Authenticity in Action

Ever forget to practice what you preach? Raises hand. I swear it was an accident. Recently a lovely writer friend of mine graciously read Her Wicked Ways. She had great things to say (yay!) about the last two-thirds. What about the first third? She found the pacing off. Too much introspection and non-relevant action. Oh no, but I try to balance action/introspection/dialogue! Remember AID? Uh, yeah, I guess I forgot. Or wasn't paying attention, more likely.

Regarding the introspection, I think I was in a rut of inner dialogue to replace action. In a character's POV scene, it's cool to ground their external dialogue with inner dialogue. Fun technique, but easy to overdo. Same with tagging external dialogue with action. We all know the pitfalls of arching brows, shrugging shoulders, and flexing fingers.

But I had plenty of non-arching/shrugging/flexing action! Except the action still wasn't tied to the goals of the scene. Whaaaa, you say? I'll give an example. I had a scene in which the hero and his mentor/best friend type discussed his romantic progress with the heroine using the miserable summer and the failing crops as the backdrop. The cold weather and disastrous planting play hugely into the hero's GMC. So, here they are checking out the fledgling plants that are woefully behind schedule and musing about the potential for a freeze that night. Out comes the heroine and conversation turns to her and blah, blah, wake up!

After my friend gave me her comments, I reread the first several chapters and immediately saw her point. When I got to this point in the story, I sat back for a moment and pondered how best to make the action in this scene more relevant. I mean, standing around talking about the weather is nowhere near as exciting as doing something about the weather. So if a freeze could be imminent, why not dump snow on them? Now. As in, we need to get these plants covered before the snow accumulates and kills the tiny sprouts! (Yes, Maven Carrie's technique of "how can I ruin my characters today" mentality was incredibly helpful and I want to give credit where it's due.) Now my scene had real action that mattered to the story. And the conversation that was there still happens, but it's more authentic. Yes, that's it, authentic.

So thank you dear friend/CP (you know who you are) for reminding me that action should be authentic for the scene and contribute conflict as well as interest. And thank you Maven Carrie for helping me torture my characters.

What do you do if a scene just doesn't have "it?" Do your scenes have authentic action that moves the story forward, that contributes to the purpose of the scene? How do you keep track of all the myriad things we aim to achieve in our writing?

Congrats to our friends over at Riding With the Top Down on your second anniversary! Speaking of anniversaries, the Mavens have been blogging for a year this week. Crazy, huh? Stay tuned for exciting anniversary happenings...

Gender Bending

This week, I got a rejection letter that was very nearly a perfect summation of every rejection I've ever received. Bummer, yes. HUGE bummer. But never one to focus on the roiling disappointment of a bruised sky when the weatherman predicted sunny all week, I dug out my telescope and located my silver lining through the rain. A thin lining, perhaps, but definitely something to celebrate.

Nowhere in the 1-page (typed, single spaced) Rejection Letter to Eat All Other Rejections did she mention my hero was too weak to take on my heroine. WOOO HOOOO! Party time! What a nice hurdle to have finally overcome. I know exactly who to thank for that, too, and I'm sure the long-time MaveFave I'm referring to knows who she is, too.

What I loved about her advice and what made it so easy to take is that she "got" my concept and worked with it, instead of telling me (as so many others have done) that I needed to can my beta hero and go with something a little more saleable. Double bonus: not only did she come up with a solution, but she came up with a mindset that I, as the writer, could easily slip into while working on said revision. She said, "Whenever X happens, he needs to think Y. And then he needs to act on it."

Action. Right.

So thanks, Steathly Ninja MaveFave, and thanks to the Mavens for holding my hand through the Revision Letter to End Every Writer's Dreams.

Now, are you all ready for a little Amie Stuart? MaveFave Amie will be guest blogging tomorrow, so wear your Super Friendly hat and come prepared to comment!

From Point A to Point B

I received what I think is an awesome comment from a CP yesterday. She said there was no sagging middle in Her Wicked Ways. And she said it in reference to the character arc I'm building for the heroine. This made me all warm and fuzzy inside. It also made me aware that I'd never stumbled through sagging middle "problems" when drafting HWW. I had a lot of these problems writing Glorious and I wonder why I had them with one book and not the other.

Any MaveFaves want to shout out the probable (I think) answer? Storyboarding! Once again, storyboarding has helped me in ways I didn't imagine. It's not so much that it prevented a sagging middle, it's that it helped me build a character arc. Now, I didn't get it perfect on the first draft. I'm revising/polishing right now and plan to go through chapter by chapter and make sure I'm nailing both the h/h arcs. But having turning points for the characters and the various storylines is a huge help in establishing - and sticking to - that arc.

We all know middles are the meat of the story. And I think arcs are maybe the meat of our characters. Showing their growth through action, introspection, and dialogue (yep, there's AID again) is what gets us from Point A to Point B or from "Once upon a time" to "The End." At least, it seemed to work for Her Wicked Ways. Ask me again after I draft The Tale of Gideon (yikes, that really needs a better working title).

What do you do to create and build on your character arcs? How do you keep them '"true" throughout the book? What's your secret to sagging middles (if you have one)?

Manuscript Makeover with Elizabeth Lyon

Today, multi-published writing teacher and book doctor Elizabeth Lyon joins the Manuscript Mavens to dish about editing and revision. One lucky commenter will win a copy of Elizabeth's latest book: Manuscript Makeover: Revision Techniques No Fiction Writer Can Afford to Ignore, released April 1!

MM: You have been a book editor and writing teacher for 20 years. Can you tell us how you got started on that path and what you enjoy most about editing books and teaching writing?

