Publetariat

This post, by Larry Brooks, originally appeared on his Storyfix site. 

Also known as, “The Attack of the Whopper Coincidences.”

Or, “Four Plot Points and a Funeral.”

Or, “Dancing with the Deus ex Machina.” 

A good story is very much like a romance.  Not terms of genre – what you’re about to read applies to all genres – but in the sense that the relationship between concept and execution, as well as writer and reader, is a love story.  

It’s about initial attraction and chemistry.  Gratification, fascination, and soon, a deeper meaning and purpose. 

It always starts out so… well.

Then, ultimately, it becomes about something else, too.  Like, living together.  The pursuit of harmony.  Always the intention, rarely the case.  Because the deeper you go, the harder it gets.  The deeper you go together, the more it relies on work instead of the hormones that got you into this.

And that’s where the wheels come off in many stories.  But you don’t see these stories… because they don’t get published.  Not matter how sexy the original idea.

There are so many ways to mess up a great idea.

The first is to actually try to turn an idea into a story… before you turn it into a compelling concept.  Maybe your idea arrived fully cooked as a viable concept, but that rarely happens (which begs the question, can you tell the difference?). 

You can plan or you can pants, but the search for story is an inevitable part of the romance between you and your original idea.  Skip that courtship phase and you’re likely to end up with a broken heart.

A story is never built on a single idea. 

Launched, perhaps, but the ensuing exposition is nothing if not a series of subsequent and subordinated narrative ideas – decisions – along the way. 

Each one is a chance to make or break the whole dramatic enchilada.  Thus…

The second realm of story death comes with the inevitable challenge of making those ideas work.  It’s a qualitative thing, the very essence of art (and you thought art was the sum of all those pretty sentences)… the difference between superstar authors and the rest of us.

This is where so many writers trip up, falling victim to the siren song of the original idea (which, you soon realize, was only in it for the money from that first sizzling glance across a crowded room…).

The mechanics of exposition can kill your concept.

Because this is where writers get desperate.  They are in a corner (one into which they have written themselves) and they know it… so they jump the shark.  They change lanes from credible to unlikely, from necessary to eye rolling.

Happens all the time.  I know this because I read unpublished stories for a living.  And I’m here to tell you, it’s a deal killer.

An effective story needs to change along the way to the climax.

It needs to evolve.  Hidden things need to be unearthed.  Old assumptions need to be overturned.  Surprises need a door through which to enter the narrative.  

Your hero needs to discover things.  Find out stuff. 

This is the machine of your story.  The backbone of dramatic exposition.  Every story is a machine, and it is the concept that defines the scope of what the machine needs to accomplish along the way. 

Each story beat is a connection, a weight-bearing moment of forward-motion. 

And too often, writers make those connections using the prize from a Crackerjack box or a page from an old comic book instead of a finely calibrated fire-forged, finely milled, ingenious steel bolt welded solidly, logically into place. 

 

Read the rest of the post on Storyfix.

This post, by Carolyn Jewel, originally appeared on Girlfriends Book Club.

 

Every year for the last several years, I’ve signed up for NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) and failed.

 

 

 

In case you don’t know, NaNoWriMo occurs during the month of November and participants all have the single goal of writing 50,000 words. That’s about 1,600 words a day.

My friend Rachel Herron (Check out her website at YarnAGoGo.com) sold her NaNoWriMo novel, by the way. She’s a wonderful writer.  So am I, I swear! but I remain a NaNoWriMoFa.  

I even failed the two years I was invigorated, inspired, and pumped up by attending talks by NaNoWriMo founder Chris Baty. He spoke at my Uni when I was in grad school, and a few years later, at my RWA chapter. He’s an inspiring speaker, so if you ever get the chance to hear him, GO!

I have copious excuses, of course. Some of them are lame and some of them are really good.  When I was in grad school, my son was quite young, I was working full time, and I was under contract for more books. I was quite busy and I had my schedule worked out to the point where every moment was spoken for. There was no wiggle room for adding stuff. 

