Three Thing Thursday

From Cheryl:

Last month I read The Lie Tree by Frances Hardinge. Absolutely phenomenal. It weaves together character, storytelling, action, worldbuilding, and social issues flawlessly. The character was so smart and I loved watching her in action. She captured so well all the things I felt growing up but could never put so eloquently. For example:

“There was a hunger in her, and girls were not supposed to be hungry. They were supposed to nibble sparingly when at table, and their minds were supposed to be satisfied with a slim diet too.”

I love it! All through the book I was just in awe, wondering if I’d ever write something that brilliant. But another part of me didn’t care, because I was just happy this book was in existence. That made me think…will I write something that someone will feel that way about? Is there a story in me that needs to be told, and that someone else needs to read? And if so, what am I doing to make sure that story comes into existence?

From LoriAnne:

I am just so much in love with Kate Morton books! Have you read any of them? The Secret Keeper, The Distant Hours, The Lake House are just a few. I came to her fandom late.  I’m not usually a mystery reader, but I will almost ignore my bleeding children if I’m engrossed in one of her stories.  It’s not just that they take place in the UK and I’m a huge Anglophile, and it’s not that you can’t help but love her characters. It’s the way she paints the mood with her words as she sets the scene. Often, a decaying aristocratic family estate is the setting and the way she uses personification and rhythm of words, you believe that an old decaying house is a living, breathing, and beloved thing. It’s a witness to what has happened there through the generations, and is definitely one of the cast of characters. Here’s a small example, and in this one, the setting portrays an optimistic and anticipatory mood:

“Her gaze fell to the house where men on ladders were weaving huge wreaths of greenery along the brick façade and a couple of housemaids were busy attaching delicate paper lanterns to the fine strings beneath the eaves. The sun had lit up the top row of leadlight windows, and the family home, polished to within an inch of its life, was sparkling like a bejeweled old dame dressed for her annual opera outing” (Morton p. 12).

Can’t you just picture Dame Maggie Smith as this house?  I need to work on portraying even small sensory details in such a way, that the environment my characters are in, comes to life too.

 

From Me:

Following the excerpts above, write either place or description that breathes life into your story.

Feel free to share.

Three Thing Thursday on THURSDAY!

Cheryl:

I watched an interview with Lin-Manuel Miranda recently where he spoke about being invited to the White House to perform years ago.

“Actually,” he told them, “I do have something I’ve been working on. It’s a rap about Alexander Hamilton.”

They all laughed. “Wait,” they said after a moment. “You’re serious?”

Little did they know that the song he sang that night would go viral and lead to him writing a Broadway musical that would be nominated for a record-breaking total of 16 Tony awards.

It reminds me of that quote by Jules Feiffer:

“Artists can color the sky red because they know it’s blue. Those of us who aren’t artists must color things the way they really are or people might think we’re stupid.”

For 7 years, this is what Lin-Manuel Miranda did. He painted the sky red and ignored everyone that called him stupid. “You can’t write a rap song about Alexander Hamilton,” they said.  “It just can’t be done.”

And they were right…until he did it.

What is your red sky? Are you writing it yet? And if not…why?

Me:

So, I am behind on NaNoWriMo, just as I expected I might be. However, this time I’m just going to move ahead. Not panic. Have fun. Write!

Don’t give up if you fall behind.

No matter what, if you try you’ll be that many more words ahead. The first forty pages on a novel is the first forty pages of a novel. 20,000 words is 20,000 words, even if it’s NOT 50,000.

And if you write consistently, no matter the number of words reached, you will begin to make writing a habit.

(Still–I’m headed toward 50,000!)

Good luck!

Me again:

Answer these questions: What is it the stops you from sitting down and writing?

How will you conquer that in a month?

Three Thing Thursday on Friday. Again.

CHERYL SAYS: I remember the story of a speaker at a conference I attended. She related the tale of a man who had married an incredibly beautiful woman. A few months into the marriage, he came to his mother, feeling like he was at his wit’s end.

“She doesn’t work, she doesn’t cook, she doesn’t clean, she doesn’t do anything, Mom. What should I do?”

His mother responded, “You married her for her looks. Go home and look at her.”

Do you have sentences and paragraphs like this beautiful wife? If they aren’t pulling their weight, you have to cut them loose. Every sentence needs to move the story forward. Never, ever, alter your story to make your prose fit. The story is king. Everything supports the story, or it has to go.

For me, it’s easier to save these little darlings in another folder, telling myself that someday I’ll find a home for them. Maybe I will. Maybe I won’t. But I know that my story is stronger for having dumped them.

I think part of the reason that it’s so hard to cut these sections stems from fear. What if I never write anything this beautiful again? What if this is the best sentence in the entire novel? What if I’ve already peaked?

Get rid of these thoughts. Every time you write, you become better. You are stronger, you are wiser, and your words will reflect that. Not only will you write something as good as the lost prose, you’ll write something better.

