Storming the Brain

In late October, regular commenter here at the Alley, Jeanne T. asked what was my biggest takeaway from Techniques of the Selling Writer. While I’ve read and reread through this book, I’d have to go with what I’m giving you below.

Swain spoils writers with his lightning, surefire method of getting to the heart of what your book is about.

When delving into the sometimes cloudy area of story elements, Swain challenges writers to fill out as many specifics as possible when capturing the following (and then stripping them down to the essentials).

Character
Situation
Objective
Opponent
Disaster

After we flesh out each of the above for our novel, Swain challenges us to combine all five into two sentences. We can use this as a reminder and a structural base as we write.
I even tend to be more of a pantser than a plotter, but I make sure to construct (at the very least) a skeletal version of the above. This is one way for me to test my plot—to see if it will sink or swim as the rains of distraction and lack of focus increase and threaten to flood the work.

Swain also emphasizes the importance of incorporating a “fresh idea or unique twist” in our manuscripts. I cannot echo this enough. To make a novel stand out today, we must be intentional about seeking out and working with all that’s original in our work. We must not settle for cliché. Just like every single one of us possesses unique features, our book must also take on a distinctive, defining form.

Have you ever flubbed when someone has asked you what your story is about? That all too important question can get thrown at us at the most unpredictable times. After you spend time brainstorming the above you’ll no longer have to fish for words.

You’ll answer with confidence because you allowed your brain to be stormed. Maybe you’ll even inspire thunderous applause. ;)

What forms of novel preparation are you familiar with?

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Wendy Paine Miller writes women’s fiction, crafting stories with the hope of poking brains and moving thoughts. She graduated with a BA in English from Wittenberg University, where she earned an Honor of Distinction for her accrued knowledge of literature. Wendy feels most alive when she’s speeding in a boat, reading, writing, refurbishing furniture, running, and trusting God. To interact with her, visit http://thoughtsthatmove.blogspot.com/

Chocolate, Pretzels, and the Power of Word of Mouth

There's no denying the truth. I love chocolate. In fact, it’s one of the many things that bonds me to my Alley sisters. Now put chocolate over pretzels and I’m gone. As in, gone to heaven and don’t want to return to reality any time soon.

So this is what prompted a very intellectual discussion at a recent haircut of mine. A commercial for pretzel M&Ms came on in the background, and my stylist and I got talking about them.

I said, “Y’know, I really don’t care for pretzel M&Ms.” [Don’t worry, M&M makers, you’ve hooked me with your peanut butter M&Ms] “They just don’t have enough pretzel flavor for me. If I want that combo, I’ll eat chocolate-covered pretzels.”

Her reply: “Have you ever tried Take 5 bars? They’ve got chocolate, pretzels, caramel, peanuts, and peanut butter.”

My jaw promptly dropped to my cape and I said, “Are you kidding me? That sounds amazing. I might just have to get one on my way home.”

And you know what? I did. And it was so good that I scarfed it down in minutes. And I’m secretly plotting how I can get my hands on another one and scarf it down this afternoon.

Now THAT is the power of word of mouth. A casual conversation about our favorite flavor combos, and *bam* I’m a customer for life.

That’s what we want to do with our fiction. We want to develop a brand that combines mouth-watering…er, page-turning…ingredients. And then we want to write another book with those elements and another book.

Because if we make a good enough combo (i.e., develop our craft skillfully), we’ll have people telling their friends about us. “You like a book that challenges your faith and makes you laugh until you snort? You’ve GOTTA check out Jenny Jones’ book Just Between You and Me.” “You want a book full of godly passion? I just read one of Julie Lessman’s books, and now I’m hooked.”

So keep working on your craft, keep pulling out those elements that are unique to you, and some day you’ll have readers passing on a good word. Oh, and feel free to eat a Take 5 bar while you’re at it.

Have you ever tried a new product or a new book based solely on someone's recommendation? Did you remain a fan for life? And since I'm in a chocolate kind of mood, tell me your favorite chocolate candy-bar combo.

*Chocolate bar photo by Graur Codrin / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

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Sarah Forgrave is a stay-at-home writer-mom who feels blessed to pursue her calling and passion. She writes contemporary romance for the inspirational market and is a regular contributor to the webzine Ungrind.