A couple of years I was writing a book anyway, but when November hit, both times I was in the Deleting Crap Phase and I ended up with negative word count. And a way better book by the end of December when I was in the Writing Way Better Stuff phase.

 

 

Read the rest of the post on Girlfriends Book Club.

 This post, by Philip, originally appeared on YouOffendMeYouOffendMyFamily.

I met a couple of kids over the weekend who hope to grow up and become writers. That’s always inspiring to hear but I also wonder if they really understand the struggles and hardships that await. So for them and anyone else who writes or wants to write or loves writing, here are a few of the quotes I’ve collected over the years on this “noblest of professions.”

…I had decided that the only thing I was fit for was to be a writer, and this notion rested solely on my suspicion that I would never be fit for real work, and that writing didn’t require any.
– Russell Baker 

When you start writing you’re 98% pure writer and 2% critic. After you’ve written for a length of time, you’ve learned a great deal about your craft, and you’ve become 2% pure writer and 98% critic. It’s like writing uphill.
– David Westheimer

As a writer, I need an enormous amount of time alone. Writing is 90 percent procrastination: reading magazines, eating cereal out of the box, watching infomercials. It’s a matter of doing everything you can to avoid writing, until it is about four in the morning and you reach the point where you have to write. Having anybody watching that or attempting to share it with me would be grisly.
– Paul Rudnick

Make visible what, without you, might never have been seen.
– Robert Bresson

Writing is easy. All you do is sit staring at a blank sheet of paper until the drops of blood form on your forehead.
– Gene Fowler

Most playwrights go wrong on the fifth word. When you start a play and you type ‘Act one, scene one,’ your writing is every bit as good as Arthur Miller or Eugene O’Neill or anyone. It’s that fifth word where amateurs start to go wrong.
– Meredith Willson

There was a time when making ‘Barney Miller’ a hit on the air was my life. I cared about nothing else. That was all I was concerned with. And I told my wife and I told my children if it costs me my relationship with my family, I’m committing five years of my life to making the best television show I can possibly make. Whatever it costs, under any circumstance. And I hocked my house, and I gave up my salary and I did everything to give the show a chance to start going. And that’s what you have to do.
– Danny Arnold

Hollywood is the only town where you cannot fail. You can only quit trying.
– Dennis Foley

Millions are to be grabbed out here and your only competition is idiots. Don’t let this get around.
– Herman Mankiewicz telling fellow journalist Ben Hecht about Hollywood

My chief memory of movieland is of asking in the producer’s office why I must change the script, eviscerate it, cripple and hamstring it? Why must I strip the hero of his few semi-intelligent remarks and why must I tack on a corny ending that makes the stomach shudder? Half of all the movie writers argue in this fashion. The other half writhe in silence, and the psychoanalysts couch or the liquor bottle claim them both.
– Ben Hecht

Writers are lucky. Whatever the mood, no matter the longing, the writer can use his words to connect himself to any world he wishes to visit.
– Alan Zweibel from “Bunny Bunny: Gilda Radner: A Sort of Love Story.”

Whenever you write, whatever you write, never make the mistake of assuming the audience is any less intelligent than you are.
– Rod Serling

 

 

Read the rest of the post on YouOffendMeYouOffendMyFamily.

This post, by N.E. Lilly, originally appeared on GreenTentacles.com.

 

Well? What is it? You don’t really know do you? Well that’s OK, because then there would be little point in writing this article.

Speculative fiction is a term, attributed to Robert Heinlein in 1941, that has come to be used to collectively describe works in the genres of Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror.

But if we already have science fiction, fantasy, and horror, then why do we need to muddy the water with yet another genre description? Because speculative fiction addresses fiction that includes Weird Tales, Amazing Stories, and Fantastic Fiction. It also may include other genres, such as Mysteries, Alternate Histories, and Historical Fiction. Speculative fiction can be a collective term to describe works of science fiction, fantasy, and horror and also addresses works that are not science fiction, fantasy, or horror, yet don’t rightly belong to the other genres.

