Coming Soon!
Forsaken By Shadow: A Novella of the MirusWhen her father is captured by military scientists, firecaster Embry Hollister will do anything, break any rule to free him. Unable to complete her mission alone, she turns to the only Shadow Walker who can help her—her father’s protégé and foster son, Gage Dempsey, whose memory was wiped years ago. Embry and Gage must fight the clock—and their undeniable attraction—praying that his skills return in time to infiltrate a secret military base and rescue the man they both call father.
I was asked to write an article for National Novel Editing Month. It came out today, so since I’m out dealing with hubby’s leg (surgery at 6 tomorrow), I thought I’d offer it up. So without further ado…
You’ve done it. You’ve climbed a mountain that thousands—dare I say, millions—have attempted in their lifetimes. You’ve become one of the few, the proud, and the brave who persevere and can proudly say “The End.”
Congratulations.
Pat yourself on the back. Have a beer. Some chocolate. A thick, juicy cheeseburger (don’t ask me why this is always my celebratory draft completion dinner). Get a good night’s sleep because your next adventure begins tomorrow.
The sounds of Reveille blast through the speakers and startle you out of bed at dawn.
Pick yourself up, soldier! We’ve got a crisis here! This first draft made it across enemy lines, and it’s injured. Your job is to determine how badly it’s hurt and what kind of editorial care it needs. Got it?
Ma’am, yes ma’am!
Silly as this may sound, this is exactly how I operate when I reach the end of a first draft. I celebrate a job complete (notice that I don’t say “well done”), then I prepare to dive in and evaluate. Usually this necessitates a break from my WIP of anywhere from 3-10 days during which I read, write other stuff, and generally gain some perspective on my WIP. Then I sit down with a paper copy and my trusty pen (red, green, or blue, as any of them will show up well), and I read it straight through. The copy editor in me makes corrections of typos, spelling, punctuation, grammar and the like, but that’s just autopilot. What I’m really looking for is flow, voice, character arcs, any hanging threads, inconsistencies, glaring mistakes, and all the other aspects of craft that I’ve spent all this time and effort internalizing. Since I transitioned from Pantser to Plotter, this is usually the first time I’ve done this on a new WIP, so this inaugural read-through is my first opportunity to see how well I pulled everything together.
Sometimes when I’m finished, I’m happy with what I read. There are mistakes (there always are), but for the most part, they’re only flesh wounds. I’ll fix whatever small stuff came up, then pass it on to my critique partner. If you don’t have a good critique partner, find one. They are invaluable. Try your luck at Crit Partner Match (end shameless plug). My crit partner, affectionately referred to as Pot (to my Kettle) is my fiercest critic. If my manuscript makes it past her, then I know I’m in the home stretch. Once I get it back from that initial critique, I address whatever issues get raised, then pass it on to my second round beta readers, who generally are reading this blind, without having seen any of it before. They give me more authentic reader responses. And then it’s back through for any necessary corrections, clarification, etc. This is where I am with my novella Forsaken By Shadow (hopefully released by the end of March on Kindle! Keep your eyes peeled!). I really love it when this happens because it’s not a painful bout of editing.
Sadly, not all manuscripts make it off the battle front of the first draft in such good shape. And this is where you will need to employ manuscript triage. You already know that some books are grievously wounded when they limp off the battle field. Often this is indicated by repetitive and persistent writer’s block during composition. I think of this as the book’s way of telling you you’re going the wrong way. Ignore it to your peril. There may be massive gaps in the story—areas where you left a bracketed note to yourself [figure x out] because you didn’t want to stop the flow long enough to decide right then. I do that a lot. Maybe as you’re reading you find that one of your characters is doing something, well, out of character. You might even find that you just flat don’t like the story anymore.
This is a very bad sign.
Some positive souls are likely to tell you that you’re being too hard on yourself, that it’s really not as bad as you think it is. And maybe it’s not. Maybe you need an outside opinion to set you straight. If that’s the case, by all means, seek out that opinion. See the Not Too Injured portion of the program above. I’m not talking to you.
But if you know in your gut that this book has serious flaws, I want you to roll up your sleeves, pull out your tools, and prepare to get bloody. We’re going to do some exploratory surgery. Maybe even some dissection, depending on how bad things are. But we’re going to find the problem and develop a solution. We’re going to find a way to make you fall back in love with this book.
First things first, I want you to take a deep breath. As you exhale, let go of the idea that you’re going to be able to fix this with a bit of spit and polish and that it’ll be ready for submission or publication in a matter of hours, days, or weeks. It may even take more than the month of NaNoEdMo. And that’s totally okay. No, no, stop hyperventilating. I mean it. It’s going to be okay. Take another deep breath. This time, as you exhale, let go of the idea that you’re going to be able to rework the particular words you have on the page. Sometimes starting from scratch on a section or scene or act is better. You’ve got to be prepared to kill your little darlings. One more breath. Now stop thinking of your book as your precious, bouncing baby and start thinking of it as the victim of a car crash, injured and bleeding on your operating table.