To learn more about Sarah, visit her personal blog at:
http://www.sarahforgrave.com/blog

Writing Through...

"When its easy, when it just comes to you, when you feel like you're one heck of a writer, that's when you're probably tired and it's time to call it a day." So says writer Joe Nesbo, in the August 2010 volume of The Writer

What about on those days when it isn't easy? The days where you are slogging through trying to reach your daily count? Those days when you don't particularly feel like a good writer, don't feel inspired or briliant?

Keep going for 20 minutes, then decide. Another piece of writerly advice that seems to fall true. Most often if you continue writing for more than twenty minutes you can get yourself unstuck.

Give yourself permission to be wrong. Go ahead, use that word choice you know is not quite right. Allow yourself to move on. Mark the area that's bothering you and go and deal with it later, when you're in a better frame of mind.

Write backstory. Many times if I am "stumped" I'll allow myself to write backstory. I really enjoy writing "backstory" and even though I don't use it all it always helps me. These are the stories I always have running in the back of my mind for each character and getting it in writing can be a lot of fun.

Change POV for a little while. I recently added a second POV to my novel. It just seemed natural at the time. I had a spell of boredom with my main character. I decided to write from the contagonist's viewpoint for one writing session and I was hooked. Its a lot of fun to journal from another POV even if you don't end up using that. (Pepper recommended writing a journal from the perspective of my villain and I think he's been a richer character ever since I took her advice).

Remember its supposed to be fun. Give yourself permission for it to be fun again, even if just for a day. Today is the day you will enjoy your writing, try something new, stop thinking about deadlines, quit worrying about the market and write what you want to write. Just for you and God.
What about you? What helps you get "unstuck"?

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.

What's Up The Street For Next Week?

It's all about the editing and that red pen.

Because...

Unpolished manuscripts don't land you contest finals

Unpolished manuscripts don't land you agents.

And unpolished manuscripts don't land you publishers.

So roll up your sleeves, grab the nearest red pen and let's add a few tips to your rolodex to hone those editing skills!

Coming up this next week...

We don't always get what we want, when we want it. Sometimes we have to wait. And such is what you'll have to do for Angie's post on Monday.

Tuesday, your blog hostess is Julia with her usual dose of inspiration.

Sarah is posting on Wednesday with "Chocolate, Pretzels, and the Power of Word of Mouth"-- and she isn't leaking any more details than that. ;-)

It's round two in Wendy's discussion of Techniques of a Selling Writer on Thursday.

Our fiction needs Hooks and Read-on Prompts! Which is Cindy's goal for her post on Friday.



News Stand:

Casey's second blogiversary starts on Tuesday! With giveaways galore, the party launchs with Erica Vetsch and Ruth Logan Herne. Don't miss a minute of the wild ride of giveaways, trivia and just pure fun!

We'll see you right back here on Monday!

Castle Time: Hooks

I love watching Sherrinda's tweets on Monday night between (central time) 9 and 10.

Even if I'm not able to be watching Castle (perish the thought!) I can always feel the tension from her tweets.

Usually it's something like, "HOLY COW!! _________________ just happened! AHHHH!!!"

And it's usually during a commercial break.

I can just picture spunky Miss Sherrinda. jumping up and down on her couch, yelling at the TV, "HURRY UP, stupid commercial, who needs Covergirl Makeup or insurance or a dumb car at a time like this?"

Because there is something Castle always does an amazing job at.

It HOOKS you.

It makes you hate commercial breaks... And at the end of seasons... when the main character gets shot (seemingly) dead...

That's what we want for our books too.

We want to grab the reader's attention and make them hurry through potty breaks, eat with a book in their hand, and read until their eyes cross at 2 in the morning when they have to be up for work at 5.

When they get to the chapter end, you want to entise them to read "just one more chapter."

But how do we do that?

A few ideas:

Leave the reader on an inhale. I think about this every time I end a chapter. My goal is for the reader to take a sharp inhale of breath when they read the last sentence. Don't explain a thing. You build, build, build through the chapter, then KABLAM something happens and end of chapter.

Leave the reader with emotion. Leave the reader crying, or jumping for joy, or scared. We don't like to have unfulfilled emotions.

