Writing Books: My Faves

If you're just starting out in your writing, you may start to wonder if (a) what you're doing is "right" and/or (b) how do the Real Deals do it?

When I first started writing "for real," I didn't really care.  I had this loose idea of how authors did it and just went with it.  I wish that I could rewind to that state of mind because I actually got stuff done back then.  I wrote in such a carefree way--it sucked...I mean, like you wouldn't believe--but I was writing, and I loved it.  Sometimes, ignorance is bliss.

Then of course I'd want to turn on my current brain to edit, because my current brain knows what it's doing.  Being in the state of mind where I'm hyper aware of my writing actions...it can suck.  Because I'm super aware of what I'm doing wrong.  It stops up my writing to where I'll go months without writing a thing.

My dad got me a book that I still use to this day.  It seems that whenever I start on a new project, I pull it out and basically re-read it.  I reference it so often that it's falling apart on me.

So my first recommendation is:

Your First Novel by Laura Whitcomb and Ann Rittenberg

(Ann Rittenberg is actually listed first on the cover, but I switched the order of their names because Laura Whitcomb goes first in the book.  Haha.)

This is my go-to book on writing.  I'm currently starting it over again and annotating and underlining.  Laura Whitcomb wrote a fantastic book called A Certain Slant of Light and it was the first young adult book that I called "my favorite".  She knows what she's doing.  She outlines techniques so well.  Me, I'm a list person, and I can still understand what she's saying.  She points out things that may seem obvious, but you realize that you might have been going at it the wrong way.

Her advice on starting, writing, and revising your book is so wonderful.

My copy of Your First Novel is, like I said, falling apart.  The film on the front cover is peeling back, there are about two dozen flags sticking out from the sides, and the spine is broken in one place where I'd creased it so many times (Characters and Exposition, chapter 4).

I've had it for years and I still say it's The One you want to check out.

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This second one is also by Laura Whitcomb!

Novel Shortcuts by Laura Whitcomb

Again, she knows what she's talking about.  Here, Ms. Whitcomb talks about the things she wishes she'd thought of when writing her first draft.  This was great for me in several places, because one of the things she suggests is mind maps for characters and main ideas.  I'm a very list/visual-oriented person.  So that really helps me out.

In Novel Shortcuts, Whitcomb goes into detail about how to tackle scenes, how to find the "moments" in your story, and what to do when you feel it all should go in the bin.

I highly recommend it, especially if you are already a fan of Your First Novel and want more of Whitcomb's advice.

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I'd first checked this book out at the library and loved it so much I bought it.

Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott

I pulled a lot of quotes from this book to hang around my desk.  Even though Ms. Lamott doesn't write in my preferred genre (I've never read any of her other books), her advice for writing in general.  Her third chapter ("Shitty First Drafts" p. 21 paperback edition) is fantastic.  I used to read it everyday before I started writing.

The overall theme of her book is to take everything "bird by bird" meaning "one at a time".  It's so easy to get overwhelmed with what you want to put in your book and how you're going to get it there and then make it work.  It's enough to scare away even a seasoned veteran.  

Ms. Lamott's easy writing style is underlined by a sadistic, almost self-deprecating sense of humor.  It makes it easier to understand where she's coming from and makes it so much more enjoyable to read, overall.  Her short chapters make it easy to use it as a "daily dose" source of inspiration.

what are some of your favorite writing books?

Shelving a Story

I'm sorry to have to announce that I am putting my story Phoenix Rising on the shelf until further notice.  This was a really tough decision for me, because I'd put a lot of time and effort into these characters and their world and their stories, but something went wrong.   Their voices got congested, and I could only understand every other word and no amount of decongestant medicine would work.

My critique partner made me feel a lot better about this decision because sometimes you just gotta do what you gotta do.  I'd realized that I was writing to "The Standard" of YA Paranormal Romance and I was starting to dislike my own story and writing, not in the perfectionist way, but just that gut feeling of indifference.

I had a discussion with my dad (more like I was ranting and working myself into a state and he was trying to coax the hurricane into a bottle) and he told me that (a) it's more important that I just write, no matter what the genre or story and (b) I need to write the story I would want to read.  Forget classifying my story into how it would fit on the shelf amongst the other books and focus on just writing the story I'd want to read.

Well, his name is Eli, he's eleven-years-old and nothing like anything I've ever attempted to write before.

