A Little Writerly Advice - Neil Gaiman

I recently discovered a podcast called The Nerdist. It features Chris Hardwick interviewing various "nerds". Being such a huge nerd, I'm enjoying this podcast like crazy.

Last night, I listened to the episode with Neil Gaiman. For those who don't know, in addition to all the books he's written, he also penned an episode of Doctor Who earlier this year.

At the end, Chris asked him to give writers who were just starting out some advice. Neil had a lot of good advice, but the first thing he said really hit me:

"If you only write when you're inspired, you may be a fairly decent poet, but you'll never be a novelist."

He then goes on to explain that you will never be able to tell the difference between the scenes you wrote when you were inspired and the ones you wrote because you had to get your words in.

So, my friends, that is my little nugget of advice for you. I hope you can be inspired all the time, but if you can't, get that butt in the chair and write anyway!

LINKS

• Click here to get to the podcast. If you only want to listen to the question about writing, it starts around the 1:04:00 mark.
  
• Follow Neil on twitter - @neilhimself
  
• Read Neil's books!

It's All Been Done Before

Over the summer, I’ve been catching up on my reading. I’ve read some good ones and some not so good ones. I’ve also read some that are, GASP!, just like the book I’m writing. Only better. And already out on the shelves.

Whenever I come across a book like this, I get nervous. I mean, I’ve been pouring my heart and soul into my current WIP for two years, and now another book is out with a similar premise!

There are a few things I do when I find myself in this situation:

1. I panic and stop reading the book because I hate how much better it is at doing what I’m trying to do.
   
2. I come to my senses and finish reading said book.
   
3. As I read, I try to remind myself that even if I have a MC with something in common with this book’s MC, they’re still not the same.
   
4. When I’m done reading, I try to figure out what the author did well, and places where they made a wrong turn. I note the missteps and try to make sure I don’t have anything similar in my WIP.
   
5. Finally, I take a deep sigh of relief and remind myself that nothing is 100% original. Each of us just has to put our own unique spin on our story. I mean, how many times has a good girl met a mysterious boy, only to find out he’s a vampire/werewolf/fairy/angel/devil/troll?

What do you do when you find yourself reading a book that’s a lot like yours?

Today I Don't Feel Like Doing Anything...

Now I know why every book I've read about writing says you must write every day. I haven't written or edited in about a month because of vacation, then work obligations, with a sprinkling debilitating migraines. Now I'm sitting here with no idea how to even jump back in. I can't even remember where I left off!

I have some major edits in my future, and that just makes the task even more daunting. Every time I think about writing, I just watch TV instead. It's terrible. I have a few husband free hours tonight and I'm already thinking of things to do besides opening that dusty manuscript.

So, dear friends and followers, I ask you, what do you do when you lose motivation?

Giving Up and Giving In

Do you ever feel like you should give up?

I sort of feel that way with my Nano '08. I still really love the concept, but I executed such a poor first draft, that it's required many massive rewrites, and it's still all over the place!

I think the problem is that I never gave my WIP a fighting chance to begin with. I didn't outline, and I wrote it before I really knew how to "write". There are plots that jump around. There are subplots that go nowhere. There are subplots that have nothing to do with the main plot. And in the end, it doesn't tie together into a neat little bow.

So here I am, on draft 4 and it's still not right.

I think my only option is to strip it down to the bare bones and do a complete re-write. I've worked on it so long that I feel like ditching it completely would be wrong. I can't do that to my characters. I owe it to them to finish the story and finish it right.

Have you ever been in this situation? What did you do to get out of it?

Blogfest: Out of the Box Challenge

Tessa over at Tessa's Blurb is holding a blogfest entitled Out of the Box. The rules say in order to enter you have to right something out of your comfort zone. Since I write YA, I decided to write a little adult crime fiction. Let me know what you think:

Sticky Fingers

Cady stepped into the fragrance lab and took a quick look around to check that she was alone. No one but her and the rats, just like she planned. The clicks of her high heeled shoes echoed through the empty room. Next time she planned on breaking and entering she’d have to remember to wear flats. Not that there was any breaking. She did work here, after all. A badge swipe got her in without any trouble.

