Taking chances.  That’s what it takes to get ahead in life and in a writer’s life.  If you don’t take chances, nothing changes (at best).  There have been a lot of leaps of faith I’ve taken in this past year: Going to writing conventions, talking to authors (hey, I’m an introvert, so it counts) and most of all, sending stuff out.

 

  So I took another hop last night.  I sent off a short story, about 9k words, to Writers of the Future.  I was honestly afraid that it wasn’t going to come together in time but everything just clicked.  Instead sweating over it for hours and (in my mind) staying up late tonight to work on it, everything flowed.  I even felt comfortable with how it read afterwards.  I’ve no idea if the judges at the contest will agree, if my track record with these things means anything, I doubt this will be a life-changing event.  But I did it.  And I’ll do it again next quarter. And the next.  And the next.

 

  If it sucks, (I’ve been assured no) one will remember it.  If it’s great (and writers can be lousy at recognizing if their stuff is good or not), then good things can happen.

 

  So, keep taking chances.  Keep writing and keep sending your work out. 

  I think all writers must be a little bi-polar.  I hear, from established and published writers, that they often think their work is no good.  Usually, that’s not the case, though.  Some writers are just so monumentally arrogant that they’re convinced everything they put out is gold.  The funny thing is there, the quality level of those writers is about the same or lower than those who stress about their writing.

 

  I had one of those moments again.  I was working on my prologue to Angel Odyssey, trying to hit my March 31st deadline and I just felt like poo.  I told myself that I didn’t have it, that I couldn’t focus, that the story was all wrong.  But then the little voice inside me spoke up.  Yes, I was losing focus on the prologue, yes the pages I wrote last night are the wrong pages.  But realizing that is good.

 

  Sometimes you have to write the wrong things.  So long as you realize they’re wrong, there’s no harm in that.  Sometimes you have to write stuff in order to cut it.  You as a writer have to know something, so you write it.  It may not make it into the final work but you needed to know something, so you write it down. 

 

  That’s how my mind works sometimes at least.  So I’m going back to the Throne of Writing(TM) tonight and I’m going to cut out almost everything I wrote last night.  And it will be better for the cutting, leaner and I’m going to have the right words and the right pacing.  And if not, then by heaven, I’ll do it again tomorrow.

 

  Don’t listen to the voice inside you that tears you down.  Listen instead to the voice that tells you what you need to do to improve.

  I got a wild hair up my...well let's just say 'a wild hair'...and thought I'd get started writing last night.  No such luck.  Family calls took over most of the night and my attempts to write when I was not on the Throne of Writing(tm) did not fly.  Rabble.  So I have three nights, roughly seven hours, to work on...stuff.  Not to mention that I didn't get anything done for this week's critique group.  

  Procrastination.  That is the biggest bugaboo under my bed.  (The second largest is dust bunnies)  There are an infinite number of things to do instead of write.  Video games, web browsing, having a social life; even reading can keep me away from writing.  (And away from catching my bus, thank you very much Aaron Dembski-Bowden)  

  I came to self-disclipline late in life.  I can't think of anything more important to writing or to life in general. It is a war that has no ending.  I have to fight it every day and to be honest, I haven't done a very good job of it.  I've more or less taken two months off from writing in the past tweleve.  And that doesn't even count the weekends wasted.

    So, in honor of Walter Mosley's simple advice, I'm going to try very hard to write at least two hours every day or 14 hours a week.  That sounds like a small, reasonable goal. 

  I'm going to start on my final draft on Angel Odyssey this week but I thought I'd finiish off a few more book reviews.

  Walter Mosley is a writer I respect.  I don't know what expectations I had for This Year You Write Your Novel (it is a slim hardback volume) but I was looking forward to what he had to say.    

I'd describe This Year You Write Your Novel as a good book for first-time novelists.  It is not complex or difficult to read or process.  The advice is solid if not in-depth.  If you have a friend who is struggling to finish their first manuscript, give them this book.  It'll help.    

One of the things I like about Mosley's novels is his ability to write realistic characters.  That is the book I wish he'd written.  The writing examples, provided by Mosley himself, I assume, show Mosley's skill.  The rest of the text shows Mosley's sincere attempt to get across the secret of how to write a novel.  I could feel the effort and imagine the difficulty of explaining the years of effort that have sublimated into instinct.  This isn't intended as a criticism, it IS difficult to analyze your own process and realize that what works for you may not work for everyone.     

Mosley is trying to give advice that will work for everyone, that's not easy.  As a result, his advice is simple: write every day.  That's pretty much it.  Write every day.  Every single day, dedicate at least two uninterrupted hours to writing.  It's simple, workmanlike advice and every word of it is true.  Writing is about momentum and writing every day is something I struggle with myself.  So it's good advice as far as it goes and he repeats it at length.     