 

 

Speculative fiction is also more than the collective title for works of horror, science fiction, and fantasy. The term also embraces works that don’t fit neatly into the separate genres. Tarzan. Television’s Early Edition. Stories by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Tales that span the science fiction, fantasy, and horror genres. Stranger in a Strange Land. The Twilight Zone. Stories by Edgar Allen Poe. Tales that have been labelled simply as ‘weird’ or ‘adventure’ or ‘amazing’ because there was no proper place to put them. Stories on the fringe.

When you’ve come across a story or movie or game that both is and isn’t science fiction, fantasy, and/or horror, then you’ve discovered speculative fiction.

Examples of speculative fiction may run the gamut from the outright weird, such as in the short stories ‘The Call of Cthulhu’ by H.P. Lovecraft or ‘The Metamorphoses’ by Kafka, to the frighteningly possible, such as in the movie ‘Jaws’ directed by Steven Spielberg.

Speculative Fiction is Everywhere

Nearly every major industry has some little niche that produces content for or about speculative fiction. From an obvious industry such as cinema or toys, to industries that are not quite so obvious such as the manufacture of clothing and jewelry (costuming).

Nearly all content and media created for children contains some aspect of speculative fiction, such as talking animals, magic, or monsters. When speaking of children’s literature it’s almost impossible not to find speculative fiction in the form of fantasy or science fiction.

The majority of computer game titles produced, whether for personal computer or gaming consoles, also contain some element of speculative fiction. Whether it be a science fiction strategy game like Sid Meyer’s Alpha Centauri or a fantasy based first person role-playing game like Everquest.

And I defy you to find a single pen and paper role-playing game that doesn’t draw on some element of speculative fiction. There may be one, but I wouldn’t hold my breath looking for it.

Speculative Fiction is everywhere. It has invaded our lives… but what is it? We’ve contacted various people in the specultive fiction industry to profess their knowledge of the question… What is Speculative Fiction?

 

 

Read the rest of the post, which includes definitions and remarks from five more contributors, on GreenTentacles.com.

This post, by Chuck Wendig, originally appeared on his Terribleminds site.

This past weekend, I spoke at the Crossroads Writers Conference in Macon, Georgia. I’ll presumably get to a full recap eventually (wherein I explain a weekend where I encountered people like: my first nervous fan, a former dominatrix, Delilah Dawson with her 1989 cell phone, Nathan “Baby Goose” Edmondson, Robert “Not-An-Accessory-To-Murder” Venditti, and various other awesome humans).

I also met Chris Baty, who is of course the big brain behind NaNoWriMo.

Now, I have my reservations about NaNoWriMo (which I pronounce “wree-mo,” as in, “NaNoWriMo Williams, The Adventure Begins”, even though it is, I’m told, technically “wry-mo”). I think like with all “get-thee-to-the-writery” initiatives, it’s a perfect fit for some and for others an anchor around their ankles, so you just gotta know what’s right for you and what works and not blame yourself when what’s really going on is you’re just adhering to a process that isn’t really your process.

Square peg, circle hole, and all that.

So, that being said, I also know that National Novel Writing Month gets a helluva lot of you up off your leafy, moldering bed of sadness and shame — and anything that forces you to shake off the barnacles and get your ass out to sea is good by me. (Actually, Baty had a good Grace Hopper quote comparing writers to seafaring vessels: “A ship in port is safe… but that’s not what ships are built for.”)

Anyway.

So, first up, I figure I’ll ask: who’s doing NaNoWriMo?

Have you done it before? What was your experience?

What are your hopes and reservations for doing it again?

Also — here’s a list of ten posts here at terribleminds that maybe, just maybe, will help you start to prep for the coming tide of furious frenzied cram-a-holic novel-writing come the month of November. 

 

Read the rest of the post, which includes many helpful links to Chuck Wendig’s helpful writing how-to posts, on Terribleminds.

As writers we are told to avoid clichés, to come up with a new and better way to describe and characterize.

Here are some of my pet peeves:

 

• Irregardless. It’s just plain regardless.
   
• We’ll meet at 9 a.m. in the morning. As opposed to 9 a.m. in the evening?
   
