No Posts for a Few Days

I won't be posting for a few days. I'm off to Alabama to meet relatives I never knew I had.

But I'll be back next week. More tired, but less sane -- if it's possible to get any crazier than I am already.

Look out all you folks on the road between Austin and north Alabama!

Searching for Agents

Whenever I do a workshop, no matter the subject, I get writers asking about how to find an agent. There are the usual places.

Look in the books that come out each year designed to tell you about agents and editors, like Writer's Market. Keep in mind that most of these print books are pretty much out of date before they even hit the shelf. Writer's Market has within the last few years offered an online version that is a bit more up to date.

You can look in the LMP. That stands for Literary Market Place, but everyone knows it as LMP. You won't find this in your local bookstore, maybe not even in your branch library. That's because it's expensive. Check your bigger library. If there's a big writing organization in your area, they may have it. In the LMP you'll find authors and editors listed, along with contact information and what the agency represents. It's more up to date than the agent books in the bookstores because it comes out more than once a year. (Another reason it's so expensive.)

Go to the websites of the agents themselves. Most agencies today have websites and they often have information, even pictures, of the agents, as well as how to submit and what they read.

Look in the acknowledgement page of the books similar to yours or in the same genre. Often writers will thank their agents. Talk to authors you know. It's considered rude to flat out ask an author, especially one you're not friends with, who their agent is. But often an author, even one you don't know, will say who their agent is during a talk at a booksigning, for example. Also, check out the author's website. They sometimes say who their agent is and have a link to the agent's site.

Subscribe to Publishers Lunch online. You'll find out which agents are moving where. In the once a week Lunch Weekly, new sales are listed, along with the agent who repped the book.

Go to or volunteer for conferences where agents are speaking or doing consultations.

And a not-so usual place to research and find agents:

Go to the website for the conference. You don't have to go to the conference itself. Every time you hear in my newsletter Doing It Write or from any other source that a conference is going to have agents attending, go to the website. Most likely, they will have a bio for the agent that will tell not only about the agent and the agency they work for, but also what they or the agency are reading and represent. And this information will be very up-to-date because it's supplied by the agent directly to the organization.

Make Your Characters Real

Sometimes authors get hung up on character names. They can't begin to write until they have the *perfect* names for their characters. There's certainly nothing wrong with that. Just don't spend days or weeks naming the players in your book, then forget to make them people instead of clones of each other.

Characters come from different cultures, different up-bringings. Even characters who are closely related won't sound the same or move and act the same. Do you do everything exactly as your brother or sister? Do y'all hold the same beliefs?

Sure, you want your characters to look different and have varied occupations. You give them names that start with different sounds or letters, so readers won't get them confused. You give some characters *tags* that are unique and identifiable. But delve deeper into these people.

If some of your characters live in a culture different from yours, or work at a job you know nothing about, or run in a social circle unfamiliar to you, do some research. That might mean physical visits to a town or area of town. It might mean hours at your local historical library reading diaries and journals of people from that time period. Don't just figure you can "wing it." Not every character can -- or should -- reflect you.

Observe people. You see two men running up stairs in an emergency. One's a businessman; one's a fireman. Even if they're dressed the same and look the same, they're going to move differently, think differently, react differently. Consider their training, their physical conditioning, their goals, their fears, their values.

What is it that makes your protagonist likeable? It's not always his or her positive traits or acceptable attitude. Sometimes it's his/her flaw and the struggle to overcome. What makes your antagonist human? What makes your main character's best friend a real person and not just a mirror of the protagonist? How are the two cops different? Where is the conflict in the attitudes of the childhood friends? What did this character have happen to him as a young kid that colors his beliefs and decisions as an adult? What conflict is warring inside this character and how does it interfere with his/her interaction with another character?

No two people are the same. No two characters are the same. You are only one person, but you have to create many personalities. Not an easy job. You certainly don't want to clone yourself in character after character. I mean, you're fascinating, to be sure, but a whole town of one person, one attitude? Page after page of characters agreeing with each other? Twenty characters that, in the end, are indistinguishable?

If you're writing a manuscript about clones, that's one thing. Otherwise, make your characters people. People who stand out from each other. People whom your readers can identify with, feel like they know (or love or hate), people they will remember long after they close the book.