Now quick, tell me in one line, what your book is about. Just a quick single line summary. Think of it as the name and date of birth you’re asking a trauma victim. This sentence usually follows this pattern:
It’s a story about a [description of hero/ine] who wants [what is the goal?] because [why] but can’t because [conflict].
As an example, the novel I’m working on right now (the one that actually inspired this post), is about a reluctant wolf-shifter who must embrace the wolf nature he abhors in order to save his human mate from the pack who wants her dead. Not quite the same pattern but all the elements are there.
This is a fundamental summary of your story, and if you don’t know it, you need to stop and figure it out. Agents, editors, and publishers don’t go for the “Oh, it’s too much to describe in a few lines.” If your brain is stuck in that mode, it means you’ve gotten away from the heart of the story and you need to find it again. If you’ve got that heart, whether it’s beating or not, we’re gonna move on.
Let’s hit a few other diagnostic questions (in no particular order).
Does your hero/ine (or both if you’re writing romance) change over the course of the story?
If the answer is no, you’ve got another major problem. You’re missing a character arc. I was absolutely guilty of this in the book that inspired this post. The way readers experience a story is through you showing the journey of the hero/ine from the beginning, through how s/he deals with crisis, how s/he overcomes his/her inner demons to rise up and do what has to be done at the end of the book. That’s a satisfying read and one that will be remembered, hopefully when your next title hits Amazon. Yes, a story with a lot of flash and bang and action :cough: Transformers 2 :cough: will be entertaining, but won’t be memorable. Keep in mind that who the hero/ine is at the beginning of the book is not capable of doing what needs to be done at the end. S/he must grow into the person s/he needs to be. (Man English really needs a gender neutral pronoun…)
Does your hero/ine have a goal that the reader gives a hoot about?
People want all kinds of things for all kinds of reasons. Right now my personal goal is to get through the afternoon without falling asleep at my desk. Admirable from a productivity standpoint but not particularly interesting. Be sure you’ve picked a goal for your hero/ine that matters and that you’ve given us enough in the setup that we’ve emotionally connected with him or her so that we really, truly care and want him/her to get what s/he wants. Give us the stakes. What happens if s/he doesn’t get what s/he wants?
Does your story start out strong then fizzle out in the middle?
Yes, I’m afraid to tell you that you have succumbed to the Dreaded Valley of the Shadow of the Middle. But yea though you walk through the Valley of the Shadow of the Middle, ye shall fear no evil for there is a way out! I’m going to talk about the map in a little bit. Bear with me.
Does your story start with a bang and end with a whimper?
It’s really hard to craft a good ending. It’s even harder to craft a good ending if you don’t know where you’re going when you’re getting there. I’m not here to preach the benefits of plotting over pantsing, just saying that there’s a strong possibility that once you get to the end, you can probably discover a more direct and effective (i.e. stronger and more believable) way to get there.
Do your characters take unexplained and irrelevant trips on the S.S. Tangent?
I was so, SO much a victim of this when I first started writing. I was a pure, organic, pantser, and there were a great many random side trips my characters made because I didn’t know where I was going. And inevitably some of these tangential scenes were some of my favorites and the hardest to kill. They were my fun little darlings. But really, be honest here, they’re cancerous to your story and they have to go. If it doesn’t contribute to the primary storyline or subplot and move the story forward, it needs to be cut out.
Do you have scenes in which no forward motion of the plot occurs, in which there is nothing but exposition, thoughtologue, or observation?
If this is the case, your scene isn’t working hard enough. Each scene should have at least three purposes. They don’t have to be brilliant purposes, but you need three reasons for a scene to stay. It can be to reveal something about a character. To impart information. To advance the conflict. Whatever. If you can’t think of those three reasons then either cut the scene or combine it with another to make it work harder. In that vein, I have a worksheet (available for free download here) you can use to do triage on individual scenes.
The problem’s bigger than that, Doc!
If you can’t put your finger on the problem after running these diagnostics, then you’re getting into the serious territory of possibly requiring a full rewrite.
Pick yourself up off the floor, soldier. This isn’t all bad. It just means we have to go deeper to get down to the skeleton of the story. Or as my favorite writing guru likes to call it, the structure of the story. This is that roadmap through the Dreaded Valley of the Shadow of the Middle that I mentioned earlier. All fiction—or I should say, all sellable fiction—adheres to a structure. It must have certain points in order to stand solidly on its own. This is the point at which you analyze your manuscript to determine whether it fits that structure or if it’s missing some of the key supports. The details of each part are outside the scope of this article, but you can find them in all their gloriously clear explanation at Storyfix.com, either in the archives for the short version, or you can buy the e-book (which is worth every penny of the $14.95 it costs—and no, I’m not an affiliate, I just think it’s that awesome). This concept of story structure is what absolutely changed my writing life, and I swear you’ll think so too.