The particular brew Cady sought bubbled away in the lone beaker on the lab table. The failed concoctions had already been disposed of some time before she arrived. Cady picked up the glass beaker and checked the label. It read “X-No.9”. Even though it looked like three-bean chili pureed in a blender, it held the ticket to her debt relief.

Cady hated to steal from her colleagues, especially after all the hours they put in developing the perfect blend of ingredients to make the most potent elixir, but it was the only way she could pay off her debts from losing all those late night high stakes poker games at Luca Spinelli’s. She shuddered just thinking about his greasy black hair and even slicker smile. He had bad guy written all over him, right down to the gaudy pinkie ring he donned, but Cady couldn’t resist the lure of his table. Luca insisted that she not sit in on the game, which made her want to play even more. What did he say? Oh yeah. This game isn’t for little girls. Ugh. Cady scolded herself for being stupid enough to fall into his trap.

As she turned around to walk out, Cady saw the handle on the door twist. Her breath caught in her throat. She placed the beaker back into its holder on the table and busied herself with the rats.

“Burning the midnight oil, Stanton?” Charlie, the night watchman tipped his hat to her. She nodded at him without looking up from the rat cages. “Well, I’ll let you get back to it then.” Charlie exited and shut the door.

That could have been a disaster. Now that Charlie saw her, could she still get away with swiping the elixir? She had to take the chance. Luca made it clear that the cup of liquid that stood before her was the only way out of the red with him. Damn her gambling habits!

Cady emptied the contents of the bottle into the plastic container she brought with her, then disappeared back into the hallway. As she opened her car door she wondered which lucky girl would be the recipient of Luca Spinelli’s brand new bottle of lab tested love potion.

P.S. - The contest is open until December 5, so if you want to write an entry, hop on over and sign up!

Writing Progress - 11.29.10 or I'm a WINNER!

This past week I made tons of progress. The most important thing would be that I FINISHED MY NANO PROJECT! *cue applause*
It topped out at just over 50,000 words, but I know that I need to go back and add details. I tend to forget to describe things like the setting when I'm drafting. I think it's because I already know what everything looks like in my head so I just skip over the description. This doesn't really help you if you're not in my head, though.

After I finished up my draft, I printed out the third version of last year's NaNo and started on (more) edits. I've gotten through 24 pages so far. Let's hope the momentum keeps up!

This week, I plan to:

• Collect my winner goodies on December 2. (Yay, Scrivener!)
  
• Finish 50 more pages of edits on Nano '09.
  
• Finish The Book Thief and Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist
  
• Go to a David Levithan and Rachel Cohn signing! Woot!
  

The One Sentence Pitch

The one sentence pitch (AKA, my mortal enemy) can be tough. We writers have about 25 words to sum up our entire novel.

For me, a little panic sets in when I sit down to write a pitch. I am a notorious under-writer, but I still have trouble with this. There is so much I want to say, but so little room to do it. Here's my method for keeping down the word count and staying true to the story.

The one sentence summary is all about being concise, so the first thing to go when figuring out what to include is your subplot. It's a subplot for a reason, right?

Okay, now that I've narrowed my pitch down to just my main plot, where do I start? Well, lucky for me, Nathan Bransford has come up with a fill-in-the-blank formula that can be customized to almost any story. (After you're done here, go read his post, it gives a lot of great advice. Better than I could ever give!)

When [opening conflict] happens to [character], they must [overcome conflict] to [complete their quest].

There, now I should have no problem coming up with a pitch, right? Not so much. But you know what they say - practice makes perfect!