• The good doctor. Maybe he’s a bad doctor.
   
• Very unique. Unique is a word unto itself. It doesn’t need any qualifiers. What is fairly unique? Uniquely unique?
   
• At this point in time. Where else would it be?
   
• At the end of the day. Probably a good phrase the first 5 times it was used, but now…sick of it!
   
• Think outside the box. Again a good one the first 10 times, but…
   
• I personally believe. As opposed to I impersonally believe?
   
• It is what it is. Huh?
   
• To be honest. That makes me think you might NOT be!

BBC’s Magazine has posted a funny list of its readers’ most hated cliché phrases.

To be honest and fair, going forward, this is basically something that, at the end of the day, we’re likely to touch base about again.

Let’s face it, the fact of the matter is that literally all of us succumb to the use of these stock phrases — even when bringing our A game and giving 110%.

What are your most hated clichés — and how do you avoid them? 

 

 

This is a reprint from author and editor Heidi M. Thomas‘s blog.

This post, by Heidi Willis, originally appeared on her And Also… blog on 11/15/10.

The first assignment due this week includes a submission of writing to be critiqued by a group of fellow writers. I’d like to say this is no big deal to me. I’ve been in a critique group for over three years, and we do this all the time. I’m used to having my work shredded and put back together with bleeding red pens (figuratively, of course, since it comes back in a Word document with Track Changes that can be red, blue, green, or, my favorite, purple, depending on the critiquer).

I wasn’t worried. Which should have been my first warning sign.

 

The MFA workshop consists of students in all levels of the program, meaning I will likely be in a group that is not only first semester students, but second, third, fourth and possibly graduating students as well. Because of this, there isn’t the demand to send in just the first pages of what you’re working on. A fifth semester student who’s been doing this two years probably isn’t going to keep sending in the first pages of their novel over and over again. The only requirement is that the piece you submit be better than a rough draft that doesn’t know where it’s going, but is also something you want to keep working on (as opposed to something you’ve already published).

So I contacted my trusty critique group (my 4Corners gals) and asked: Do I send the first pages, which is what I’ll eventually submit to an agent, and work on making that the best, or do I send in what I consider my very best (or favorite) chapter in order to put my best foot forward? If this submission is what an advisor will read to judge whether or not they want to work with me, I want to send the best, right?

My gals said yes, without a doubt, send the best you have.

So then I sent those pages to them to make sure they were polished enough to submit. (I know, they’ve been saints about this whole process with me, and put up with my endless questions and submissions in my panic that I’m going to humiliate myself in January when I begin the residency).

You know what? About half said they LOVED the submission and DEFINITELY send it in, and they CRIED through it and it was so POWERFUL!!!!!! And the other half…. said, eh. This is a bit confusing. And overwritten. And detached. And not the best thing I’ve seen from you. Maybe send in the first pages instead.

Yeah.

My guess is that if you are a writer and you have a writing group, this has probably happened to you too. Different opinions about the same piece of writing…. some love. Some loathe. Some want you to keep it, others think it needs an overhaul. What one person thinks is brilliant and genius, another thinks is confusing and obscure.

And this is the nature of writing. Because this happens even in published works. Look at Stephanie Meyers and the Twilight series, just as an example. Big name authors have come out criticizing the quality of the writing, and yet it’s spawned a world-wide fan base of people that absolutely love it. Cormac McCarthy won the Pulitzer for The Road, which is widely acclaimed, and I couldn’t for the life of me figure out why. That is one book not up my alley, so to speak.

So what do you do when you place your writing in the hands of people you trust to tell you the truth, and then you get such widely differing opinions?

 

Read the rest of the post on And Also….

This post originally appeared on the Alliance of Independent Authors site on 9/19/12.

Trying to get readers to write a review is like getting your two-year-old child to take a horrible-tasting medicine, says ALLi member and regular contributor, Giacomo (Jim) Giammatteo. But it is possible and it is worth it.  In the first of a three-part series on reviews, he explains how he gets more than twenty reviews a month.

