NaNoWriMo, oh my!

Only 2 days left until NaNoWriMo!

If you don't know what that is, I'd be happy to explain. Twelve years ago, some writers declared November National Novel Writing Month. All you have to do is write a 50,000 word work of fiction, from scratch, during the month of November. That's 30 days to bang out the first draft of a completely new, original work. Not something you've worked on in the past, but brand-spanking new.

My friends at the NOVEL Writing Site.com said this: "The idea is to conquer fear, hesitation, overthinking, writer's block, analysis paralysis, or anything else that's holding you back and JUST WRITE!" Easier said than done, but a bold and daring challenge none-the-less.

Since I just finished the first rough draft of my newest thriller, NaNo comes at a fabulous time. I'll pull out an old idea that's been stewing but hasn't gotten any screen time, and I'll see where it takes me. Then, when November is over and I've had some distance, and I can pull out the old thriller and edit.

Accept the challenge, writer friends, and participate in NaNo this year.

-Sonja

It's a Personal Record

My current Work-In-Progress is flying out of my head and onto the page at an astounding rate. I'm averaging 3,000 words every writing session.

Yesterday, I wrote 7,000 new words in a four-hour session. That has to be a new record for me! At this rate, the book will be finished by October 1, taking a mere 1.5 months to complete. Of course, that doesn't include the months of stewing in my brain before I sat down to write anything. . .

Question for you, faithful reader: what's your personal record for the most words written at one sitting?

-Sonja

Nothing Better

A new story idea came to me a while back, but I shelved it because my latest WIP needed attention. But the new idea kept simmering in the back of my mind, waiting for the right moment. Now I'm in the midst of the dreaded waiting game with the publisher--who received my latest WIP last month--and that new idea's time has come.

Last Thursday, I wrote 4,000 words. I took a few days off from writing to brainstorm a bit and create a simple outline. Yesterday I wrote 6,000 words. Today I've logged another 6,000.

I gotta say: nothing beats the frenzy of a new writing project! At this rate, I'll have this novel knocked out in record-breaking time.

Question: have you experienced this euphoric frenzy, where the words just spill out so fast your fingers can hardly keep up?

-Sonja

That's What Brandilyn Said

Back in May, I promised to pass on the wisdom I soaked up at the Christian Writers Renewal Conference. Here's the second part of Brandilyn Collins' lecture on creating dynamic suspense: CHARACTER EMOTION.

I'll start with the blurb that described the lecture: Human emotions are interconnected and multi-layered. They force action, which in turn produces more emotion. Often authors don't go far enough in creating character passions. The result is a ho-hum story. I want you to leave this hour understanding more about emotion than you ever have before.

So here's what Brandilyn said:

Passions are multi-layered. The greater the passion, the more diverse the layers that comprise it. Find those layers and portray them in the story to give the reader a stronger emotional response. Here are two ways to do that:

1) Find the passion's components. What are they? What do they look like? How do they show in char's life?

Example: Anger is a secondary emotion and arises from other emotions. What fuels it? Frustration? Jealousy? Greed? DON'T focus on the anger. Explore all the emotions that lead to that anger, then reader will understand the anger when it shows.

2) Find the passion's opposite. Contrast makes the emotion pop.

Example 1: Cross-walk attendant adores children. As she's helping a small child cross the street, a truck comes right at them; the driver isn't paying attention, doesn't see the attendant and child. Attendant is terrified, willing to sacrifice her own life to save the child. The truck stops at the last second, and her emotion turns to immense relief. Then it turns to anger and she lays into the truck's driver. After she's spent that, she turns to see if the child is okay, hugs him in relief, then yells at him that he's supposed to RUN when there's a truck coming toward him! Love is shown in through all these other emotions.

Example 2: Wife thinks husband is having an affair. She wants to win him back, so she asks him to be home by 6. He promises he'll be there. She puts on a tight red dress and high heels, fixes a fabulous meal, lights the candles, and waits. At 6:00 she's excited. At 6:05 she's disappointed. At 6:30 she's worried that he's been in an accident. She's getting cold, so she puts on a sweater. At 6:45, she's getting depressed. He's out seeing his lover. Her feet hurt so she kicks off the shoes. Dinner's ruined. At 7:00, she decides she doesn't need him after all – he's hurt her so much, so doesn't care anymore. At 7:15, she's in full-blown hatred. When he walks in the door with a dozen roses, she rips them from his hands and stomps them on the floor. The hatred at the end came about because of her love for her husband, and the reader went along for the ride so she can FEEL all that hate and love.

