IWSG DAY: Find the Magic

I look forward to the first Wednesday of each month because it's IWSG day. The purpose of IWSG is to share and encourage. Writers can express doubts and concerns without fear of appearing foolish or weak. Those who have been through the fire can offer assistance and guidance. It’s a safe haven for insecure writers of all kinds! (And that would be ME!) IWSG was founded by Alex J. Cavanaugh and has hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of members. You can be one too. You can follow other IWSG members or meet them on twitter using the hashtag #IWSG. We also have a thriving Facebook page. Look us over. I think you'll like us!

And speaking of offering assistance and guidance ... I’d like to share a book with you that’s helping me plot a new story. This author is one of my favorites. And she was my editor for The Last Daughter.

Award winning author and editor, Alicia Dean, shares her process of creating a story, along with bonus tips in her how to book, Find The Magic – How to Plot a Story in 10 Easy Steps. Through November 15th, it's on sale for only 99 cents.  I finished reading Find the Magic last week. What I liked best about the book was Alicia's honest voice. She made me trust her from page one. But why wouldn't I? I know that she knows what she's doing when it comes to writing, editing, critiquing and plotting.

Using specific examples from one of her own novels, Without Mercy (also 99 cents), Alicia shares how to plot a book and expand your outline into a well-developed draft. There is no one, perfect way to create a story, but there will be a method, or methods that work for you.
Find the Magic might hold the answers you need.

Kindle: http://amzn.com/B00OR0IY0W
Nook: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/find-the-magic-how-to-plot-a-story-in-10-easy-steps-alicia-dean/1120638115?ean=2940150382169

  In addition to being an author of more than twenty published works, Alicia Dean is both a freelance editor and an editor for The Wild Rose Press, under the name, Ally Robertson, in their suspense line. I highly recommend you get too know Alicia through her books, or social media.

Alicia/Ally is one of the good guys and she knows what writing, publishing and marketing is all about.

Website: http://aliciadean.com/ Blog: http://aliciadean.com/alicias-blog/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100008364070487 Twitter: https://twitter.com/Alicia_Dean_ Pinterest: http://www.pinterest.com/aliciamdean/ Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/468339.Alicia_Dean

N is for Novel (writing, that is)

I went to bed last night thinking that N is for Neighborhood. I visualized an entire Neighborhood of writers. Woke up thinking “there’s no way we could all live together” so I’ve changed my topic to novel--as in writing tips.

I have so many ideas floating around in my head these days, I just want to get them on paper. I thought I’d share how I go about it. Below is what I put on the first page. I want to keep these things in the forefront of my mind. I think this ABCDE info came from Anne Lamott.

ACTION:

BACKGROUND:

CONFLICT:

DEVELOPMENT:

END

Here's my Note to Self:

I need characters that are larger than life; a heroine who can fight for herself and still be likeable. The story should be filled with emotion and the plot must be plausible with motivation and conflict.

Then I lay out the potential novel like a three-act play and I start filling in the info which makes it a lot easier than you might think. Basically, this is brainstorming with yourself.

Beginning: (I jot down notes, my hook, motivation, hero/heroine’s goal, the problem, anything to do with the opening.)

Middle: (A few notes will grow the the middle. This is the most difficult for me. I list any obstacles or complications my characters face; sometimes scenes begin to form. I jot them down even though they’re vague.)

End: (Last quarter of the book. How it ends, the black moment. Have the characters changed? How? Anything I know about how the novel ends.)

When I go to bed at night, I “play” my story in my head and watch it until I fall asleep. Usually, I have new ideas/scenes the following morning:

If there’s one thing I know about myself, it’s that I need structure and specifics to keep me on the right path. I have several completed novels that I’ve written SOTP (Seat of the Pants) and they STILL have problems. Sometimes I’ll cut and paste the publisher’s guidelines on the page to keep me on track. As I develop the story, it spills onto page two, page three and page four. I love seeing the story grow.  The other day I came across a great plotting device by author Linda Goodnight. Check it out HERE, click on For Writers then, Plotting In A Circle.

Do you have any novel plotting tips to share?