EL: I was lucky to have a talent for English grammar, punctuation, and spelling, and an eye for detail. I was the nerdette in your high school class who raised her hand when the teacher asked, "What is the symbolism in this novel?" Of course, my ready answers meant I didn't date.

Because editing was not among the choices for a major in college, it is only in hindsight that I see my developmental steppingstones:
* Reading 3-4 books a week from age 9-18 with my coke bottle-thick glasses, until contact lens were invented. Then I could see the boys and my 4.0 GPA dropped.
* Taking and loving humanities' courses for years, in high school and college
* Editing friends' papers and tutoring them on organization and style
* Teaching study skills and speed reading
* Writing throughout my life (experimenting in nearly every genre)
* Studying human psychology (i.e. characterization) in depth through classes, getting a masters in counseling, having five years of belly-button contemplating psychoanalytic therapy, and learning astrology. I wanted to be a Jungian psychiatrist but I had avoided (and hated) math, and didn't like long science labs.
* Writing, editing, compiling, producing, promoting, and distributing a self-published book about my children's midwife-including twenty home-birth stories by other mothers and an interview with one doctor. This first book, published in 1981, got me hooked on writing and publishing.
* Starting a business-writing service.

A dramatic turning point in my career and life happened in June 1988 when a close friend died and bequeathed his editing business, writing classes, and critique groups in a suicide note to me. Two weeks later, I stood before four community college, adult ed writing classes as their new teacher. Six months later, I had begun my own weekly critique group, which grew to two, then three, groups and lasted thirteen years.

Editing work flowed from the students in these groups and classes. As I worked on all types of manuscripts, my skill and understanding grew. I received mentorship from one agent, Natasha Kern. With the Internet and websites, my client base became worldwide, I became acquainted with or friends with scores of agents, and my list of client successes grew. After about ten years, I began to coach and train other editors. I learned that it takes about three years for an editor to become experienced enough to do professional work on nonfiction book proposals and about five years to do a good job editing novels and memoirs.

What I love about editing is that each piece of writing is an original creation. The process uses all of my skills, my experiences in life, and my intuition. I am a literary detective searching for the writer's individuality and coaxing it out. I have to find the story arc and theme and figure out what is illogical or omitted. Often I must intuit what the writer meant to express or thought was on paper but isn't. I'm a tracker in the woods. Sometimes the brush is thick and I worry that I will not find any way through. Other times I can see the highway, and I wish the writer would build a forest, put in a copse of fir trees here, a hundred-year oak there, a family of angry crows, and a coyote making silent footfalls toward a deer munching grass by the creek. Most writers develop first drafts of novels and memoirs intellectually, in their minds. They typically under-develop description, sensory data (taste, sounds, visual detail, temperature, smells, and touch), and other nuances of body language and facial expressions in reaction.

Editing is a challenge every time. Good editing demands risk-taking to dive deeply into someone else's creation, including the writer's mind on paper and emotions-conscious or unconscious. As an editor, I become immersed the writer's emotional and metaphoric world as expressed symbolically in story. I feel as if I become a translator, that I need to be a lightning rod, and I hope to be a catalyst and guide.

Teaching writing is editing out loud. I'm glad I'm extroverted more than introverted because I am energized by teaching. I have a good time-fun-and my goal is always that each person has received a nugget that makes a difference in his or her writing. My teaching style is extemporaneous and I hope more interesting as a result.

MM: You wrote several Writers Digest books on topics ranging from fiction and non-fiction to proposals. What was your impetus to writing Manuscript Makeover and what kind of material did you include?

EL: I've always wanted to write a book on what I've been doing as an editor and teacher, which is very practical instruction for the writer. The books written on revising fiction have been primarily written by teachers of classic literature or in-house editors whose experience is with manuscripts that are nearly ready for publication. I wanted to convey how to fix problems for the beginning novelist and how to finesse writing for the pro or nearly pro. I also wanted the book to show how to write each element of craft, down to the nitty gritty, through examples drawn from the full rainbow of fiction: genre, mainstream, and literary; contemporary and classic, and for adults, young adults, and children. I believe Manuscript Makeover may have 100 excerpts as examples to model.

My goal and I believe hallmark as an author of instruction for writers is organization, clarity, and accessibility of information. Each chapter ends with a revision checklist that is a summary outline of what was in the chapter. My readers will have these checklists for review and for quick reference. I consider this book, my sixth and last, on writing to be my magnum opus on writing and revising fiction.

MM: In your experience as a writing teacher, what are 2 or 3 common mistakes or misunderstandings aspiring authors have about the craft of writing and/or the publishing industry?

EL: A common misunderstanding is that right now is the worst possible time for getting published. I've been hearing that since I first attended conferences nearly 30 years ago. It's always the worst time. Therefore, there is no time like the present.

Another myth is that you are born talented, so if you don't think you are or someone has said your writing sucks, you should stop writing and take up an easy profession like brain surgery. With some 20,000 markets for writing, I assure you that the majority of what is written doesn't show remarkable talent. Because each of us is an original, we all have that originality to lend to our writing. Some people are better able to do this than others, but publishing is as open to talent-challenged but hard-working writers as to the gifted, literary artists. In fact, there are more markets for the talent-challenged.

A mistake that some writers make is thinking "it's easy." After all, don't we all know how to write? Writing well requires that same kind of persistence and openness to learning and criticism as any profession. It also requires a lot of practice to reach a reliable level of skill, and emotional fortitude to turn off the inner gargoyles of perfectionism, distraction, and doubt. The biggest obstacle, ultimately, to any writer's success, is the self. I also believe that writers who "make it" need to cultivate resiliency-trying one thing or another until a connection is made-within and with others-and to develop risk-taking. Committing words on paper is a risk. Creation takes risk. Marketing takes risk.

