The title of this post is a rhetorical question, mainly because I don’t know any writer who doesn’t want to improve their craft. But this isn’t going to be me lecturing you about how to take your writing to the next level. No. Instead, I’m going to point you to someone much more capable than me — behold the tip master of all tip masters: MARGIE LAWSON.
Margie is a psychotherapist. A writer. An international presenter. She uses her psychologically-trained mind to help writers edit for a more page-turning experience. And since I’m currently in revisions, this is where my head has been lately.
Now, I don’t know Margie personally, or even in passing. But I came across an interview she did on the Andrea Hurst Literary blog’s new AUTHORNOMICS feature (which you really should check out, btw), where they interview various notable publishing people. Margie’s interview was so full of helpful material, giving clear examples that MADE SENSE TO ME, that as soon as I finished the interview, I immediately went to her site.
Y’all. This is a big fat cookie jar of writerly nuggets just waiting for you to devour. I spent my entire lunch hour on her Deep Editing Analyses page where she takes examples from NYT Bestselling authors (mostly in the thriller and romance genres) and provides an in-depth analysis of the techniques and devices the writer used.
Here’s an example taken from her site, where she analyzes a passage from Harlan Coben’s book, Caught:
Example: From CAUGHT, March, 2010, end of the prologue
And that was when Marcia started to feel a small rock form in her chest.
There were no clothes in the hamper.
The rock in her chest grew when Marcia checked Haley’s toothbrush, then the sink and shower.
All bone-dry.
The rock grew when she called out to Ted, trying to keep the panic out of her voice. It grew when they drove to captain’s practice and found out that Haley had never showed. It grew when she called Haley’s friends while Ted sent out an e-mail blast—and no one knew where Haley was. It grew when they called the local police, who, despite Marcia’s and Ted’s protestations, believed that Haley was a runaway, a kid blowing off some steam. It grew when forty-eight hours later, the FBI was brought in. It grew when there was still no sign of Haley after a week.
It was as if the earth had swallowed her whole.
A month passed. Nothing. Then two. Still no word. And then finally, during the third month, word came—and the rock that had grown in Marcia’s chest, the one that wouldn’t let her breathe and kept her up nights, stopped growing.
Analysis:
Visceral Response Shared Through Anaphora: He threaded the rock growing in her chest through the passage, ending the passage when it stopped growing. He doesn’t tell the reader what that news of a difference means. But ending the prologue with those words, stopped growing, is as powerful as the soundtrack for Jaws.
Anaphora: Using the same word or phrase to start three (or more) consecutive phrases or sentences.
Compressed Time: The long paragraph compresses time by listing what they did during the first week to try to find Haley. The last paragraph compresses the passing of over two months into forty-one words.
Power Words: rock, bone-dry, panic, blast, protestations, runaway, FBI
White Space and Creative Paragraphing: Coben spotlighted the initial growing doom with white space around stand alone lines.
Varied Sentence Length and Structure: Used to enhance cadence, provide variety, draw the reader into the scene.
Cadence: The use of anaphora, sentence structure, and creative paragraphing contributed to a compelling cadence.
Now, I don’t know about you, but I learn best when I can SEE real examples, and not just the definition of what something means. Margie includes more than 20 Deep Editing Analyses on her site and I read ALL OF THEM. And then I purchased her Empowering Characters’ Emotions lecture packet, which has more than 250 pages of material to it. When I’m through with that, I’ll be adding her Deep Editing packet to my homework queue. I’ve never been so excited to revise in my life.
So if you want a tip on how to fine-tune your writing, go check out Margie Lawson and her deep editing analyses series.
You’re welcome.
(Note: I was not paid to endorse Margie’s site, nor did I receive any of her lecture packets or online courses for free. I just came across her via the blogosphere and wanted to share here. There. Disclaimer over. )
Hey! I blogged over at Adventures in Children’s Publishing today and I’m talking about BLING. Title Bling, to be more exact. Stop by, leave a comment, and enter to win your choice of one of the 23 books I think has a spectacularly blingalicious title.
