This Time Around: Breathing New Life into Old Bones

It has been said, often and by many sources, that an author's first book (or books) will likely never see print. This is a polite way of saying you had no idea what you were doing and that story, while probably quite special to you, really isn’t special at all. In fact, it could be a study in rookie mistakes. Probably is, and you’d see that if you had the guts to go back and stomach all the passive language, all the cliché smiles and overloaded adjectives, and all the holes in your rather predicable plot.

Crafting a story is hard work. Brainstorming, plotting, drafting, editing. More editing. Reading. Editing some more. Getting critiqued. Editing ’til your eyes cross. Like most things, we learn best by doing. Classes are great! Critiquing someone else’s work is surprisingly insightful. Reading craft books or other works of fiction are wonderful tools for learning as well. But I truly believe that good old fashioned blood, sweat, and tears on the page will work your writing muscles in a way nothing else can.

In my own writing career (ambitious wording there, but I’m always optimistic) I have seen whatever natural talent I possessed when I first so enthusiastically started vomiting garbage on paper grow and hone and sharpen with each story I have written. Simply put, every story I write is better than the last. Why? Because I am learning from my mistakes. I am finding my voice and embracing my style. Oh, I haven’t arrived. And I doubt I will ever learn all there is to know. But I have found my groove.

I’m not Stella and I didn’t exactly get my groove back, but I did take my groove back to the beginning. Back to those first bumbling, adolescent attempts at story. And let me just tell you, collecting dust can be one of the best things you can do to revive those decaying words. Time and experience can grant a perspective not even the most relentless editing can expose.

So here’s what I’ve learned this time around…

Unearth those lost stories and give them a read, start to finish no matter how much it pains you.

Take notes on the things that make you cringe so you can focus your attack instead of just adding words—which you will be tempted to do more than is wise. After all, you don’t want to bloat your manuscript, you want to give it a good balance of eloquence and movement.

Get to work. Be relentless and meticulous. Your words make your story. What you say and how you say is crucial. Don’t be satisfied with a sentence just because it’s already written. Take it to trial and try to make it better. Be choosy. Trim the fat but enhance the flavor. The time spent will pay off.

And then finally, read like a reader. Just read. Put your editing eyes away and enjoy the story. It still may never be published, but stories aren’t meant to be exiled. Share them. Post them up. Give them away. Most importantly, don’t give up on them.

Talk to me Alley Pals… Have you ever read back and caught a rookie mistake? I was (still am) an overwriter but back when I was a newbie my adjective use was atrocious! What was your biggie? Be brave and share. Good reminders for all of us in the thick of editing. Happy Friday!

 

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Amy Leigh Simpson is the completely exhausted stay-at-home mama to the two wild-child, tow-headed toddler boys, one pretty little princess baby, and the incredibly blessed wife of her hunky hubby.

She writes Romantic Suspense chalked full of grace that is equally inspiring, nail-biting, and hilarious. And a little saucy! Okay fine, a lot saucy. :) She is an active member of American Christian Fiction Writers, and now uses her Sports Medicine degree to patch up daily boo-boos. Her greatest ambitions are to create stories that inspire hope, raise up her children to be mighty warriors for Christ, invent an all-dessert diet that works, and make up for years of sleep deprivation. 

She is represented by Chip MacGregor of MacGregor Literary, Inc. 

 

Writing A Novel Set In A Place You've Never Been to?

Guest Blogger: Naomi Rawlings & Give Away!

Thanks, Angie, for inviting me back to the Writers Alley today, and thanks to you other Alley Cats for having me. My debut novel, Sanctuary for a Lady released on April 1, 2012, and is set during the French Revolution.

Most novelists and aspiring novelists know that unless you set a book in your hometown or state, you probably won’t be taking a trip to research your novel’s setting. That’s doubly true for me, the mother of two young boys and the wife of a pastor, who hasn’t the time nor the funds to take off to Europe on a research trip for a story that may or may not ever see publication. In the case of Sanctuary for a Lady, the novel did get published. But I had no idea that would be the result when I started writing the book in the summer of 2010.

So then the question arises, how can you accurately portray a country or time or place you’ve never visited?

Well, you’ve really only one option: Research.

I cringe as I type the word “research,” because research is and probably always will be my least favorite part of writing. But here’s a few pointers, per Angie’s request.

1. Study the mindset of the time and place you’re writing about.

With all the information so readily available on the internet and through inter-library loan books, one can easily loose himself or herself in studies on vegetation, climate and the like. Would you believe I spent very little time studying the climate and vegetation of Abbeville, France? At most I put two hours into it, and no one who’s read Sanctuary for a Lady has come back and said, “But you didn’t describe the trees very well. I really needed to know whether those thick trees your heroine hid behind were maple or oak.”

Studying mindset, on the other hand, allows you to know how your characters think, which in turn leads to deeper and more realistic characters. If you can make your characters think like a Kansas farmer from the 1880s or a Wisconsin logger from the 1890s or a ship captain from the 1810s, your characters will come alive. They will have their own opinions and views of things relevant to their lives. You will be able to naturally incorporate details and events from the time period without digressing into long paragraphs of explanation and boring your readers.

There are two ways to study mindset. One is to dive into original sources, which is the most accurate and best way to get a feel for a time period. Journals, diaries, classics written during the time period in which your novel’s set, can all help. Google Books is a great source for this. You can used the “advanced search” feature to find books published between certain years, limiting your search to things published around the time your novel is set.