MM: In your experience as a book editor, what are 2 or 3 mistakes or missed
opportunities writers made with their manuscripts?

EL: There are several key mistakes that are a writer's undoing:
1. Inadequate revision. Nearly everyone thinks a manuscript (of any kind) is finished and ready to sell when it isn't. We can't see our own writing clearly. Revise. Put it aside. Read more about how to revise. Do some more revision. Put it aside. Get constructive criticism. Revise again.
2. Belaboring one piece too long. This mistake seems contrary to my advice above. I have met far too many writers who are still working on their first novel-years or decades later. Part of the learning curve is encountering new problems, overcoming them, and adding to the tool kit. That means gaining more breadth of experience by writing different works. Of course, you want to figure out your weaknesses by reading about craft and learning in workshops so that you don't simply repeat your mistakes.
3. Finishing. Another group of writers begins with gusto but runs out of gas. It's hard to finish . . . anything. Not all works deserve finishing, but if you find that you seldom finish a story, an article, a novel, or memoir, recognize a skill deficit: learning how to finish. How do you do that? You make yourself continue writing, and writing, and then you are done with your rough draft. You finished. It's learning how to fulfill a commitment to yourself when, possibly, interior programming or censorship have been putting up a road block.

MM: In your opinion as a book editor, at what point in the process should a writer consider using one? Are there any warning signs of "scam" book editors a writer should be on the lookout for?

EL: One good use of a professional editor early in the process of writing a novel is to read and respond to a whole book synopsis. The editor should be able to spot problems of logic, mixed genres, unoriginal plot, unclear story theme, and superficial characterization-from a five-page synopsis. The synopsis is a book doctor's MRI. Outside of reading a synopsis or brainstorming alternatives for the novel at an early stage, the primary purpose of a professional book editor should be to alert the writer to later-stage revisions. The catch-22 is that most novelists believe they are at that stage when they are actually an apprentice or even a beginner. We don't know what we don't know. This was the first paradox I had to deal with in writing Manuscript Makeover.

I compiled and was heartened to sell National Directory of Editor & Writers specifically to help writers (and non-writers) go shopping for an editor or ghostwriter. I satisfied a personal curiosity about how other book editors run their businesses. It was no less than illuminating to learn about 530 other colleagues. I advise writers seeking editorial help to do their homework. What I mean is to learn all they can about several editors' background, accomplishments, successful clients, specialties, and fees. I'm a teacher as much as an editor so I believe in lengthy evaluations that teach craft as well as model changes using portions of the writer's work. I also believe in writing comments (positive and instructive) all over the pages, and making corrections, but stopping far short of imposing the editor's ideas or style.

Writers need to be alert to what they expect and need and ask for it-like in any other service. I have seen appalling responses by published (and unpublished) authors who edit works for a living. Some of these, which I consider unacceptable include:
* Handwritten evaluations of a few pages after reading a whole work
* Criticism worded in demeaning ways without specific details supporting the comments
* Criticism absent of direction or modeling to show how to make needed changes
* Manuscripts that have few corrections on them, as if they have only been read, not edited
* Editor personal reactions without explanation of the relationship to the writing
* Absence of knowledge of craft or style that is conveyed to the writer

I admit that I don't like the description of "scam editors" any more than "scam agents." I think that is because I don't see any higher percentage of scammers in this business more than in any other, and my optimistic view of human nature would like to believe that true scammers, rather than less competent editors, are a tiny portion of everyone doing business.

On the other hand, skill will always vary. And the very most skilled, which often but not always corresponds to the highest prices, may not be the best match for an individual writer at a particular time in his or her development. Sometimes, editors in the beginning of their careers give far more coaching and time, for less money, than later in their careers. For writers who really are professional, or nearly so, an editor who can help that writer see and make the last revisions, has to be an editor who is experienced and maybe a specialist in a particular genre. The best thing a writer can do is talk to many editors and many friends who have used editors. Word of mouth reputation is still the best way to find help.

MM: In your opinion as a writing teacher, at what point in the process should an aspiring author consider taking a writing class? Do you have any recommendations on how to determine whether a topic/teacher/level is appropriate for that writer?

EL: In the beginning of learning how to write, aspiring authors should take as many courses and workshops as they have time and the brain cells to absorb. I like conferences for the fact that the workshops are short and nearly always geared to beginners and apprentice-level writers. Conferences offer the smorgasbord. Community college continuing ed (adult ed) classes are usually at a pre-professional level as well. All a writer need do is ask to talk with the teacher, or e-mail, and ask questions about the level of instruction, the topics that will be covered, and that should help greatly.

Word generally gets around about teachers and what they offer and how they teach. A writer can also ask any administrator who sets up classes. Seldom can you go wrong in taking a writing class. However, if you are taking classes that cost mega-bucks, I would ask to speak with or e-mail several other people who have taken that class previously. I have noticed that famous and/or talented writers do not necessarily have the vocabulary, knowledge, or teaching skill to guide others in what they do so apparently naturally.

For writers who cannot, or do not want to, attend classes or conferences, they can find online correspondence courses and critique groups. Always, pay attention to your gut. If you feel uncomfortable, 99 times out of 100, there is some good reason. Never stay in a position where you are receiving criticism that is unconstructive or unsupported. Always expect and demand that you receive comments about what you are doing right, so you can build on your strengths.

