NaNoWriMo season

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You can’t exist for long in the writing world without hearing at least a mention of NaNoWriMo – national novel writing month. During the month of November, the challenge is to complete a novel of 50,000 words. The writing should not start until 1st November, should be a new project, and the word count target should be reached on or before 30th November. Winners – those who upload and validate at least 50k words – receive all sorts of goodies from the sponsors, such as discounts on writing software or discounted membership of writing communities.

 

Some people swear by nano – some hate it. Some never open their projects again, some go on to publish. Some enter year after year and fail every time. Some enter every year and win, but do no other writing all year. Some win on their first year and then swear never ever to do it again.

 

One thing you must be aware of when taking nano on is that the writer who can storm through their novel draft in 30 days or less and then publish it within a week is a very rare creature. What’s much more likely is that you’ll be left with a draft zero, something that has got the story down in words but that needs a lot of refining, redrafting and a major dose of editing before it’s ready to be seen by anyone other than the writer.

 

So when you have finished nano, don’t rush to publish your work without considering the quality very carefully. On the other hand, don’t throw it into the bin in despair because it’s not ready to publish. That’s only to be expected. Never judge a novel by the first draft.

 

Please, if you’re going to take part in nanowrimo, enjoy the experience, make the most of the peer support and general buzz about writing, and then consider very carefully your next step. And before you try to submit to agents or publishers, please bear in mind that they have generally learned to dread the words “here is my nanowrimo novel” because of the pile of raw drafts they receive around December/January time!

 

Planning tools – storyplanner

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storyplannerThere are many different approaches to planning a novel. Do you start with characters and a setting and see what happens? Do you plan out every detail thoroughly before starting? How do you structure the content?

 

One tool that offers to help you with all that is www.storyplanner.com, a website where you can find a collection of different templates to complete online. There is a selection of plans to choose from, many well-known, such as the Snowflake method or the Three Act structure, as well as other, lesser known methods that are equally useful. Other sections on the website include facilities for developing your characters and your story world, and creating a summary or synopsis of your novel.

 

Plans can be created and then downloaded for further use, in Word, PDF or text format. A free membership allows you to create one story plan, which would need to be deleted in order to create a new one, while premium membership allows unlimited plans.

 

The variety of plans means that you are bound to find something that suits your method of working, and the advice that accompanies each plan will help you structure your thoughts and develop your ideas. Screenplay plans are included alongside those for novels and those applicable to either medium. The ability to favourite plans is an added bonus, as you start developing your planning skills. Links take you to further information on some of the plans.

 

I’m currently trying out this site for my own projects, and I’m finding it’s a useful way to keep my ideas together and organised. As it’s online, it also means that it’s accessible from just about anywhere. As a bonus, it also appears to be fully accessible from tablets, meaning that planning is easy to do while out and about, as long as you have internet access.

 

 

 

 

Writing books – The Power of Point of View

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power of point of viewPoint of view is one issue that many writers struggle with. One of the first questions you face is the question of which POV would suit your story best, and then there’s ensuring your POV is consistent throughout.

 

The Power of Point of View, by Alicia Rasley, looks at the topic in depth. Part one, the basics, looks at the different options and how they affect the story. Examples are given that demonstrate the difference POV can make both in the telling of the story and the emotional impact.

 

Part two, building your story, looks in more detail at each POV. The advantages and disadvantages of each technique are looked at in detail, so that you can make your choice wisely, and the technical aspects are looked at. As well as first and second person, third person is divided into impersonal, personal (single) and personal (multiple). The dangers of headhopping and how to avoid it are covered.

 

Part three, the master class, looks at individualising POV, levels of POV and creating alternative and unusual voices.

 

Each topic is explored in depth, with relevant examples explained, Further reading is suggested. There is enough technical information to be sure that you can tackle POV more confidently in your own projects.

 

If POV is a topic you struggle with, then you will find this book helpful. It might be a little much for a very new writer, but the content is accessible to most who have any experience on the topic and there is enough depth for more experienced writers too. The book is more expensive than the smaller guides but I’ve found there’s plenty of material in there to justify the cost, and the paperback is a useful addition to my bookshelf.

 

 

Help! My beta readers disagree

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I often see complaints from authors that their beta readers are giving them conflicting feedback. “One wants more detail, another wants more action.” “One says this character is too bad, another says he’s too boring.”

 

So is it better to use just one beta reader? Or is there a way to reconcile different comments?