The Writer's Cube

I have an email friend. We’ve emailed back and forth for a couple of years now, almost on a daily basis, but we’ve never met in person. We don’t talk much about writing. He’s not a writer, although his mother-in-law is. He’s into everything else though. I can’t even keep track of what all this “retired” man does. Sometimes we have one email going. Sometimes, like right now, there are about six threads. Our conversations usually end up taking giant leaps, as the one today did.

We’d been talking about one thing. Suduko I think, and somehow that led into the Rubick ’s Cube. After just a couple of emails about the Rubick’s Cube, we were off and running on the subject of politics in the Middle East. Okay, you had to be there to understand the leap.

But … the idea of how politics in the Middle East brought to mind the Rubick’s Cube made me visualize how plotting also can resemble the Rubick’s Cube.

Stay with me here.

Imagine the Rubick’s Cube. A block with different colored small squares. The colored squares are all mixed up and your job is to manipulate the squares until each of the six sides of the big block are one color.

It’s the same way with plotting. You have all these aspects you have to put together into a cohesive story: characters, plot points, story line threads, clues, foreshadowing, timeline, character connections, motivations, building suspense, etc. You have to get everything in. It’s got to all fit together seamlessly.

Before you start, it may resemble that mixed-up Rubick’s Cube straight out of the plastic wrapping. So, you start twisting and working with the plot. You finish writing and take a look at your Cube. But there are still squares in the wrong places. You start editing and get a few more squares into the right places. You let others read and critique. They help you move a few more squares into place.

You keep working on your plot until your Rubick’s Cube is done. Each side of the cube, each aspect of your plot, is right. Eventually, you take your cube and put it in a box and mail it to an agent to admire.

And the good news is that another way plotting is like manipulating a Rubick’s cube is that each time you practice, the cube, i.e. your writing, becomes easier to do. You learn; you grow as a writer.

Multiple Hard Copies

Here’s another tip about backing up your work. Don’t back up with more than one hard copy.

I know people who have multiple copies of their manuscripts in storage or on shelves in the garage. They send a copy to an agent, it gets rejected, they put it on the shelf along with the rejection letter. The same thing happens to the next copy and they stack it up. And the pile gets higher.

You only need one hard copy. And I’d make it the latest version. I usually keep a copy saved on a CD or the external hard drive of the original and the latest version. If I make changes, I save over the “old” latest version.

If you’ve only made minor changes, you don’t need to print a new copy. But if you do make major edits or rewrites, then you can consider printing a new hard copy – throw out the old one.

But, seriously, five, six copies of the same manuscript are not necessary.

You can keep those rejection letters if you want. Put them in a folder, under the agency’s name. Or if you’re tracking your queries on your computer, enter the information concerning the rejection in your files. I like to keep track of things like:

• Response time
• Comments
• Requests for more
• Name of who responded (sometimes it’s not the agent)

Always try to make your life easier. And sorting through multiple copies of a manuscript, trying to figure out which was the latest version, is not easy.

“Back Up!” the writer screamed.

We’re having computer problems. Not minor ones, but big, you’re-about-to-lose-everything ones. Luckily for me, it’s on my husband’s computer.

It had gotten to the point that some of his files wouldn’t open. The computer guy said files were corrupted and the hard drive was about to die. He took it off to the repair shop in the sky to try to revive it. Two weeks ago. It’s still in intensive care, apparently. Be ready tomorrow. Maybe. We’ve heard that before.

Dave was able to at least back up his files on an external hard drive so he could keep working – on my computer.

Mine’s having some glitches too. Like I can no longer synchronize my Palm to my computer. Can’t even get the Hot Sync Manager to open. I need my Palm. Grr.

Which brings me around to reminding everyone to back up. ‘Course, it’s hard to know what to back up to. I used to back up all my manuscripts on diskettes. My current computer, a laptop, doesn’t even have a slot for diskettes. We backed up to CDs. Can’t get a lot on those. We used smart sticks. Convenient, great for travel when you’ll have access to a computer wherever you’re going. But, still, not an overabundance of memory. Now we have an external hard drive that has enough space for both of our computers. But how long before those are replaced by something else?