MM: Is there anything else you would like to share that we didn't cover?

EL: Oh my, there is a universe advice, guidelines, instruction, and stories to share. In fact, I could write a book. . . .

What I continue to learn that I can pass on to every write is this: Life can deal us a lot of tough realities, and despite them, we can go on and write and succeed. I would like to say, "If I could do it, you can do it," but that is simply not true. We can't compare lives or impose expectations. What I will say is that you can confront and banish thoughts of entitlement (I deserve x, y, z). You can overcome fear and anxiety by learning how to stay focused in the moment. You must become forgiving of yourself; you're human not superhuman after all. Celebrate every step, even tiny ones. Gather a group of cheerleaders to encourage you, but also find others who are dedicated to helping you become the best writer you can be-which means they will give you honest, constructive criticism. Compare yourself to no one but learn from everyone. The writer's life is one path of self-realization and self-acceptance is a great reward.

YOUR TURN: What writing classes have you taken or craft books have you read that improved your writing or gave you an ah-ha moment? What are your tips on accepting constructive criticism and revising your baby manuscript? One lucky commenter wins a copy of Elizabeth's new release: Manuscript Makeover!

Elizabeth Lyon, a regular speaker at writing conferences and retreats nationwide, has been a contributor to The Writer and Writer's Digest and is a mentor, professional book editor, and writing teacher. The author of The Sell Your Novel Tool Kit, A Writer's Guide to Fiction, Nonfiction Book Proposals Anyone Can Write, A Writer's Guide to Nonfiction, and National Directory of Editors & Writers, she lives in Springfield, Oregon.

Read The Spymaster's Lady - An attempt at Reciprocal Pimping by Lacey Kaye

Oh, yeah. That's what my avatar looks like!

Feel like I haven't posted here in ages. Or time flies. At any rate, I'm back, and this time, I have an Epiphany to share with you. Buckle up your seat belts, ladies and gents -- this is going to be bigger, badder, and better than ever.

Note: my office chair at work actually has a seat belt. After the Ergo department evaluated my office space and decided to remove the armrests on my chair, one of the "moonshine" guys came by and decided my seat now posed a safety hazard, so he brought in a seat belt and affixed it to my seat. When Lisa's armrests were removed, she got one, too. See? All the cool kids are doing it. And you thought I was kidding.

Buckled in? OK. Here we go.

This is one of those things you probably read on other people's blogs and go duh. I'm certainly not the first person to realize this, so I'm not claiming to be hiking mountains here. (For the record, I have hiked exactly one mountain in my life. It is an experience sure never to be repeated.) For some reason, even though I'd heard this a million, billion times and it is one of those things that everyone knows, I never truly understood the big deal. Of course your story needs to be the biggest, most awesomest story you can make. Duh, it's a book. We read it to escape things like my slog through 20 consecutive work days. (Seriously? Seriously.) But ask yourself this: Is it?

I have a vision for my Romance with Color label. It's overarching and dark and humorous and sexy and my characters are complicated, tortured souls. But I think my work falls short of that right now. They're not terribly active people, my people. They are afraid of obstacles and you know what? I am, too.

I'm pretty lazy. Dialogue and internal narrative are what I do well. Action...not so much. So I skip it. I write what I write really well, don't get me wrong. But my manuscripts are by no means as big and kickass as I want to believe they are. When I say big, I mean story-scope-wise. The fate of the world isn't on my characters. If my characters decide to crawl into a hole and die, maybe like five people would care. (Besides you readers, of course!) But they're not taking away anything anyone else really needs. The world isn't a better place because they're in it.

I finally had the nerve to plot the story I wanted to write in the first place, and daily I wish I were working on it now. (That would be my third manuscript, If You Asked an Angel to Love.) But I am a finisher, and I need to finish the book I'm writing now. I just don't need to finish If You Asked a Rake to Reform the way I was writing it.

Yesterday, Mavens Erica and Darcy and I talked about ways to make my story bigger. I was excited, and I know they were, too. I feel like this is the right time for me to realize this. (Okay, two years ago might have been better, but I know why I didn't -- that stupid market concept we're all told to be aware of, be wary of, and ignore.)

That's right. I scared myself out of writing what I wanted to write, which was totally stupid. I regret it now with the fire of a thousand Maven Darcy suns. I get a lot of feedback that the concept is good but the story doesn't grab from the partial. Well, of course it doesn't. It gets better as you keep reading because I got more comfortable with exploring outside the box I was writing in. I realized this on Saturday, when I had dinner with MaveFave and fellow Eastsider Keira Soleore. She was telling me about her Regency box and I was telling her that was totally stupid. Except I was doing it, too.

I worried that because I wanted to write multicultural stories I needed to keep everything else equal so I wouldn't blow myself out of a market. *Bashes head against nearest copy of The Spymaster's Lady* Stupid, stupid. There's nothing keeping multicultural from being published. I get requests all the time for it. The only thing keeping my multicultural story from being published is my nice, safe plot.

How safe is your plot?

A few weeks ago, I got a rejection that made me curse the publishing gods and duck the return lightning bolts. I told my friends that the Powers That Be are saying they want "different" but then I get rejected for the molds I do break (and certainly, I did break some molds with my manuscript -- don't let this post fool you. I'm getting to that part of it in like nine words.).

More stupid, stupid. They're not rejecting me because my story is too different or because readers won't read a super-alpha kickass female falling for a reserved wallflower hero. They're rejecting me because I didn't take that concept far enough and say to hell with it, I'm ignoring the boundaries and writing a HUGE story, one that couldn't be contained anywhere but in the pages of my imagination.