 

Using one beta reader means that you get one person’s opinion. This is useful, but limited. If the person likes thrillers more, then maybe they’re pushing for more action. Or maybe they prefer strong characters, or they’re focused on settings.

 

Using several beta readers will mean a wider variety of issues might be picked up, but it can also mean conflicting comments. Here it’s important to remember the golden rule: if they say something is wrong, then they’re probably right. If they tell you how to fix it, they’re probably wrong.

 

So in both the examples given above, the same issue is raised: in one case it’s the action/detail balance, and in the other it’s the characterisation. Maybe both sets of comments are right, because the passage gives off mixed messages. The fact they’ve selected this passage as not working right should be your cue to look closely at it, but you don’t have to agonise over their suggestions. Maybe the solution is something completely different.

 

What should the passage be achieving? Do you want the reader to feel the action? Then make sure your details are adding to the passage and not slowing it down. Do you want your reader to slow down and take a good look round? Then write the passage more clearly to show that.

 

Every reader will bring something slightly different to your book, and will take something slightly different away. It’s your job as author to ensure that they receive the message you’re trying to give. Not everyone will get it completely, but awareness of the ways in which the message is missed will help you refine your writing.

 

The most important thing to do is to listen to your beta readers and think carefully about their comments. Then remember that it’s your novel and you have final editorial control. So thank your readers for their comments and input, and then edit your novel as you feel best.

 

Writing books – Ready, Set, Novel

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ready set novelWith Nanowrimo fast approaching, there are many writers out there preparing to spend the month of November writing a first draft of a novel. Ready, Set, Novel! is written by the organisers of Nanowrimo, Chris Baty, Lindsey Grant and Tavia Stewart-Streit, and promises to help you plan and plot your upcoming masterpiece.

 

While this book is more of a workbook than a reading book, the structure that it offers is very helpful if you’re new to planning for a full novel. From the very first steps of storming your brain, through characters and plot, to exploring setting and heading into the blank page, this book contains plenty of ideas and useful information to help you pass that tense month of October in a positive way and hit November ready to go.

 

Pages include family tree diagrams ready to fill in, places to freewrite about what you want to achieve, spaces for timelines, pages to consider the before and after of your main characters, suggestions for scenes, and a space to write out your schedule and deadlines.

 

If you’re used to planning for a novel and you already have a good idea of what to write, then this book would probably be too much for you, and you would struggle to fit your ideas into the areas and structure provided, but if you’re coming to nano for the first time, or are nervous about what to write or how to plan, then this book would be an ideal way to spend the time between now and November, when the fun really starts. And, of course, it can be used at any time of year, not just planning for National Novel Writing Month.

 

Writing books – Writing Faster FTW

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2015-09-30 07.39.45Writing Faster FTW is written by L.A. Witt and Lauren Gallagher. FTW means For The Win, for those who haven’t come across it before. This is a short book, available only in ebook format, and offers to give you ways to remove barriers and make your writing process more effective and productive. It’s fairly cheap, current price £1.26, and my copy was obtained when they ran a free promotion.

 

I’ve read a few other books on writing faster or more productively, and while this one has lots of good advice, I don’t feel that it covers as much as I would like in terms of maintaining quality and maximising small pockets of time.

 

What it does cover:

  • Not all writing advice is applicable to all writers; if it works for you, follow it.
  • It is perfectly possible to write fast and efficiently.
  • You need to step away from distractions and overcome self-doubt.

It also gives practical advice on outlining, writing out of sequence, writing with a co-author and researching efficiently, as well as avoiding burnout. These tips are likely to lead to increased productivity, but the rest is more or less common sense.

 

In the end, this book seems to be full of practical advice that any writer who is serious about their craft needs to take on board but in the main should already be aware of. Writing means writing, not writing about writing, not tweeting about writing, not complaining about how hard it is to write, not watching TV while complaining there’s no time to write. Dare I add to this list: not reading books about how to write more. There is a place for such books, of course, but the single best thing you can do to improve your writing productivity is to write.

 

Writing books – The Story Grid

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2015-09-23 10.37.53The Story Grid by Shawn Coyne is subtitled What Good Editors Know. This is another book that looks in detail at story structure, but from a different angle than the Blueprint your Bestseller that I looked at previously.

 

Coyne looks at two ways of analysing a book: the Foolscap Global Story Grid breaks a book down into its essential components, as a check that the basic structure is sound and clear, while the Story Grid Spreadsheet looks at each scene in more detail, recording the change in mood, turning point, length of scene, POV and other aspects. Both these sections take Silence of the Lambs as a reference point, analysing it in depth and applying the methods to the text.  I found this a little irritating, as it has been many years since I read the book and I’m not sure I ever saw the movie, so my lack of familiarity with the sample text made these parts a little harder to follow.