His second main piece of advice is: trust your subconscious (and I'm summarizing here).  This may sound like so much mysticism to a new writer, struggling with plot and characterization.  So be it.  Writing is an art as well as a craft.  He's no wrong there, either.  My subconsious is so much smarter than I am.  The best moments of writing flow from my mind through my fingers onto the .doc pages.     There are other brief chapters  discussing plot, character and other elements of craft that are essential to a complete novel.  None of the advice is fatuous or wrong, but it is brief.    

Reccomended for new writers but not for aspiring authors who have a novel or two under their belt.

  This is the single most useful book on writing for me.  I don't usually have a problem getting the words to flow (getting my hinder in the Throne of Writing (tm) is another story) but I struggle with revising more than anything else.  I may not know the answer of 'what to cut' but this book tells me why to cut or rephrase.  I can't praise it enough.    

  The book is filled with examples and exercises, many of which are taken from well-known published writers.  Seeing how to do things right is invaluable to me.  And I can't think of any other writing book I've read so far that gave even a hint about how to develop a writer's voice.  Brown and King's suggestion there was an eye-opening event.    
  The discussion ranges from exclamation points to profanity (both are suggested to be used sparingly...especially the exclamation points) and the author not only provide advice, they back it up with those useful examples I mentioned above.     This book belongs on every writer's bookshelf...actually, not on the bookshelf, it belongs on their writing desk.  For new writers, start with this book.  You won't be sorry.

  Sorry about the lack of posting yesterday.  Work gets busy sometimes.  I still intend to write a review of Self editing for Fiction Writers but I may need to tackle that tomorrow instead.  

I got a bad review of my book from one of my first readers. Basically she bailed on me halfway through.  She didn't even finish it out of courtesy.  Very, very (yeah, I went with discouraging.  I don't know if that means I have pacing issues or if she didn't like the characters or...what exactly. 

She said there was too much sexual content, which doesn't make sense.  There's some sexual thoughts and tension but no one is bumping uglies.  Angel Odyssey certainly isn't explicit, though that might just be by my standards.  Maybe their preferred reading material runs closer to Christian fiction, I dunno.   

I tell myself that no one else has made that complaint.  I tell myself that I'm a good writer (and there's been some corroboration about that from other readers...just ignore the whole Clarion West demurral). 

Well they're no way I'm going to stop writing and stop submitting Angel Odyssey, no matter what people say.  If I'm going to get rejected, it'll be by someone who has the power to give me money if they say 'yes'.

  I spent a couple of hours outlining my next novel.  I plan on using the Snowflake method again but I'm going about it a little sideways.  Normally, you start with a one sentence description of the plot, then expand it to a paragraph, then to a page, etc.  This time I decided I'm going to tell this story in 20 chapters.  This is my attempt to prevent the kind of sprawl that afflicted my first two novels...I want to try to keep this at 90~100k words. 
 
  It was interesting.  I wrote a paragraph for each chapter outlining what plot points I wanted in each one.  As I went on, I kept asking myself "How can it get worse".  For once, I'm going to deliberately try to torment my protagonists.  Will that make the story stronger?  I honestly don't know but it'll be interesting reading people's reaction to this when I get it done. (I'm tentatively projecting the rough draft to be done in June and then starting another Smooth Charles novel right after that.) 

  One thing for sure, it came out a little dark. Just writing the plot summary, my fingers paused like they didn't want to write the words.  I'm not sure if that's a good sign or a bad sign.  I guess I'll find out.  We'll also find out if this attempt to impose structure will work or not. 

  Another thing, it was fun.  I enjoyed writing even the outline.

  I'm still hoping/waiting for novel-length feedback from my first readers.  I'm anxious to get back to work on the final draft of Angel Odyssey.  But I've been having second thoughts about some of the cuts and other shenanigans I made.  I'm debating going back to my second draft, which is more raw, and seeing if I should go with that.  Again, I should wait for feedback but I'm afraid that some of the world-building cuts I made has made the settings and the characters a little blah in comparison.

  Finally, I signed up for the PNWA Conference in July.  It was a big chunk of change, $400 and that was with my PNWA membership discount.  Since I'm not going to be attending Clarion West this year, I thought I should do something more, career-wise.