A NoRhym-O-ReMo pledge (aka: No Rhyme or Reason Month).
I found out about this challenge from my dear Twitsom (aka: Twitter Soulmate, Ricki Schultz) who runs The Write-Brained Network. She’s declaring May: NoRhym-O-ReMo. If you’re familiar with NaNoWriMo, then this concept won’t be new to you. But other than the fact that it’s May and NOT November, the nice thing about NoRhym-O-ReMo is that you can set your own daily word count goal instead of squirming over the 50K flames that make up NaNoWriMo.
If you’ve been reading my blog, then you know I’ve been suffering from a bad case of The Funk. There were so many helpful suggestions to get over this hump and it was a relief to realize I’m not the only sufferer of this malady. But I think my brain has had enough. I think it’s time for ME to tell IT that it’s time to move on and GET TO WORK. And I think NoRhym-O-ReMo is the kick in the butt I need to push me to get something on the page. ANYTHING on the page.
I’ll enter my official goal on the Write-Brained site, but I’m stating here that I pledge to write at least 500 words a day. I know I’m low-balling this goal. I mean, heck, I can usually knock out 2K in one day EASY. Of course, that was when I had Muse dust spewing out of my fingers. Now that I’ve had some time off, I realize I’d probably do better by easing into the pool rather than cannon-balling in.
So who’s with me? Anyone ready to be held accountable for their wordcount???
I want to talk about FUNK today. As in: “I’ve been in a funk and I don’t know WHYYYYY.” (NOT: “You smell like funk please take this bar of soap before my nose hairs erupt in flames.”)
You see, I have — what I think — is a really cool idea for my WIP. It’s a contemporary love story (except when it’s not), with a twist (no sparkly fangs or anything). I’ve talked it out with some writer friends, researched for about 3 months, roughly outlined the plot, and even wrote out random scenes that popped up in my head (NOTE: I’m a total linear writer and end up a confused mess if I write out of order, so this last bit was pretty much outside the norm for me).
That’s all fine and dandy. But what’s really frustrating special with this particular WIP, is that I’ve written well over 20 versions of my first chapter. All of them are completely different. As in, different setting, different circumstances, and in some cases, different POVs. I was partially blaming this OMG SO FRUSTRATING educational writing process on cancerous subplots. So I simplified those subplots and focused on the main story line. You’d think the problem would be resolved, yes?
Apparently not. The main sticking point I had was with the inciting incident. I didn’t HAVE one, hence the spaghetti method of Chapter One Tryouts. I mean, I knew what key scenes I wanted, I knew my characters, I knew the ENDING…but that beginning was so freaking elusive! Like a cute boy who just won’t. make. the. first. move. I’m all about girl power, which is why I kept making the first move. But I think I was too aggressive. I think I ended up scaring off my own story. Can that happen? Can you scare off your story by being too pushy? I can’t shake the feeling that if I’d just backed off a teensy weensy bit, it would’ve all come whooshing out in a 70-80K document of literary perfection. The End.
Instead I’m banging my head against a cinder block wall going “WHY WON’T YOU COOPERATE WHY WHY WHY??????”
This. Is. Me. In a FUNK.
But what I’m experiencing isn’t just with my WIP — it’s with reading, critiquing, day-job-working, even SHOPPING. I can’t tell you how many books I’ve picked up over the last few weeks only to read a good 20-30 pages and then put it down. Not because they weren’t good — some were even freaking brilliant in those opening chapters — but because I’m just sorta like, Meh. About everything apparently. And this is so opposite from me. So opposite from how I usually am about EVERYTHING. I’m a Balls-to-the-Wall kind of girl. A Ready-to-Jump-Out-of-the-Plane kind of girl.
I’m not a Meh kind of girl.
I don’t really believe in writer’s block, but I don’t know what else to call this. Maybe my writer’s confidence has been ambushed? Maybe my brain needs a vacation (17 days until Punta Cana, but who’s counting?)? Maybe I need to put this idea to the side and work on a different one? Maybe I need some tips on how to de-FUNK myself?
