I won’t be updating this blog, but if you want to find out how I’m doing, head over to Writing, Dreams and Drops of Ink.

Hope to see you there!

I have two finished drafts done. It’s a great achievement and I’m proud of myself for having done it.

On the re-read of my first finished draft, tentatively entitled When Worlds Collide, I realise that my first drafts are pretty rough. The major details are there, the characters are quite well filled out, the scenes are set up and the story moves forward towards the conclusion, but I see a pattern of not describing characters or setting. In my head I can see the settings, but I don’t get the details down on paper. Not in the first drafts anyway. This is my ‘weak’ point.

I have three wise guides and the ones I chose (outlined in this post) are helping me with my weak point.

Make a Scene by Jordan E. Rosenfeld breaks down different scene types, outlines the elements that need to be included and the best way to let the scene unfold. The second scene in WWC is a dialogue scene between my heroine and her grandmother and Rosenfeld recommends describing the setting of a dialogue scene within the first couple of paragraphs before developing the dialogue.

Elizabeth George, in her book Write Away, writes that setting can do two things: 1. set up an atmosphere, and 2. reveal character.

The dialogue scene takes place in the kitchen so I took the time to do an exercise I came across some years ago. (I can’t remember where, unfortunately, and googling the main keywords produces no results).

1. Describe the setting using details that the pov character can see;
2. Rewrite the description to include details that the pov character can hear;
3. Rewrite to include details that the pov of character can smell;
4. Rewrite the description to include details the pov character can feel/touch – e.g. texture (imagined or real), temperature, etc.;
5. Rewrite the description to include details the pov character can taste – and this can apply to settings that don’t include meals or eating;
6. Re-read the description. There’s a lot more detail in the paragraph than needs to be there. Pick out the ones that create the atmosphere you’re looking for, or the most eye-catching or evocative;
7. Rewrite the paragraph with these details only.

My second wise guide, Word Painting by Rebecca McClanahan, teaches the reader/writer how important it is to select the right word, not a word with an approximate meaning, or a word “that will do”. It’s important to know the shades of meaning that exist between synonyms. It’s important to consider the music of the word. It’s important to consider whether the word fits the atmosphere you’re trying to create.

While I was doing the exercise on the kitchen setting, I was reading Terry Pratchett’s Equal Rights and I love how Pratchett created such a vibrant picture of Mistress Weatherwax’s house on the page. It was marvellous. If I can manage to do the same with the grandmother’s kitchen in WWC I’ll be ecstatic!

My third wise guide is Dialogue and this relates directly to my scene type. I have my dialogue in place, more or less. I need to work out the chronology of the sentences because two important messages or life lessons are given to the heroine by her grandmother. Thinking about it, it’s quite possible that I’ll have to put them into two separate scenes.

Another important consideration with dialogue scenes is to avoiding Talking Heads. Talking Heads happens when characters are having a conversation divorced from a setting, time and physical activity. Picture a couple of heads suspended in mid-air talking to one another!

It’s slow going. I know the standard I want to achieve in my writing (which is basically write something I would love reading) but I have to take the time to learn the skills. That’s why it seems to be slow going. However, the more I learn, the more I practise, the more I write, the easier the process will become.

Bit by bit my first drafts will become better and better and need less revising than they do now.

In the meantime, I’m enjoying the learning process.

If man were immortal he could be perfectly sure of seeing the day when everything in which he had trusted should betray his trust, and, in short, of coming eventually to hopeless misery. He would break down, at last, as every good fortune, as every dynasty, as every civilization does. In place of this we have death. ~Charles Sanders Peirce

It’s coming to that time of year again when I dust off my Belladonna persona and start thinking about the 20K novella for the GothNoWriMo challenge.