In any event, once you’ve familiarized yourself with the Set Up, First Plot Point, Pinch Point 1, Midpoint, Pinch Point 2, Second Plot Point, and Resolution, you should have a much easier time looking at this wreck of a body on the table here and seeing where it’s broken. Maybe it’s fixable. Maybe you can put a splint on the broken limbs and find your way to a salvaged book. Maybe you can’t. The point is, you did your best and you learned from it.
Incidentally, the book that inspired this post was declared DOA at 10:43 AM, Wednesday morning. It was beyond salvage. But the remains will not go to waste. It had an organ donor card and its characters are going on to lead a long, happy life (after some conflict) in another book.
Now how about a beer? It’s been a long day.
Recommended Reading:
Goal, Motivation & Conflict: The Building Blocks of Good Fiction by Debra Dixon
Techniques of the Selling Writer by Dwight Swain
Story Structure Demystified by Larry Brooks
So my husband broke his leg. Tibia and fibula. Because he’s talented like that. He’s okay, but we’ve got to go see an orthopedic surgeon tomorrow. Things will, I think, settle down once it’s properly set, pinned, and casted. In the meantime I’ll probably not be around much. Just FYI.
I bet you didn’t know that allergies are caused by the gods. Tricksters in particular. They’re really entertained by the wheezing, sneezing, runny nosed sprint for the last box of Puffs. And they were totally hanging out in Mississippi last night, lurking outside the home of our friends, where we went for dinner. We have two sets of couple friends with whom we have a round robin supper club on weekends. We’re all animal lovers, so we all have dogs. But only one set of us has a cat–to which I am allergic. So is my hubs. But it’s not usually a problem. I’ll usually get some itchy red eyes, come home, take a Benedryl and be done with it. Good night’s sleep all around. Last night they’d cleaned house really well and locked the cat in the back. I should have been FINE. I didn’t touch the cat. Never even SAW it.
But sometime after dinner my eyes started to get that telltale itch. It was expected, so I was prepared. What I DIDN’T expect was for my sinuses to stuff up and my nose to start running. I’ve never had a respiratory response to my cat allergy before. That’s usually reserved for ragweed and goldenrod in the fall. So every 5 minutes, I was headed to the bathroom for more tissue to blow my nose and try to clear things out. Didn’t help. Just got worse. Apparently my eyes were starting to get zombie red and bloodshot, and everybody was starting to get concerned, so we begged off early (and by early I mean 11:30…we all usually stay late to hang out) and came home.
The drive home was an exercise in frustration. Whatever was in my sinuses had set up about as firm as concrete, but there was definitely an embedded faucet and it was running FULL TILT. I had no tissues (stupid me, thinking I could make it 10 miles without any). So between the little kid efforts of using the back of my hand (rather than my silk sweater), I was swearing at all the slow people and stop lights and speeding between them when I could. Hubby was warning me not to get a ticket. Yeah that would have been the highlight of the night. “I’m sorry Ociffer, I needed some kleenex…” “Get out of the vehicle ma’am.”
Thankfully, we made it home without intervention or detainment by the boys in blue, and I raced for the nearest box of Puffs and the bottle of Benedryl. I took 2, which is usually enough to lay me out flat and unconscious for several hours. Then I proceeded to strip off everything I’d worn to their house, throw on jammies, and wash my face and hands to try to get rid of the allergen. I pulled out the nasal irrigator. For those of you unfamiliar with this machine, it serves a similar function to a nettipot but works more like a Waterpik. Strange and not particularly comfortable, but fantastic when you’ve got allergies and sinus crud because it washes your sinuses out. Or I should say usually. So I pulled out the irrigator and ran 500 mL of saline through to wash everything out. And instead of being able to just blow my nose a dozen times and being done with things, I started serial sneezing. And I don’t mean tiny, cute little mouse sneezes. I’m talking sonic boom level sneezes at the top of my lungs that I’m sure the neighbors heard three streets over.
Once I finally got the sneezing under control, I whipped out my trusty Breathe Right strip and slapped that on. You can imagine how attractive I was looking at this point with my eyes half swollen shut, what’s visible being the same shade of red as my snuggie, with a Breathe Right strip pulling my nose open enough to just run more freely at a rate of speed about like the tears streaming down my cheeks from my watery eyes. So I pull out the nose spray. That opens up the concrete enough that I can blow my nose a few times and breathe a little. I figure the Benedryl will kick in any minute.
Half an hour later, I’m up again with another bout of sonic boom serial sneezing, nose totally blocked again. There was a great deal of swearing after this because it’s very late and I’m very tired and I can’t flipping sleep because of my recalcitrant sinuses and this mutant allergy response. So then I go pull out the Sudafed and the Vicks Vapo Rub. Oh, but I don’t stop there because I am on a mission. Out comes the humidifier, which I fill up and put some additional Vicks in the specially designed reservoir for it. Plug THAT in on the dresser with the steam spout aimed toward me. Used more nose spray. And managed to pass out in a drugged, mentholated stupor for most of the rest of the night.