So what about it? Have you ever been in a LIFE FUNK? How’d you get over it?
It was almost two years ago today when I started writing toward publication. At the time, I had just had my first baby and was fast approaching my 28th birthday, when all of a sudden, these magical thoughts started swimming in my head.
Who am I?
What am I doing?
Is this really me?
What if I forget myself?
There’s no time.
Never enough time.
But wait.
I’m still breathing.
There’s always time.
To allow me
to be ME.
And so I opened up my laptop, clicked on a new Word doc, and just started typing. I still remember that first story. It was a paranormal romance, something about a bodyguard to the Muses, banished to the “real world” by Aphrodite who ends up falling in love with a mortal woman who also happens to be a descendant of Aphrodite. Yeah. Not very original and full of plot holes left to right. I stutter-started three times, each effort worth about 100 pages before I realized the problem was too deep to be salvaged. BUT. I loved every minute of it. The writing. The discovery. The creation. For the first time, in a very long time, I felt 100% in control.
I know some people say you should write to your audience, to let others in, to give back, to get out a message, to entertain. But I disagree with this a little. I think the more important thing to remember is you need to write for YOU. Satisfy yourself first before worrying about satisfying a reader. If you don’t love what’s on the page, how will anyone else?
Today is my birthday and I feel like this is a full circle type moment. I can look back over the past two years and see what roads I’ve taken, what words I’ve written, what characters I’ve created. For me. And today, while getting hit with all sorts of epiphanies, I heard a song that sums up everything about my current WIP that I’ve been missing. I have this album. It’s a beautiful, haunting album. I encourage you to give it a listen on iTunes or YouTube or go to the closest music store and check it out because there are so many songs on it that say everything I want to say in a much simpler, purer way.
And yeah, I don’t really have a point to this post…just wanted to say it’s a pretty amazing feeling when things feel like they’re clicking into place. Sometimes it doesn’t take much. Sometimes it only takes a whisper of a melody to remind you what you set out to do.
So I’m so sorry I’m a few minutes late posting this. You see, Toddler Trouble decided she wanted to sing ROUNDS and ROUNDS of Hickory Dickory Dock before bedtime and so now I’m all Hickoried out. BUT. We have a winner!
I already expressed my thanks in my post this morning, but I wanted to tell y’all one more time how AMAZING this week has been and how GRATEFUL I am that so many of you celebrated it with me. It’s my extreme pleasure to announce the winner of:
A premium membership to QueryTracker
A copy of Save the Cat by Blake Snyder
A copy of Fragile Eternity by Melissa Marr
A query letter critique by me
A five-page critique by Vickie Motter, Agent Extraordinaire from Andrea Hurst Literary Management
……IS……
COREY J. POPP
CONGRATULATIONS COREY! I’ll be in touch with details on all the fabulous prizes which are now YOURS!
I’m sorry I couldn’t provide these goodies to everyone, but I’m already thinking about my next giveaway…maybe in April…and most definitely open internationally.
Hey guys! So whatcha doin’??? Anything good in the paper? No? Hmm…the only news I have to report is that I ate THE most perfect banana for breakfast this morning and — what’s that? You don’t really care about my stinkin’ banana? Well, fine. Whatever. I guess I’ll just announce the winner from yesterday’s giveaway, then. Hrmph.
The winner of a 30-page critique from Martina Boone AND a copy of Radiant Shadows by Melissa Marr is:
Rachel Harris!
Congrats Rachel! I’ll be in touch soon with how you can claim your prize.
I want to take this time to thank everyone who’s tweeted, blogged, commented, and visited during this past week. My agent story was nothing super crazy but you all have made me feel like a total rock star. I’m still in awe by the support I’ve received and I hope you’ll come back to visit me even when the giveaways are over (for now! You never know when I’ll start itching to give stuff away again!). But just know that this has truly been an AMAZING experience for me. The love! The support! The willingness to stay tuned! <3<3<3!!!