I swear, you could buy a computer, take it still in the box to your car, change your mind and want another model, go back inside the store and they’d tell you they can’t take it back because it’s obsolete. Still, it’s better than the pre-computer days. And, yes, I’m old enough to remember those dark ages – my kids are not.

Used to be, parents wanted their kids to become doctors or lawyers. Now, they hope for a computer geek.

In the meantime, I’m not a computer geek or geekette, but if you hear yelling, it’s me. Back Up!

Record to Edit

Exile on Ninth Street had a blog post recently about getting published and the process involved. Among the things said, I found this interesting:

After I’d finished my second draft (mostly copy editing), I read the story into a tape recorder, and listened to it, and revised as I listened.

I liked this because it’s not only something I do, it’s something I recommend to authors I work with.

Usually by the time we finish writing a manuscript, we’re past the stage of calling it a first draft, although that’s exactly what we call it. But, if you’re like me, you’ve edited and re-written as you went along. By the time you write “The End” you feel like you’re at the fifth draft stage. Then when you move into the actual editing phase, you can go through many more drafts, especially if you read through it multiple times, each time focusing on something different, like line editing for grammar and punctuation, then continuity, then character arc, then … so on.

At some point in all this, it’s a really good idea to tape record the book. Read it as if you’re doing the audio recording that will be sold in bookstores. If you do that, you’ll be careful to read each word. When we read it silently to ourselves, for the fifteenth time, we skim. We hurry through parts we’ve worked on and don’t want to revisit. We actually “read” words that aren’t even there. You may even find yourself stumbling because as you read aloud you realize the words don’t flow as well as you thought they did or the dialogue sounds stiff once it’s said aloud.

Another thing I have been known to do is give those tapes (and there will be many if you’re recording a book) to a friend. Listening to a book is a whole different animal than reading it. When you read you can go back to review or find something you missed. When you’re listening, you’re usually in traffic with one hand holding the coffee, the other hanging onto a drippy breakfast taco and one knee on the wheel. Plus, you’re listening to a book and trying to keep track of the plot and characters. Ask the person listening to the recording if they were able to keep up with the story. With all the other stuff going on, did they enjoy it? If they lost interest, at what point?

Recording your work is a great idea. Reading can actually make your writing better.

Promotions

Last week, I went to my first Romance Writers of America meeting. I was talking to some romance writers at another event and I mentioned that I'd thought about going to one of their meetings because I'd always heard that the RWA was very supportive of its members. They invited me to a meeting of the local chapter.

The speaker was Lisa Renee Jones. She spoke for two hours, or I should say, raced, since she had so much to cover.

Her main focus was showing authors how promotion plays a huge role in building a career. That's the way she says you should look at your writing, as a career. Don't think of it as getting one book published.

Thank goodness she gave out a packet of handouts because she was talking so fast, I could not have gotten it all down. But here are some notes I made:

She said that nowadays, you have to start promoting your book five - six months prior to release (not 3-4 months as in the past). Although in hre handout "Promotion Schedule Checklist," she lists some things to be done twelve to seven months ahead.

She said: You've got to take control of your career. Treat it like a business. Authors who have made it big fast, all managed their agents (not the other way around).

She calls Wednesdays and Thursdays, Editors' News Days. She says they read on weekends, discuss on Monday and convince others to read, then call on Wednesdays and Thursdays.

You have to become a familiar name -- website, newsgroups, newsletter, chat lists, MySpace, etc.

Say no to doing online chats. They tend to be a waste of your time since the audience usually is small and those in attendance tend to be the same people over and over.

And here's one quote from her handouts:
You must move and grow to be competitive. You cannot continue to do the same thing over and over because it won't continue to work. Each step you take has to better your position.

It was a fun meeting and, in addition to Lisa Renee Jones, I met lots of interesting writers.

Revisiting Characters You Love

Ever gotten involved in a series and then run out of books to read? I’ve done that before. I hate to see the character go out of my life. I did that years ago with Sue Grafton’s alphabet series. Once I’d read every letter that was available and there wouldn’t be another one for a year, I missed Kinsey Millhone. When the next one came out, I didn’t buy it. After a year, I’d sort of lost interest; I’d moved on. Now, as I write this, I wonder if I could pick up where I left off and get re-involved.