-Sonja

More from Brandilyn

Last month at the Christian Writers Renewal, I sat under the teaching of Brandilyn Collins. I promised some highlights from her class on Getting into Character.

The first class was Character Desire. As an author, I need to know my character's insides first. Why is he the way he is? What drives him? What's his Super Objective? What does the character WANT more than anything? This drives his thoughts and actions, especially in moments of high stress. Conflict is opposition against desire, so conflict is necessary to contrast with the character's desires.

1) The objective is an action verb. Not  "I want to be rich" but  "I want to raise to the top of the structure in my law firm."

2) The objective must be very specific. "I want to build trust in my marriage by never lying again to my husband so that..." Make sure the "so that" creates conflict. It's gotta be strong!

Answering End: What the character gets if he achieves his desire, or gets close to his desire. Sometimes it costs too much and he realizes he doesn't want it, after all. "I want to build trust in my marriage by never lying again to my husband so that he won't leave me for a younger woman and I'll be all alone."

3) The objective must be absolutely correct for the character and the story. "I wish to build trust in my marriage by never getting caught lying to my husband" says something completely different about the char than the original version. Find out characters inner values and core beliefs. Make sure they fit. Then use them to thwart the objective.

Example: Steinbeck's "The Pearl" - father finds a magnificent pearl. His objective is to sell the pearl for it's full value so that his son will have a better life and won't live in poverty. If the father didn't already live in poverty, this wouldn't fit. If the son hadn't been endangered by a scorpion in the first bit of the book, it wouldn't fit. If father was willing to sell pearl for significantly less than it's full value, then it wouldn't fit.

4) Desire arises partly from the inciting incident and partly from the character's personality. Put the character in a problem before the inciting incident happens. Then his desire conflicts with the previous problems. In The Pearl, the son is stung by a scorpion and almost dies. This builds in the father a fear for his son's life. Then when he finds the pearl, he sees a way past this fear that's built up within him.

Protagonist has conscious and unconscious desires. Throughout the story, the unconscious desires come into play and character must choose. In the moment of greatest stress, the character realizes what he REALLY wants: the unconscious desire. (Note: the conscious and unconscious desires should be diametrically opposed.) Note: Show glimpses of the unconscious desire at the beginning of the book so the reader doesn't feel cheated.

In Gone with the Wind, Scarlett's conscious desire is to marry Ashley. Unconsciously, she wants a manly man to tame her. That would be Rhett. When she finally gets her shot at Ashley, she realizes she doesn't want him because he's a wimp. She really wants Rhett – and it's too late.

Next time I'll highlight Brandilyn's discussion on Character Emotions.

-Sonja

It's a Contest!

I usually don't post twice in one day, but it's your lucky day. Or mine. There's a writing contest called "Dear Lucky Agent" for fantasy or sci-fi book-length novels. I found it at Chuck Sambuchino's Guide to Literary Agents blog (www.guidetoliteraryagents.com/blog). Submit the first 150-200 words of a completed novel and keep your fingers crossed! Because the Top 3 Winners get a critique of the first 10 pages of the work AND a free one-year subscription to WritersMarket.com.

The contest runs until May 26, so get your submission ready and head on over to Chuck's site for all the rules and regs. It's easy, and someone gets to win.

-Sonja

Shameless Name-Dropping

It's time for my favorite post-conference blog entry, when I shamelessly name all the famous, near-famous, or infamous people I actually met. These aren't listed in any particular order, other than they came out of my head this way. Here we go:

1.) Brandilyn Collins, who proved to be an excellent keynote speaker, engaging teacher, and down-right gracious lady. At the beginning of her class, she personally greeted each student with a hand-shake and a word of encouragement. Classy. On a completely unrelated note, her hand and facial gestures reminded me of the actress Patricia Heaton. She's famous, too.

2.) Jesse Florea is the editor of a Focus on the Family children's magazine and a published author. He was sitting all by himself at lunch the first day, so I asked if I could join him. We were soon discussing the future of speculative fiction in the CBA and out popped Jeff Gerke's name (you CAN'T talk about spec fic without Jeff showing up in some fashion). Jesse is so passionate about his magazine, he almost talked me into writing a short story for kids. I still don't know how I resisted.

3.) Jim Rubart joined Jesse and I at the lunch table. Jim is most noted, in my mind, as the author of the spec fic novel ROOMS, the MC for the Reality Panel of Publishing Experts (held after lunch on the second day), and most importantly, a runner-up in Chip MacGregor's Bad Poetry Contest 2010. Jim proved he can pen utter tripe while showing true deepfulness and reflectivosity. He's also a really great luncheon conversationalist.

