Power of the Pen

Being forced offline for over a week, taught me something about my writing. I organise on the computer but create with pen and paper. I know many writers who prefer to just tap their stories out on the keyboard, it's faster and more efficient (and checks your spelling), but creating swirls and strokes with a pen scratching across paper unlocks something in my creativity. I get new ideas and a more intimate connection with my WIP.

Once I've written up my ideas, outlines or first drafts, I can then type them up and develop the narrative. My mind goes in a different direction with typing, I start to think of all the practicalities of my plot.

If I spark different parts of my brain by using handwriting over typing, doesn't it stand to reason a reader would react differently to receiving typed text to handwritten scrawl? If 'I 4got 2 tell u 2day zat I lv u' is not your idea of a romantic message, perhaps you'd rather a handwritten note on scented paper?

Kaz is from my little country town in Australia (although Kaz may reasonably argue it's just as much her little country town) and she's started a blog on handwritten letters. You'll find it here:

I love handwritten letters

Why not pop a letter in the post for someone you care about? Or write to someone you've never met instead of emailing? It'll get the creative juices flowing! A while back my girls got letters from Granddad, they were so excited, they usually correspond via facebook, emails and blog comments.

A writing prompt I like is to write a letter from your main character to someone they miss.

Baby Come Back

Hooray for the super-helpful fellow from Telstra who replaced our line. When he pulled the cable through the wall, it came out frayed and unconnected. Turns out those cute little possums running around my roof aren't so cute... or possums. But good news - I can blog again!

I've been itchin' to get on and tell you about the book I received in a book blog draw - signed and sent by the author!

The Seeker by Ann H. Gabhart

I felt so special receiving this book in the mail with a lovely inscription inside!

This novel is a romance set during the unrest in Kentucky during the 1860s and looks at politics, slavery and the Shaker's way of life. The protagonist is a headstrong young woman determined to get her way, despite the infuriating men in her life.

I've never read a novel featuring Shakers before, so I couldn't wait to get into it! I'm finding the history fascinating, but the droplets of lust and passion from the protagonist are also drawing me in. This is such a change from the books I've been reading lately (YA dystopian), that it's quite refreshing.

Ann Gabhart also has a great writer's blog, worth checking out:

One Writer's Journal

I'm also watching the follower numbers grow! When I reach 200, I'm planning another book give-away competition. So... watch this space. :-)

Coming to a Blog Near You

Lots to report. Unfortunately, my Internet has been down, so once the nice telecommunications workers fix it for me, I'll have some shiny new posts for you.

I want to tell you about a book I'm reading that was sent to me by the author after I won a book contest (it's called 'The Seeker' by Ann H Gabhart), the audiobook I just finished, a podcast I've only now discovered, and a friend's blog on the love of handwritten letters. Phew. I hope this Internet is up soon (I so don't have the skills to blog from my phone)!

Plus I'm missing all the great blogposts from all of you!
:-(

Read to Write

I Learn By Osmosis

I just finished (on my Kindle) Neil Shusterman's Unwind this week. WOW. Has to be the best written YA novel I've read. Big statement, I know, but Shusterman utilised all the best elements of storytelling:

• The story got started right off with the conflict. MC's parents have signed him over to be 'unwound', which means every part of him will be harvested for other people's transplants.
• Action and movement is frequent and spectacular. There are three young fugitives on the run, bus crashes, shoot-outs and more.
• It contains a dystopian element that gets you thinking about human nature and how bad and how good it can get.
• Everything mentioned matters. There are no vague stories because they sound cute. Every single anecdote, backstory, setting and prop is a smoking gun to show up later.
• All the characters are believable - even the ones you don't agree with.
• It ends with hope for a brighter future and human redemption. 

Unwind kept me on the edge of my seat, in one later scene, I literally kept putting my Kindle down away from me, scared to read on, but then had to snatch it back up to see how the situation would turn out. I don't mind telling you, there were tears (and I don't think I've gotten weepy in a book since Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men).

My intention is to study the style of the writer when I read fiction, to help me grow with my own writing, but this one was so good, I forgot to take notes. 

After finishing the novel, I felt a bit empty, so read a short story from a favourite author, Mark Twain's A Dog's Tale. Very different style, but it also included a scene revealing the weakness and cruelness of people, leaving me a little disappointed in us humans (but then I see the kids in my classes and I realise there is much more kindness and potential in the human race). 

What do you read to help you get writing?

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FAIL PRIDE

This is all the things suggested for promoting online and building your platform as a writer that I DON'T do. Oh, I agree with them, I just haven't found the time/motivation/cookies to get me going.