Since I'm not quite ready to share my one sentence pitch, here are some one sentence pitches for popular books*:

Trying to make sense of the horrors of World War II, Death relates the story of Liesel - a young German girl whose book-stealing and story-telling talents help sustain her family and the Jewish man they are hiding, as well as their neighbors.
- The Book Thief

In future North America, where the rulers of Panem maintain control through an annual televised survival competition pitting young people from each of the twelve districts against one another, sixteen year old Katniss's skills are put to the test when she voluntarily takes her younger sister's place.
- The Hunger Games

When a dark prophecy begins to come true, sixteen year old Evie of the International Containment Agency must not only try to stop it, she must also uncover its connection to herself and the alluring Shapeshifter, Lend.
- Paranormalcy

*If you want to read more pitches, just open your favorite book to the copyright page. Most books include a "summary" line.

What I've Learned - Bird by Bird (4)

In my fourth and final recap of Anne Lamott's book, Bird by Bird, I'm going to talk about
INDEX CARDS!!
Now, I bet you all think you know what I'm going to talk about. When I was reading this chapter in Anne's book, I thought I knew what she was going to talk about, too. Then, she threw me for a loop. This post is not about using index cards as a way to organize your story.

Basically, she leaves cards in every room of her house and always carries one with her when she's going out sans purse. This gives her a place to write down anything, at any time. Maybe it's a piece of overheard dialogue, or the way two dogs are interacting in the park, but she's always able to capture it.

Ever since NaNo '09, I've been carrying around a pen in my purse, but never an index card or notebook. I usually end up using whatever scrap of paper I can find. Receipts are a favorite. As you can imagine, this is not very organized. At the end of the day week month, I find myself with countless receipts with ideas on them. It's sort of frustrating.

For NaNo '10, I decided to use actual paper. This has worked well, but I'm still not organized. I have a notebook at work, which is chock full of some journaling I've been doing, and a notebook at home with character descriptions and loglines, etc. Not to mention my google docs account that has my rough outline, my detailed outline and a character questionnaire.

So before Nano starts, I'm going to buy a notebook and get organized - maybe I'll even buy a pack of index cards to throw in my purse. Wish me luck!

Do you carry writing tools everywhere you go? What kind of notebook do you use?

They're People Too - A blogfest

The story below is for Tessa's blogfest - They're People Too. The challenge was to write a piece of fiction using an abstract concept, like love, hate, death, etc. At first I had a lot of trouble writing this. I stared at the page for a good thirty minutes before anything came to me. I even tried using a mindmap to get my creative juices flowing. Eventually, the story below came to me.

F.E.A.R. Itself

I grabbed a cup of coffee from the break room and trudged over to my desk. Mornings were not my strong point. I thrived during the night, but then that’s when our department was busiest.

The coffee pulsed through my veins and my heart pumped faster. I sat down for the long day ahead of me. The first thing I did was check the schedule. The Fall was always busy. As regional supervisor of the Federal Extension of American Rationale, or F.E.A.R., I worked long hours this time of year to be sure everyone in my district was scared in the appropriate dose, at the appropriate time.

What was on the list today? Tara Schomblatt of Minot, North Dakota would see a spider on her bathroom wall at 11:42 AM. This was an easy task that even a rookie could take care of. I’d send Nick. He just came out of training, but Spiders were good first jobs.

The next item posed a problem. It required coordination with the Department of Endings and Terrible Happenings. I could count on one hand the people on my roster who liked working with D.E.A.T.H. I couldn’t blame them. I’d worked with them once, and to say it went terrible would be an understatement. The pleasure D.E.A.T.H. agents got out of taking life made my stomach turn. I still remember my partner’s grin as the life drained out of Evelyn Smith-Parker.

I scrolled through the list of available agents.. After three times through, I found a perfect candidate. Cybil Tierney had been here just over a year and her toughest job so far was working the haunted corn maze in Apple Valley, Minnesota. She could use a real assignment.