 

However, what I did find very useful with this book is the in-depth look at genre, both in the sense of genre fiction and in the sense that every book falls into a specific category of book. Each genre has its own rules and conventions, and these are laid out for some genres at least in great detail. This came to mind recently when I read a thriller that did not follow those conventions, and I did indeed find that it fell flat because of this.

 

Story arcs are also looked at in depth, with the arch-plot, the mini-plot and the anti-plot discussed in detail, as well as the interplay of external and internal content genres.

 

Most or all of the material is available online, at www.thestorygrid.com, and I would suggest that before considering buying the book you take a good look at the website and the resources there. You can see a summary of the techniques used on the resources page. The paperback book is rather expensive, at £25, while the kindle book at just under £5 is better value, but I found it a struggle to view some of the images, especially on a kindle device, which doesn’t have the same facility as an iPad to zoom in on images. However, it is useful to have the text all in one place for easy access.

 

There is a lot of useful material in this book, and it is well worth looking through. It emphasises the necessity of knowing the rules in order to break them deliberately if you feel appropriate, rather than ploughing on without understanding them in the first place, and the fact that understanding your genre is essential to producing a strong book. The grid is a good way of checking that every part of your story is strong, while the foolscap method is a good check that the overall arc is clear. Both techniques together will tighten up your writing and reduce flabbiness that fails to drive the story forward. This is not a book for the writer just starting out, but if you’re nearing the point of thinking about seeking publication in some way then this would be very useful. It would also be useful for any beta reader to bear in mind, although there is always the fear that a little knowledge is a dangerous thing, and I would hate to see anyone applying these rules rigidly without understanding why they exist or when they may be broken (a bit like the rules of writing itself, in fact!).

 

Writing books – The Emotion Thesaurus and others

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2015-09-16 09.40.42The Emotion Thesaurus is one of a collection of books by Angela Ackerman and Becca Puglisi, the others being The Positive Trait Thesaurus, The Negative Trait Thesaurus and Emotion Amplifiers. The first three are available in paperback or kindle versions; the last is a free, small kindle-only volume, and works as a good introduction to the others.

 

The Emotion Thesaurus contains 75 emotion entries, ranging from adoration through nostalgia to worry. Each entry includes a definition (for example, Terror: a state of extreme fear), a long list of physical signals (ranging from images like flaring nostrils to behaviours like spinning around, trying to spot any and all danger), internal sensations (weak legs), mental responses (risk taking), cues of acute or long-term terror (insomnia, hallucinations), indications of how that emotion may escalate (paranoia, rage), cues of that emotion being suppressed and writer’s tips. Each of the entries offers a couple of pages of words and phrases. In the kindle version, there is a handy link back to the table of contents, as this is not the sort of book to be read linearly.

 

The book also contains general advice on writing emotions, and a guide to using the contents of the thesaurus.

 

The Positive Trait Thesaurus and the Negative Trait Thesaurus are on similar lines. A guide at the front of the book gives guidance on creating believable, rounded characters. Then the main thesaurus lists different attributes, A definition is included, a guide to similar flaws/attributes, possible causes, associated behaviours and attitudes, associated thoughts, associated emotions, positive aspects, negative aspects, examples from film, overcoming this trait as a major flaw, and traits in supporting characters that may cause conflict. There is a wide range of traits included, with several under each letter of the alphabet. Smallest category is XYZ, containing only Zealousy, while several letters contain more than twenty entries.

 

The free Emotion Amplifiers book is much briefer, but covers topics including addiction, attraction, boredom, hunger, illness, pain and stress, plus a sample of the other books in the series.

 

These books are ideal for any writer who is seeking to widen the range of emotional description, covering multiple suggestions for describing just about any characteristic or emotional state you could think of. The Positive Traits and Negative Traits book would also be invaluable in the creation of rounded characters, whether you want to create a flawed hero or a well-rounded bad guy. While I found the paperback versions a little expensive, there’s no doubt that the physical book would be useful. However, the link to the index at the end of each chapter makes the kindle version perfectly valid as an alternative.