That’s probably the way kids feel about the Harry Potter series. The wait and wait and anticipate the day the next one is released. Then they devour it and start the countdown for the next one. Except that glorious waiting excitement will end after this book. They’ll have a few more movies to look forward to, though.

Although I haven’t started reading Kinsey Millhone again, I’ve managed to start up with the Lee Child series again. Possibly because it hasn’t been very long since I’d read the last available book in the Jack Reacher series. I discovered him last year and since both my husband and I liked the series, we ran through what was out there fairly quickly. Then there was nothing. So I read other things in the meantime – very different books like those by Kit Frazier and Karen MacInerney. Now a new Jack Reacher has come out and I started it the other day.

It felt like visiting an old friend. By the time I got to page 100, I said, okay, now this is Reacher. That’s because at that point, things began to happen, things that typically happen to and because of Reacher. Now I’ve settled in and look forward to breaks when I can read a few pages.

Maybe I could do that with Kinsey.

Listen to Yourself

How often do you listen to yourself? Where and when do you pay attention to your inner thoughts?

As authors we tend to hear characters speaking in our heads, and we see scenes and stories develop. Usually, we sit at our computers or typewriters, furiously describing scenery or writing dialogue and thoughts of those who people our book's world. But how often do we let our thoughts run amok and free? In other words, how often do you tell those characters to "shut up" so you can hear your own thoughts?

My son used to drive an old beat-up Suburban. It ran, but that was about it. No air conditioner, no radio, barely one mirror. We offered to fix the radio. He wouldn’t hear of it. He liked it that way. He said it gave him time to think.

To think.

I've taken up walking on my elliptical trainer. I'm training myself to use the time to think and listen to myself. Admittedly, I'm sometimes plotting (a book, not a coup), but I try to let my thoughts roam. Obviously, I'm not near a computer or a recorder, so I don't feel committed to any ideas or scenes that enter my brain. It's really revealing, both of yourself and your characters.

Try it.

You don't have to focus only on your writing, though. Use the quiet to do other things, like remember things to do, organize your life or your grocery list, plan a party for your grandmother, practice singing the National Anthem, count the different colors of flowers outside the window, whatever. You may even find these things coming up in your manuscripts.

If you're having "writers block," maybe you're just not listening to yourself. Let your thoughts roam as you walk, or swim, or play tennis, or exercise, or drive in your radio-less car. If you're stuck at some point in your story and you don't know where it should go from here ... or you can't decide how a character would react … or you haven't a clue what unexpected turn of events should happen next, walk away from the page and go off by yourself. If you stay at the computer, you'll be too tempted to write down the first thing that comes to mind.

You might say that if you're at your computer and the character in your head says or does a certain thing, then that's what you should type, that's what should go in the story. Is it? The characters in your book and in your head are only human, after all. They may be taking the easy way out. Sometimes you have to challenge them, as well as yourself.

Habits are made, not inherited. Make it a habit to find time (it doesn't have to be long) each day to listen to the quiet in your head. Pretty soon, that silence will be filled with thoughts, ideas, and even peace. But you've got to tell those characters to shut up and give you a little space. Not forever, but just long enough to get back in touch with your inner creativity.

Fringe Benefits of a Conference

You don’t even have to attend a conference to be inspired. Sure, going to one, attending the workshops, meeting other authors, networking with agents and editors – all that can rev up your writing juices. But sometimes, just walking into a conference makes you smile and want to get down to writing.

I sort of felt that way this past weekend. I didn’t attend the Writers’ League of Texas conference, but twice I went into the hotel looking for the agents and editors I was supposed to ferry to the airport.

On Saturday I was supposed to pick up an editor, Josh Kendall, but no one was sure where he was. So, I went upstairs to where the private consultations were going on to see if he was involved in those. He wasn’t, but I got to see people I knew, volunteers helping with the one-on-ones. Got to hug friends and talk to some I hadn’t seen in a while. That’s always a boost, to see other writers. Plus, I stepped into the exhibitors room and said “hi” to people there. (Turns out a former board member had taken Kendall out to lunch, but he showed up after a while and we headed to the airport.)