4.) Holley Gerth also joined the lunch table. She's an editor at Dayspring Cards, but what made her famous (to me) was her name tag. It said she was from Arkansas. When I told her my husband's family was from a tiny town in Arkansas, she proved to me, yet again, that this is a small, small world. She's from the same small town as all my husband's relatives. And she knows them. I don't know if I should be proud or take pity on her. . .

5.) Sandra Bishop is an agent at Chip MacGregor Literary Agency and blogs periodically. She shredded my pitch, told me how to fix it, then sent me off to conquer the next editor. Who was. . .

6.) Nick Harrison. He works at Harvest House, writes a great blog, has published several books, and taught an excellent course about selling fiction in hard economic times (see previous post). He patiently listened to my pitch and politely said, "No, thank you." I chalked it up as another learning experience.

7.) Clint Kelly was the MC for both evening sessions with Brandilyn. He's a funny guy with tons of published books to his credit and a great singing voice. He also works with my second cousin, Ray, proving that this is a REALLY small world. 

8.) Chris Miller, the genius behind the Hunter Brown series, sat with me for the evening meal on the second night. His brother, Allan (the other half of the writing dynamic duo), couldn't make it to the conference (wedding anniversary, or some such nonsense) so Chris held down the fort on his own. We had some intriguing discussions about spec fic (Jeff Gerke showed up again) and the fabulous books we'd both read recently. Then we entered a highly controversial debate over the correct term for "a series of four books." We finally turned to Brandilyn, at the next table, and she gave us the correct term: quadrilogy. Now you know. 

I could also bring up Luke Hinrichs, fiction editor for Bethany House (he liked my pitch!); Greg Johnson, who works with Rachelle Gardner (her blog was rated one of the Top Ten in the Publishing Industry); Les Stobbe, agent-extraordinairre, whom I didn't actually meet so much as run into in an elevator (didn't have my elevator pitch ready, so the opportunity slipped by. Plus the fact that cornering an agent in an elevator is almost as rude as cornering him in the restroom, which I would probably never do); Athena Dean of Winepress Publishing, who's got such a cool name I may have to steal it and put it in a novel; and Shannon Woodward, a published author and master conversationalist.

That concludes my trip down the star-studded conference line-up. For what it's worth.

-Sonja

What Nick Harrison Said

Nick Harrison, senior editor from Harvest House Publishers, taught a class entitled "How to sell Your Fiction in Tough Economic Times" at the writer's conference last week. If I may be so bold, I'll share with you ALL the ideas he shared with us:

1. Look toward future events and write books that WILL BE WANTED in two or three years. Example: in 2012, the Mayan calendar ends. It's also the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic. Two different authors pitched books based on these two upcoming events, and both books will be published in late 2011 or early 2012.

2. Be willing to enthusiastically jump on trends. If you can write a great Amish Romance, you will be published!

3. Use Writer's Edge (an on-line listing) to get your fiction noticed. (Note: Nick said he looks at this site--and others like it--all the time. But other editors don't bother with it. This one's a stretch, in my opinion.)

4. Once you finish writing a novel, send out queries and diligently work on getting it noticed. Then start writing your NEXT novel. Keep a healthy career plan, and have plenty of books in your arsenal. Maybe your writing style will catch an editor's eye, but he doesn't like the story you sent him. You'll have a lot of others to pitch to him.

5. Self-publish your excellent book, sell 10,000 copies, then approach a royalty publisher. Numbers like that catch their attention.

6. DO NOT WRITE message-driven novels or memoirs. They don't sell. (There are exceptions, like "The Shack" and "In His Steps," but they are few and far between.)

7. Next huge wave in the CBA: Southern Historical Romance. Write one of these and you'll have a good chance of getting published.

Some of these tips, like #1 and #4, are valuable to me. Unfortunately, I couldn't write an Amish romance or a southern historical romance if my children's lives depended on it, so I won't get to take advantage of tip #2 or tip #7. Hopefully you'll find something in here to help your career!

For what it's worth,
-Sonja

Words of Wisdom from the Seatbelt Suspense Lady

I attended the Northwest Christian Writers Renewal Conference in Seattle last weekend where Brandilyn Collins gave the keynote address and taught three classes on creating dynamic suspense. My next couple of blog entries will be devoted to passing along some of the wisdom I soaked up, who I met, what happened, and why these conferences are worth deserting your family for two days.

