NaNoWriMo Day Six

It's day six of the National Novel Writing Month, and I'm sinking. I
wrote nearly 900 words in the past few days, then realized that they
were all drivel. And they fell in the wrong part of the story. And
they contained the wrong characters. I couldn't think of any way to
fix the massive problem, so I deleted it.

My word count for November: zero.

I certainly hope my fellow contestants are making more progress
toward their 50,000 word goal!

-Sonja

NaNoWriMo, Oh My!

The 2008 NaNoWriMo contest begins November 1, and I'd love to give it a whirl this year.

If you don't know anything about NaNoWriMo, visit their website at
nanowrimo.org. If you don't want to mess with all that, I'll outline
it here. Basically, November is National Novel Writing Month. By
midnight, Nov 30, you're supposed to write 50,000 words (50,000 being
a difficult but doable goal) and submit your manuscript to win the
prize. The prize, of course, is to be a winner in the 2008 NaNoWriMo
contest! The kicker is that, to enter, you have to start from
scratch on a brand new story, as opposed to taking out an old one and
tacking on 50,000 words. You can begin with outlines and plot notes,
but starting with previously written prose is "punishable by
death." (Their words, not mine.)

The basic idea is that by giving someone a goal and
a deadline, novels will get written. Check out the FAQ section on the
website to see if your favorite best-selling author has been a
NaNoWriMo winner in the past.

You don't HAVE to sign up and submit your manuscript in order to
participate. It's a great time to finally set up a daily writing
schedule. All the books on writing advise you to set aside a certain
amount of time each day to write or set a goal of so many words per
day. I'm horrible at writing daily. I sleep in, I home-school the
kids, I run errands... and then the day is shot and I haven't
squeezed in any time for writing. Lately, I've been fortunate to open
my manuscript once a week, and I must admit that sometimes WEEKS pass before I do any writing. So I'm going to take the NaNoWriMo challenge, and see if I can't get myself into a daily writing habit. If I hit the 50,000 word goal, that'll just be an added bonus. For
what it's worth.

-Sonja

Christian WHAT?!?

I've mentioned Jeff Gerke in my blogs before. He's one my favorite people to "keep an eye on" (that hints at stalking, but I only do that with people I live close to, and since Jeff's several states away, he's safe from me for now). Anyway, he's a huge advocate of Christian Speculative Fiction, which is just a really fancy way of summing up the weird stuff: time travel, science fiction, vampires, etc. The stuff that I love to read, but can't find enough of in the Christian book store.

Jeff's not one to whine and complain about the lack of good reading materials in this genre. He's launching his own indie publishing house called Marcher Lord Press (MLP). Check it out at http://www.MarcherLordPress.com/. (He's also the mastermind behind Where the Map Ends.) MLP targets speculative readers where they're at. Not at the Christian bookstore, because we gave up looking there a long time ago. MLP markets its books exclusively online, like at amazon. It launches October 1st of this year. Jeff is giving away tons of prizes, so go sign up to win one! Then check out MLP's first three books. It'll be worth your time.

-Sonja

Who Likes Mildred and Bill?

In thinking about that last post, I left something out. I like the character names I chose to mean something. For instance, in my first novel, the protagonist is a warrior searching for justice in a kingdom ruled by corrupt men. My protagonist would be a defender, a guy who stands up for the truth, even if it costs his head. When searching for a name, I found that "Alexander" means "defender of man." It fit perfect. I named my character "Alex." It worked much better than Luke ("luminous") or Owen ("well born") or Brian ("noble").

I like my method, but it doesn't always work. For example, if my story were set in ancient Ireland, I'd have to choose all Irish names. It would be really out of place to find a Swahili name in the story. Also, I have to avoid the whole rhyming thing (I found myself naming three people Zane, Thane, and Shane. Two of them had to be changed) and the alliteration thing (Aaron, Abel, Abram, and Aaron).

I find names fascinating, so naming my characters is a really fun and important part of the process. Choosing the wrong name can kill the story. Can you see Scarlett O'Hara with the name Mildred? Or Frodo Baggins with the name Bill? I can't picture my Alex with any other name.

-Sonja

The Problem with Adam and Aaron

I recently checked out a book from the library. I've met the author
and think of myself as a "special" fan of his, since he signed my
book and talked to me at dinner one night (but I don't want to
embarrass him, or me, so he'll remain anonymous), and I couldn't wait for my local library to get a copy of the book for me.

Then it came. I opened it. I read chapter one. Then I put it down and
went to sleep. The next night, I picked it up and read chapters two
and three. And put it down. (Side note: I'm the type of person who'll read a book straight through and skip sleeping entirely, EVEN if the next day is the most important day of my life. If the book is excellent, I won't put it down.)

But I found this book at the bottom of the "to be read" pile. I
managed to read seven or eight other books before I picked it up again and read the next two chapters. Then I put it down and read
something else. I even took it on vacation with me and never opened it once. I had to ask the library if I could keep the book for
another three weeks. At this moment in time, the book mark is between chapters eleven and twelve. (Another side note: I NEVER stop mid- chapter.)