Editing

(I want to make this post rather short--I'm sick and "don't have the energy"--but I'm not making any promises.)

I was catching up on Maggie Stiefvater's blog and her post about editing inspired me to write this post.

My critique partner and I both have the same problem: we edit constantly while we write.  And like Maggie said, this is usually a big no-no.  "Turn of your inner editor and just write."  Well, I know from experience that editing is more of an aid to my writing process than a hindrance.

Like, right now.  I'm stalled mostly because there is something off about the voice of my character.  She's just not coming across the way I want her to and since her mind has suddenly put a portcullis between us, I can't figure out how to move the story forward convincingly.  (Being convincing is a big deal for me.)

I know that I'm going to have to go back and scrap something so I can fix the problem.  (Yes, "scraping" work is a form of editing.)

When I first felt the urge of the inner editor (some years ago), I resisted.  I knew it was a writer's sin to edit while you were writing.  But then I ended up dropping the story.  (It was a good story, too.)

The next story, I let myself edit and I got farther along.  I got more done.  (I still ended up dropping the story.)

Point is, I do better when I'm editing.  To me, it's perfectly okay because if I don't edit, I'm not satisfied and it is intensely uncomfortable to continue writing with an itch under your skin that you can't scratch.

Mainstream Authoring

I was having a chat with my critique partner the other day and we talked briefly about how it's hard to find books to read that are similar to our own stories because our stories are definitely not in the mainstream YA paranormal realm.  Well, mine is just left of center when it comes to YA paranormal stories.

I said that this "left of center"-ness was a good thing, because the standards for the mainstream YA paranormal romance stories are horrendously low.

It seems to me that some people dress themselves up as authors, investigate the current trends, watch crappy ABC Family dramas and then write a book with the intent of selling.  No passion, no creativity, just money.

As a blogger, I see a lot of books.  I watch them much like a little kid watches people pass by a store window while she's stuck on the inside listening to her grandfather rant about rude customers.  I watch, and take note of how some people have a very similar look to them.  Even with a kid's naive eyes, I can see how a lot of people bought the same boots from the same store and they're toting them around thinking, I'm all that.  They grin at each other because they're sticking out by being the same.


This really annoys me.  Walking into a bookstore has become filled with feelings of euphoria and trepidation, because there is always that section where the books are ALL ABOUT VAMPIRES.  Or ALL ABOUT ANGELS.  Or WEREWOLVES.  And you read the summaries only to discover THEY ARE ALL THE SAME.

Something I see a lot as a blogger is "forbidden romance".  This concept has been done so many times, like the story of Robin Hood.  Ever been on Netflix and looked up "Robin Hood"?  There's probably a dozen or so different versions--from movies, to TV shows (BBC Robin Hood FTW), to animated kid's films.  Robin Hood is a concept that is everlasting.  People love the story, so filmmakers know that there can be money in it.  Same thing with "forbidden romance" except it bears the same curse as Robin Hood. It's been done so many times...and horribly.  It's come to the point where people are like, "Oh great, another Robin Hood movie.  Let's go see how bad it is."

When I see a subtitle on a book that goes along the lines of "a romance that was cursed before it began" or "a deadly romance" etc., etc., I don't pick it up.  I frankly don't want to know.  I can only see so many different versions of Robin Hood before the allure starts to really wear off.

I want to see guy protagonists.  Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl had a good idea and they did a great job even with a male protagonists.  It's not that hard, but females are dominating.  It's annoying.  Because girls = dramadramadrama.  Guys = charming stupidity.  Think of all the successful stories told in a guy's point of view: Ethan from Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl, Sam from Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater, Han from The Demon King by Cinda Williams Chima, Eragon from Eragon by Christopher Paolini AND let us not forget the all-time wonder, Harry Potter from Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by the ever-lovely J.K. Rowling.

It can be done, people.

I want to see hardships.  I don't want to read a story where the main character gets rescued every time they get in a tough spot.  I don't want to read about overdone plot devices, character arcs, and extra baggage.  I want emotional turmoil.  I want a character to be sent to hell and come out of it barely alive.  Does this mean I want a gritty, depressing story?  No, because depressing stories are not my thing.  Think of The Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater, Exile by Anne Osterlund, The DUFF by Kody Keplinger and Uncommon Criminals by Ally Carter.  All of those are fun stories--fantastic stories: well written, excellently crafted, and have characters that get the short end of the stick.