My Promo FAIL list:

• Tweet on Twitter several times a day and join in all the different hash-tag discussions (eg #amwriting, #edit, #litchat, etc). I tweet spasmodically when I find a great website, update my blog or discover the perfect choc-chip cookie. The hash-tag discussions sound like fun, but I'm never organised enough to find out when they're on.
• Meme blogs, like 'Waiting on Wednesday', it just feels like too big of a commitment for me (what if I'm sick one Wednesday and I can't blog about the books I'm waiting on, and my readers are disappointed, and they hate me, and they throw food at me....)
• Write and publish short stories, I know I should, but I seem to have trouble moving away from my WIP and working on shorts. Plus, I'm not very good at them (but admit I should learn).
• Vlog on YouTube. Apparently the now big thing. Writers should be promoting themselves by making short clips and uploading them. I'll get there, but I need to feel I've found the balance between, work (teaching), writing and home-life before I add another project.
• Use Facebook for promotion. I have Facebook, but I really just use that to chat with my friends and family, I don't have a fan page.
• Move away from the free blog sites and have a professional website. I like Blogger, I have my Google connect friends and a list of all the blogs I follow (otherwise I'd never find them again). I DO have charamaineclancy.com saved and will get around to the website one day.
• Participate in forums. My writing/editing course with Holly Lisle hosts a great online forum, but I can never remember to keep popping into it.
• Join a critique group. I really want to do this (and I really don't want to do this). I did join www.critiquecircle.com - you earn points by critiquing other people's work and then you can upload your writing to be critiqued. I've lagged behind in this as well.

So how do I feel about failing? Fine. In fact I'm perversely proud of my fails, I think the meme of the word 'fail' has made it more endearing than pathetic (yes it is!). Need to know about the whole trend of 'FAIL'? Watch this brilliant video:

Know Your Meme: FAIL from Rocketboom on Vimeo.
Which 'must-do' promotions do you fail at?

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Make It Happen

Time to crack that whip and get writing!

I'm on a kick of making writing time, rather than trying to find it. And it's working for me. As I force myself to write something everyday, I'm finding more creative ideas arising. It's like Paul Newman once said, "The more you do it, the more you can." (although I don't think he was referring to writing).

How can you make yourself write? Here's a few tips I've picked up from other blogs, books and my bossy little voice in my head:

• Set a daily minimum word quota (500 seems to be popular). Keep a note of your highest number of words too, you HAVE to reach your minimum, but you might feel like aiming for your high-score some days.
• Turn off the internet. Seriously, don't just 'say' you'll ignore it. No Facebook, emails, Farmville, Twitter or blog-visiting until your writing is DONE. If you can't resist temptation (like me). Turn off the computer and use a notebook and pen.
• Make an appointment with writing friends or join a critique group. This way you'll have to produce something to share with them by your scheduled date.
• Give yourself short sprints of time to write throughout the day, like little writing breaks. It doesn't matter if you can't fit in a block of an hour a day - shorter writing spurts make you more productive, because you have to work fast.
• Use prompts to get your writing started. No sitting and staring for ten minutes. Just start anything until you're ready to write your WIP. That pen should not stop moving!
• Bribe yourself. If you beat yesterday's high-score word count, you bake some cookies.
• Hold your day to ransom. Write first. House is a mess, and you better get onto it or you are a bad bad mum (or it feels that way), but, you are not allowed to put those dishes away until you've done a ten minute writing stint or you've written one page. This method works best for me.
• Record your dreams in the morning. They may not seem relevant but there may be a spark of an idea that can merge into your WIP.
• You can stay awake for just ten more minutes, you're in bed, drowsy, write your random thoughts.
• Plot out an idea or conflict in your novel while you do menial tasks. As soon as you're done the task, jot it down.
• Choose the time of day that works for you, find your natural flow, perhaps you have more imaginative thoughts in the morning, or, like me, you're better after the first cup of tea.

Hope some of these get you writing today. I'll even forgive you for not commenting if it's because you're rushing offline to write. :-)

Start Again, and Again, and...

After a week of little or no writing because I was too busy, I realised I had my mindset all wrong. I was thinking that I needed spare time to write. When is that ever going to come? No, instead of waiting for spare time, I needed to make writing time.

I revisited the audiobook Writing Down The Bones by Natalie Goldberg (because I don't think I gave it enough attention the first time and I've been going a little overboard with my book purchases lately). One of the exercises suggested sounded interesting.

Golberg recommends taking a first line from a poem or novel (choosing randomly by just opening the page) and using it as a prompt to riff-write (I've done a post on riff-wriitng before, you can find it here). You just write anything that comes to mind, don't worry if it sounds irrelevant to your story at first. When you start to get stuck, or your writing goes off in a tangent that is unhelpful, stop. Then rewrite that first line and start again. A fresh start. Write until it no longer feels right, then stop. Write the first line again, and off you go.