So before I step away (until 9pm EST TONIGHT!), I want to thank the incredible ladies who made this week possible:
If you want to stop by Vickie’s blog to say hello, I’m sure she’d love to hear from you!
Complete the entry form below to enter. You can earn extra points for blogging about this contest (include a link in the Comments) or tweeting a link back to this post (@reply me on Twitter — @CambriaDillon — and make sure to leave your Twitter user name in the Comments).
All entrants from previous days will automatically be entered into today’s contest…HOWEVER, you can still earn extra entries by blogging or tweeting about the Grand Prize Pack (just make sure to fill out the entry form). Today’s winner will be announced right here at 9pm EST. Unfortunately, I have to limit the contest to US residents only. Sorry international folk!
We’re hitting the home stretch of my one-week GIVEAWAY EXTRAVAGANZA and there are still some awesome prizes to give away. But first, y’all are in for a special treat (<–OMG my Tennessee just came out a little, I think). Anyway, one of my AMAZING critique partners, Martina Boone, is here to talk about social networking and what it’s really about.
For those of you who don’t know her, Martina is one of the founders of Adventures in Children’s Publishing and tweets at @4KidLit. She is a non-fiction writer and editor in real-life, but young adult fiction is her passion. She likes nothing better than diving into magical new worlds, flawed characters, or manuscripts that need to be restructured. (<– Yeah, I can totally vouch for this!)
But what Martina also forgot to include in her bio *ahem* is that Adventures in Children’s Publishing hit their one-year blogiversary earlier this month, and since last March they’ve gained more than 1,000 followers and almost 175,000 hits to their site. That’s CRAZY AWESOME! Her and ACP co-founder, Marissa Graff, offer daily posts that not only provide writers with fantastic contests and critique opportunities, but also wonderful insight, resources, and inspiration. If you don’t already visit their blog, you’re missing out. So please give Martina a warm welcome!
An Idiot’s Guide to Social Networking (for Writers)
This whole social networking thing? Scary as hell. A year ago, I dipped my toes cautiously and fearfully, because I was already overwhelmed with work and family. Life. But the thing I quickly discovered was that getting online was the greatest thing I could have done for my writing. When the going got tough, writing-wise, being online in the company of other writers kept me going.
I’ve read a lot of posts that talk about social networking as a time suck. I believe it can be, but I also think it’s an incomparable gift. Writing posts on craft helps keep me focused on craft. It keeps me reading posts on technique, concept, structure, voice, character…. It gives me insight into how other writers learn. It shows me what they are getting out of the same posts or books I am reading, and the subtle differences of what they picked up versus what I learned points me down paths I might not otherwise have followed.
With social networking as with anything else, I get out of it what I put into it. And then some. That’s the trick to it.
So here’s my nugget of truth for the day. If you go in worrying about what social networking is going to do for you, you’re going to miss out. Because that isn’t the right question. What are you going to give to other writers? Other readers? What can you put out there?
The moment you do that, you get back a hundred-fold.
One of the first things I did on the blog was a query-letter critique feature. Our very first participant was Clara Kensie. And the concept in her query was phenomenal. She and I exchanged manuscripts, and then she introduced me to other writers in her critique group, which, long story short, led me to a writer named Cambria Dillon. Who had another phenomenal manuscript. And taught me so much about voice and writing that I couldn’t have gotten from a book.
You collect people when you expand your writing journey online. These people support you, prop you up, build your craft, shore up your failing confidence. They inspire you to be better, braver. They commiserate with you when you fall on your face, and they give you the opportunity to celebrate when awesome things happen. They let you know there is awesome out there.
Awesome like Cam signing with Vickie Motter.
So, congrats, Cam. And congrats, Vickie.
I’m so thankful to be here celebrating with you!