On Sunday, I was scheduled to pick up three people to take to the airport. One was a no show. I’m guessing she got a ride with someone since she had already checked out and no one answered in her room. A second hitched a ride with another group. It turned out nice, though, since Scott Treimel and I had lots of time to chat on the way to the airport. But one thing I noticed as I first walked into the hotel was the atmosphere. It’s always present at a conference. Even though this one was almost over, there were still people sitting on couches, talking and watching the traffic flow (keeping their eyes open for a wandering agent).

The excitement of a good conference is almost like static electricity. You can feel the charge as you walk by.

Incidentally, one good way to find out what an agent is currently looking for is to check out the site of a conference they’re attending. If you’re the one organizing the conference, usually when you invite an agent, you ask them for a brief bio about themselves or their agency and what they’re currently reading. A lot of conferences will put that information up on their site so that prospective attendees can judge whether they want to meet any of the agents and editors. But even if you’re not attending, it’s a way for you to find out the most up-to-date interests of the agents. The WLT conference is over, but as of today, the agent and editor information is still up there. So check it out, if you’re looking for an agent. And do that for other conferences as well.

Learn While You Volunteer

Well, I got nothing done today, yet I was very busy. This weekend is the Writers’ League of Texas Agents & Editors Conference. I had volunteered to stuff packets or whatever needed doing. But I got called on to drive agents and editors to and from the airport.

So today I drove five. Four on the first trip and one on the last. The first four consisted of two agents and two editors. The second trip was a book consultant. Every plane was late, by about thirty minutes. Tomorrow I drive an editor back to the airport, then on Sunday it’s two agents and an editor.

Three things I learned:

• Six hours of driving and waiting and waiting must be broken up by at least one bathroom break.
• A bowl of oatmeal, although filling, will not hold you off until 5 p.m.
• Even after years of attending conferences, running conferences and chauffeuring for conferences, I still believe agents and editors are nice people.

The first two I just learned. The third was reinforced today.

Hooked by Les Edgerton

A couple of years ago in my newsletter, Doing It Write, I wrote about Les Edgerton's book: Finding Your Voice: How to Put Personality in Your Writing. Today I thought I’d write about his new, fabulous book called, Hooked: Write Fiction that Grabs Readers at Page One and Never Lets Them Go.

Edgerton is a fiction writer and creative writing instructor. He's been the writer-in-residence at the University of Toledo for the past three years and teaches online creative writing for Vermont College. On May 30th, he presented a workshop at the Writers Digest/Book Expo Conference.

But enough about Edgerton, as knowledgeable as he is. Let's talk Hooked.

Put simply, in my opinion, Hooked is great. You might think the book is all about how to start your book. Afterall, the first sentence in the Introduction is:

Why a book on just story beginnings?"

But you'd be wrong ... and right. It is about the beginning of your book, but it goes beyond that to show how that beginning relates to the rest of your book. He tells you what the components of an opening scene are as well as the goals. You learn the difference between the lead's surface problem and his/her story-worthy problem. How the inciting incident has to be more than just a neat way to open your book -- it has to relate to the story-worthy problem.

He gives lots of examples from books and short stories. And with an index in the back, you can always find your way back to things when you need a refresher-read.

I liked this book so much I took it with me last weekend when I went to a conference at the Lost Pines Resort. I've finished reading it and now will go back and re-read all the lines I highlighted -- which are many.

A great book. I recommend either checking it out at the library or buying your own copy so you can mark it up. But definitely read it.

Drawing the Line

Yesterday, I started a discussion of narrative/description. When is it too much? When is it too little? I’ll continue today with an example.

Let’s look at Kathy Reichs's first three suspense novels, Deja Dead, Death Du Jour, and Deadly Decisions. I like Kathy Reichs. Her writing reminds me of Patricia Cornwell's, only with more authenticity and detail, probably because in real life, Kathy is a forensic anthropologist. However -- and this is a big however for me -- each book she seems to pick one topic that she's going to tell you *all* about. In Deadly Decisions, it was the biker world and wars in Canada. Aaak. It was mushrooms all over again (see yesterday’s post). She also takes great care to get things right when it comes to procedures. Take blood splatters. She and another character go on for pages about velocity splatter and things like cast-off drops.

