A Few Good Tricks

Monday was a statuary holiday in Canada, and I was away in Banff with my family, so Lisa Gail Green’s guest post has been rescheduled for today and there won’t be a post tomorrow (Wednesday). My regular schedule will continue next week.

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I was trying to think of a good craft post and several things came to mind. But then it hit me, what are some quick and relatively painless tricks I’ve used successfully when it comes to writing and revising? A good magician may never reveal his secrets, but a good writer shares! Have you used these? Have more to add?

·         Character Interview

o   When I get a stuck trying to bring a flat character to life, I take a breather and interview him. I open a new document, ask a question and type in first person from his perspective. Something NOT having to do with the plot of the book. This usually gives me a new glimpse into the character’s head and helps me dive back in.

·         Predictability Meter

o   Whether you are a plotter or a pantser you have to make constant decisions about what happens next. Ever get to that soggy middle and wonder why your characters are just sitting around talking out their troubles? Throw something at them! Literally. Think of Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy and the improbability drive. What’s the least likely thing to happen right then? Turning into penguins? Well, okay maybe not that. Then again… Anyhow, see what happens when you do something unexpected and it may just breathe new life that you can use. You’d be surprised. And the best part? So will the reader!

·         Props

o   When I used to act I’d sometimes pick up random props and use them in interesting ways. Example? I remember being a lady from the 1800’s and finding a fan. It became an extension of my hand, where I’d snap it open and closed and poke it at people when I was upset, or fan myself while giggling. It was a great tool. Writers can use those too! They can fit both character and world, and that’s awesome! Especially since you don’t have to worry about practicality when it’s in a novel.

·         Wordle.net

o   Have you used it? I copy and paste my first chapter inside and see what happens. I remember one time the word LIKE was about two-thirds of the page! Yikes. I knew right away one of the first revision checkmarks. When I was done? I did it again and everything was nice and small and even with the characters names being slightly larger maybe. Much better.

·         Meditation

o   Okay, that’s not quite it. But close. I have to work on world. So I like to stop. Take a breath. Imagine the setting. What do I notice? Besides with sight, what do my other senses pick up? What about my MC? Would she notice the same things? Or would she notice something different? How does she feel? Does that change what she experiences? I keep asking myself these questions throughout.

Do you have a trick you like do use when revising?

Be sure to visit Lisa's blog for her giveaway. 

Blurb for The Binding Stone:

"Genies like you’ve never seen them, THE BINDING STONE is a wild ride of treachery and deception. For my first wish, I’d like a sequel, please." - PERSONAL DEMONS author Lisa Desrochers

"I dream of Lisa Gail Green! The Binding Stone is magical in so many ways. My Djinn asks for my third wish? The sequel, of course!" - NYT Bestselling Author Nancy Holder

Tricked into slavery by the man she loved, the Djinni Leela has an eternity to regret her choices.

Awakened in the prison of her adolescent body, she finds a new master in possession of the opal that binds her. But seventeen-year-old Jered is unlike any she’s seen. His kindness makes Leela yearn to trust again, to allow herself a glimmer of hope.

Could Jered be strong enough to free her from the curse of the Binding Stone?

Books You Can’t Stop Thinking About: Part Two

Today, I’m continuing from where I left off on Monday’s post with the analysis of the YA novel Forbidden. Hopefully the post will give you something to think about as you write your next project (regardless of the genre).

Here's the short blurb to remind you of the premise:

She is pretty and talented - sweet sixteen and never been kissed. He is seventeen, gorgeous, and on the brink of a bright future. And now they have fallen in love. But... they are brother and sister.

Foreshadowing

Throughout the story, both Maya and Lochan acknowledge that what they are doing is wrong. They struggle to figure out how to make things works without hurting anyone. Their major concern is what it will do to their family. At one point, Lochan does research on the laws surrounding incest, especially consensual incest, which is important for his decision at the climax. It shows you what they are up against.

Theme

Every scene in the book was tightly woven to the themes of sacrifice and family and love. The themes provided the forward momentum to the book and helped remove the Ewww factor. Had they not been there, or only happened randomly, the story wouldn’t have been so powerful. Every decision the two teens made were based on these three themes.

Climax

If you’re planning to read the book, and I highly recommend it, you might want to skip this section due to spoilers [alert].

Source

In the climax, Maya and Lochan decide to go all the way. Until now, they had been fighting it, knowing it’s wrong. They had only been kissing and fooling around. But their mother, who wasn’t supposed to be able to get into the house, comes home after finding out what was going on between them. She naturally freaks out and calls the police.

Knowing that he and Maya could end up in jail for what they did, which means the younger kids would be taken away by social services and separated, Lochan makes it look like he forced his sister to consent to their sexual relationship. He even goes as far as to hit her so that it looks like he was the abuser and she was the victim. He knows he’ll end up going to prison for a long time, but the sacrifice is worth it to save Maya and their siblings.

But then things go horrible wrong, and Maya tells the police it was consensual, so that Lochan’s prison sentence will be reduced. But this means Maya can be charged and would face a two-year prison sentence. Lochan makes one more sacrifice for his family. He commits suicide. With him dead, Maya can’t be charged and the family won’t be destroyed more than it already has been.

