tools of our trade, the way in which we absorb information. Today, I want to pose some questions about words.
HOW MUCH IS TOO MUCH?
Many of my critiques on Amazon talk about the pace of the story. I often use phrases like a fast read, or the story crawled. Why is that?
Some people, in particular the literary-minded, love the shape, feel and meaning of words, the more the better, as long as they make sense and stimulate the mind – paint elaborate pictures for them.
On the other hand, the genre-minded reader wants to get to the point and doesn’t want to wallow in every minute detail of every minute detail.
Since I cannot cite a literary example of too many words (because I don’t read that genre), I’ll have to rely on a genre I have read such as fantasy. The biggest example of way too many words for me is the Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan. I distinctly remember slogging through a hundred pages in which almost nothing happened… a hundred pages!
The Wheel of Time series is a huge seller and the fan base is well-established. Look at many fantasy novels today and you’ll see how thick they are, many easily topping 200K words. In some of them, a lot happens while in others, not so much.
I once read a literary horror novel by a guy named David Searcy called Last Things and though it was supposed to be horror (icky bug), it wasn’t and not a thing happened for the entire novel – not a thing. Yet, it was a fascinating read in the context of describing West Texas. That was it.
Words – lots of words.
This is not meant to bash these writers. I simply don’t get their style.
HOW MUCH IS NOT ENOUGH?
To tell the truth, I can’t think of a single book I’ve personally read that didn’t have enough words. Why? A quick read for me is a pure pleasure. A quick read gets to the point and gets the job done, plain and simple. Do I want to feel the mountains and breathe the air? Do I want to know every single innermost thought of the character?
I want to know who the character is, what they are doing, why, and the same for the main bad guy. I don’t need minute details. I need a clean to somewhat complex but fun plot and trappings as long as sidetracking is kept to a minimum. I need enough detail to paint a picture of the characters and what they’re doing and why. However, if it stalls on minutiae fugeddaboudit.
THOSE CERTAIN BOOKS
There are certain books that aren’t particularly long, but are just a pain to read. I really have to work at it. Why? The prose is plodding and full of descriptive narrative without necessarily being literary. There’s a science fiction author with an alternative history series. I read a few of his stories and though the premise was quite interesting, they were a lot of work. The pages didn’t have a lot of blank spaces on them and held lots of long paragraphs. I stuck with the series for a while, but finally lost interest because I just got sick of having to plod through all that endless narrative. It wasn’t an easy read. The same for this archaeological series I tried to stick with. Each series has several books I never got to and probably never will tackle unless I’m desperate.
If you’re a word lover but want a genre plot, these two series might just be your thing.
WHICH TYPE ARE YOU?
Do you like to get lost in lots of words, or do you like to get to the point?
Happy writing!
ALL REVVED UP AND NO PLACE TO GO
I copped the title from the Meatloaf song and it has to do with plotting.
You have a great idea. You fire away and go full barrel into your story. All of a sudden you get halfway through, then realize you have nowhere to go. What now?
You knew where you wanted to start but never fully considered where you wanted to end. It seemed like a great idea at the time, but the execution didn’t pan out. Oh crap!
OUTLINING
This is where some writers and authors make their case for outlining your story before you even start. If you outline the plot and map it out beforehand, you won’t get halfway through and run out of gas, hit that roadblock and have no place to go, right?
On the other hand, if you’re like me, an outline sucks all the inspiration and creativity right out of the story. I can’t possibly work that way.
SEAT OF THE PANTS
I’ve always vouched for the seat-of-the-pants approach, though I don’t knock outlining. Either will work because all of us are different and we have to follow our muse in whatever way works for us. In my case, I have to use seat-of-the-pants.
My plot outline is simple. I know where I want to start and where I want to end. That, my friends, is my plot outline. When I get revved up, I have a place to go. The end. The journey in-between is a surprise, but so far, I’ve never worked myself into any dead ends where I had to stop with no place to go. I’ve always had that ending to strive for.
How about you?
Could you work like that?
HOW DOES YOUR MIND WORK?
If you’re new to writing, or are experimenting with new techniques, you may one day find yourself revved up with no place to go. It may be during the seat-of-the-pants approach. In that case, you may be halfway through a manuscript. On the other hand, you may be in outline mode and run across the same issue. In that case, you have far less time and effort invested.
That logic would seem to favor always using the outline method. However, some of us just can’t work that way. If you’re seat-of-the-pants, as long as you know where to start and where to end, you can iron out those kinks along the way as long as you keep in mind the end.
FIXING THE MESS
When you find yourself stuck, even after investing a lot of time on an erroneous plot, so what if you have to trash ten, twenty, a hundred pages? Why do you write in the first place? Don’t you love doing this? Isn’t it a passion?
Look at it this way. Go back to the point where you think things went off the rails. Rethink some ways to make the plot work better, then see what you can salvage, if anything from what you already have, and maybe cut and paste what you can and tool it into the new form.
Improvise.
During editing, you might have to do that with plotting, even if you thought you nailed it.
Don’t get frustrated.
Once you’re done, reread and reread again until you get a warm fuzzy off it. Reread until you get excited and have fun and love what you’re reading. Reread until you get sick of it. Put it down for a while, then come back to it and have fun rereading it again.
If you can’t enjoy your own work, maybe it does suck. If you don’t have enough confidence in yourself to be able to enjoy reading what you enjoyed writing, well…
Now, you should be all revved up with someplace to go.
Happy writing.