If this is what allergy season has in store for me, I am afraid. I’m very afraid.
Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m out of Puffs.
This week has been–not as productive as I would like. I had intentions of getting 1,500 words written on Revelation. Instead I’ve gotten 131, only 119 of which are staying. Instead I fully plotted out a book about murder (which, really, was a beneficial form of catharsis this week), came up with broad notion for New Shiny, finished copy edits on Forsaken By Shadow (which still need to be entered into the file, as I did them on a paper copy), researched formatting for Kindle and Smashwords, heard back from my final beta reader on FBS, and just before bed last night, I finally figured out why I couldn’t actually move forward with the scene I had planned for Revelation.
So it’s been a productive week, just not necessarily of the sort I originally planned. I did realize that I can use all the time I’ll be putting toward prepping FBS for epub as time on NaNoEdMo. It’s still a sort of editing–just not what they meant exactly.
I’m hoping to have my cover next week and the PDF of FBS prepped to register for copyright. Then I can get started formatting for all the assorted e-versions. Thankfully between me, a friend, and my CP, I can get the formatting checked on a Nook, a Sony, and a Kindle.
I’ll be blogging about the prep work–some how to posts about all the things you have to do to e-pub something yourself.
It’s getting closer to being real and actually happening, and I’m really excited. I’ll finally have something FINISHED for people to read! I really ought to start working on contacting fellow bloggers to see about setting up a blog tour for April to promote it. 30 days, 30 blogs. Do I know that many people who like me enough to guest blog or interview me? Probably. I just need to think about it. If you’re game to host me at some point in April, drop me a line in comments or email me at kaitnolanwriter@gmail.com. I would be ever so grateful.
I took yesterday afternoon off work because I was having a hideous allergy attack (this is the time of year I hate living in Mississippi). After a nap, I had grand intentions of expanding the paragraph opening I managed in the morning on Revelation into a good chunk of a scene. You know, that thing I’m supposed to be writing a “conservative” 1,500 words on this week. Um, yeah.
Instead, Pot and I plotted (in the scheming sense) out a fascinating and fun new sooper sekrit project and started recruiting for it. It will be a new and interesting way of marketing and is so long term (as in next year probably), I probably shouldn’t even be mentioning it now. Whatever interest I manage to whet will have dried right up by the time I get around to talking about it again.
Mostly I’m mentioning it as my latest excuse for having been a lazy bum and having only 106 words to show for the week so far. BUT all is not lost. I learned some new stuff about my hero that I didn’t know before. I’ll work on it tonight. I swear.
When one cannot actually murder one’s boss (who puts one up for promotion without checking the requirements and who has not actually rated one high enough for 2 out of 3 necessary evaluations in order to be promotable because she does not actually value one’s service and capabilities), doing so on paper is the next best thing. Can’t be arrested for that. The next best thing after that is just straight up distraction. I’ve been going back and forth with my cover artist about the cover for Forsaken By Shadow. The first round was a series where she did exactly what I said I wanted–a cleaned up, much better executed version of what I myself had done before. And I just decided it didn’t work for me. Not her fault. I didn’t like my own vision anymore. So I had her go back to the metaphorical drawing board and said “Play”. I did go through to find a few images of women who reminded me of my heroine, but otherwise, I gave her free rein.
Clearly I should have let her have free rein in the beginning. I am a creative woman both on the page and in the kitchen. But graphic design is not my strong suit. Brenna does not have my limitations. So I narrowed the 9 or 10 comps down to 2, made a few requests, picked a few fonts, and then we’ll see what happens with round 3. I am very excited. It’s nice to feel jazzed up about something after the week I’ve had. I need an injection of creativity (even if it isn’t my own) to get started on the opening scenes for Revelation (which I haven’t managed to touch all week because I’ve been too busy plotting out The Southern Girl’s Guide To How To Hide A Body…which may be a little too close to reality to ever actually write…Besides, my buddy who suggested that title has decided to use it herself, more’s the pity.) I’m not focused on it AT ALL, and I don’t have a clear idea of the hero’s voice yet (which is who we open with). Maybe I’ll come up with something tonight.
I’ve talked a lot lately about my plans to self publish and use my novellas Forsaken By Shadow and Revelation to build a following for this pen name. To acheive a little bit of name recognition among fans for the planned series I want to go along with it. I’m comfortable with the fact that I’ll get the two novellas out this year, then get the first full length book in the series written over the end of this year and next, hopefully to be ready for submission by the end of 2011. In the best case, pipe dream scenario, someone of the agent or editor pursuasion will find one or both of the novellas, think they are awesome and ask “Do you have something full length?” (notice as part of this pipe dream, they find ME rather than the other way around), to which I will hopefully be able to respond, “Why yes, I do. It’s a story about…”
But Nathan Bransford’s recent post about sequels got me thinking about what I’m going to do if things don’t go as I plan. If the series I want to do misses the hot trend of paranormal or just isn’t right for whatever reason. Now, certainly I can epub the novel in the same way I am the novellas. If, after a reasonable period of time of trying to find an agent, no one bites, I can certainly treat it in the same manner–something else to build a fan base and get my name out there (the assumption here being that if it is good enough for submission, it has already passed my own monumentally high standard test). And I will.