“Hello, Cybil speaking.” She answered the phone on the first ring. Eager. I liked that.

“Hi Cybil, it’s Doug Botts. You’ve been called up to the big leagues.” I tried to make it sound as exciting as possible. I hoped she hadn’t heard the rumors. “The Department of Endings needs you to assist them on a breaking and entering.” No need to tell her it would involve the person’s life ending, it always did when D.E.A.T.H. was involved. “Turns out this is one of…” I scanned the entry again for the target’s name, “Riley Thomas’ biggest fears.”

There was silence on the other end of the line. I gave Cybil a minute to process.

She cleared her throat. “Great. Thank you for the opportunity.”

I could tell it was all lip service, but hearing those words was better than the tears I got the last time I put someone on a collaborative assignment.

“Perfect.” I clicked around with my mouse to forward her the entry. “The details should arrive in your inbox. And Cybil…”
“Yes?” she answered.
“Good luck.” I placed the receiver back into its holder and leaned back in my chair.

A message popped up on my screen. And then another. And another. Why were so many kids afraid of the dark?

---

There's still time to enter this blogfest if you want to get in on the fun. Just click here to sign up. It ends at midnight tonight (October 2). Remember Tessa is in the UK though, so it's earlier than midnight EST.

Writing Progress - August 15, 2010

Hello friends, it's Sunday again, so I suppose I'll get right to it and tell you about my writing progress for the past week.

I've gotten through about 25 pages of my manuscript so far, and if there's only one thing I learned about revising from those pages, it's that I like drafting much much better. There aren't any worries with drafting. When I write a scene that I'm not sure works, I write it anyway knowing I can "always delete it in revisions!".

Well, now I'm revising, and I can't write a scene just because I feel like it. Every time I delete something, I second guess myself. When I add something, I'm obsessed with making it perfect. Revising makes me long for the days of NaNo!

On the bright side, those first 25 pages really are much better than they were a month ago before the revisions. My main character's voice is actually shining through. Before she was just dull. Things like that keep my spirits up!

How did everyone else's writing go this week?

Writing Progress - August 8, 2010

Well, here we are on Sunday night again and I'm ready to share my progress.

This week I read through my entire WIP and made notes. After I was finished with that, I went through each scene and made a beat sheet kind of like the one Terisa Green made. Seeing a snapshot of my novel really helped. I wanted to put a picture up of what mine looked like, because I added some extra columns, but I couldn't figure out how to blur out the text in the description column.

I added columns for "Timeline" - where I'd note whenever a character mentioned it was a specific day or time of day, "Stakes" - so I could make sure each scene is important to the novel as a whole, and "Information" - where I noted any information a character provided that needs to stay consistent (e.g. birthdays, street names, class periods).

Here's a summary of what I found:

1. My novel has 77 scenes. That seems sort of high, but they are all relatively short. I'm considering beefing up some of the essential scenes to include some more story development so that I can cut some others.
   
2. There is a love triangle, but the scenes between the two characters are a bit unbalanced - one has 24 and one has 34.
   
3. Two of my characters had similar nicknames. I didn't think it was a big deal because they didn't have a lot of scenes together, but after analyzing, I saw they had a quite a few and decided a name change is in order for the more minor character.
   
4. Two of my subplots didn't have a very solid resolution, so I need to work on that.
   
5. A few scenes have no stakes whatsoever, so I think they need to be deleted.
   

Overall, I think this is a great start to figuring out what to add/take out. I'm also toying with the idea of moving around some of my opening scenes so the story starts with more action and it's much easier to move one line in a spreadsheet to see how it flows.

If you haven't done this for your novel yet, I highly suggest it.

Writing Progress - August 1, 2010

Hey everyone! I'm back from a fabulous 7-day cruise that took me to the Bahamas. I'm sad to report that I got NO WRITING done on the entire trip. Once we got to Bermuda it was really a no brainer, though. Which would you choose is you could have fun in the sun or be cooped up in your windowless stateroom with a half-edited novel?