THAT'S the problem. I was afraid to write big. Afraid no one would want it. But as I said in an email earlier this week, I didn't write big *enough* to push my story over the wall of same-but-different and get into the land of stories like Outlander and The Spymaster's Lady.

We just replotted two threads in my current wip. I'm indescribably excited to start writing it. I want passion; there will be passion. I want danger; there will be danger. I want steamy -- characters as star-crossed as my characters are about to be are always hot.

I've already challenged Mavens Darcy and Erica (I challenged them, they challenged me, we challenged each other) to find a thread in our wips and make it bigger. It went something like this:

Me: Hey, guys, I think I need to write a bigger story.

Mavens: I'm so excited about this! So, whatcha gonna do?

Me: Uh. I dunno. You?

Mavens: (blankly stare at half-finished wips) Crap.

It's a conclusion we've all reached pretty recently in our writing journeys, which I think is cool.

So tell me now: how are you going to make YOUR story bigger?

I Get So Emotional

I beg your forgiveness for inserting that insipid Whitney Houston song into your mind (and for somewhat copying Maven Erica's Monday Post Title). Unfortunately, it's the first thing that popped into my head when I thought about what I might say about emotion this week. See, I'm a sentimental fool. I choke up when I check my children late at night. Stupid songs (Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star???) trigger my sob reflex. I cry at parent meetings or watching a school play that doesn't even include my own children or any that I'm related to. It's horrifying. And I'm completely incapable of stopping it.

How does this translate into my writing? I'm not writing tearjerkers, that's for sure. What I hope I'm writing are emotionally rich characters and deeply moving themes. My favorite reads are those that make me feel what the characters are feeling. I hate when I read a book and it gets to the end where things tie up nicely and you only get one POV. You get how either the hero or heroine feels but not the other. Makes me want to throw the book. I don't have that problem so much anymore, but it seemed like this happened a lot in the books I read when I was younger. Does that mean books have changed? Maybe. It may simply mean that writers are getting better at tapping into that emotion and inviting the reader to do the same.

I think POV is an important ingredient. Probably a lot of the older books I read contain a certain amount of head-hopping, which is not always conducive to conveying emotion. It's hard to share a character's triumphs and woes if you aren't with them long enough. Deep POV is a really great way to have a direct line to emotion. And of course, as Maven Jacq pointed out yesterday, showing emotion rather than telling it is a huge part of drawing the reader in. Even in movies, I relate better to a character by their actions instead of their dialogue or facial expressions. They can look sad, but I need to feel their sadness (or whatever emotion). Think of Chewbacca. No understandable dialogue and a lesser range of facial expression than humans. Despite this, we feel his sadness when Han is tortured and then frozen in carbonite. More than that, I feel his anger, his frustration and everything in between.

And that's a tough thing: varying emotions. Deeper emotions are sometimes easier to convey because they are more black and white: despair, joy, anger, fright. But what about amusement, boredom, contentment, annoyance? These can be more difficult because they are grayer shades of those deeper emotions. Too many deep emotions and you might have a caricature. Too few and you may have a character who doesn't resonate.

I mentioned in Monday's comment thread that Elizabeth Hoyt did a great workshop in Atlanta at Moonlight and Magnolias about polishing your ms. She said to make sure that the POV character's emotions are clear in each scene. I'm doing a polish pass on Glorious using the tips from her workshop (the tidbits were too good to not go back and use) and emotion is something I'm going to be looking at very closely. I'm also making notes of emotion as I storyboard my current book. In fact, I used emotion words when crafting the arcs for my hero and heroine. You can do so much with emotion! Or maybe that's just me (see post title).

How do you use emotion in your writing/plotting/polishing? What draws you into a book emotionally? How much do you hate me for the title of this post? (Answer must be in the form of an emotional response.)

Oh, and I wanted to share this because it's pertinent: I got a great Maven crit yesterday asking how my heroine felt about something a secondary character said. Since this is the very beginning of the book (yes, new book - without a title yet!) and we're just meeting these characters, it's important information to have about both the heroine and the secondary character. What will be fun is what the secondary character's emotion really is versus what the heroine thinks it is, or better yet, the emotion it strikes within the heroine! See, emotion can be fun! Or, again, maybe that's just me.

Who's to Blame? Surviving Rejection When it Really Matters

I'm done with my book. I love it and fully believe there is someone out there who will love it, too. The rest of it should be easy, right?

1. Pore through my RWRs, websites, friends' experiences, favorite author acknowledgements, etc and find agents to submit to
2. Collect them into a spreadsheet for tracking purposes
3. Type up personalized, targeted query letters to my top agents
4. Assemble the query letters into envelopes or emails
5. Send them out
6. Wait for worldwide fame to find me

Ok, maybe not precisely easy.

Certainly, sending my little manuscript into the big, bad world is a huge deal, especially to me. (As opposed to you, who may not care if I actually get off my couch this weekend and do some work.) But what happens after that?

I know, I know. I work on something else. *But, guys...* What if the agents hate my stuff? What if I start getting rejection letters that say things like, "Dear Author, You will never be published this side of the Apocalypse. Please burn all your existing manuscripts and throw yourself on the knife Erica was talking about Monday."

Won't it ruin my mojo?

The short answer is yes, of course it will sting. I don't wake up every morning hoping today's the day I'll be rejected. There's that cute little salesman saying that "Every rejection is one step closer to a sale," but... psh! Whatever!