But then what?
I don’t want to be that author who continues with a series that isn’t wanted. Certainly if I decided to go entirely indie like my pal Zoe Winters, I could keep writing in this ‘verse as long as I like. I could finish the entire series and independently publish them all. I suspect that I could build a consistent fanbase for it that would bring in a decent chunk of change (and given that I would almost be willing to cut off my right arm if it would get me out of this awful EDJ so that I could write full time–if not for the not being able to type one handed thing–any form of passive income from my writing is a good thing).
But for now, I still harbor hopes of doing things the more traditional way. So if, when I finish the first full length book in this series (whatever it is going to be, since HiS/FB has been booted out of the running for that position), it doesn’t get picked up by somebody in New York, then I suspect I’ll take a step back to work on other projects for a while. If that series isn’t the one that will get me noticed, fine. I have so MANY ideas in my head, so that’s certainly not a problem. I may finally take the time to write the YA trilogy that’s been kicking around in my head for years. I might start my paranormal cozy mystery series. Or I might come up with something entirely different. Either way, after writing 4 manuscripts in the same ‘verse (even though HiS/FB got canned), I think I’ll probably be ready for a break and the opportunity to play with something else.
Plus, that’s about the time we’re planning to start a family, and I expect to be robbed of my brain (since babies in utero and out are their own form of zombies that suck your brains and your spare time), it might be good to focus my energies on something more simple. Or short at least. I had contemplating just planning on writing novellas through my pregnancy and the first few years of having kids. I’m not sure my attention span will be longer than that! And again, those are things I can self-publish to continue to build name recognition and a fan base.
I just have to keep reminding myself of my mantra: It’s a long haul game. It’s a long haul game. It’s a long haul game…
I should have something writing related to talk about. I should have started my opening scene of Revelation last night. There are a lot of shoulds that are just not happening right now.
There is a lot of crap going on at the EDJ that I really can’t talk about here. Suffice it to say that I was awake half the night thinking up all the ways I would like to tell my boss to shove it. Which I can’t do.
I am very, very angry right now.
I’ll come back when I can speak without spewing.
In the meantime, feel free to stop by How To Murder Your Boss and share your bad boss stories or favorite murder scenario. It’ll be therapeutic for us all.
How the heck did it get to be March?
Apparently I went all weekend without blogging. My bad. I was crazy busy ruining my diet with Girl Scout cookies and a cookout, doing laundry out at the in laws’, pricing and purchasing a new dryer, going through the edits of my latest beta reader, grading a batch of truly horrific midterms, doing yard work, and generally staying off the interwebz.
Today is a new day and a new manuscript. I finished outlining Revelation last week, and I’m scheduled to start it today. I’ve set myself a low bar goal of 1,500 words while I feel my way into the voices of these characters. We’re still in the get to know each other stage. I have to say how relieved I am to have pulled the plug on First Blood. I am moving on with my writing life.
Today is also the first day of March’s Novel Push Initiative, which I opted not to participate in this month. I’ll miss the camaraderie, but I’ve just got a lot going on at work (as usual), and I don’t want the pressure as I first get going on this new piece. I am also slated to begin prepping the curriculum for my Learning class for fall, so I’d rather be able to work at my own pace, whatever that may be.
I’m getting back on the workout/healthy eating band wagon. February was a wash with no net loss or gain. Too many challenges: Super Bowl, Valentine’s Day, my birthday (oh the ice cream cake!), and a general cookout with CHEESE DIP (my dietary nemesis). Hubby has expressed interest in doing the Body for Life program. I already had the book from college and once I opened it, I remembered why I didn’t like it. Not only do 6 mini-meals just NOT fit into my schedule, but there’s a lot of emphasis on that myoplex stuff, which a) tastes nasty and b) is prohibitively expensive. So I wound up ordering The Body Fat Solution, which is supposed to be very similar, but doesn’t rely on supplements. We’ll see how all that shakes out. Either way, I’m trying to kick it up a notch in the exercise department to make up for the disappointment that was February. If anybody REALLY cares about all this boring stuff, you can buddy me on Spark People here.
I’ll stop boring you now and go write the remainder of the budget justification that got dumped on me this morning.
Even though I have made my peace with the death of HiS/FB, there is still a part of me that wants to know what went wrong. It’s the same need to KNOW that fuels autopsies after questionable deaths of people, except in the case of books, it’s in the hope that we don’t repeat our mistake or in hopes of pulling a Lazarus. Now I really have no inclination toward the latter at this point. I am DONE with this story, but just from a purely objective point I wanted to figure out what I’d done wrong. My initial problem in the first draft was that the heroine had no character arc. I made her emotionally strong and kick ass in the beginning, so she really had nowhere to go. I fixed that in the planned second draft, but I created other problems that seemed to center around the structure of the story itself.