I finally had to ask: what is it about this book that I can't seem to finish it? I love the author (and his previous works). I'm interested in the premise of the book. The plot goes at a pretty good clip. I want to know what happens to the protagonist. So why can't I finish it?

After a ton of analysis, I figured it out. Several of the characters had foreign names that I found difficult to pronounce. Usually, this wouldn't stop me at all. But to make things worse, at least four of them all started with the letter A. I found myself not remembering who these men were. Were they bad guys or good guys? Was one of them a traitor? Or were they all helping the protagonist? For the life of me, I could not keep them separate.

It frustrated me to the point that the story started to not make sense. Why did Adam (names changed to protect the innocent) make this comment to Aaron? And what was Abel doing while Abram talked on the phone to Adam? Did Abram know that Adam tinkered with the brakes? Is Abel in on it with Adam? Or is Adam a good guy who's just acting like a bad guy to learn the truth? Arggh! I can't even keep this example straight, and I'm the one who made it up. I also found that it doesn't do any good to give Adam a beard, make Abel blond, and show Abram walking with a limp. It's the names that tripped me up.

There's a lesson in here for us authors: make the character names different enough so the reader can keep them straight. It might be cute, in real life, to name the triplets Janie, Jenny, and Jodie, but
in a novel, these three ladies must be wholly unique people with completely different names. It's not just a matter of the names all beginning with the same letter. Rhyming names are out (Lori, Dori, and Kori) as are first name/last name similarities (Stephen Schwartz, Jeffrey Stephenson, and Robbie Stevens). This also crosses the gender lines. The hero/heroine pair shouldn't be named Katie and Kelly, or Jody and Jamie (which is male, which is female?), or even Adam and Amanda. To make the reading as easy as possible for the reader, we authors need to choose names that are easy to remember, easy to pronounce, and different from every other character. I like ethnic names, and there's a place for specialty names like Seamus, or Ahmad, or Giulio. But most of the names in our stories should be distinct. I won't dare say common. But we should make life as easy for our readers as possible.

-Sonja

You Can't Make This Stuff Up

I'm in the midst of writing a murder mystery, and my protagonist is
the Chief of a small town. My husband, who works for a sheriff's
department, is a tremendous help when it comes to research and
protocols. He's also pointed me to other web sites and blogs to find
the material I need. I just found this case on a blog and thought it
had to be shared. I'll keep all the necessary details to myself and
just tell the story:

One evening just before closing, a liquor store clerk noted a white
male enter the store. He selected a two liter bottle of coke and two
bottles of Crown Royal Canadian Whiskey. Then he fled without paying. The clerk gave chase. Not too far down the road, the suspect's pants slid down around his ankles, tripping him up. He dropped his merchandise. In his haste to get away from the clerk, he lost his shoes and pants, which the clerk recovered. The pants contained a wallet and a driver's license belonging to the suspect.

This sounds like a portion of a Janet Evanovich novel, but it
happened in real life. Sometimes the funniest stuff doesn't come from
the brain of an author, it comes from an Incident Report. I love
reading stuff like this!

-Sonja

A Little Bit Is Tastier Than A Lot

One of the writing forums I peruse had an interesting post today. A
new writer, tackling fantasy, wanted to know how to balance
description with plot. She wanted her writing to "read more like a
renaissance painting than a line drawing," but didn't want to bog the
reader down with long descriptive paragraphs. I love her analogy, and
sympathize with her plight. Fantasy stories, my own included, need to
have enough description for the reader to feel a part of that
"special" world. But too much description will bore the reader. And
we can't have bored readers! They'll transform into tv watchers, and
then who will buy our books?

I think the best way to get rich descriptions into the scene is to
bury them in the action. Set up the basics of the room when the
protagonist walks in. Then throughout the tension-filled
conversation, or the fast-paced battle, or the anxiety-inducing
actions of the mission, fill in the bits and pieces that make the
surroundings exquisite:

-The tapestries flutter when the hero is thrown against the wall.
- The warrior's got to watch his footing on the slick, rush-strewn
flagstone flooring as he parries another blow from the enemy's
diamond-encrusted sword.
- The Duchess sips sweet red wine from a bronze flagon as she tries
to catch the antagonist in a lie.
- Ashes erupt in a gray plume when the wizard tosses the ancient tome into the firebox, causing the king to sneeze.
- The chancellor lifts the purple silk pillow off the throne seat as
he looks for the missing whatsit, and the scent of lavender clings to
his fingertips.

The key is to not sandwich these descriptions together. Like
sprinkles on a birthday cake, you don't want them dumped in a pile.
But spread throughout the scene, these descriptions are sweet little
nuggets that add clarity, richness, and reality to the text. And that
keeps the reader turning pages instead of searching for the remote.

For what it's worth,

-Sonja