The long answer is that I shouldn't let it get me down. A rejection, whether it's for a query or a partial or, God forbid, the full manuscript, is just one person's opinion. Each of us has to find the one or three people who 'get' what we're doing, and that's not usually going to happen right out of the gate. B.E. Sanderson once compared finding an agent to dating. Well, I will compare the entire writing process to dating.

It's a wonderful, magical world of Suck.

You meet a guy. He seems into you. You're feeling into him. He starts rambling on about all the cool things going on this weekend. You smile and say, "Wow, that sounds fun." He seems to take that as encouragement to talk about more fun things. (We're to the part where the agent requests the full manuscript, if you can't keep up ;-) You go, "Definitely invite me to things like that. Sounds like a good time." He smiles a heart-stopping, hazel-eyed smile and talks about more fun things. (This is the part where the agent starts writing you glowing emails at every chapter break but has yet to offer representation.)

So then you walk away, feeling pretty sure that even if he's busy this weekend, next weekend he'll invite you out for a rousing good time. But when you see him again on Wednesday, he just starts talking about the fun stuff going on this weekend. You begin to wonder if he thinks you're too stupid to find fun things to do yourself, or if he reads the Entertainment section of the paper in lieu of Sports. Maybe the only small talk he has is about Things I'm Not Going to Invite You To Do, But Boy, Don't They Sure Sound Fun?

(I have no idea where this part fits into my analogy.)

SO THEN you finally hand him your number and say "Call me if you actually want to do one of those things." (This is when the agent finishes your manuscript, sighs contentedly, and writes you an email that says, "Hey, Lacey, now THAT'S a story!")

Only, he never calls. (She never emails you again.) Either way, you feel unwanted, unloved, and like you were this close but now you have to begin all over again, starting with finding another agent just as hot.

You know what I mean.

And even if you do make that connection, sell your manuscript and become a NYT Bestselling Author, there's nothing to say you and your agent won't get divorced 15 years down the road. Nothing--nothing--in this world is guaranteed. We have to accept things won't always go our way. And we have to move on.

So what's your mode of getting up and on with it? Chocolate? 20-minute pity party/rant fest? Call up your girlfriends and talk about what an indecisive dork he is? Wonder if it's something you did, something you could do better, and have a very, very hard time NOT running off to fix "yourself" before you start shopping again?

Do you accept the "It's not me; it's him!" thing or do you start rationalizing? Maybe the agent has too many clients (the guy has a girlfriend). Maybe the agent is checking around with her peers to find someone who isn't as busy or loves your genre more than she does (maybe he's indecisive). Maybe the agent hasn't had time to write you back (he's busy). Maybe the agent is afraid to find out you already have 5 other agents vying for your attention (he's shy). Maybe the agent is afraid they can't shop what you have (maybe he's gay). Maybe the agent totally doesn't get you at all (translation: nothing short of throwing yourself naked into his arms is going to clue this guy into the fact that you're into him).

Me, bitter? Nah :-)

Everyone's a Critic

So, I actually used to be a movie critic. For a small, local newspaper. I did it for about a year for a coworker who founded the paper with her husband. No paycheck, but it was hella fun. My favorite column was about female action heroes entitled, "Dye Hard." We (I wrote several columns with my best friend) wrote that just after "The Long Kiss Goodnight" came out. (Coincidentally, that movie inspired a book I started writing and plan to go back to some time.) We loooooved that movie. Was it a cinematic wonder? A critically acclaimed masterpiece? Um, no, but Geena Davis and Samuel L. Jackson kicked major ass. My friend and I began giving movies a PEV, Pure Entertainment Value, rating. Because sometimes a movie is just a movie, you know?

As you can see, everyone can be a critic. I did not attend "movie critic school" to write my column, nor did I subscribe to anything that might guide me in my criticism. I merely saw movies I wanted to see and shared my opinion. And there is the operative word in critique, opinion. A critique will always be someone's opinion. Never more, never less. Are some people's opinions more important than others? Sure, but only you can decide whose opinions are most important to YOU.

Opinions vary and come from very different places. Some people opine because they're expected to (see professional critics and critique partners) and others do it because they think that's what you want. Beta reader/family member/coworker/Joe Schmo reads your ms and tells you exactly what they think, down to the selection of your character's names and all you wanted was an overall thumbs up or thumbs down. Maybe you asked for that and maybe you didn't. When we begin sharing our work...everyone's a critic.

As writers, it's important to take each critique for what it is, who it came from, and most importantly, what we want it to be. Erica so aptly said in her post that these are OUR stories and it's up to us to decide how much (or how little) we take of people's input. I get feedback from lots of places: my CPs, contests, virgin readers, and occasionally my husband. Do I take Mr. Burke's feedback at the same level I take my CPs? No, but that's not to say his feedback isn't important. It's just different. He's going to be reading from that PEV perspective while my CPs are reading much deeper.

I think it's important to realize what stage you're in with your ms, because that will drive the kind of critique you're looking for. First draft, revision, polish, done. All of those require a different type of critique and even then you can crit a "done" ms six ways from Sunday. And you're going to get crits (from whatever source) that you simply don't agree with. That's okay. Repeat it with me, that's okay. I think sometimes people put themselves into the role of critic (even going so far as to make a mountain out of a molehill or, gasp, out of nothing at all) because they think you want something. So, take everything you get with a grain of salt and learn to be your own best critic.

How do you organize the crits you get? Do you communicate what you're looking for? What type of critic/critique do you prefer at each stage? What kind of critic are you?