An official trailer for New Moon and a quote I found (while searching for a new one for my sig) coupled with an experience I had at work some months ago are mingling together in a tantalising fashion that has my muse sitting up wide-eyed, contemplating the possibilities…

I have chosen the following three wise guides on the craft of writing:

• Dialogue: Techniques and exercises for crafting effective dialogue by Gloria Kempton (Writer’s Digest Books)

• Word Painting: A guide to writing more descriptively by Rebecca McClanahan (Writer’s Digest Books)

• Make a Scene: Crafting a powerful story one scene at a time by Jordan E. Rosenfeld (Writer’s Digest Books)

I know my first drafts are a bit thin on description which is why I’m using Word Painting.

I also want to make my scenes work as hard as they possibly can in terms of pacing, setting, how the scene unfolds, what to include in it so that a reader isn’t overwhelmed by too much action (or not enough). Ditto for emotion, information revealed, tension and all the other elements that go into making up a scene.

Dialogue is action. I want to write it as well as I can so that a reader is amused, enthralled, excited, or angst-ridden in all the right places.

I chose these three particular facets of the writing craft because I know that I either need to develop my skills in these areas or they’re elements I particularly enjoy.

Working through Holly Lisle’s One Pass Revision technique (part of her How to Think Sideways course, but there’s also an article about it on her website in the For Writers section) has uncovered another aspect I’m enjoying while I work on this revision of When Worlds Collide.

I have a revision notebook and I find I’m using it as a sort of journal. I write down my thoughts about the scene I’ll work on next and also my thoughts on what I’ve read in the three wise guides and how I can use what I’ve learned in my next writing session. I’m finding that it’s a great way to prepare myself, get my muse involved, and come up with details and plot points that add depth, and make my scenes work harder.

I’m working on putting together the second three guides to make up the six Sellers recommends. When I’ve found them, I’ll post the list up.

I am THRILLED, OVER THE MOON, and ON A HIGH!!!!

One of the interesting things to happen while I was coming to the end of this novel was the way the characters from my NaNo novel kept turning up in my thoughts. Editing the NaNo novel, When Worlds Collide (working title) is my next project, but every now and again I’d find myself thinking about the characters and the plot.

I’ll be starting the edit in July so I have a couple of days just to relax and think about what I’m going to do.

ANOTHER FIRST DRAFT FINISHED! HURRAY!!!!

At the moment my heroine is hiding from the villain and has lost sight of the hero who came to rescue her. Everyone is stumbling around in the dark and it’s a question of who finds who first.

I didn’t get any writing done tonight (I had an evening class), but as Sellers recommends in her book Chapter after Chapter, I have been constantly thinking about the book. It’s never far from my thoughts and I’m very happy with where I’ve left it: it’s an interesting spot to resume at.

Tomorrow evening I’ll get in a writing session and Friday’s session will be a lot longer as I’ll be at home and can concentrate on it to my heart’s content.

I’ve been doing a lot of thinking lately about writing scenes. Scenes are about change. If nothing changes, then there is no scene. That’s the basic definition of a scene, and one I learned from Holly Lisle. (If you’re not familiar with Holly’s site, check it out. She has some excellent free writing articles and excellent-value writing workshops there. It’s a writer’s treasure trove!)

A scene is about change, but what else? I had the deep certainty that there’s more to crafting a scene than I knew how to put into words. Instinctively I know when a scene is satisfying or not, and there are many writers whose work I enjoy, but they are also vastly different and what works in one genre, does not always work in another.

I did a bit of research and came across the terms scene and sequel or, as Evan Marshall calls them in his book Novel Writing: 16 Steps to Success, action scenes and reaction scenes. If you want to know more about scenes and sequels and the main differences between them, here are some links you may find useful:

Mike Kaassen on Scene and Sequel
Writing Hood – Lesson 13 on Scene and Sequel
How to Write a Novel in Six Months (Week 7 deals with scene and sequel)

From having read Robert McKee’s Story some years ago, I was also familiar with the concept of scene beats. Beats are small points of change in a scene that move the story forward. If you’d like to know more about beats, check out Scriptwriting in the UK (the theory applies to novel-writing too), or read Robert McKee’s book.