Leave the reader with a sense of foreboding. Even a subtle illusion to "something might be coming" is enough to perk the reader's interest enough to turn the page to see what that something might be.

Really, it boils down to one thing:

Leave the reader wanting more.

This applies not only to chapter ending hooks, but to our novel as a whole. Until the end, when we reach our satisfying conclusion, our readers should always be wanting more of our characters, more of the story.

Discussion: What are some methods you use to end your chapters? Some recommend to automatically chop the last paragraph off of your chapter ending... agree or disagree? Any examples of good chapter-ending hooks that you've read lately?

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Krista is a follower of Jesus, a wife, a mother, and a contemporary romance author. She recognizes that life can be frustrating and just plain not fun sometimes, but believes that laughter and smiles can make the not-so-fun a little better! She blogs about the amazing things God has been doing and her journey as a busy momma of 4 and caregiver to a daughter with a rare congenital heart defect at http://reflectionsbykrista.blogspot.com. She is also a contributor at www.wordservewatercooler.com. She is represented by the fab agent, Rachelle Gardner, and her debut novel, Sandwich, With a Side of Romance, releases in September 2012.

Are You A: SOTP, Plotster or Linear Planner?

**I love deadlines. I love the sound they make as they go whooshing by.**

Someone remind me who wrote that…

Photo Credit

I love deadlines. I work best under a deadline and am pushed to go farther and exceed expectations knowing I have a goal to meet. Because I am goal and reward oriented person, I find I push myself harder knowing I won’t like myself at the end of the day unless I get done what I need to get done. ;-)

Having this in mind, I stole my father’s desk calendar (yes, I asked his permission first) and plotted out my schedule for the rest of the year. Now all you seat- of- the- pants writers and plotsters, don’t hyperventilate, because I have a few suggestions for you as well.

Even though I am SOTP writer, I like to know where I am going, thus I coined the term “plotser”—alas, Stan Williams must have crawled into my head and stole the term from me…but that is another blog post for another time.

You need to evaluate who you are as a writer and as a planner. And your writing life and your planning life can be at complete opposites, like mine is. I am a very linear planner. I plan my haircuts two months in advance. ‘Nuff said. And to keep me working on my writing instead of off playing on Facebook and Twitter and Blogging…(I digress), I need a solid goal to aim for.

These goals have proven to keep me up past my normal writing time to get edits and word count in so I can celebrate with a fist pump when I reach that pivotal goal.

Do you like to sit down at the computer and discover what the day holds?

You are a seat-of-the-pants planner. This works for you. You realize what needs to get done, but you also like to discover and you like to see how much of that you accomplish.

Do you like to make out a check list for what you want to get done in the next few days, the week?

Then you are a plotster planner. You know where you are headed, but you discover it in little increments.

Do you like to plan out deadlines for months in advance? Look at your schedule and evaluate what you can get done and when, taking into consideration days that will come up that weren’t part of your schedule? And also taking into consideration that you can push yourself harder than you gave yourself credit for?

Then you are a planner. You like to know the road ahead and where you need to go.

Even if you are a SOTP planner, maybe you can try to be a plotster or linear planner. It might not *completely* work for you, but you might discover you need a tangible goal to reach for—you might find you maximize your writing in stronger ways.

So a few tips for you, things that have worked for me and hopefully will work for you.

Seat of the Pantsers:

Always keep in mind of the future and what you need to accomplish and when. Maybe write a date really quick on a white board or sticky note to keep in front of you. Just to keep that in the back of your mind.

Plotsters:

Same thing, only you probably jot down daily and weekly goals. Be realistic of those goals and push to meet them and go beyond, but realize life happens and sometimes goals have to be pushed to the side. Our writing life should never take center stage away from those we love.

Planners:

You can have the most fun! But realize as you lay out your calendars and sticky notes and generated reminders, that life happens. Sometimes we have to push our goals a bit farther back in order to preserve the sanity of those we love.  With that said, do not look at any change in the plans as an excuse to push those goals further away. Hold yourself to them. Find an accountability partner and make them keep you focused.