Shake It Up

So it seems we're talking revision this week. (And last week too, I guess, remember the Revisalator? I'm still taking orders...) Of course, that's because the Mavens are all in various parts of revision. I am putting the final polish on my partial. That dreaded / heralded / contested / overread / critted to death first three chapters. How many times have you "tweaked" them? I won't tell you the torture I applied to my first ms before tucking it under the bed. I will tell you that the opening of Glorious has remained pretty much the same since the first draft. I finaled with the first 25 pages in the first contest I entered it in, so I was a little afraid to mess with it too much. But, like James Bond's martinis, perhaps shaken is better than stirred and a bit of an overhaul might help it to the next level (that being agentdom!). So, I sent it to a fresh pair of eyes (yay for virgin readers!) and prepared to chop it up.

Okay, maybe I wasn't prepared to chop it up (aren't we always hoping we're closer to done than we thought?), but I kept an open mind, especially since I hadn't changed it much since I wrote the first draft months and months ago. Sure, I line edited it, but the bones were the same. Virgin Reader was awesome and gave me some great ideas to really up the conflict. Now I'm only a POV question (to rewrite a scene in another POV or not?) and a closing hook away from perfection, er, completion.

I must say that this revision has been very inspiring for when I write my next book. I think the first draft of that ms will be much cleaner and I have ideas for what to do on that first draft from an organizational perspective to pave the way for a smoother revision. And revision isn't all revising existing stuff. As Maven Lacey has said, love your delete key (or something close to that, anyway). And when you delete, you usually have to write something else instead. I actually wrote 7000 new words over two days last week. Holy flaming keyboard, Batman!

Last week I sent an email to the Mavens about how we get to know our characters so well that revising that crucial opening becomes difficult. It's like explaining your favorite movie to someone who's never seen it before. You get all excited about your fave bits and they stand there and look at you with this "I don't get it" expression and pretty soon you just say, "well, maybe you'll rent it" and the conversation limps on to a new topic. I don't know if that made any sense at all, but at midnight it makes perfect sense to me.

Do you have an idea as to how you might shake things up? How do you bring a fresh idea to a tired ms (or an ms you're tired of)? Remember, if you're stuck, you can always have your hero shout: "I wear women's underwear!" That'll shake it up.

P.S. to my mom: PINCH PUNCH, first day of the month!

Writing Backwards

No, I'm not talking about writing from right to left (that's way too hard); I'm talking about writing the beginning of your book after you've written everything else.

You see, I'm in the throes of rewriting the first three chapters of Unbridled. And while I do need to make revisions to the remainder of the book, those changes will be on a much smaller scale than the ones I'm making at the beginning. I'll be adding a scene here and taking away a scene there, layering in some new backstory and motivations, and reworking portions of the sub-plot all the way through, but the beginning? It's like a whole different animal.

When I embarked on this project right after National, I figured it would be relatively easy to do this. I knew more or less where I'd gone wrong in the previous iterations of the beginning (there was too much plot setup and backstory that made the romance drag, and the romance is the point, right?), but I've found it surprisingly harder than I anticipated.

Part of that is no doubt because we all know the beginning is THE MOST IMPORTANT part of the book. Contests emphasize this. Agents and editors emphasize it. Everyone emphasizes it. Hook us in the first five (or ten or twenty or fifty) pages or it's all over for your manuscript.

This means the compulsion to aim for perfection in those first X pages (depending on whether you're doing a first 10 pages contest or a first chapter contest or prepping a partial for an agent or editor) is overwhelming, even though we all know perfection is unachievable. After all, what makes those pages "perfect" for one reader may not work at all for another.

Here, I have a confession to make. I've never read a single Harry Potter book. (Ducks raw eggs and rotten tomatoes.) Yes, it's true. And I even have not one but two copies of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (one hardback, one paperback), so it's not that I haven't tried. But I have never been able to get beyond the first few pages of the first chapter. To me, they are unremittingly, unfailingly dull. I know that there must be something worthwhile, even amazing, that happens after that first chapter, but I've never been able to bring myself to keep reading and find out what it is. (Hangs head in shame.)

The point I'm making here is that even though I didn't like it, the first chapter of that book works. Her agent and editor liked it enough that it hooked them. They kept reading. They bought the manuscript. They published it. And then millions of readers worldwide got hooked by that chapter. They kept reading. And they've continued reading to the tune of six sequels and millions of copies sold. Just because the odd outlier like me didn't love that chapter doesn't mean it was bad. It just means I have bad taste :-).

Okay, so I know the first three chapters will never be perfect, right? It should be easy, no?

Well, no. It turns out there's another pitfall to rewriting the beginning of your book after you've written the whole story, and I have to thank Maven Darcy for pointing this one out, because I didn't see it myself. Quite simply, it's that you know the characters too well. How is that possible, you ask? Shouldn't it be easier to write a good introduction to your characters and story when you know them inside and out?

Maybe it is for some people. But here's the thing: usually, when you write the beginning of your book, you're still getting to know the characters yourself. Oh sure, you know their goals, motivations and conflicts (or you should). You know their backstories and personality traits. But you don't know them the way you will be the time you write the words "the end." And that's a good thing for the beginning of your book because it forces you to explore your characters as you write in a way that reveals them to the reader. But when you go back and rewrite the beginning after you've come to know them so well, it's easy to make assumptions about what the reader knows about your hero and heroine because those qualities have become "givens" in your mind. This means you can leave out crucial pieces of information that will help your readers to sympathize with your characters and want to keep reading your story.

I'm finding this problem of knowing the characters too well also extends to the Mavens as they're reading my new scenes. They, too, know my characters inside and out, to the point that they interpolate information I haven't actually written into the scene and don't see what's missing. It's not that they're not great critique partners. But they're suffering from the same familiarity bug I am.

