Writing a Book Together: Christian McKay Heidicker–Writer Inspiration

Here’s the first writer to respond about that moment when they have a novel idea and how it comes to them.   I quite loved what Christian said:

“Every year I put on a Halloween reading and encourage my writer friends to write truly chilling tales.

“A couple of years ago, I wrote a story that was so disturbing one of the other writers said she couldn’t be part of the show unless I changed it. It was two nights before the performance so I went home, reached deep into my childhood fears, and found The Berenstain Bears.

“I LOVED those books when I was little (Spooky Old Tree and Bears in the Night, specifically) and so decided to write an anthropomorphized fox version.

“I performed the tales two nights later, and my friends said it was the best thing I’d ever written.

“So I said, ‘Hmm.’ And then, ‘Huh.’ And then ‘Wait a minute . . .’ And then I wrote Scary Stories for Young Foxes.

“Of course, I ended up wringing out nearly all of the anthropomorphism in a later draft, but yeah, that’s how it happened. Under severe pressure and because my mom was kind enough to read me everything under the sun when I was little.”

It was that “Wait a minute” moment where Christian saw he had something. There was the thinking. The playing. The writing. And then the aha moment.

Christian is teaching a morning workshop class at Writing and Illustrating for Young Readers.

Go here for more information: https://www.wifyr.com/morning-workshops/ (His class is filling quickly, so if you’ve been to WIFYR before, you might want to be with the fella who sold six books, one right after the other.)

Go here to learn more about Christian. http://www.cmheidicker.com

And here’s his blog: http://www.cmheidicker.com/blog/

Rocking a New Year

2019, the year to publish!

It was a crazy hard year and I see that expressed because I haven’t posted since August. The blog is sort of limping along. Actually, it’s dead. But I hope to pump new life into it.

I love a New Year but this one has dawned darker than I expected and with left-over 2018 heartbreak. Still, it’s here and I must embrace it. So let’s think UPCOMING EVENTS and QUESTIONS to start off the Year and head toward publication.

Here are a few questions you can ask yourself AND then ask your characters:

What do you hope happens this year?

How will you make those hopes happen?

What matters most to you?

How will you keep that most important thing safe?

Care to share your goals?

Remember, Rick Walton said, “Make goals you can control.”

I think of Rick a lot and even talk to him. I’m sure he’s still making achievable goals on The Other Side and I know he’s loving others without question.

MY BIG GOAL: I’m going to walk through the creation of a new novel, here, with you all.

EVENTS

1. WIFYR / SCBWI January Kickoff–Jan 11, 2019. Bullock Room, Provo Library. 6:30-8:30. Potluck! And new or gently Used books for The Ella Hughes Foundation. https://goo.gl/forms/NgPm8PuwnAZrfk1P2
2. March 6 and 7 or 8 or 9 AGENT/EDITOR Retreat. Emily Feinberg from Roaring Brook  and Karyn Fischer from Book Stop Literary are visiting UT and you can sign up to have you manuscript reviewed with one of them. https://goo.gl/forms/0TJhBpSbu6MgWlpz2
3. June 10-14, 2019  It’s the 20th year for Writing and Illustrating for Young Readers! Registration opened today and I know at least one class has only one spot left. (www.wifyr.com) So come on down! We still have room for you and fabulous, amazing faculty.

What YOU Can Create

So these last two days I’ve been shuffling pages this way and that, adding sections and rewriting my murder mystery WOLF. That means I missed yesterday and Monday’s prompts.

As the conference roars closer, I have to finalize things there.

Here are all five prompts, the last of them, before WIFYR 2017!

#50

What are the significant events in you book? Write them down, in order. Do they rise in tension, causing more at stake for your main character? Is the tension tightened with these events?

#51

Write the most important scene from the point of view of a person watching it unfold, not experiencing it. Pay particular attention to sense of place details. How does this inform your novel?

#52

Choose your five favorite novels. Break away from series and the same genre.

Using each book as an example, rewrite one page of your story, from the opening, imitating each book.

So page one will be like Harry Potter, page two will be like The Road, page three will be like THIS IS WHAT I DID etc.

What do you learn? Can you take any of this and put it in your writing?

#53

Take 15 minutes to put yourself in a scene with your main character. Make it a tough scene. Write what you talk about.

#54

If you have done all these prompts, which one has helped you the most? Why? How can you use this in more of your writing?

 

Okay, Everyone (all three of you!). I’m off.

Will see you in July!

Happy WIFYR. Happy writing. Happy life.

So Last Night

Ann Dee and I went to dinner with a bunch of amazing women and while we were there I said, “I think our book is almost done.”

And Ann Dee said, “No it isn’t.”

And I said, “You don’t think so?”

And she said, “No, I don’t.”

And I said, “Yes it is.”

And she shook her head and the people who were listening to us looked at us like, “Are they gonna fight?”
We weren’t. ‘Cause Ann Dee would win.

 

This conversation shows you how you can work on the same project, for the same amount of time, reading the same words, and see something differently.

“It’s about family,” I said.

“It’s a mystery,” Ann Dee said.

“There’s a sorta mystery in it.”

“You keep saying it’s about fathers.”

“It is.”

(Sigh)

 

In a little bit, I’ll write the next section of our book about families. Before the book comes out, Ann Dee and I will come up with a less-than-25-word explanation of the novel. It may or may not include fathers and a mystery.

 

As you work with your partner–don’t worry.

Write with faith.

Push yourself.

Do things you would never do on your own.

Love it.

Hate it.

Just do it.

 

If anyone has written with someone this week, please feel free to talk about it here.

We wanna know if YOU know what you’re writing.

😀