Thank you, Martina! For your kind words, honest insight, and also for reminding us that social networking isn’t just about ME ME ME but also about US US US. The writing community wouldn’t be a ‘community’ without recognizing we’re not in this alone. If we don’t give back, we’ll stunt growth — and not just someone else’s, but ours. Anyway…enough of me getting all sentimental and Hallmark-y. You probably want to know who won from yesterday, yes?
The winner of a query letter critique from Kristine Asselin AND a signed copy of The Summoning by Kelley Armstrong is:
Alison Miller!!!
And in honor of today’s guest, here are the awesome giveaways for Thursday:
Complete the entry form below to enter. You can earn extra points for blogging about this contest (include a link in the Comments) or tweeting a link back to this post (@reply me on Twitter — @CambriaDillon — and make sure to leave your Twitter user name in the Comments).
Today’s giveaway will run until 10pm EST tonight and the winner will be announced in tomorrow’s post. All other entrants will be added to the drawing for the Grand Prize Pack on Friday. Unfortunately, I have to limit the contest to US residents only. Sorry international folk!
Don’t forget to stop by tomorrow to enter my final giveaway. And in case you forgot…here are the fabulous prizes one more time:
Getting to Know Kristine Asselin — one of my fabulous Agent Sisters!!!
Thank you guys for all the great comments about my previous interviews with Ricki Schultz and Carol Valdez Miller AND for entering the giveaway contests! The response has been awesome. Today I have another interview for you — this time with Kristine Asselin, who rounds out our trifecta of Agent Sister Amazingness for the week!
Kris writes contemporary YA and MG fiction and MG nonfiction. Oh, and the occasional picture book. She never turns down an invitation for Chinese Food or Ice Cream, but not together. She is represented by Vickie Motter of Andrea Hurst Literary Management. Make sure you stop by her blog to say hello!
Hi Kris! Thanks for participating in my week of giveaways! You recently signed with fabulous agent, Vickie Motter (Andrea Hurst Literary Management). What’s your book, THE SWEET SPOT, about?
Thank you so much Cambria for having me! I’m so excited to be a part of your celebration this week.
THE SWEET SPOT is my first YA novel. It’s about Kate Anderson, a teenager who decides she’s going to be the first girl to win the Junior State Golf Championship. She thinks it will help attract publicity to the almost-bankrupt family golf course. Her plans get screwed up when her best friend and crush is accused of vandalizing the course with a blowtorch.
The story has cute boys, bad boys, a rarely-explored summer sport, a bit of mystery, and bit of romance.
Nothing better than cute boys, bad boys and SUMMER. Sounds fabulous!!! Another fabulous fact about this book is that it evolved from a short story you had published in Golfer Girl Magazine. What are some pointers for those interested in the short story circuit? How much research about publications did you do before you started submitting?
Funny that you ask that! LOL. Really, I get Children’s Writer Newsletter. One month they announced a new magazine—Golfer Girl—and I happened to have written a short story based on a real life experience playing golf. I didn’t do any research, it just fell into my lap. I think my pointers are the same for any type of writing. Write a good story, revise it, have it critiqued, revise again. Then submit. And don’t give up.
Revisions and stamina are what make the writer’s world go ’round, right? So what made you decide to take the leap into expanding this idea into a full-length novel?
When I first wrote the story, it was in first person. It’s chapter four of my novel—in a nutshell; girl wears a white t-shirt while playing golf; it starts to rain, heavily; said white t-shirt gets soaked, exposing said girl’s, um, assets; girl’s crush comes to the rescue by throwing her a sweatshirt. I couldn’t even remember exactly HOW it really happened. I just had this memory of being really embarrassed and then really thankful my very cute friend was thoughtful and not a letch.
When I put the original story up on critiquecircle.com I got some nice feedback. Overwhelmingly people wanted to know what happened to Kate and Scott. In Real Life, nothing happened—this cute boy and I stayed good friends (right, boring!). So it took some time to turn it from a memoir to something purely fictional (i.e., interesting). While keeping it feeling real. Easy peasy, right?
A lot of the family stuff in the novel was inspired by my actual family, and the golf course we ran in the 80s and early 90s.