  The first feedback on my prologue came back pretty universally favorable.  Most people in my critique group think it makes a better first chapter than a prologue.  That's good news for a rough draft. It still needs a coat or two of polish and I need to rework some things related to the Storyteller.  Ah but I really like the first line of my current chapter 1.  Decisions, decisions.       I finished Orson Scott Card's Character and Viewpoint last Friday.  Orson clearly knows his stuff.  Character and Viewpoint is more like a textbook compared to the other books on reading I've read.  That is mostly praise.  The book is dense, particularly the first half of the book.  It is a book that needs to be studied, not just read.  There's a lot going on in there.  I can tell that Mr. Card has thought deeply about the issues of character and point of view.  I plan to revisit it again, soon.       However, it is not flawless.  The second half of the book, particularly the last third, on viewpoint, feels rushed.  The most valuable advice lies in the discussion of character.  If someone has a hard time writing believable characters, I'd point them to this book in a heartbeat.  If someone was struggling with POV issues, I'd direct them elsewhere.  I can't call it a lack of polish, all I can say is again is it feels rushed at the end.  What does feel unpolished are the writing samples.       Mr. Card wore one of tentpole novels of Science Fiction in Ender's Game.  He is clearly a skilled writer, I've devoured a good half dozen of his books with pleasure.  Moreover, the majority of the writing advice given in Character and Viewpoint reinforces Mr. Card's writing chops.  That's why the writing samples he provides to illustrate his points are so painful.  Unlike Self-Editing for Fiction Writers or On Writing by Stephen King, the examples Mr. Card provides show little of the fit and finish of a master craftsman.       

The example dialog is often wooden.  Most of the passages were strrewn with 'telling' and not good, narrative 'telling' but almost amateurish descriptions of character's thoughtsm, feelings and actions.  Now these were not intended to illustrate writing mistakes.  In a section on First Person, you'd see this awkward 'telling' writing sample.  Again, the feeling is that the book was written in a rush.  I'm sure that if Mr. Card had spent more time on his writing samples they would have shown better quality.      

But apart from those two complaints, Character and Viewpoint's content is laudable.  The book does belong in every writer's bookshelf.  I didn't experience any 'ah ha' moments while reading it, as I have with other books on writing and I didn't have an overwhelming urge to go write immediately after finishing it.  Instead the book put me in a contemplative mood where the strengths and the flaws of Mr. Card's book seemed to stand out in even sharper relief.

I don't usually post on weekends but I'm getting read to head out to my critique group meeting.

I got rejected to attend Clarion West.  No idea why.  The obvious answer is that I didn't measure up and 18 other applicants were better.  That stings.  No sour grapes, though. I really wanted this and I'm sure it would have helped me.

But it may be a blessing is disguise.  I don't have to try find 3~4k for the tuition.  I don't have to worry about giving notice or asking for time off from Amazon (I'm really enjoying the job and I'd like to keep it). 

So rejection may actually be a good thing.  There's always next year.  And I'll have another year and another novel or two under my belt by then. 

 

  One of the first things I knew I needed to learn was how to write better-plotted novels.  I doubt I’m all the way there yet and even if I know what to do, the problem of translating what I know onto the page remains.  But I have picked up a few things, some learned the hard way and some ‘a ha’ moments from books on writing I’ve read.  One thing that propels a story forward is tension.  Need.

 

  Grab a book, preferably a draft of a book.  It can be one of your drafts or it could be a manuscript someone’s given you to critique.  Start reading and watch for something: Does your mind start to wander?  Where did you put the book down? Did you get bored at any point?  Let’s assume so (if it didn’t you are probably looking at a well-plotted story or it features an engrossing character…either way, the author is doing something right).  Make a note of where you stopped really reading.

 

  More likely than not, the place or places you marked are area where the writer failed to drag you along with them.  There was no tension.  No need.  Personally, my goal is to write stories that the reader just can’t put down.  Or, at the very least, makes them want to pick up the sequel immediately.  Something must drive the protagonist from scene to scene.  Yes, it should be the character’s will that sets the plot in motion (by my preference at least) but there needs to be a reason for each scene change.  There has to be a need.  There should be a tension that hauls the story along, that keeps the plot moving.

 

    Need should create scenes, not the plot.  Too many times I read scenes, some of my own, where I’m sitting back and wondering why they’re going there, why they’re talking to this person.  The reason, sadly, is because the plot requires them to go there, to talk to that person.  That’s not a good enough reason.  A need must exist in the story itself to lead one scene to another.

 

  Additionally, tension or high stakes help.  If a character is going to the store to get butter or because they’re bored…so what?  But if they’re leaving to get medicine a family member needs, that’s even better.  What if it’s not just medicine, what if it’s insulin?  Now the trip to the store has tension, especially when it gets interrupted.  (something bad does happen on the way to or from the store, right?)

 

  Tension and need.  From now on, I want to make sure I create those things on every page or at the very least, in every scene.