Today I was browsing a bookshop and came across Make a Scene: Crafting a Powerful Story One Scene at a Time by Jordan E. Rosenfeld. Part 3 of the book includes chapters in which scenes are categorised into, for example, the first scene, suspense scenes, dramatic scenes, and contemplative scenes, among others.

This seems to be exactly what I was looking for, so I’m thrilled I came across it. Synchronicity at work.

I finished reading Magic to the Bone by Devon Monk and, unfortunately, I didn’t enjoy it; mainly because of they way the scenes played out, but there were other reasons which I go into in my What I’m Reading blog.

The main problem I had with the scenes was that there was always something happening. The pace never slowed down. The main character, Allie, never thought very deeply about anything (mind you, she didn’t have much time to do so between one catastrophe and the next) which made her a very superficial character to read about. The story felt like a reckless and out of control roller coaster of a ride. The scenery whizzed by and I got out of the carriage wondering what on earth had just happened to me. In a nutshell, there weren’t enough sequels in my opinion. A character who thinks too much and doesn’t act slows the pace of the story and is very boring to read about. I agree with that; but a sequel does not have to be boring and make the reader skip to the next piece of action. The internal struggle they face is a conflict, and what goes on inside a character and the decision they come to as a result will play out in the next (action) scene. Sequels are important. A reader needs to slow down in order to reflect on the story so far and discover what the main character is going to do next (which they will either agree or disagree with) and then read on to see how that works out for them.

In conclusion, then, knowing the different components of a scene and learning how to put them together in a powerful way, bearing in mind what I’m trying to accomplish with the scene, is very important.

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As for my progress with Greenwood Manor, I can see the end in sight. I have finished my ghost’s backstory and the conclusion to that story. I’ve discovered that there is a parallel between her and my heroine, Katherine, that I never suspected existed until I sat down and let the ghost tell her story in her own words. I had not planned to include the ghost’s story in the novel, but she has a very strong voice and it would be a pity not to let the reader hear it, especially as there is such a huge parallel between these two characters.

Tomorrow I’ll be concentrating on the scene with Dr Sterling and Katherine where she goes to him to explain what she was doing in the park with another man…

*Calling Down Lightning is a technique I learned in Holly Lisle’s “How to Think Sideways” course. Doing this should see me ready to work through the GothNo and NaNo writing marathons, though I haven’t a clue yet what the projects will be about.

Greenwood Manor is moving along nicely but I have put it on hold for a moment, because, in the middle of researching a couple of ideas for one particular scene, I had a breakthrough on where I’d left my short story. I quickly wrote up a LUC (Law of Unexpected Consequences^) worksheet for the short story and worked out how it moved forward from that point onwards.

This short story is turning into a novella, I fear. However, once I know where the story is going and have written it through in its entirety, I just may be able to prune it back to the essential elements and make it the length I had thought it would be when I started.

I have done some research on publishing houses and markets. One useful link is this one, Ralan.com. Listings for anthologies, semi & pro markets, and paying markets.

Today’s Sunday and I’ll get back to the writing tomorrow. The weekend is all about spending time with family and that’s my focus for today!

^Another technique from Holly Lisle’s How to Think Sideways writing course

Jon Sullivan is the artist and you can find his website here. You’ll find the full cover art here and see details/closeups.

What I like about the cover art is that there’s so much happening in it. The characters from the book are there, of course: Clodagh and Cathal, Becan and the creature in the dog mask. There’s so much detail that the images could easily be used as a writing prompt. Who could these characters be (besides the characters in the book)? What is happening to them? Why? What’s behind that tree? Where does that river go?

I particularly like the fact that Cathal (on the back cover) looks believable: a strong determined warrior who isn’t simply a good-looking face and an attractive physique. Thank heavens!!

Right, that’s it. I’m off to gaze a bit more at this cover…