The view from St. George's.

The famous pink buses of Bermuda.

We were there during Cupmatch - a 2 day cricket tournament between the east and west of the island.

Anyway, tonight I want to try and get back on track. I'm going to try and do 20 pages a day which will get my through my first pass by the end of the week (fingers crossed!!).

How did everyone else do this week? I hope you picked up my slack!

5 Amazing Opening Lines

As an avid reader, as well as writer, I sometimes find myself obsessing over the smallest thing. The one thing that is always in the back of my mind if the elusive, hooky, first line. Right now, my book doesn't have an opening line that pops, but I'm hoping I'll have an epiphany as I'm revising.

Anyway, today I thought I'd share with you some of my favorite first lines (in no particular order):

 It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen. -George Orwell, 1984

This makes you think - what? 13? What kind of story is this that the clocks have 13 numbers on them? Now I just HAVE to read the rest to find out abut this world.

If you really want to hear about it, the first thing you'll probably want to know is where I was born, and what my lousy childhood was like, and how my parents were occupied and all before they had me, and all that David Copperfield kind of crap, but I don't feel like going into it, if you want to know the truth. -J. D. Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye

This line makes me wonder why the person speaking is so emo (before emo was even cool, no less). What happened to him? What's his story?

In my younger and more vulnerable years my father gave me some advice that I've been turning over in my mind ever since. — F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby

This line tells a lot about what you can expect from the story. Whatever it is that his father told him, the character still has some doubts about it. The story will most likely focus on his decision to believe his father, or leave whatever the father told him behind.

The early summer sky was the color of cat vomit. – Scott Westerfeld, Uglies

No insight into the story, but this is such a vivid image. Maybe a reader won't know what cat vomit looks like, but at one point they've probably seen some kind of vomit and have a very clear idea of what the sky in this opening scene looks like.


This line just cracks me up, really. Right off the bat, you know it's going to be witty and entertaining.

There is no lake at Camp Green Lake. - Louis Sachar, Holes

What about your favorite opening lines? Have I left one off that you think is better? Let me know in the comments.

Writing Progress - July 25, 2010

Editing is a funny process. I thought I was going to be able to breeze through my first pass since I was really just reading my manuscript from start to finish, but not so!

So far I have determined that:

My first chapter totally sucks

I brought this up to my writing group and got some great suggestions for fixing it. Now I just have to figure out how to work it through the whole book

During the first 20 pages, my main character does not have a distinct voice.

As I wrote, her voice seemed to come out, so I have to make a lot of changes to first 1/4 of the book so it jives with what she would really say.

The first pass is taking much longer than I thought.

I am only through the first 70 pages as I write this. I'd like to get moving so I get to actually revising, but at the same time, I don't want to rush it.

I leave you with a quote that will inspire me throughout the revision process. Even when I feel like I should just delete my whole novel because it requires so many changes.

Remember, it is no sign of weakness or defeat that your manuscript ends up in need of major surgery. This is a common occurrence in all writing, and among the best writers.” E.B. White

Are you writing anything? How was your progress this week?

RELATED LINKS

Tabitha at Writer Musings shares her revision process

Heather at See Heather Write discusses the importance of reading your draft out loud

The Guide to Literary Agents posts the 6 Keys to Revising Fiction

Listening While You Write

When I write, I like to listen to music. Now that I'm revising, I've noticed that I need silence. This is weird to me, because even when I'm reading, there's always something on in the background whether it be TV or music.

I find it very hard to get into the "revision zone" when it isn't quiet. Once I get into that zone, though, I can really dig in and make some excellent changes. The only thing I hate is that I miss my music!! Since I only really listen when I write, there is a serious lack of tunage in my life.

So what about you? Do you listen when you write and revise, just when you write, or not at all?

And just or kicks, I put together this playlist. It's a collection of songs I listened to when I wrote my first draft. Let me know what you think!