I recently bought Story Structure Demystified by Larry Brooks. Anybody who’s been around my blog for any length of time has heard me mention him and his blog Storyfix. I’ve referenced his initial series on story structure ad nauseum because it’s just THAT good. The longer ebook version did not disappoint. Anyway, once I finished, I decided to email Larry himself with a question that’s been plaguing me since I read his initial series:
If you take a romance–one in which both the hero and heroine have their own, equally important journeys to make (and for the sake of argument let’s say this is romantic suspense or some other subgenre of romance where the story is not JUST about the relationship), how do you deal with the assorted plot points? I mean, ideally I suppose you would craft something wherein the same FPP, Midpoint, and SPP apply in different ways to both. But what if they don’t? Do you then fall back on the series of scenes/events to be the FPP, Midpoint, and SPP? It’s something I’ve been quite curious about as I’ve read your series.
This is something that has really bothered me because while it seemed very straight forward to apply the story structure and character journey when there was a single hero/ine, it seems infinitely more complicated and hard to manage when there are two, which is the case in most of romance.
And this is what he told me:
Here’s my answer to your question, which is a good one: doesn’t matter if you have two protagonists. The first plot point is the confluence (meeting) of the two storylines, everything before that is a set-up for that moment. From there, the stories aren’t separate, they’re intertwined, so all the guidelines for the various milestones and contexts for the three remaining parts of the story remain valid. How you distribute and merge the storylines is the art of it, of course, but the presence of a hero and a heroine doesn’t change a thing, the story should still unfold over this paradigm.
And boom, there you have it. The cause of death for HiS/FB. In my attempt to give Marley a good character arc, I made her goal totally unrelated to Conall’s such that I was really telling two DIFFERENT and relatively unconnected stories about people who happened to fall in love and get together (which was, at that point, mostly at this author’s whim). It’s what I suspected and it was nice to have the story structure guru himself confirm my suspicions. Perhaps someday down the road something will gel for me and I’ll bring those two out of the convalescence home for another book.
So I was talking to Pot about it this morning, and we decided that good goals for shared protagonists are things that can be defined as races, competitions, shared journeys. That they should have a common goal in the sense that they are in pursuit of the same object or destination, even if they have different motives or plans for when they get there. Forsaken By Shadow works because Gage and Embry have a common goal. Revelation is going to work because Finn and Ransom have initially competing goals that merge into a common destination. Of course this is more like a guideline than a rule, but I think certainly it helps when trying to plot or plan things out because then you are assured that their plotlines feed off of each other rather than just intersecting because you deem it to be so even when it’s not logical.
Yep, you read that right. I am having a funeral for this book today. I wish I could say its illness and decline was sudden, but unfortunately, all the specialist treatments and clinical trials it’s been through took more of a toll on the story than I had hoped.
:sniffs into handkerchief as shoebox filled with manuscript pages is lowered into the ground:
Really, I had such high hopes for you. But you were envisioned as a stand alone book, and I’ve tried to force you into line with the series I want to write. It just didn’t work. It’s sapped all enthusiasm I had for the story. And without that…I have nothing. I still like the characters and they will retire for now to the Character Convalescence Home, perhaps to be brought out for a future story. But the plot, such as it is, is being buried.
Honestly, it’s a relief to say it out loud.
I’ve been dreading coming back to this book, putting it off, and then struggling with the opening scenes. None of these are good signs.
It’s really hard to make this kind of decision. I put so much time and effort into this book. I really hate to think of it just as a learning experience. And it was. I developed myself on several aspects of craft when I wrote it. But some books are beyond salvage. Whereas Forsaken By Shadow was very clearly a story about…. I was never able to clearly verbalize the story I wanted to tell with this book. And frankly, I’m not willing to invest any more time in it. If it was going to come together, it would have in the last year.
So now what?
I am moving on to the second novella. I’ve previously mentioned that I’d already envisioned a hero and heroine and a basic plotline. I’ve found faces for them.
This is Finn (and I think will lend itself nicely to a cover down the road):
And this is Ransom:
Both Forsaken By Shadow and this second novella predate the book I was TRYING to tell in First Blood/Hunted In Shadow. They are, in many ways, the big set up for my metaplot that will span the series. I am hoping that by finishing this novella (Update: it will be titled Revelation) first, I will have a better idea of what that first full length book in the series SHOULD be.
Why is it that everyone assumes if you’re good at one type of writing, you can write anything?
I was whining to my mother this morning that I really loathe writing grant budget justifications (ugh, the Evil Day Job). She replied that it should be easy for me with my gift of writing. Um, no. Writing a 35k-100k story with an actual plot, interesting characters, and snappy dialogue is (relatively) easy. And is, at least, fun. Explaining to government bureaucrats why we’re requesting x amount of money for our grant is not. That falls into the realm of…well, I was going to say the scientific journal style writing I’ve tried to get away from since I left graduate school, but it’s not even that. It’s just straight up non-fiction, BORING stuff. And I HATE IT. I don’t mind editing it, and spend a considerable portion of my EDJ doing so, but I really really hate writing it.