Heartbroken, Maya is ready to kill herself since she can’t live without Lochan, but her five-year-old sister says something that makes Maya realize that killing herself would make Lochan’s sacrifice pointless.

End of spoiler alert

 Source

As you can see from this analysis, there was not one element that made this story powerful. It was the combination of these five elements, along with a strong plot, that made this a book I couldn’t stop thinking about long after I finished it.

What book has had the same affect on you? What was it about the book that kept you thinking about it long after you read the last page?

(Why the pictures of the cute bunnies? Because every time I think of the book and the urge to cry hits, I chant, “Fuzzy bunny, fuzzy bunny, fuzzy bunny.” It works every time. *grins*)

Books You Can’t Stop Thinking About: Part One

Last summer, I bought the YA novel Forbidden, mostly out of curiosity, but then didn’t have the guts to read it:

She is pretty and talented - sweet sixteen and never been kissed. He is seventeen, gorgeous, and on the brink of a bright future. And now they have fallen in love. But... they are brother and sister.

First, there was the Ewwww factor, which made me wonder why I bought the book in the first place. Second, based on the full blurb, I knew there wasn’t going to be a happily-ever-after ending, and those are the ones I prefer.

But last week I decided to finally read the book, and ended up loving it. The problem is I couldn’t stop thinking about it once I was finished. I started to wonder, when I wasn’t sobbing, what made it one of my favorite books, and how could I write such a brilliant story, too. A story that left me an emotional wreck long after I finished reading it. So, I analyzed it with the hopes of applying what I learned to future projects.

Characters You Ache For

This book is told from both the point of view of Lochan and Maya. They are the oldest of five children (the youngest is only five years old). Their father left to be with another woman when Lochan was twelve years old. Their mother turned to alcohol and slowly started to distance herself from their lives. And at one point in the book, she is no longer living with the children. So right away, you empathize with the characters due to the strong backstory.

In addition to raising their siblings, Lochan and Maya do everything possible to ensure social services don’t find out about their situation. If it’s discovered their mother has abandoned them, then their family will be torn apart. This powerful backstory explains why Lochan and Maya never felt like they were siblings, and it provides the motivation behind what happens in the climax. Like the two characters, you don’t see them as sibling, but rather two individuals who fell in love.

Great Writing

But the void yawns open like a cavern inside my chest. I feel so damn lonely all the time. Even though I’m surrounded by pupils, there is this invisible screen between us, and behind the glass wall I am screaming—screaming in my own silence, screaming to be noticed, to be befriended, to be liked. (Lochan’s pov)

The writing in Forbidden is beautiful and the emotion intense. Lochan is extremely shy, to the point that he has anxiety attacks when called on in class. This means he’s treated like the class weirdo. You feel his pain, which makes you want to keep reading.

The writing also helps the reader feel Maya’s and Lochan’s pain as they struggle with their love for each other when they know it’s wrong, and when they make sacrifices to keep their family together, while most of their peers are out having fun and being normal teens. And you feel their pain when their secret is discovered. The writing is rich with symbolism and imagery but is true to who they are as individuals. It’s compelling and makes for a great page turner—even when you’re afraid to turn the next page.

Do you strive to write a book that makes people think about it long after they’ve finished reading it? Have you analyzed a book to see how the author achieved this goal?

Part Two of the post will be go up Wednesday. And then you'll see why the book affected me.

On My Writerly Bookshelf: Editor Proof Your Writing

It’s not enough to write a page-turning story with characters you can’t help but love. Editors, agents, and readers are eager for writing that does not read like this:

After reading all the words on my contract, I know what my rights are.

They want tight, powerful prose like this:

I read my contract. I know my rights.

And this is where Don McNair’s book, Editor-Proof Your Writing: 21 Steps To The Clear Prose Publishers And Agents Crave, comes in. He lays out the 21 steps that are guaranteed to tighten your prose. Each step explains the specific issue (e.g. double verbs) and provides lots of examples. You then apply your new knowledge to the exercises with each step and the accompanying excerpt from a book (I skipped the excerpts). The final assignment for each step is to apply it to your first chapter (and only your first chapter). Most of the steps are achieved using the FIND function, so they’re easy to do.

After you’ve studied the book, you can apply each step to your novel. Even if you know most of the information, you’ll be surprised how many “issues” you’ve missed in your manuscript. For example, you might have sentences like this:

I sat down and watched TV.

Unless there is something significant about the act of sitting down, you can simply write:

I watched TV.

It is assumed the character is sitting. This sounds pretty obvious, but you might be surprised how many times you make this mistake without realizing it.

Another example is:

Their squeals of laughter fill the air as they chase each other and play tag.

The last I heard, tag involves being chased. The better way to write it would be:

Their squeals of laughter fill the air as they play tag.

I highly recommend the book to everyone, especially if you tend to write like the before examples. It’s a quick and easy read that makes the editing process more efficient. Also, it includes several chapters on hooking the reader and keeping them hooked.

How do you edit your writing to ensure it isn’t flabby?