Which is why I need fresh eyes to read this partial when I get finished. The story starts at a much better pace now, but I suspect there are huge gaps in it that neither I nor the Mavens can see.

YOUR TURN: How many times have you rewritten/revised your first chapter (or first three chapters)? Do you find it easier or harder the better you know your characters? And do you have some spare time on your hands? I've (almost) got a partial I'd like to sell you :).

Daisy le Fey and the Half Binder Princess

Ack! Monday Maven is late!

Can you believe I totally spaced I was the Monday Maven? (Oops!)

This means you don't get an insightful, well thought out post today. It means you get my meandering thoughts. Much like the drivel on genres, web sites, and branding I posted this morning on my blog. (Where I did remember I was supposed to post, and yet still ended up winging it.)

While Maven Darcy and Maven Lacey were busy being super-productive and actually reaching their goals, what did I do this weekend besides see Ratatouille with a six year old and take a long-awaited visit to Dinosaur World?

The first adventure I had was printing out all 400 pages of Trevor & the Tooth Fairy for my editing pleasure. (Seriously, "editing" and "pleasure" do not belong in the same sentence.) The adventure part began when I ran out of black ink and my printer decided to eat random papers in such a way as to have half a page on one sheet and half on another. It was awesome.

So, once I finally got all 400 pages printed in two columns, landscape orientation, I then cut them all in half. Once I'd cut them all in half (and put them back in order, as the cutting process naturally got them out of order) I then proceeded to attack them all with a three hole punch. As I punched three or four sheets at a time, I was then required to reorder the loose sheets yet again.

At last, with a giant stack of 8.5x5.5 neatly punched manuscript pages, I began to place them in my nifty 8.5x5.5 three ring binder (big enough so the pages are book sized, yet small enough to fit inside a purse). Sadly, my 1" binder only agreed to hold half of my manuscript.

Therefore, off I went to the Office Depot in search of a second odd-sized, over-priced binder. I was rewarded with not one but two such creatures (are binders creature? Mine are.) and was lucky enough to find them at a more useful width of 2". (Although was unlucky in that the darn things were over $8 apiece. If a full size one is $1 at Wal-Mart, why is a half-size one $8.49, I ask you???)

I then returned home with said odd-sized and overpriced binder and transferred the cropped and punched pages from the other binder (and my kitchen table) to the new binder, where they all fit quite nicely and even manage to look rather bookish and official.

Thus satisfied, I handed the whole mess over to a friend of mine who is visiting me for a couple weeks (hey, you crit for your breakfast in my house!) along with a pen and a stack of sticky notes.

(Near as I can tell, she has yet to make a single notation, but one can only hope.)

After my houseguests go back to the great white north (okay, really Indiana), I hope to have a chance to read TATTF as a reader (I haven't peeked at Daisy & Trevor's shenanigans in months) before I get my very first revision letter.

And then I plan to lug my binder with me everywhere I go, covering the pages with sticky notes until it looks like a papier-mâché piñata. (Except without the yummy candies inside.)

Following that, I plan to polish TATTF within an inch of its life (evenly spaced 1" margins all the way around, of course) and send it back to my agent for shopping.

We shall see.

Obviously, this is my first attempt at the half-binder trick. I'm still working out the bugs.

YOUR TURN: What's on your plate writing-wise for the next couple weeks? What wacky methodologies have you tried in the name of revision/writing? Please share your secrets/thoughts/tips in the comments!

The Revisalator

Is there such a thing? Some sort of tool you can purchase from Ronco for $29.99 that revises your manuscript into flowing, economical, spectacular perfection? I’d buy it. In fact, I might buy two at that price. I’m in the midst of polishing up my manuscript to send it out to the requests I received at National and boy, howdy, is it harder than I thought it would be. I’m sure part of it is because I wrote the first third of the ms last November/December and my writing has gotten a lot better since then (I hope!). Surprisingly, that first third was actually pretty good (funnier than I remember and full of some really great scenes), but I decided to reverse the first major turning point (at the end of that first third) so that the hero’s and heroine’s choices are swapped. It ratcheted the conflict in a major way. I also decided to tweak the heroine’s sister’s role a bit. Once again, it ups the conflict for the heroine.

What I’m learning is that the revision is difficult – in some ways more than the first draft – because you really are tying it all together. Like upping the conflict as I said above. I had good conflict before, but this is better. And I didn’t see it until I’d finished the first draft (and neither did the Mavens). I kind of see the first draft as a fantastic outfit and the revision is the shoes to go with it. You can probably find loads of shoes that will work and look fine, but only one or two will be perfect. Okay, that’s oversimplifying things, but you get my drift. (Right?)

Once you get through a first draft, you’re much better equipped to look at the conflict and all of the layers you need from fifty thousand feet. Once you get that perspective, you swoop in close for a scene by scene review to ensure you’ve got everything you need: setting, opening/closing hooks, five senses, GMC, vocabulary, balance (action/introspection/dialogue – can I call this AID and claim it in the name of MavenSpeak?). This seems straightforward, but it’s hard. If only there were a set formula we could use to make sure it all works.

Setting + attention grabbing hooks + one of each senses + varied and colorful vocabulary= framework

GMC + AID = The “Meat”

Framework + meat = Perfect Scene

Ta da! The Revisalator! (I don’t take PayPal, so you’ll have to send me a check.) Ah, if only it were that easy…

So what tricks do you employ when polishing your ms or revising a scene(s)? Is there a method to your madness? Do you love it or loathe it?