How To Write and Then Some

Some writers outline their books using index cards or Excel; they jot notes about every scene. In other words, they’re plotting their books scene by scene. I don’t know if they do the entire book all at once or if they go as far as they can before they stop to write to the end of their list of scenes.  When they feel the need, I guess, they start with the scene by scene outline again. Seems like an incredible amount of detail work to me, but I can see where it would be effective. Basically, who, what, when, and where are addressed in each scene. Actually, this method of outlining makes writing a novel seem pretty easy, doesn’t it?

There are so many ways to plot and write a book. The fine-tuning and layering is a whole other matter. Don’t even get me started on subtexting. There are so many things we need to know and learn and do before, during and after we have a finished product.

My question is: do you think a writer can “over-educate” himself to the point any natural talent he has might be warped or distorted by all the rules/how-to/book learning? Does this question even make sense?

My answer to my question is: I suppose we should read, write, study until everything we need to know is second nature when we write.

Yes, I often talk to myself.  

What are your thoughts?

Plotting at Killer Nashville

I’ve had to put aside blogging and some of the books I’m reading to meet deadlines. My attention is so easily yanked from one interesting subject to another. Robert Dugoni’s The Jury Master came yesterday. I thumbed to the first page and moments later realized I’d read three chapters and lost all sense of time.  He’s got an excellent writing style. Excellent storyteller. Last night I stayed up until midnight again—went to YouTube and looked for every interview I could find with Dugoni. Watched them all. He’s such a likable guy and he always shares something valuable.

I’m a terrible note-taker. When interviewing I always take tape recorders with me. Yes, tape recorderS. Just in case. My notes during the Killer Nashville conference are sporadic and abbreviated, to say the least. Out of all the good stuff P.J. Parrish said on the plotting panel, I have one thing beneath her name: “Plotting is nothing without good pacing.” I got caught up in all she was saying, but too, I guess that’s what resonated with me the most. I see myself as a weak plotter and if I'm not careful my story will move at a snail's pace.

I have much written beneath  Debbie Henson’s name: She said she identifies three climaxes in her story. I take that to mean three major plot points, then she builds her book around those three.  The first climax occurs during the first third of the book, the second climax is in the middle and it changes the game, offers the big twist that moves the book forward. Then there’s the climax that offers a race to the end—the finish. She uses a bulletin board, writes her three climaxes on index cards and builds her story with scenes.

We each have to do what works for us and I think the reason Debbie’s method appeals to me is I did pretty much the same thing when I wrote my first book. I took 12 sheets of paper, each symbolizing a chapter of the book. I outlined on each sheet/chapter—loosely. I started writing. As I wrote, I filled in my pages. It worked. That book got published—and I’ve never, ever used that method again or sold a book. For some reason, I’ve became a seat of the pants writer. What’s wrong with this picture?

I’ll have more posts on Killer Nashville but on another note:

I’m writing a short piece on Walker Percy for Southern Writers Magazine. I can’t begin to tell you how enamored I am with this man. I can’t possibly use all the interesting info I’ve collected about him and hope to do a blog post too, but for sure I want to tell you now that a Walker Percy symposium will be happening October 14-16. The conference will take place on Loyola University campus in New Orleans. That;s located in the Uptown area of N.O. across from Audubon Park. This is going to be very interesting. Wish I could go--Check it out HERE.

Did anyone watch the Walker Percy documentary? It's for sale HERE.

Dream, Dream, Dream ...

When do you get your best ideas? Some of you dream every night. Some of you start with a character. Mine come when I’m driving—or early in the morning when I’m fresh. Of course, sometimes they hit at night when I’m in bed tossing and turning. Because I’m often too lazy to reach over for pen and notebook, they’re gone by the next morning. I’ve been told that if I can’t remember an idea, then it wasn’t valid or a good idea to begin with, but of course, I disagree with that. I think because of my laziness, the good idea is snatched away from me and given to someone who’ll appreciate it and do something with it.

Last week I drove to Lafayette to have lunch with daughter. I listened to an oldies CD. The song, All I Have to do is Dream by the Everly Brothers came on, and brought back a memory of when I was a kid window shopping with my parents. I hated window shopping. Still do. I’ve never liked looking at things I want and being unable to buy them. Window shopping is pure torment.

My mind runs rampant and random when I drive—especially on an interstate where there’s straight sailing. So, when the words of All I have To Do is Dream slammed into me, I realized when it comes to my writing, all I’m doing is window shopping. All I have to do is dream, dream, dream … and I’m satisfied. Whenever I want to feel productive, all I have to do is dream… or critique a manuscript for a friend… or start a literary magazine with a friend … or join another online writer’s group … or blog, or leave a message on someone else's blog … or purchase another how-to book ... or even write/submit haiku.