Here's a quote from one character:

The direction of the main axis of the ellipse with respect to the plumb line defines the directionality angle, or gamma of a stain. That can range from zero to three-sixty. The impact angle, or alpha, can range from zero to ninety degrees. That's calculated from the shape of the ellipse.

Okay, I skip a lot when I read Kathy Reichs. But it's okay, because I know that if I don't want to read the details of how something works, I can skim to the end of the conversation and the two characters will tell me how it all relates to the plot. But, if you really want to know about blood splattering, this is the book for you. Incidentally, I passed these books on to my sister, who loves all that medical stuff. When we were kids, she was the one who wanted to be right there watching the doctor sew up your cuts.

So, how much is too much? And how little is too little? You're going to have to decide that for yourself. You can also let your critique group help you in this area. Read other authors; see how they handle these things in their books. Look to authors outside of your genre, too. You may write mystery or suspense, but you'll find writers of historicals have to explain terms or describe things long since forgotten. How do they handle it?

Maybe, instead of falling on the side of too much or the side of too little, you'll find a way to straddle the line. The trick is to find the best place to draw that line.

Too Much or Too Little?

In a couple of posts last week, I talked about Showing, Not Telling. In those, I recommended you not go into lengthy detail about some item, process, procedure, etc., unless it was really necessary to your book. I'd like to continue with that discussion today.

As a book consultant, I've read manuscripts that fell on both sides of this issue. On the too lean side, I edited a manuscript which dealt with a new way of finding fingerprints. The author simply called it by name and went on his merry way. Turns out this new procedure and how it was used was important to the plot and the climax, yet a reader without previous specialized knowledge would have been left scratching his or her head at the ending. The author needed to go back and put in a brief explanation, then a reinforcement of the information through letting the readers see the method in use by a character.

I've also read manuscripts which fell too heavily on the other side. They went way overboard on explanation. Most authors pick a subject or theme for a book. That's fine. I rather expect it as a reader. But don't beat me over the head with it. Years ago, I read a novel by a well-known author, whom I really like, incidentally. There was, of course, murder and mayhem going on in the book, but what I most remember is mushrooms, the growing, the harvesting, the many varieties, the color, the texture, the ... you get the idea. By the time I finished the book, I didn't ever want to even see a mushroom.

Of course, someone else might read that same book and be ever so enthralled by the mushroom aspect.

Tomorrow, I’ll use a published author as an example.

The Fanning Inspiration

Yesterday I went to a book signing by Diane Fanning. She talked about each of her seven true crime books, as well as her first mystery which will be out July 18 and her next true crime called Out There about astronaut Lisa Marie Nowak.

Diane always has fascinating stories to tell about her experiences researching and writing true crime. And the audience had lots of questions about her books and about cases they know of and would want her to write about. She said she doesn’t have to look for cases any more since her agent or editor usually has cases lined up for her.

My questions focused more on the writing and publishing aspect of what she does. For instance, I asked her about the extremely fast turnaround on the astronaut book. The story broke in early February of this year. The day after the news, her agent called to ask if she wanted to write the book. Within just a few days of that, St. Martin’s had bought the proposal. Within a week or so, the movie treatment had been optioned. Since then she’s been writing and researching. I knew all that already. What was new to me was that Diane had a sign up saying that the pub date for Out There is early October (the 10th, if I remember correctly). That’s basically eight months from the event to book publication. Wow! Most fiction books with a big publisher take 18 to 24 months to come out – after the publisher gets the manuscript.

Diane said true crime books come out faster than fiction, but she agreed this was a very quick turnaround.

She also mentioned that her first mystery did not take the usual 18 to 24 months, but that’s because she and her agent went with a smaller publisher, Five Star Mysteries, for it. Her true crimes are all with St. Martin’s.

Diane said she felt true crime is a little easier to break into, but she had tons of rejections before she found her agent, whom she’s been with since the beginning. She got her agent with the help of another true crime writer, who offered to recommend her to her own agent. Diane sent in a chapter and the agent immediately signed her, saying it was the best murder scene she’d ever read.