It seems to me that it’s mostly non-writers who think that if you can write one type of thing well, you can do anything well. I don’t think most writers make that assumption. We all have our strengths. I wouldn’t expect a male author of a hard-boiled detective novel to turn out a perfect romance novel (although, who knows…people surprise me every day). Likewise, I wouldn’t expect the female author of inspirational romance to turn out a fabulous, edgy sci fi thriller. It’s not to say that it can’t be done, but usually when authors cross into different genres there’s some connection. There’s lots of crossover between paranormal romance, urban fantasy, and YA right now, for example. Or you might have someone who’s done thrillers turn their hand to romantic suspense. You still have crossover between some primary element of those genres.
Someone who kicks ass at scientific journal writing and grant writing does not necessarily have the skills to write good fiction. There’s a lot more craft involved in fiction that these more practical forms don’t entail. Yes, they have their own requirments. An element of persuasion. An ability to communicate in the language of the intended audience (which is generally specialized and uses a lot of what my granddaddy called 50 cent words). There’s no room for humor or entertainment in scientific writing (my thesis panel criticized the hell out of me for trying and made me change it all–the bastards). And that’s part of why I hate it.
Sigh. I guess I’ll go suck it up and get it done. My alternative is to do my taxes, which is equally depressing as a task.
Along with birthday well wishes, one of my fabu commenters yesterday said, “As a newly minted 30 year old myself, I’m starting to worry that I’m running out of time to find an agent. But I like your idea of focusing on one aspect of the craft and working on it much better!”
This feeling is SO SO familiar to me. When I finished graduate school in 2006 with a degree that wasn’t going to help me do what I really wanted, I felt like I was waking up from a long dream. Like my life had been on pause for years and was just starting again with the admission that I really, truly wanted to write for a living. No matter how impractical that might be. I dove back into the book I’d abandoned in grad school and pushed through to finish it–the first book I’d finished in 9 years. Regardless of what my husband thinks, that book was terrible. The story wasn’t, and someday it may be rewritten and see the light of day. But it’s not my priority for now. The year after that I started a rewrite of that book, hit a major procedural road block, started another book. I didn’t finish anything that year. I was furious and frustrated and felt like I was wasting time. I’d wasted all this time and I wanted to see results. There was this self imposed ticking clock hanging over my head. And that time clock’s name is KIDS.
It seems like almost all the successful writers I know online are in their mid to late thirties with school age or older children. They all seemed to come to writing late in the first place or put it on hold for kids. The ones in my age bracket have small children and generally do good to pound out a few paragraphs a week because, let’s face it, kids are one big giant time suck. I don’t care that they’re usually the most important and cherished thing in one’s life. They’re a time suck and they kill your brain by depriving you of sleep. For a variety of reasons I won’t get into here (most of them practical), hubby and I chose to wait on having children until our early thirties–most specifically when hubby finishes school. At this point we have a year and a half.
Tick tock. Tick tock.
It’s enough to make me break into a cold sweat.
Well somewhere in the last three years I’ve reached the point where I understand that publishing (traditional or otherwise) is a long haul game. The name of the game is usually hurry up and wait. Except while you’re waiting you’re supposed to be building a platform and producing stuff to submit. Oh, and working on the Evil Day Job so you can support yourself while you write since you’re not likely to be the next Stephanie Meyer.
Well I’ve done the platform thing. I’ve worked slowly to expand my readership both here and at Pots and Plots (which I fully intend to utilize down the road as a means to launch a culinary series). I’ve made a Facebook page and interacted on Twitter. I’ve made good writer friends who make me laugh, and even better, make me think. I’ve expanded my opportunities on the job front, increasing my chances of obtaining a full time job that will integrate neatly with my writing for a living.
But I don’t have a book to submit to an agent yet. I had hoped that by the end of last year I would. I was beyond disappointed at the mess that first draft of First Blood is. Pot had to pull out the pom poms and remind me of the things that I HAVE learned and HAVE improved. I’ve learned about Goal, Motivation, and Conflict. I’ve learned about story structure. I’ve eliminated all the tangential trips into Fluffyverse. I’ve turned into a bloody plotter (God help us all). All of this was a very deliberate series of steps along the path of making myself a better writer. Each year I’ve picked something to focus on and improve myself. This year that’s really connecting emotionally with my characters.
Anyway, I’ve digressed. You’d think that with a year and a half to go until Baby (:shudder:), I’d be spazzing out. Not so much (though, give me a few months). And here’s why.
I’ve realized over the last few months that publishing is changing. With places like Amazon being willing to deal directly with authors to epub via Kindle and others, it opens doors that weren’t there before–eliminating the middle men and increasing the percentage of royalties the author gets to keep. Many argue that without the New York-based team of copy editors and regular editors that the book will be absolute crap and not ready. Sometimes that’s true. It’s equally true that many of the books coming out of New York are not as clean as they ought to be. I’ve seen authors independently release things themselves that were every bit as good as what comes out of New York because they’ve taken the time to make it so. I don’t really want to argue about that. Everyone’s got their own opinion on that particular subject, and frankly, the market will decide. If it’s a worthy book, people will give it positive reviews and it will find its niche.