I want to see reality.  With a hint of surreal.  Sure, we girls will turn to complete goo when a good-looking guy comes by.  Do we instantly fall in love with him?  No.  Calm down.  It's natural to be attracted, but fall in love?  Focus the surreal aspect on something different, not the otherworldly-ness of the guy.

I want to see depth.  THINK about your story.  It's like doing a research paper--you want to take a LOT of notes because you never know how much you're going to need.  AKA: You want to be prepared to add in tiny little details, because gosh darn it, that's where the devil is.  The world of Harry Potter works so well because we have hundreds of little details given to us that make it come alive.  So even if your story doesn't take place in a castle divided into four houses with Quidditch matches every few weeks, make us believe it.

If your story is set in Plainsville, Nowhere, make us see it.  You don't have to craft the bakery in agonizing detail, but talking about how the staff at the bakery have a poker match every Friday after work.  The details don't have to be relevant for you to put it in.  We didn't have to know that Dumbledore set the curtains around his bed on fire in his fourth year but hey, it's funny.

Waiting For The Good Stuff

Currently listening to: Give Me A Sign by Breaking Benjamin

Alexandra Bracken (Brightly Woven) said once in her blog that she won't let herself skip ahead to the "good" scenes—the ones that she's dying to write.  She'll force herself to build up her story properly, and savor the tension like the reader must do.  It provides some motivation to make every scene interesting in its own right.

But you've got to admit…some moments you just want to skip ahead for.

I don't consider myself one of those writers that will write ahead, but I don't really think of myself as a chronological writer, either.  This goes along heavily with the fact that if I don't write it down, I won't remember it.  Period.  That's what The Notebook is for.  (No, I am not Nicholas Sparks moonlighting as an aspiring teen writer.  Calm down.)  But if something doesn't get written down—a scene, some reams of dialogue—its awesomeness will be lost forever in the depths of my imagination and never see the light of day again.

This seriously makes me envy authors that follow the path of Patricia Briggs (Moon Called).  She said in an interview once that she almost never writes down her story ideas.  She keeps it all in her head.  And if she forgets something, she knows she'll just think of something better.

Such an envious talent.

So which am I really?  The chronological writer like Alexandra Bracken who forces herself to write in the proper order so as to appreciate the good scenes better?  Or the skip-ahead writer who goes right for the good stuff and fills the Other Stuff in later?

Most times I don't write down the whole scene, which is why I don't consider myself a skip-ahead writer.  But I will go ahead and write out the really good moments as not to forget the exact words that I want.

Hmm…am I just outlining?  What the heck AM I doing?

Let's put those questions aside for now and simply cast them away into the worldly abyss for later examination.

You know how hard it is not to unload all the good stuff in the beginning of your story?  I'm in the first three chapters and I sometimes stop myself, backspace furiously and say to my empty room, "No, I can't write that because it's too much too early!"  And then I sink into a pitiful funk because, like a child, I want it.  Now.

My character is totally awesome with her telepathy and fighting and general awesomeness, and my secondary character is witty and hilarious, so it's hard not to unload all those really funny lines up front because then I'm just digging myself a hole.  Like, if all my secondary character's witty lines come in the beginning, the middle and end will suck, or become lackluster because the jokes aren't as good.

So this premature unloading also interferes with character development.  Especially in a series.  I think it's hard, once you figure out who your character is going to become, to write them as ignorant and childlike compared to the wise, kickass adult they'll later become.  That subtle shift in personalities is hard to write.  I think it's easier for seat-of-the-pants writers who have no idea what's going to happen so they won't be influenced by prior knowledge.  People who outline know that the shift is coming and in what form, so they have to make sure that they aren't exposing it prematurely.

J.K. Rowling couldn't have had Harry acting like the Chosen One at age eleven, now, could she?

*sigh*

Let's go briefly back to my notebook—it's awesome, isn't it?  I get this particular kind of notebook from my dad who has to order them in bulk through his job.  He gets roughly fifty at a time and so I've siphoned a few of them off of him from time to time whenever I start a new story.  (I hate putting multiple stories in one notebook.  Makes my skin itch.)