Diane’s first book was Red Boots and Attitude. She’s published seven true crimes. Has a mystery coming out next month and another in the works. She has the astronaut book coming out later this year and is working on another true crime. Plus, she updates all the true crimes every year or so, as things develop. Although she now writes full time, she wrote the first four while holding down a full-time job.

Someone else asked about her daily schedule. She said she gets up about 4:30 and gets caffeinated. Then she goes to work. In the morning, she writes. In the afternoon, she may do phone interviews or research. In the evening, she often continues working on writing or editing. She also does quite a bit of traveling to do interviews and research, as well as talks. I also happen to know that she makes time to exercise – she’s the friend who inspired me to get an elliptical trainer.

If you get the chance, go hear her speak. She may just inspire you to write.

More Show, Less Tell

Today, we continue with Showing, Not Telling:

You don't have to tell me that this character is the bad guy while this one is the good guy. Or that this person is a nurturer while this one is a lying cheat. It's fun to discover a person's character through his or her actions. I'm reading a friend's novel. She hasn't pointed out who the bad guy is. She doesn't need to. I can tell by the way he treats people, by the way he behaves. That doesn't mean he's all bad. On the contrary, he has some good qualities, but, as President Bush would say, make no mistake about it, he's the bad guy. She never said: Luke, who'd rather run your through with a sword as look as you. She doesn't underestimate her readers. They'll figure it out, and like the book more because they did.

Along that same line, avoid saying what your characters are feeling, what their emotions are. Let us see those feelings through the words you use. Instead of saying: Mary shut the door angrily, you could say: Mary slammed the door.

If you need to explain some procedure, process or information that will be new or confusing to your reader, stop and think back to books you've read that had long pages or paragraphs of exposition. Did you find yourself skipping past it all, anxious to get on with the story? Ask yourself if your readers *really* need to know the inner workings of an electron spectroscope magnetic imaging ray. The answer will probably be no. But if it's yes, then do they need to be told by you? Could it be discussed by two characters? Could it be shown through one character actually using it? Could you boil it all down to a single question a child could ask of the character using the device?

As you edit, remember:
Less is often more.
Don't underestimate your readers.
Edit down to the bone and muscle.
One exact word is better than five rambling ones.
Leave some things to the imagination.
Don't show the reader everything.

Don't Show Everything

I not only know the old adage, Show Don't Tell, I advocate it. On the other hand, some things are best summarized or narrated -- or omitted all together. Unless it's essential to the plot or a foreshadowing of a later event, do I really need to be told every detail of how Michael got from his red, cat-clawed, plastic-covered couch to his leather upholstered, white Miata?

As you edit your novel or story, cut the non-essential.

Sometimes as you're writing, you come across things that just have to be explained or told to the reader. And so you do. Now go back and re-read what you wrote as if you were in a bookstore, slid your book off the shelf and opened it to this page. Were you able to get through the exposition without falling to the floor in a dead sleep? Readers don't like to be lectured to. They want to be in the book, living it with the characters. Not every explanation nor every back story can be changed into a scene, but most of them can be, and a great deal of the rest can be interspersed through the book. Scenes in a book are immediate -- like scenes in a movie, only better. Better because in a book you get both more and less. You get more since you're sometimes allowed into a character's head. You also get less because not everything is laid out on the screen -- you have to use your imagination.

Speaking of letting your readers use their imagination, you don't really need to describe your characters or even the major ones down to the last detail. As long as I have the basics, I'd rather visualize the rest.

Another Research Opportunity

When I opened the mail yesterday, my first thought was, “Oh, crap.” Oh, crap is the knee-jerk reaction of most people who open a jury summons. But then I immediately thought of it as another opportunity for research, so I changed to: “Oh. Okay.”

I think I’ll duck my head when they elect a foreman, though. I was foreman on the last jury I was on. Not that I’m a bad foreman. I’m just too democratic. I let everyone have their say. And say and say and say. We went on forever. They probably have my name starred with a “Do not let her be foreman” note.