To quote the conference brochure, Brandilyn is a leading force in Christian mystery fiction. She's the Seatbelt Suspense Lady (as in, "put on your seatbelt before you pick up the book, otherwise you'll jump right out of your chair") and the founder of the Big Honkin' Chicken's Club (a club for wussies who don't think they can read the scary books Brandilyn writes but want to take the chance, anyway). She also blogs (Forensics and Faith), Twitters, Facebooks, and hostesses great Fourth of July parties. In other words, she's a stick of dynamite in a petite package who successfully does absolutely everything.

During her keynote address, Brandilyn talked about her ten-year struggle to break into print and the lessons she learned along her journey. Two points really stuck out to me:

1. People don't read your books to learn about God, they read them to be entertained. In other words, tell a really great story! If it happens to contain truths about God, that's fantastic, but it's the remarkable story that will stick with people and prompt them to pick up more of your books in the future.

2. The pre-published days in an author's life are a true gift, and Brandilyn encouraged us to find joy in them. It's okay to quit writing during this period, because if it's a true calling from God, you'll pick it up sometime in the future and keep going. Once you're a published author and under contract, there's no option to quit or take a break or get lazy. So cherish the pre-published phase of the journey and use the time to truly learn the craft of writing. Because when the inspiration deserts you and you're under contract, your knowledge of the craft will carry you through the deadlines until you re-discover your creativity.

Tomorrow I'll share content from the three classes Brandilyn taught.

-Sonja

You're Reading WHAT?!?

Here's what's in my reading stack this week:

-Void Moon, City of Bones, A Darkness More than Night, The Poet, and Trunk Music by Michael Connelly books (the Harry Bosch series)
-The Bourne Sanctum by Eric Van Lustbader
-Night Shift, Tommyknockers, Dreamcatcher, and Danse Macabre by Stephen King
-Fantasy in Death by JD Robb

Normally, I don't read Stephen King. I LOVE his writing, but he scares me out of my daylights (words of wisdom from a four year old). However, I need to add an element of fear/mystery to my latest WIP, so I'm studying the master. How does King make something scary? How does he get my heart racing? What words does he use to make me turn on all the lights, lock the doors, and huddle under a comforter while I turn pages? I need to know, so I'm being brave--just this week--to study how it's done.

-Sonja

Flawed Heroes

I've been studying Donald Maass' book The Fire in Fiction and came across an exercise that I thought I'd share regarding the protagonist.

My protagonist should be someone strong, but that can't be enough. The exercise challenges me to find in him something conflicted, fallible, humbling, or human. (I like that last category!). It can't be fatal or overwhelming, but should be a personal problem, a bad habit, a hot button, or a blind spot.

Once I've discovered this flaw, I need to demonstrate that flaw within the first five pages of my story. The last comment on the exercise is the key: Be sure to soften the flaw with self-awareness or self-deprecating humor. This helps the protagonist from being overwhelmed by the flaw.

I found this helpful. Hope you do, too.

-Sonja

Don't Play with Toothy Cows

In my last post, I said I'd discovered two fabulous books. The first was The Fire in Fiction by Donald Maass. The second is On the Edge of the Dark Sea of Darkness by Andrew Peterson. I really can't sing enough praises for this delightful young adult fantasy. Peterson spins a wonderful tale of the Igiby children, Janner, Tink, and Leeli (and their trusty dog, Nugget), in their many harrowing escapes from the Fangs of Dang. The Fangs seek the lost jewels of Anniera and believe the children have them.

The humor is fantastic. It's set in the world of Aerwiar (sounds like "here we are") and contains toothy cows (which are quite vicious), cheesy chowder, Thwaps (think of the little critters that infest Ron's garden in the Harry Potter series), Anklejelly manor, and the ghost of Brimney Stupe. And, of course, the Dark Sea of Darkness, which is really quite dark, for a sea.

There are quirky characters. Peet the Sock Man has a penchant for picking--and losing--fights with street signs. The unseen antagonist is an evil wizard named Gnag the Nameless. The more visible antagonist is the head honcho in charge of making people's lives miserable, the fattest and meanest Fang in Glipwood Forest, Commander Gnorm (say it out loud, it's funnier that way). The proprietor of Books and Crannies is Oskar Reteep, who has a penchant for quoting bad literature every time he opens his mouth. I found his bookstore's organization especially amusing--who wouldn't like to browse in the "Blacksmithing and/or Pie" section, or the "Pointless Poems" area?

The book has beautiful maps in the front, silly footnotes scattered throughout that explain history or other tidbits not really necessary for the story, lyrics to sad, sad songs, a copy of the "Permission to Hoe Garden" form, a recipe for maggotloaf, and a realistic diagram of a toothy cow. What more could a reader want?