CAROL SAYS: So that idea of planning for NaNo? For sure, I am a pantser. (WordPress wants me to be a panther. My girls want me to be a cougar. But I am a lowly writer who never plans.) It’s hard to plan out what I’m going to write. I just don’t want to. The thought of deciding what goes in chapter one and being smart like Caitlin Shirts?

So here’s what I am doing. A Carol Plan. Easy and not restrictive.

I’m jotting down every idea of what COULD happen in my books.

Everything.

Night before last I couldn’t sleep.

Wrote thought after thought of what could happen to my Wrasseling Gals. The more I thought about it, the more possibilities came to me.

The truth is, I know I won’t make it in NaNo without forethought.

We’ll see if this helps.

AND:

Martine Leavitt‘s YA novel CALVIN has won the Governor General’s Literary Award of Canada in the category of literature for young people.

Three Thing Thursday on Friday

#1 From Me

Hey, Everyone!

Tonight I have a book signing at The King’s English bookstore in SLC. I’d love to see you there. I’m reading from my novel MESSENGER which was pubbed on the 18th of this month! The gig as at 7:00. And for once, I’m bringing treats! (I am not a treat maker. My cute daughter is going to do this for me.)

#2 From Caitlin Shirts

So NaNoWriMo is right around the corner and WIFYR is playing along. Here’s some of that info, from our WIFYR newsletter: WIFYR will be hosting a reward party! Our group goal is 400,000 words OR, if you’re in the middle of a masterpiece, a second group is editing 2000 pages (8 pages a day per person). All who meet their goals are invited to come to the reward party. Whether your goal is 20,000 words or the full 50,000, or you’re editing 8 pages a day or 15, this month is a good time to reach your goals. Click here to join the group or email us at wifyrdoesnano@gmail.com.

Here are two hints from Caitlin Shirts that helped her succeed in playing the NaNo game.

Prepare for NaNoWriMo

To avoid spending all November staring at a blank screen, I prepare with these two exercises in October.

1. Make an outline.

My NaNoWriMo outline has two purposes. First, it keeps the flow going. If I get writer’s block on Scene 2, I can skip to Scene 3 without losing my word count for the day. Second, it helps me write with more focus. NaNoWriMo drafts tend to have long meandering sections that are destined to be cut in the next draft. If I know where my character is at the beginning of a scene and I can write straight to where that character needs to be at the end, less is wasted.

A detailed 25-page outline gives you a sneaky head start on your word count, but anything that gives you direction will work. Last year, my outline was a bunch of Post-It notes, each with an event in the story, arranged in roughly the order I wanted those events to happen.

2. Set a personal backup goal.

Last year, I wrote 55,000 words during NaNoWriMo. To be honest, the main reason I surpassed the goal was not that I started with an outline. The main reason was that I have no children. Whatever your responsibilities, 50,000 words is hard. If you hit November 15 and realize there is no human way to get to 50,000 words, it’s easy to give up. A personal backup goal gives me a reason to keep going. Set your goal to support the reason you chose to participate in NaNoWriMo. If you want to get in the habit of writing daily, set a personal goal to write 200 words a day without missing a day. No matter how busy you get, 200 words is not overwhelming, and at least you’ll open the manuscript. If you want to experience the social support of NaNoWriMo, but you know you’ll be too busy to write during Thanksgiving weekend, give yourself a pro-rated word count as your personal goal. A backup goal could be to write more words than your sister, or to reach a certain part of your plot, or to promise that if you fail to reach 50,000 words, you’ll throw yourself a PersonalNoWriMo in February when your life is less hectic.

Also, remember: Nobody cares if you cheat a little, as long as you get out of NaNoWriMo what you want to get out of it.

#3 From Cheryl Van Eck

What do you do when you get to a spot and you have no idea what happens next?

This happens to me all the time. I know the next place that my character needs to be, but I’ve worked them into such a fantastic dilemma that I have no idea how to get them back out. Luckily, there are a few options.

First, think about what definitely would not happen. Amuse yourself with this for awhile. Have a few serious suggestions, and a few fun ones. My character will definitely not climb onto the back of an elephant and be sucked up by aliens. She won’t break out into a choreographed Bollywood dance with the woodland creatures in tow. She won’t cry.

Next, think of at least 10 things that could happen. Don’t stop just because number 3 sounds pretty good. Go all the way to 10. Even if it’s a bad idea, or one that’s in conflict with another part of the story, write it down. You can discard it later, but for now, you need to see your options.

Lastly, if you’re completely stuck, don’t push it. Write it down on a slip of paper, and put it somewhere that you’ll see it. Then forget about it. Skip the scene. Move on. Somewhere in the back of your mind, you’re still working on it. And at some point, probably when doing the most mundane of tasks, it’ll resolve itself. Give it time.

Above all, don’t give up. You can get your character out of this! You just need to think outside the box.