I did this with a line from a poem; "I can't remember a time when I did not know you." I couldn't see the connection, but I put my trust in the task and wrote. Then I tried again. And again. What I found was a new subplot in my narrative that opens up my characters, creates conflict and explains motives for my main story problem.

So no excuses, must make writing time every day.

I also want to say a huge THANK YOU to Shannon from Book Dreaming for her wonderful post about my daughters' book review blog: Paper Dolls. Please check out the Book Dreaming post - it's beaut! (Aussie slang for 'pretty darn good!').

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Imagery Beats Description

I've finally realised something about readers. They're imaginative, clever and they enjoy stories.

I was taking readers' creativity for granted when I wrote descriptions. After compiling character charts and world-building files, I tried to be detailed in creating the setting and portraying the characters. Then I read a book that changed my views on writing.

It wasn't one of the hundreds of non-fiction books I own, it was a story.

Tim Winton's Cloud Street is dubbed a modern classic and an Australian favourite. The book has been on my TBR shelf for over a decade, but I finally made time for it recently (okay I downloaded the audiobook from iTunes instead). What I noticed most about Winton's writing in this novel was the descriptions. Details and facts about appearances were short, but the personalities and moods were clear. Winton masterfully weaves metaphors and imagery like glittery threads through the story.

So soulful are Winton's descriptions that the main setting becomes one of the characters: The house at Cloud Street.

It was a big, sad, two-storey affair in a garden full of fruit trees. ...Here and there weatherboards peeled away from the walls and protruded like lifting scabs, but there was still enough white paint on the place to give it a grand air...

The house mirrors the families' lives and echoes their moods. After one character reacts to the death of a family member, the house is portrayed in a sinister style:

In the library the shadows danced. Oh, how they danced. Can't you still see the evil stink coming through the cracks, ...the swirling rottenness of their glee turning to gas across the rails, the rooftops, the tree crowns of the city? 

Here's an example of one of the main characters:

Rose was a slender, brown girl, with dark straight hair, cut hard across her forehead. She was a pretty kid, but not as pretty as her mother. Well, that's what everyone told her. She wasn't vain, but it stuck in her guts, having someone telling you that every day of your life. 

In this description, we are given a brief overview of Rose's physical attributes, but it's the line about not being as pretty as her mother, that provides the insight into who Rose is, and how she will be affected by the judgement of others. Winton shares Rose's progress into adulthood, one later description reveals her trying to harden herself against those around her:

She felt like she was made of steel. It was shiny and bitter and it shone all around like starlight.

This book was an experience for me, it was filled with sweetly-damaged characters and experiences combining heartache and hope.   What I'll take from it is to allow readers to fill in the blanks and create their own visual images. They don't need to know every character's outfit and hairstyle. 

If you'd like to see more, here's a link to a previous post I did on putting the character focus on 'who' they are, rather than 'what' they are.

 Never Underestimate Readers - or Cats.

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Niche Markets = Loyal Readers

Hitting Your Niche Target

In my last post I talked about the emerging trend of cozy mysteries to include information on crafts, like scrapbooking or sewing or even recipes for baking lovers.

This is a style of double marketing. You have the consumer base that like cozy mysteries (like the good ol' Agatha Christie stories) but you also have a focused niche base (people who love baking cookies and reading mysteries). This got me to thinking about other genres that could interweave non-fiction material through their books. This is what I could come up with:

Eucalyptus by Murray Bail - This Australian novel was a literary romance filled with sweet fairy tales but also included intermittent sections about Australian Gum trees in a non-fiction style. I enjoyed the stories but found myself skimming the botanics, whereas my husband loved this book. His interests are primarily in Australian ecosystems - so, big Gum Tree lover. There was talk of a movie being made including Russell Crowe and Nicole Kidman, but that seemed to fizzle out.

John Grisham included a lot of legal information in his thrillers, but I'm not sure if that was to appeal to some law fanatics that love hearing about official paperwork filing for courts or if he just drew on his own legal experience.

In my response to Botanist from Views From the Bald Patch, I mentioned another example could be a YA fantasy series about witches that included simple spells you could try at home. Teen girls would LOVE that.

Or... children's picture books about the environment, each one could include ways to help and a story, for example one could be about kids keeping frogs, and it could include instructions on building a pond and raising tadpoles.

This type of marketing appeals to the reader's desire to belong, by sharing an interest with the main character, the reader is part of a 'club'. It might not be a hobby or interest that the reader actually takes part in, but one they would like to take part in, or perhaps they just like the idea of trying the hobby.

Certain interests would suit particular genres. I think the cooking recipes work better in cozy mysteries than they would in a thriller, although Silence of the Lambs would take on a whole new macabre style if recipes were included.

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