Remember, whoever you are in your planning, be cognizant of your deadlines, your goals and your daily to-do’s. So many times I think I know what I need to do for the day and realize I really need to check my calendar. It is smarter than I am. *wink*

There are pitfalls to being any kind of planer. But here is the beauty: most of us are not contracted yet, we have the opportunity to play around and see what we can do and when we can do it. We will realize early on how long it takes us to write a book and how long it takes to edit. Embrace this period of time, because we are learning in more ways than we could ever realize.

What plans work best for your writing life and how do you implement them and keep yourself “honest” to those goals?

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Casey Herringshaw is a homeschool graduate and has been writing since high school. She lives in rural Eastern Oregon in a town more densely populated with cows than people.

On Being Mentored: Fried Brains

I confess, I am not a NaNoWriMo participant this year. My confidence is not there--yet. I suppose I could blame my job, my house on the market and up-coming move, family, and a host of other excuses. The truth is, if I truly wanted to crank out a 50,000 word novel in 30 days I could--if I were ready. But I'm not.


Still, the idea of a magnanimous goal one month in the year is a fantastic idea. I thought--I can do that! So I joined a loop that let me set up my challenge. You can too!

So off we go-set our goal-writing every word which pops in our head to finish our book

Until a fried brain day arrives.

The first few days usually sail along. Then IT happens.


The words hit a snag, the brain is fried, unable to conjure even one more word. Hijacked, like a kite whisked into the one and only tree in a field by some random breeze.


What to do? The pressure to meet today's goal rises. Remnants of yesterday's missing goal had been shoved onto today. Can't do it again, but my brain is fried.


Who can save the day?


Here is an idea:  Loop Mentors.


Yes, goals can be met with--drum roll please------super loop mentor heroes!


I love the word loop-so different from the word clique. Think about it: A loop invites--a clique rejects.


Tracie Peterson mentioned the benefits she enjoyed from loops in our October Montana ACFW meeting. She asked other loop members for odd details, reactions to situations, and etc. The purpose: fresh ideas and perspective.


I belong to several loops, all of which provide encouragement in many ways. Well, they aren't all officially called "loops" but they all act like one.


A loop provides opportunity to report and cheer members for editing, completing a WIP, plotting, successfully completing any word count goal for the month in addition to help with  brainstorming, provide needed information, and so much more anti fried brain helps!


How many members are required to have a loop? The minimum: one more than is needed to put in a light bulb. Max: whatever the group feels they can handle. Gotta love the open, warmth in a loop--almost open house in nature. Come and go as you need and can give.


Loops members provide much more than encouragement and accountability. They provide ideas, answers, unique perspective, expertise, jump starts, grammar tips, and etc.


For example: One loop member hit a snag with a dance scene. After explaining a bit of her setting she asked for conflict ideas for the couple. Several chimed in their ideas. The determined author whittled and directed the dialogue until the perfect answer came. "Eureka!"


On another loop, a writer told the members her MC broke her leg! She needed to know the hospital process, recovery, and healing time--and she needed to know it quick. No time to do all the research. The answer appeared in a short time.


My family members have served as a loop in a way. I interrupt them at all times of the day to ask "what if" questions and siphon their expertise in a given subject. Sometimes I hear pret-ty interesting ideas!


The fun of looping is not taking-but giving. When I read about someone's word snag my brain hops into proactive solve mode. This exercise often solves my own word snag and jolts my fried brain. Another benefit is writing encouraging comments and reading other loopers ideas.

When we bless others, we will be blessed, too.

Don't be a hermit

Fried brains taste nasty.

How have you benefitted from loops?
Do you have any loops to recommend?

P.S. When you take a break from productive writing and notice a million loop emails don't leave the loop! PRESS the delete key! Highlight the whole group and delete them. You have permission.  Then when your brain is fried and you need help from the loop, or you have extra time to help others, click on the emails and enjoy the blessings.
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Image: FreeDigitalPhotos.net

This blog post by Mary Vee
Mary lives in Montana with her husband and loves to hear from her three college kids. She writes Christian young adult fiction, especially pirate tales, missionary and Bible adventure stories. 
Her tag: Stepping into Someone Else's World. 

To learn more about Mary, visit her blog http://www.mimaryvee.blogspot.com/