Saturday, December 19, 2009

What I Learned from Sun Tzu

I bought myself a Christmas present last week. "The Art of War for Writers" by James Scott Bell. I read about it on Steve Laube's blog and just had to have it. Now I'm glad I splurged.

Sun Tzu presented orderly principles to his generals for battle planning. Bell ran with the idea and offers a collection of principles for writing that will help authors "write stronger books and win the battle to get and stay published." The book's divided into three sections: Reconnaissance, Tactics, and Strategy.

My favorite part was Tactics, which has 33 techniques regarding the craft of writing, and contains all sorts of delicious tidbits. I can't share them all, but I'll share a favorite or two.

Tactic #45 says "Progressive Revelation Keeps Readers Turning Pages." The first couple sentences sum it up nicely: "Reveal your plot incrementally. That means leaving mystery inherent and unfolding things progressively." This isn't the first time I've heard this advice, but it bears repeating. I find myself setting up a beautiful mystery, then feeling compelled to dump an explanation immediately thereafter. Instead, I should dole out the revelations in tiny bits to keep the reader involved. After all, I don't want my precious reader stuffing in a bookmark and reaching for the tv remote!

Tactic #50 was a hard one for me. It says, "Success may be found in three great scenes, and no weak ones." Basically, my book has to have three fabulous scenes that stand out from the rest, "packed with conflict, emotion, and surprise." The hardest part, for me, was the "no weak ones" - there can't be a single weak scene in the entire book. Bell identifies a weak scene as one that feels "like fluff or filler. No one is really going after anything. There's a lot of sitting around, small talk, waiting, reacting." Identifying weak scenes in my own writing is tough, so I'll have to rely on my critique partners to point them out to me.

This book is packed with gems like these. It's definitely worth the price, and it's the right size to stuff in a stocking. Go ahead and get one for yourself!

-Sonja

Thursday, December 10, 2009

Look What I Got For Christmas!

John B. Olson, a writer I admire and study, put a fun thing on sale:
an audio lecture called "Writing in the Shadows." Randy Ingermanson
praised it on his blog and e-zine and even made a special sale out of
it last week. When I purchased Olson's book, Powers, and I got the
audio lecture for free! And a comic book! And a coupon for more sales! It couldn't get any better, so I dove in.

I listened to the lecture the moment it finished downloading, all in
one shot, even chasing the kids out of the room when they complained
about wanting lunch. And it was worth it. Though compelled to share
everything I learned, I can't do that to Mr. Olson. You'll have to buy
the lecture if you want to absorb all his wisdom. But I will share the
concept I found the most helpful in my own writing.

Every scene should give the reader an emotional response. The words I chose, the mood I create, the character's emotional reactions, all
should enhance the central tension, the emotional response I want the
reader to have.

Olson used an example from his book Shade. He wanted the reader to
feel fear for the protagonist, Hailey. She believed she was being
followed, and made her away through a building to a place of safety.
Olson used phrases like "aftertaste of decay and wet rat" and
"fighting the urge to break into a run." He used verbs like "lunged"
and "escaped." He used visuals like "the door closed behind her with a
sigh" and "the floor was quiet as a tomb." These word choices all
worked along with the action of the scene to set the mood of fear for
the reader.

I chose a scene from my current WIP and identified what I wanted the
reader to feel as he read. Then I went through and re-worked the
scene, adding phrases, changing verbs, intensifying the character's
emotional responses, all with the goal of stimulating the reader's
emotions in the direction I wanted them to go. What a power rush! It
was fun, too. I can't wait to move on to the next scene and manipulate
the reader's emotional responses some more.

For what it's worth,

-Sonja

Thursday, December 3, 2009

That's what he said...

Michael Hyatt blogged recently on blogging, and one of his posts
caught my eye: Do You Make These 10 Mistakes When You Blog?

Mistake number one, according to Mr. Hyatt, is: You Don't Post Enough.

I immediately noticed that I am guilty of this mistake. Not only am I
guilty, but I've been aware of this mistake for quite a while now and
have managed to NOT fix it.


Here's the deal. I like to blog. I like to post pithy comments and
pass on creative ideas and paste in remarkable quotes. So why don't I?

After pondering a good six minutes, I came to this conclusion: I don't
post often enough because I feel I don't have anything to say that's
worth reading.


Ain't that a hoot? I, who routinely overshoot my projected word count
by a good 20,000 words, can't think of anything to write in a blog. Or
I think of something, then wonder if anyone will be interested in
reading about it. The funniest part of this whole conundrum is that
when I DO finally post something, I usually get good feedback from my three loyal readers. They don't always post comments, but I hear from them in emails or in person.


The fix for this problem is pretty easy. Post More Often. I should be
able to do, for what it's worth. I shall try harder this next year.
Promise.

-Sonja