 

 

 

Writing books – Thanks, but this isn’t for us

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2015-09-08 14.46.48While the previous writing-related books I’ve reviewed have been suitable for any active writer, this one isn’t for the faint-hearted! I would definitely suggest that Thanks, But This Isn’t For Us by Jessica Page Morrell, subtitled A (Sort of) Compassionate Guide to Why Your Writing Is Being Rejected, is aimed at the more confident, polished writer who is nearing the point of either seeking an agent or publisher or getting ready to hit the self-publish button.

 

Written by a developmental editor who claims to have been called the Angel of Death by a critique group she ran, this book goes through all the common problems she sees in manuscripts. For each category she looks at, such as first impressions, she gives a detailed explanation of that aspect, why it is important and what it needs to include. She breaks down the categories of what she sees as the dealbreakers (dud prologues, trying too hard, not enough happening, too much happening), all with detailed explanations of how and why they are a problem, and then gives options for improving that aspect (dialogue, anecdote, suspense, theme, setting). Examples are given from published works and from novels she’s come across that have problems (heavily disguised so as not to embarrass anyone!). Each chapter concludes with exercises and tips for your own work, and a list of further resources.

 

The fourteen chapters include first impressions, plot, style and language, conflict, avoiding dialogue disasters, characters and writing memoirs. The final chapter is entitled Driving an Editor Crazy: Goofs, Gaffes and Howlers That Sink a Manuscript (dippy and oddball names, creepy sex scenes, fact checker breakdown, head hopping, inconsistent voice…).

 

There is also an epilogue that covers living the writer’s life, with tips and advice on how to make writing more than just a hobby. The first section, entitled Toughen Up, maybe should have been at the front! The book concludes with a glossary of relevant words – “The lingo of writing; The lingo of publishing” – which covers relevant words or phrases, such as crucible, inciting action, subtext, earn out, imprint, remaindered; all the vocabulary that the author wants to be able to use intelligently in discussions about their craft – or rather about their business, because this really is the attitude that the author is expecting from her readers.

 

There is a lot of valuable material in here, to the extent that I feel it would be off-putting to the writer who is relatively new to the craft. The author really does not pull her punches, and is almost intimidating in her fervour (“If I sound like a badass on these pages, keep in mind that I’m a pussycat compared to the suits in the publishing world. You know, the folks who send out the rejection letters.”). However, close reading and analysis would probably help any writer on the cusp of publishing standard to figure out any remaining problems and tidy things up.

 

If you’re putting your first novel together, then there are plenty of other books out there to hold your hand and guide you gently. If you’re submitting and not getting the results you want, or are about to take that first step of sending your work out to find a publisher, then this book would be a very useful addition to your library. If you’re self-publishing, then the responsibility to make sure your work is of publishable standard rests on your shoulders.

 

The interior of the book is clearly laid out, with clear headings and subheadings. Checklists are included for your own work. The writing style is clear and to the point. I love the simple but effective cover design on the paperback, and at just under 350 pages it’s a fair-sized book. The kindle version isn’t much cheaper than the paperback, and in this case, as in most writing books, I’d definitely recommend getting the paperback version.

 

Writing books – Writing Active Hooks Book 1: Action, Emotion, Surprise and more

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2015-09-02 10.44.32This is one of a series of books by Mary Buckham. She has books on writing active hooks, and writing active settings, and I think I’ll be working my way through them. This one is on Active Hooks, covering action, emotion, surprise and raising questions, with mentions of other types of hooks (book 2 in the series includes unique character hooks and foreshadowing among its topics, as well as placement of hooks). This book is only available as kindle version, costing around the same as a posh coffee, although I note that there is an omnibus edition available of the Active Settings series, with the Active Hooks as a bonus, in both ebook and paperback format, and I’m very tempted.

 

Hooks are “tools to engage readers and keep them engaged”, and the examples include ideas on how to control the tension within the hook, depending on what genre you’re writing in.

 

Each hook is introduced clearly, with each chapter including examples from popular fiction, plus worked examples where a simple sentence is enhanced to include a hook, or a variety of hooks, that pull the reader forward and make them want to read more. There are then practical assignments, such as going into a book shop, to a shelf you don’t normally read from, and picking up books at random to read their opening sentence.

 

This isn’t a particularly long book, but it provides a lot of detail on a specific topic, and is worth a look at if you feel your writing needs a little more jazz. As it’s a short ebook, it’s ideal to have on your phone app for those moments you’re out and about and need something to read. By itself, it’s not going to have a major effect on your writing, but if you’re at the stage where you’re confident on the basics of plot and setting and just want that extra oomph that will pull the readers along, then this would be well worth considering.