The Process of Getting Reviews

I launched my book in mid April 2012. Since then I have managed to get seven editorial reviews, 77 reviews on Amazon, and another 44 reviews on Goodreads. No matter how you look at it, that’s a lot of reviews (more than 20 per month) so how do you get that many reviews?

I can tell you it’s not by having a big family. I didn’t have my wife write one (mostly for fear of what she’d say) and I didn’t have either of my sons write a review. A few family members did write reviews—the ones who read the kind of books I write. And guess what, one of those reviews was not a five star. (Yeah, I know. Tough family)

For what it’s worth, here’s the secret—work your butt off and put in a lot of time. Here are my suggestions.

• Your Book—In the back of your book put a statement about how important reviews are, and ask the readers to please leave a review. Don’t ask for a good review, just an honest one.
   
• Internet—Spend time scouring the internet for sites that review books, and then send out emails asking them to consider your book for a review. There are a lot more sites than you might think. (I am in the process of putting together a comprehensive list of reputable review sites, so check with me in a few weeks if you’re interested.)
   
• Bloggers—This one is perhaps the most important. Do your research. Find the bloggers who read and review in your genre. Follow their instructions and guidelines. Most of them have their policies posted on the site. Read them. Did I mention, Read the Review Policies?
• Make sure you send your book to reviewers who are interested in your kind of book. I made this mistake, resulting in three of my worst reviews. These reviewers were appalled at the violence and use of language in my book. I don’t blame them; it was my fault. I should have done more checking.
• Giveaways—

 

 

Read the rest of the post on  the Alliance of Indepedent Authors site.

This post, by Jennifer Blanchard, originally appeared on Better Writing Habits.

Writers are always complaining they don’t have enough time to write.  In fact, that’s the main complaint writers have and one of their biggest barriers to getting writing done, as well.

Finding time to write when you’re already busy as hell may seem like a huge challenge. It may even feel impossible at times. But here’s a little secret that may help put things into perspective: It’s not about finding time to write; it’s about making time to write.

Writing is a choice.  Just like cooking at home instead of eating out is. Or like watching a re-run of your favorite TV show instead of doing something more productive is.

Life is all about choices. You get to choose. You get to decide how you spend your free time.

But many writers forget that writing is a choice.

They’ve been trying to find time to write for so long they forget that they don’t have to write. Writing is an option.

Making Time Vs. Finding Time

Once you’ve made the choice to be a writer; once you’ve committed yourself to the act of writing; then there’s really only one thing you can do: Make time to write.

Finding time means you’re trying to squeeze in writing between other activities. And based onhow packed your schedule is you may or may not ever actually find that time to get writing done.

But making time to write, that has a whole other connotation. Making time means you’re being proactive. It means you’re building your schedule around your desire to write, rather than building writing into your schedule.

See the difference?

Making time is based on you choosing writing. It’s based on you saying that writing is more important to you then other activities you could be pursuing in your free time. And it’s based on writing being a priority for you.

How To Make Time To Write

Making time to write isn’t as hard as it sounds. It really only requires three steps: 

 

Read the rest of the post on Better Writing Habits. 

 

by L.J. Sellers, author of the bestselling Detective Jackson mysteries

Alcoholics, sex addicts, porn stars, thieves, and kidnappers. In today’s crime fiction, these characters are often the protagonists, and as a reader, I’m expected to root for them. I rarely can. I’ve put down many well-written and well-plotted novels lately because the main character was not someone I could relate to.

 

 

For example, in one story, the protagonist—a reformed criminal, living a good life—participated in a kidnapping to keep himself from going to jail. If I had not been reading the book for discussion, I would have put it down immediately. For me, there was little point in reading about a protagonist I wanted to see caught and punished, especially since I knew he would not be.

In another story, the character was well developed, resourceful, and good-hearted and I really wanted to like her. But the world she inhabited was sleazy and everyone she encountered gave me the creeps. Despite the terrific writing, I finally gave up, because spending too much time in her world was a little hard to take.