They have this great feature: the page is divided into what they call "Project Planning Notes" and "Project Action Notes".  Basically, a neat little sidebar that lets me add additional notes as I think of them instead of having to cram into tiny little places in the text itself.  It's absolutely wonderful for me.  It's also smaller than an 8.5" by 11" notebook—I can fit it much easier into my backpack and purse.

 

just how awful is it not to unload the good stuff early on?

There's characters, and then there's dictators

And quite frankly, I can't see much difference between the two.

Here I am, listening to "Breaking the Habit" by Linkin Park and puzzling over my next coo to ambush my characters with.  They've proven to be deceptively cooperative lately.  Andi (the MC) sits quietly in the back seat, ignoring my pleas for help and then takes a knife to my throat when I decide to go ahead and make that left turn off the highway.  J.D. goes from sulking to happy go lucky and Charlie…well, I don't know what is going on with that guy.

In summation, I feel more like the unfortunate cousin who is too nice to say no to an unpaid babysitting job.  I am feeling royally screwed over with these characters; like I signed on a contract without reading the small print.

And yet, I am so emotionally driven to tell their story (whenever I'm not feeling like I'm walking on eggshells trying to actually write their story).  I like these people, despite their tendencies to set off bombs outside their friends' windows instead of using the phone to say "wake up".

There's this great book I always have on the bookshelf next to my desk that has a great quote on characters.  (I copied it onto a post-it note and stuck it to the bottom of my second screen.)

You are going to love some of your characters, because they are you or some facet of you, and you are going to hate some of your characters for the same reason.

- Anne Lamott (Bird by Bird)

I love this quote because it's so true.  When writers tell you that they are emotionally tied to fictional characters, they aren't just bucking for the great food they serve in the asylum.  Most of those high and mighty authors who's names you can never remember and yet they say a lot of profound stuff—they say that writers write to tell the truth.  So no matter how different our main character differs from us (for example, I cannot make someone twice as big as me kiss the pavement, but I can fold a crane in forty seconds flat) they will inevitably share some of the same views that we do, no matter if it's your preferred pelican-shaped coffee mug or the rights of women in the 1920's.  And when you spend so much time contemplating a character, you learn what they can and cannot do—their strengths and most importantly, their weaknesses.

I think we become attached to characters because of their weaknesses and how they turn them into strengths.  As humans, we all share similar weaknesses and yet, we believe those weaknesses to be specific to the individual.  For example, I would never have dreamed that one of my friends—the most confident person I've ever met—would have had ever had a problem with body image, just like me.

I recently watched a video about Darren Brown—a "cold reader".  He went to many different countries, gathered people of different sexes, nationalities and social backgrounds and had them trace their hands on a piece of paper.  Their hand would then be analyzed and a print out made of their personalities.  When Darren Brown came back with their profiles, they were all shocked at how correct it was.  Then they discovered that they all had the exact same profile.  Darren Brown had given the same sheets of paper to people in Britain, Spain, and the US and everyone responded the same way: "I can't believe how accurate it is."  And as one girl pointed out, it's nice to know that so many people share the same insecurities.

That type of vulnerability is something, I think, is key when it comes to book characters.  If a character doesn't share some of the same basic insecurities as the rest of us, they might as well be from Mars, and people from Mars are cool, yeah, but…they don't act like us, so where is the connection?

Andi is particularly tight-lipped about her weaknesses and insecurities.  I try to change the interview environment—from a nice office to a playground where she can move around while she talks—but she's stubborn and exceptionally clever.  She won't give away her secrets so easily.  So as I'm writing, I find myself growling in frustration: Andi doesn't want to show herself as weak because then where will she get respect?

She doesn't want to listen when I try to explain to her that we have to show her weaknesses so people won't slam the book cover closed.

Lot she cares.

I think the fact that I battle with her at all shows how willing (and determined) I am to get her story down.  I.  Want.  It.  Written.  I do not want to give up on this story the way I've given up on so many other stories—some really good ones that I couldn't continue with because I didn't have the heart to push the characters.

I need to push Andi, too, but I'm scared.  She's glaring at me from the back seat and keeps toying with her knife.

Pushing characters has always been an issue for me.  I have such little understanding about their weaknesses that I don't know what buttons to push in order to get them to grow as a character.  When authors talk about their characters, I am envious.  They make it sound like the ideas just popped into existence when it's taking me weeks to get a single thought together.

 

any thoughts on how you probe your characters' weaknesses?