Get the picture? It's my escape, yet it's satisfying my need to be creative and productive--or I think it is. Actually, that's why I feel so frustrated. My lack of focus...accomplishment. My dreaming is the equivalent of some of you mopping your floors for an hour, or cleaning off your desk to avoid getting over that hump in your chapter 7. You'll get back to your chapter 7--I hope.

My driving and random thoughts took me from the song, to window shopping with my parents, to analyzing my writing life—and that little plotting/word association/mind-mapping exercise showed me that I’m window shopping—wasting my time. And I don’t like it.

I guess I need to do something about it, don’t I? Revise/rewrite at least one of my eleven novels. Or trash them all and start over fresh.

Have you realized something about yourself that needs to be fixed? What are you doing about it?

Showdown at Juniper Pass

My good friend Kent Conwell has a new western hitting the stands. It's his fifth book published by Leisure Books and the third Jake Slade novel.

Here's the blurb:

When halfbreed Jake Slade and his Apache brother, Nana, ride into the High Lonesome to bury their brother, Paleto, they are sidetracked in the Sangre d' Cristo Mountains when a band of scavengers hurrah the town of Juniper Pass while waiting for a hundred thousand dollar gold shipment.
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This fast paced story is filled with action that takes an unexpected twist at the end. Showdown at Juniper Pass is available at major book stores, online and will come out on Kindle.

Kent also has another Tony Boudreaux mystery coming out with Avalon called Murder Among Friends, and just signed on the dotted line for another Avalon western, Retribution at Dead Apache Springs.

When does this guy have time to play with the grandkids? :)
Kent and I used to be in a critique group together along with novelist/travel writer Rogayle Franklin, our now-deceased friend Lela Davis and a couple other writers. We met weekly. Meeting every Thursday kept us writing. To our amazement and sometimes our frustration, Kent never quit writing. We'd critique one or two chapters for him and before we knew it, his book would be finished and on it's way to the publisher. I've never figured out his secret to writing fast but whatever it is, it works for him. I asked him once how he plotted his books. Here's what he said:

Along with a premise, I like to know where I am at the beginning and at the end. I try to follow the precept of H. Bedford-Jones, king of the pulps back in the 20’s and 30’s. “Get your hero in danger and keep him in danger.” I usually have an outline, but it is more of a device to make me think in the beginning rather than a rigid guide.

A former educator, Kent told us that even when he had cafeteria duty, he'd be writing--with one eye on his laptop and the other on the students. He may have been kidding, but I believe it! Just look at his titles:

Western titles from Avalon Books:

SHOOTOUT ON THE SABINE
LLANO RIVER VALLEY
GRAVE FOR A DEAD GUNFIGHTER
ATASCOCITA GOLD
JUNCTION FLATS DRIFTER
PROMISE TO A DEAD MAN
BOWIE'S SILVER
ANGELINA SHOWDOWN
GUNFIGHT AT FRIO CANYON
AN EYE FOR AN EYE
A HANGING IN HIDETOWN
THE GAMBLING MAN
RED RIVER CROSSING
A WAGON TRAIN FOR BRIDES
FRIDAY'S STATION
SIDETRIP TO SAND SPRINGS
THE ALAMO TRAIL
VALLEY OF GOLD
PAINTED COMANCHE TREE
THE GHOST OF THE BLUE BONE MESA
BUMPO, BILL, AND THE GIRLS
LAUGHING GIRL CREEK
JIM WELLS
GLITTER OF GOLD
TEXAS ORPHAN TRAIN
BLOOD BROTHERS
THE GOLD OF BLACK MOUNTAIN

Here are the titles in his Tony Boudreaux mystery series:

AN UNMARKED GRAVE
THE PUZZLE OF PIRI REIS
THE CRYSTAL SKULL MURDERS
DEATH IN THE FRENCH QUARTER
EXTRACURRICULAR MURDER
THE YING ON TRIAD
VICKSBURG
DEATH IN THE DISTILLERY
GALVESTON
SKELETONS OF THE ATCHAFALAYA
THE RIDDLE OF MYSTERY INN

Take a look at Avalon Books HERE. Read Kent's blog HERE.