So far, I’ve not served on a “big” trial. I’ve just done small things. Not sure I’d want a big trial, like drugs or murder. Those would definitely be better experiences as far as research for a future book, though. In the past I’ve just shown up on my scheduled date, sat through a couple of trials and gone home. Being on one that runs multiple days and involves someone’s long-term fate seems intimidating. And, I admit, I’m rather a softie.

And I’ve watched far too many legal shows like Law and Order. The main things you learn from those shows is that lawyers and the police lie to get their way and the first thing you should say if you’re arrested or talk to the police, whether you’re a suspect or a witness, innocent or guilty, is “I want a lawyer.” Those shows have done such a disservice to the police, in my opinion.

So, whatever happens as far as jury duty, I’ll go with the flow and take notes, if not during the trial, then afterwards. Every experience is research.

Kit Frazier Workshop

Last Sunday I went to a workshop at my local Barnes & Noble (Westlake). The CRM there, the best CRM in the world, Jo Virgil, hosts three, four, or more events every week. This workshop was part of the “A Year of Writing” workshops. Jo brings in experts and/or writers to teach two hour workshops about writing. The best part, for those of us who attend, is they’re free.

This workshop, “The Get Published Took Kit”, was led by Kit Frazier, author of Scoop and Dead Copy. The workshop was geared toward beginning writers. Kit talked about the basics, like how to research agents, what agents do, whether to approach an agent via email or snail mail, and so on. She also talked about formatting a query letter and what to include. Her handouts included sample queries.

Another handout was a submission tracker for you to keep record of who and when you query and the results of those queries.

All in all, the talk was entertaining and packed with information. Lots of questions came from the audience, too.

I’ve known Kit for probably five years, but didn’t have either of her books, so I bought both and got her autograph. I’ve started reading the first in the series. So far, it seems more mystery than romance, but during the talk she said it was both. We’ll probably hit the romance soon – the lead certainly seems to have her pick of possible men. If you like young and sassy, you’ll like the series. It’s actually set out in my part of the country. Some places are fictional; some are not. Even if I don’t recognize street names, I know the real place that it probably refers to. She really brings the lake area and hill country to life. Scoop, the book I’m reading now, is light and funny – and I’m enjoying reading it.

It's Raining on my Internet

I haven’t posted in a few days, but with good reason. Last Thursday we had a storm hit that blew out our Internet connection.

Since, unlike our neighbors, we can’t get cable, i.e. roadrunner (Grrr, don’t get me started on Time Warner), we have DSL with AT&T. DSL is not bad except that watching any kind of video online takes forever since every fifteen seconds you have to wait thirty seconds for buffering. Anywho… we lost DSL for the first time. Gone. Kaput.

They got it re-established on Saturday, but we, personally, are still down. Something went haywire. From what I understand – and, mind you, that’s very little – the DSL comes in at my husband’s upstairs PC, then his computer acts as the server so that the rest of the house is wireless, specifically, my laptop. Well, after hours of re-connecting things in every configuration conceivable, my husband came to the scientific conclusion that things were screwed up.

As it stands now, he can set things up so that one of us can connect, but not both. And since he has a business Internet phone, guess who gets the connection?

Did you know Starbucks is wireless, but not free? Drove into town Saturday, thinking I could have a non-fat Chai while I cruised hyperspace only to discover that all four of their available wireless connections required either a pre-paid card or an account. Another Grrr.

But it looks like I’ll be able to get on a couple of times a day by kicking off my husband. So, I may be slower than usual to respond to emails. Sorry.

Speaking of storms, we had a doozy last night. The wind was blowing like a hurricane coming in, or, in this part of the country far from the coast, a tornado. Despite the fact that this past winter my husband re-sealed the doors, we had water pouring in every window and door on the west side of the house. At our upstairs bedroom door, water was waterfalling around the top. Downstairs in the living room, it took three beach towels to soak up the pool on the floor. We could hear shingles breaking loose. Checked this morning and found shingles lying around the yard, front to back. Looks like we were fairly lucky, though, since they all seem to have come from the overhang over the back upstairs deck. We’ll see how lucky we are once we get a repair estimate.

Man, we’ve had rain in central Texas over the past month or so!

Tomorrow, I’ll tell you about the workshop I went to this past weekend. Right now, I gotta go wash towels.