What a cool story to show that sometimes it DOES help to ‘write what you know.’ Okay, QUICK! Favorite pro-golfer?
I’ll have to go with Phil Mickelson purely for my parents. I’m much more interested in playing golf than watching televised golf. Michelle Wie would be my choice for fave female golfer.
Aside from your YA novel, you’re also a published children’s non-fiction writer. So in the vein of ‘Chicken or the Egg,’ what came first – your love of fiction or non-fiction? What are your non-fiction books about?
My love of fiction definitely came first. It was more a matter of “right place, right time” with the nonfiction. I was submitting picture books manuscripts to agents and editors in 2007. I had a couple of ideas for nonfiction and sent a few queries. A full year after subbing to Capstone Press, they assigned me my first work-for-hire project. I’m just finishing assignments seven and eight this month. So it’s been a really nice relationship. Very different than fiction, but I really like the research and learning new things. Getting to work with editors has also been a great experience—and it’s helped my writing ego a lot to see my work in print, and of course get paid.
My nonfiction runs the gamut from science to history. I’m not an expert, just a good researcher. And thank goodness for professional consultants and editors. They make sure it’s all 100% accurate.
Mother. Novelist. Non-fiction writer. Picture Book writer—Sheesh! How do you balance it all? What’s a typical “Kris Day?”
I’m going to quote Ron Weasley from p. 379 of HP Deathly Hallows. “That makes me sound a lot cooler than I was.” LOL.
+ = ???
Yeah…um, I definitely don’t think you’re giving yourself enough credit, Kris (No offense RW!)
I don’t know! It all seems to be sort of coming together. I’ve worked hard for a while to make it work. My daughter is eight, and getting to be more independent. There’s no typical day. Every day is totally different. I write when I can—and my family is very supportive of my writing. The paying gigs help that along a bit. I’m currently a part-time grant-writer for a community college. Honestly, I never thought I’d be at this point and there are days when I look around and wonder how I got here!
Okay, and now for some Mad Libs – Writer’s Edition! List the first word that pop into your head for each prompt:
Adjective: fluffy
Noun (Plural): books (what else)
Adjective: sweaty
Verb ending in -ing: golfing
Adjective: warm
Occupation: writer
Adverb: quickly
And now here are Kris’s words MADLIBBED:
Fluffy Books, Non-fiction books, and Books – OH MY! There’s nothing this sweaty writer won’t try! After querying and golfing through the writer-slush, she found a warm writer who she hopes—one day!—she’ll “meet for lunch.” Send her your congrats and wish her well, for a quickly-placed THE SWEET SPOT sale!
And here are some of Kris’s children’s non-fiction book covers. Aren’t they fun???
Thanks for an Out of This World interview, Kris! (Get it? ‘Cause there are stars and suns on her covers and — oh, nevermind.)
And yesterday’s winner of a 5-page critique from Carolina Valdez Miller AND a signed copy of Feed by M.T. Anderson is:
Kelly Polark!!!
In honor of today’s guest, here are the awesome giveaways for Wednesday:
A signed copy of The Summoning by Kelley Armstrong
The rules:
You must be a follower of this blog.
If you want to be eligible to win this prize pack, please stop by Kris’s blog and follow her too!
Complete the entry form below to enter. You can earn extra points for blogging about this contest (include a link in the Comments) or tweeting a link back to this post (@reply me on Twitter — @CambriaDillon — and make sure to leave your Twitter user name in the Comments).
Today’s giveaway will run until 10pm EST tonight and the winner will be announced in tomorrow’s post. All other entrants will be added to the drawing for the Grand Prize Pack on Friday. Unfortunately, I have to limit the contest to US residents only. Sorry international folk!
Don’t forget to stop by tomorrow for a guest post by Martina Boone from the Adventures in Children’s Publishing blog. And there only two more opportunities left to win these fabulous prizes:
Cambria Dillon - YA Writer represented by Vickie Motter, Andrea Hurst Literary Management
Sorry international folk!