The second way to study mindset is by using a broad overview approach. Find current research and sources that give you an overview of the era your studying. For example, I might have two or three books on the French Revolution. Even though I only needed to know about early 1794 for Sanctuary for a Lady, understanding the events that led up to 1794 France was crucial. Then maybe I would have a book on peasant clothing during that period. And a book about French Revolutionary soldiers, and a book about local governments of the French Revolution, and maybe even a book about the Reign of Terror. As I glance through this stack of books, I’ll look for individual examples and scenarios that will help explain how the people living in that time period would have thought, and provide glimpses into everyday life.

This is the method I tend to favor, and it’s actually the weaker of the two. But given my hatred for research, I count myself lucky to endure even this much studying. I actually think writers’ research methods go back to the type of learners they are. I’m a global learner. I need to have a broad picture and be able to see the end of the road before I start my journey. So I find current research books, even research books with just a chapter or two overview on my time period very helpful. Then I’ll dive into a few original sources simply to ease my conscience.

2. Have your setting affect your characters.

For Sanctuary for a Lady, instead of going into long, boring details about how the revolution was affecting France, I created characters that represented different factions of the revolution. My heroine, Isabelle de La Rouchecauld, is a royalist. My hero, Michel Belanger, is a federalist (the side I would have chosen, had I lived through the French Revolution). And my villain is a radical.

By using characters with opposing mindsets, these personalities clashed naturally as the book unfolded (which also provided an extra source of tension). Plus I was able to give readers a good flavor of the French Revolution. So my setting and the mindsets from that era actively affected both who the characters were and their interactions with each other.

For further study, Donald Maass has a really great section on this in his book, Writing the Breakout Novel. He uses an example of an author doing this with the Civil War and creating a cast of characters on both sides of that conflict.

3. Focus on the aspects of setting that affect conflict and your story line.

Doing this not only keeps both tension and setting at the forefront of your novel, but it also allows you to decide what historical details are worth keeping and which are worth skipping over. If you find yourself writing a story about a dressmaker in New York City or Boston, then fashion will be an integral part of your story. For someone writing a story about peasants in northern France during a war, fashion was the last thing on my mind. (And it’s a good thing, too, as it’s rather difficult to find information on what peasants wore in the middle of a war. Information abounds on what the upper class wore, but I’ve found virtually nothing about peasants.)

One way I did this in Sanctuary for a Lady, was with wood. You’ll find specific woods mentioned. Not the kind that describe the forest, but specific woods used for FURNITURE MAKING. You see, my hero wants to be a furniture maker and is always working on one project or another. This furniture making is a source of conflict, because at the beginning of the French Revolution, local and national governments used guilds to regulate how many people could work a particular trade. So my hero, though he’s an excellent furniture maker, isn’t allowed to actually sell anything he makes. And tada! There you have the setting affecting the conflict in an active, non-boring way. Furthermore, when my hero and heroine fight and get mad at each other, guess where my hero goes to work off his steam? That’s right, his workshop. So now I’ve got the romantic thread in my story also affecting the setting and vice versa.

If you have any further questions, I’d love for you to ask them. I should be around for most of the day, and I’ll try to answer you as best as I can.

Would you like a free copy of Sanctuary for a Lady? Let us know in the comments section and we'll enter you in the drawing!

New Year, New Goals!!

http://www.gardenlist.com/

"Resolution" conjures up thoughts of the workout plan that lasts two weeks, until you miss a day...then three...then a month! At least for me.

In our writing life or in any other aspect of our life, it's not resolutions that get us there...it's baby steps and perseverance. Continuing to run the race.

Just as Jesus sanctifies us in our walk with Him, finishing a novel is a day-by-day labor.

Talk about baby-steps. I started my novel about a year and a half ago. I made agonizingly slow progress...editing as I went.

But baby steps add up. Finding the time to write every day just wasn't realistic for me, nor was writing in large chunks. But if writing didn't become a part of my routine, it didn't happen in my busy life.

This winter I will finally finish that novel! I know, I know. Some of you have been known to write 50K words during NANOWRIMO or finish your novels in 3 months. Maybe you can't relate. But I'm betting at least a few of you can.

These are some of the writing lessons I hope to take with me in the New Year:

Keep accountable.  Find email accountability partners. Find a real-life group to hold you accountable. Preferably both. The embarassment of havnig nothing to bring to a critique session keeps you going if nothing else does. So does the fact there's someone on the other end of the computer waiting to hear my word count totals.

Don't belittle the little accomplishments. Every word is important. Every time I hit a 10K milestone I will often excitedly mention it to my husband or family. Just repeating the small victories to myself helps me to persevere to the next 10K.

Dream about what's next. No, I don't mean that you're going to land the agent of your dreams and get published this year. (Not that it wouldn't be great if that happened...). The closer I get to writing "the end", the more time I spend thinking and reading about my next character so I can keep the momentum going.

If you get discouraged, remember the growth you have made and will continue to make. At a recent writer's group session I brought an excerpt from my manuscript written about a year ago. I was immediately asked if it was written a while ago. The commenter said they were used to a different level of quality in my writing. It encourages me to know that in little baby steps my writing WILL grow.

What do you need to do to tend your writing garden this year? What do you need to prune back in your writing in order to grow? What are your tricks to finishing well?

Wishing you and your manuscript a happy New Year!

Julia enjoys writing women's fiction whenever she can find a chair free of smushed peanut butter sandwiches and lego blocks. She is a wife and homeschooling mama of two littles. She also enjoys reading and reviewing books for The Title Trakk, a Christian review site.