The only down-side to the book is the slow beginning. It's a cute and clever beginning, but the plot really doesn't get going for awhile, so you've got to be patient. Still, it's hard not to fall in love with the main characters, especially little Leeli with her crippled leg, fiery spirit, and disdain for pity.

Bottom line: Buy this book! The sequel just came out, so pick it up, too. It's called North! Or Be Eaten.

For what it's worth,

Sonja

Just What I've Always Wanted

I found TWO fabulous books this week that I have to share with anyone who'll listen. The first is The Fire in Fiction: Passion, Purpose, and Techniques to Make Your Novel Great by Donald Maass. I picked up up on a whim at the bookstore, figuring it had to be good (because, let's face it, everything Mr. Maass writes is good). Big pat on the back for me; I was right.

Mr. Maass runs a literary agency. Not only does he serve as an agent, but he's written boatloads of novels and non-fiction books on the writing craft. He's undeniably an expert in his field, which is identifying fantastic works of fiction. In this new book, he says that writing a great novel involves a passion for storytelling, and he shares some practical methods to master the craft.

The lessons in the book aren't difficult to understand. He gives plenty of examples from other published works and his explanations are concise. By far the best part, for me, are the exercises at the end of each chapter. I usually groan when I see a list of exercises, because they have nothing to do with my work in progress. All of the exercises in this book, however, applied to my current project and opened my eyes to all the wonderful ways to make my story better. Now I'm anxious to quit blogging so I can open the manuscript.

Next time, I'll blog on the other fabulous book I found. For what it's worth.

-Sonja

Sucking The Wisdom Out Of James Scott Bell

For Christmas, I bought myself James Scott Bell's book The Art of War for Writers, and I keep going back to it. I thought I'd share tip #30, which has stuck in my brain for a day or two, mostly because I wonder if I did it correctly in my newest novel.

Tip #30 says: "The key to reader bonding is falling in love with the lead." It's pretty basic. If my reader doesn't love the protagonist, why would he/she/it want to know what happens next? What's the motivation for turning the page? After all, there's bound to be something decent on tv...

Bell offers four tips that should lead to readers loving the Lead. Get ready to take notes:

1. "Great Leads have grit, wit, and it."  He either has guts, courage, and inner strength from the beginning of the story, or he develops them as the story progresses. He's humorous. And he's got sex appeal, an inner something that makes him attractive. 

Side note from me: sex appeal doesn't have to mean he's bedding every woman in sight. I hate it when I find a powerful character I love, then in chapter 3 he's hooked woman #1, and in chapter 5 he's with woman #2, then woman #3 steps in a bit later...  Men (and women) can be attractive, sexy, AND morally pure. I know lots of people would disagree with me on that one, but I admire a sexy protagonist who's also faithful to his spouse.  Now I'll hop off my soap box and get back to Bell's stuff:

2. "Character is revealed in crisis." The tests and trials of the story build up the protagonist and show the reader what he's made of. 

Side note from me: it should be good stuff! No one likes a whiner.

3. "You should know your Lead's deepest thoughts, yearnings, secrets, and fears."  The author MUST know their character inside and out; know what said character will do in a crisis situation; know what he fears, what he loves, what he longs for, what he eats for lunch on Thursdays. If the author doesn't know, how can she pass it on to the reader?

4. "Emotionally bond the reader to the Lead character." Bell offers three tips for this one: 

A. "Make the Lead care about someone other than himself."
B. "Have the Lead do things to help those weaker than he is."
C. "Put the Lead in a situation of jeopardy, hardship, or vulnerability."

I found this last tip to be the most helpful. If I do this early in the book (first five to ten pages), then I'm bound to have a character readers will love. (I wonder if I could do all three at once...)

Bell concludes Tip #30 by saying that, if you do these things, you'll be "at least 75 percent of the way toward a novel readers won't want to put down." That's where I want to be! 

For what it's worth.

-Sonja

Upcoming Writers Renewal

The Northwest Christian Writers Renewal Conference is coming up May 7 and 8, and I'm looking forward to attending. Brandilyn Collins, a "leading force in Christian mystery fiction" is the keynote speaker. I met her at another conference a few years back, and she's a great teacher. She'll be talking about creating dynamic suspense through character desire, emotion, conflict, and twists, among other things. I'm hoping to learn new ways of creating suspense for my own mysteries.

I'm also looking forward to meeting Sandra Bishop from the MacGregor Literary Agency and Nick Harrison from Harvest House, who's teaching a course on Selling Your Fiction in Tough Economic Times. I imagine he'll say something about how writing a spectacular novel is the best way to do this, but we'll see.

When it's over, I'll blog all the highlights, so stay tuned.

-Sonja