But what that option has done for me is release me from the ticking clock. I’ve already been clear here that I plan to release Forsaken By Shadow in epub myself. I have a second novella in the works that I intend to do the same with. Both are prequels to the book I am writing now–the book I plan to use to pursue more traditional means of publication. The plan is that those novellas will help me build an audience for the series I’m planning. And the beauty of it is that if New York isn’t interested, I can still release it myself. I can still connect with readers and make a bit of money doing so. And I can do it on my own time frame. So if baby sucks away my brain and time for a few years, so be it. The beauty of epub is that it never goes out of print.
More than anything else, I think it’s allowed me to widen my scope of what qualifies as success as a writer. Sure, I want to succeed the traditional way. I want the agent and an editor who believes in me and my work enough to put the strength of a big New York house behind it. I want to have that stamp of approval and to be able to say that I did it. But the days of what I really want (to be able to write and have the publisher do everything else) are long past. If I’ve got to do everything anyway, it IS an attractive notion to cut out a lot of the middlemen and get to keep a greater percentage of profits.
Either way, I think the next decade is going to bring a lot of change to the world of publishing. And I’ll be quietly plugging away to make my place in it.
So I’m officially 30. I’m kind of apathetic about that part. Hubby freaked out at 30, I guess because he felt like that was the threshold at which he was no longer a kid and had to grow up. I passed that threshold when I was 6 according to my mom, so 30, not a big deal.
It’s Monday and I’m not at work. The best gift I could have given myself–not having to deal with EDJ’s crazy boss on MY DAY. The plan is to spend the day uninterrupted and writing, with some time out on the Wii Fit to help make up for the ice cream cake over the weekend. Oh, the ice cream cake! So rich. So wonderful. So glad I only have one birthday a year. No way in hell am I approaching a scale for at least a week.
Anyway the final frontier I’m approaching has nothing to do with being 30. Rather, it has to do with the last major hurdle I have with my writing. The last thing that I don’t do as well as I should. And that’s emotionally connecting with my characters. It’s something I have a problem with. Some of it, no doubt, is just me. Some of it is my training, but I tend to maintain this objective, clinical view of them. When Pot asks me how a character feels at a certain point in the story, I tend to start spouting off “Well he/she probably feels [blah] because [insert something about their past or experience that sounds like a case study].” It’s not a simple, “She feels grief and a spirit breaking loneliness.” This is an issue Pot is definitely qualified to help me with as it is her strong suit.
I have this fear, I think, of sounding melodramatic. And as Pot pointed out yesterday when we discussed it, I probably will. But melodrama can be edited. Blank pages cannot.
With each book/story I’ve written and finished, I’ve overcome something. Tangental trips into fluffyverse. Actually FINISHING. Thinking out and understanding and executing a solid story structure. How to write action. Each piece has helped me to grow as a writer. So that’s my big focus on this next book. It is necessarily a very emotional one because of the circumstance I’ve set up, and this is a challenge I must rise to and overcome for the book to be the best it can be. I suspect it’s going to hurt.
I am a very busy woman, so when my free nights (when hubby has to work or is at band practice) come along, I have to take full advantage of them and write like a maniac. Last night was just one of those such nights.
You know what I did? I got slightly tipsy on wine and played Bejeweled 2 on my new iPhone. I did, at least, write the first half of my article for NaNoEdMo, but that’s it. I didn’t even try to revise the scene from Thursday night. Because I suck. I just had no brain last night. Or energy. And there’s been no writing today because I’ve been running all over creation and out to my in laws’ to do laundry as our dryer went out. Probably just one of the heat sensors which is a cheap fix but a pain in the ass to deal with. So I’ve been back and forth all day doing laundry, grocery shopping, helping hubby super clean the house, and picking up my own birthday cake (because I forgot I had his keys in my purse when I went out to do the last load of laundry).
I’m finally sitting down for the first time all day (okay not counting that hour nap I snagged on the sofa at my in laws’) and see that my cover artist has sent comps. But there was some glitch in the system and only one of them came through, so I have to WAIT until she gets my PM to just send them through email. I hate waiting! I’m so EXCITED about my cover art.
The critique from another of my betas came in this afternoon. Maybe I’ll have time to go through it tomorrow before we haul the dryer out into the garage to take it apart and test the heat sensors.
I think maybe I’m having a hard time fully committing my brain to First Blood until Forsaken By Shadow is totally off my plate. They’re very different stories, so it’s not easy to switch from one to another. And it’s always nicer to look at the thing that’s almost finished than the thing that doesn’t seem to want to come out of my brain. In the meantime, I’m going to do my best to WAKE UP before company gets here.