Don’t get me wrong. I love crime fiction! And I’m certainly not a prude. I write a mystery/suspense series, and the first book is called The Sex Club. My main character is a homicide detective who’s a hardworking family man. Not perfect, by any means, but he’s also not a cynical, pill-popping alcoholic with dysfunctional relationships. I’m tired of that cop stereotype, and I want my character to be someone readers can relate to.

But it’s not a clear-cut issue. Two of my favorite books last year had protagonists who were criminals…or at least they had been. In Beat the Reaper, the main character is an ex-hit man who becomes a doctor. But he’s trying to redeem himself, and it’s a terrific (and often funny) story. The Lock Artist, another novel I loved, is about a psychologically mute safecracker. But the reader knows from the beginning that Michael goes to jail and hopes to change his life. So I rooted for both characters all the way.

For me, good characterization for a protagonist, especially a recurring character, means creating someone readers will care about, like, and/or respect in some way. (I make an exception for Elmore Leonard’s stories, in which everyone is shady, but often likeable, and I can always cheer for a charming thief, especially if he’s played by George Clooney.)

I realize I may be somewhat alone in this thinking. In my book discussion groups, many other readers say they don’t have to like the protagonist to find the story compelling.

How do you feel about protagonists who are unlikable, deeply flawed, or simply not someone you’d ever spend time with? Does it spoil the story for you? Can you name a novel you thoroughly enjoyed even though you didn’t like the protagonist?

 

 

This is a reprint from the Crime Fiction Collective blog, and is reprinted here in its entirety with that site’s permission.

We’re not posting new content tonight, as we’re using this evening to perform some server maintenance tasks. The site will remain online during this time, and we’ll be back with new content tomorrow evening, 9/10/12, at 6pm Pacific Time. Thanks for your patience and support.  (no need to click through – this is the end of the post)

 This post originally appeared on onlinecollege.org.

We have some good news for English class haters: some of the rules your teachers drilled into your brain are absolute hooey in the real world. Who really says “an historic”? And personally, we love starting sentences with “but,” “and,” and “or.” Read on as we explore these and 15 other school writing rules that really don’t have a place in modern writing. English teachers, you have our apologies.

1. WRITING ENDLESSLY TO GET YOUR POINT ACROSS:

As school progresses, we go from small paragraphs to 50-page papers in college, but more doesn’t necessarily mean better. In fact, in the real world, it’s much better to get your point across in a concise way.

2. SENTENCES CAN BEGIN WITH AND, BUT, OR OR:

This classic English class rule has become obsolete, as people have ignored it so much that hardly anyone observes it anymore. It may not be completely professional, but it’s widely accepted and a great way to get your point across.

3. WAITING FOR A PROMPT:

In school, you’re handed assignment after assignment that spells out exactly how you should approach your writing, but in the real world, rarely do such prompts exist. Learn how to figure out what to write and find the confidence to decide what you want to put into it.

4. LONG PARAGRAPHS:

Chances are, you were taught to construct paragraphs with topic sentences, supporting evidence, and small conclusions, but that’s just too long for the real world. You can better keep the attention of your audience by limiting paragraphs to three sentences at the most.

5. EDITING HAPPENS ALL AT ONCE, AT THE END:

No one’s saying you can’t give your work a once-over before sending it along, but if you’ve got a lot of ground to cover, it might make sense for you to edit as you go, rather than all at once. Fixing problems and having clean copy to work from can make it easier to move on and write the rest of your work.

6. NOT ENDING SENTENCES WITH A PREPOSITION:

Sometimes, you just have to end your sentence in a preposition. A good rule to remember is if you can remove a preposition and the sentence still makes sense, you need to cut it out. If not, keep it. For example: “What did you step in?” needs “in”, but “Where is it at?” could stand to lose the “at.”

7. AVOIDING INCOMPLETE SENTENCES:

Sentences do not have to be complete. They don’t even always have to have a subject, verb, and object. Quick, punchy sentences can help add drama and make a point when used sparingly. Journalists violate this one all the time.

 

Read the rest of the post, which includes 10 more writing rules that may not apply outside of school, on onlinecollege.org.