LINKS

- Christina Lee of Write-Brained has her own take on music. Read about her favorite songs.
- Wastepaper Prose asked writers what they listen to when they write. Read Part 1 and Part 2.

Are you a slob?

I admit it, I am a very messy person. The only reason that I periodically clean is because I'm totally skeeved out by bugs. This past weekend we did a deep clean of our house, including the two chores that I loathe: dishes and laundry.


So what does this have to do with writing? Well, I by-pass these chores so that I have more time to write. I don't mind if my desk is cluttered with coffee mugs if it means 15 extra minutes with my word doc.

Ultimately, I think not cleaning has a negative impact on my writing though. Instead of spending a few minutes a night tidying up, I spent my ENTIRE day cleaning yesterday. That meant no revising at all on a day where I could have spent hours with my manuscript.

After this weekend's clean-a-palooza, my husband and I both vowed that we will clean up after ourselves during the week. Hopefully this will result in more writing for me and more video games for him!

Writing Progress - July 18, 2010

What's that you ask? How is my revising going? Put simply, it isn't. This weekend I made no progress on my revisions at all and I'm kind of upset about it. We're going on vacation next week, so today was all about running around to pick up some last minute items. Ugh - it's so frustrating!

During the week I made some decent progress. I've decided to follow Jay Eckert's method for revising because I think it will really scrub my manuscript and get it ready for queries.

Right now I am in Step 1 of Jay's process. This step is aptly named "Decrapification", so that's what I'm doing. So far I've printed my draft and made copious notes on the first 51 pages. Only 90 pages to go until I take all those notes and take my manuscript to the next level.

Unplugging between Draft and Revision

Happy Monday, everyone!

We spent the weekend camping on the Chesapeake Bay in Virginia. Our campsite wasn't that great, but we had a lot of fun exploring the state. We took a tour of the homes of Robert E. Lee and George Washington.


We stayed in Reedville, VA

On Saturday, it rained most of the day, so it was kind of a bust. We went to a berry farm and enjoyed a peach shortcake sundae to kill some time. It was delicious, but so filling! One was enough for me and the hubs to split. When the weather cleared, we went to Belle Isle Park for a 4 mile hike. After the hike, we watched an awful cover band for a few songs.

So why am I telling you this? Because this trip was a great way to unwind between first draft and revisions. With spotty cell service and no internet access, I was able to get away from all things writing related. Now I'm back with a clear head, and I'm ready to attack my WIP.

Related Links:

Tabitha Olsen at Writer Musings wrote a great post on her revision process.

Shannon Whitney Messenger also recharged this weekend. Read her take on the importance of getting away.

Writing Progress - July 11, 2010

No progress to report this week. I posted on Thursday about how I took the week off to recuperate from the first draft. This week I plan to rip into my WIP with the ever unpopular red pen of death. It needs a lot of cleaning up, especially since I changed something halfway through. Now I need to go back and make the first half of the novel agree to the last.

Wish me luck!

On Waiting to Edit...

Ok, I’m going to just come right out and say it. I am DYING here. Dying to get back to my novel, that is. I miss it.

See, I made a deal with myself that I’d take a week off from it before editing. You know, re-ignite the passion. I thought I’d enjoy my free time. I even bought that new LEGO Harry Potter game to waste away the hours. It’s not working like I planned, though. Like a bad breakup, all I can think about is my novel. What did I do wrong? How can I make it better? Maybe I shouldn’t have ended it like that? My main character keeps me up at night, prodding me to sneak out of the bedroom and just edit a few lines of dialogue.

It’s driving me crazy.

On the up side, at least I’ll be brimming with ideas when I start the editing process!

Related Links:

Purchase Self-Editing for Fiction Writers, Second Edition: How to Edit Yourself Into Print
See Heather's post on the value of reading aloud.
Read Janice Hardy's plans for revising.