Meera Lester's Blog, page 2

REVIVING YOUR STORY OR STARTING ANEW

If your prose has become less than stellar or your story seems to have lost all sense of direction or falls flat, take a moment to truthfully answer the following questions. The questions and your answers can provide clues as to how you might resurrect your project or even start work on a new story.

 

Have I tired of my story? If so, why?

Do I know what is and isn’t working? Or, do I need professional help to figure this out?

Have I resorted to lazy writing (instead of searching for those perfect nouns that suggest specificity and using active verbs instead choosing passive, weak ones?

Do I know what my story’s protagonist wants and needs?

Have a I created a worthy adversary for my main character? In certain genres, such as the dramatic thriller, a worthy adversary can shine a spotlight on the talents and skills of the protagonist.

Is my main character a cardboard cutout or fully imagined with a past history, a current life problem pressing upon him or her that requires a solution, and intriguing possibilities for a future, depending on choices he or she makes?

Have I created a roller coaster plot with rising and falling action to push the story forward and also occasionally pull it back or spin it in a new direction?

Have I written my story in a cinematic way so that my words conjure vivid mental images for my readers?

For each character, are his or her dialogue patterns unique and does the dialogue ring true when that character opens his or her mouth to speak?

Have I chosen a universal theme–one that will have wide resonance?

Does the beginning of my story start in media res or take too long to get going?

Have I used details, situations, and dialogue to create sufficient verisimilitude?

Would the introduction of a ticking clock (something that has to happen or a problem that must be solved within a certain time) help create drama in my story?

Have I created scenes with sufficient rising tension (the heart and soul of dramatic writing)?

If working within a particular genre, do I have a full and complete understanding of the required elements of that genre and have I implemented them in my story?

Only you, the author of your story, can truly answer these questions. If you answered no to many of the questions,  revisit and revise your story to change each no into a yes.

When authors tire of working on a book, it’s often because they have either written their protagonist into a corner and don’t know how to get him or her out. Or, the author hasn’t figured out how to keep stuff happening (the solution is often to create a problem).

When I feel the story is going flat, I use a simple technique to get it all going again.  I ask myself what can go wrong for the protagonist? What else can happen to ruin his or her day? What new problem might boomerang to create other problems?

I forget the name of the author who advised, “Put your protagonist up in a tree and throw rocks at him or her.” In other words, don’t ever make the solutions easy, don’t give your main character easy outs. If you offer easy solutions, the story will lose steam and the main character will not seem as strong. Easy outs demonstrate lack of ingenuity. You don’t want creative laziness or weak writing to be the reason your book is rejected by a publisher. Remember that in dramatic writing as in art, put the lightest light against the darkest dark and you create drama. It’s powerful, dramatic writing that keeps readers turning pages.

Do the work of brainstorming your story before you begin to actually write scenes. Know where your plot is going based on the choices your protagonist and other important characters make. If you are not an outline type of person, create a storyboard of stick up notes–one per scene and arrange them on a wall or table until the story is finished.

Know your protagonists’ wants and needs (a person’s wants and needs can conflict) and give the lead character an issue or problem or challenge to make him or her vulnerable so we’ll care. A Hollywood screenwriting teacher that I admire has counseled writers to create strong, believable protagonists that we care about so that the audience knows who to root for and to clap for at the end of the movie.

Don’t put all the back story in the opening of your book. Most first novels get pages cut and one of the biggest reasons is that they have dumped all those tedious little details about the protagonist’s life in the opening of the book. No. Don’t do that. Start on a day that is different with a critical situation that plunges us headlong into the story.

Aim for three scenes to a chapter and write good, tight transitions. Get into the scene late and out early and milk the drama.

Don’t wait for inspiration; it might not ever come. Working writers write. Period. Inspiration is a gift. A visit from the Muse is a blessing. Getting lost in the flow of  Kairos (God’s time) might happen, but don’t count on it. Get into the habit of placing your fingers onto the keyboard and pushing words out, whether reviving a story or starting a new one. And keep asking and answering those story questions. You might be surprised to discover how much your story begins to excite you again. Or, you might experience the stirrings of a new story that has picked you to give it life.

 

 

FINISH WHAT YOU START

I just finished my first novel, a cozy mystery. Actually though, it’s my sixth novel, but I’ll get to that in a minute. The point I want to make is that the world is full of great starters, but far fewer finishers. Although I’ve written and had published nearly two dozen books, I’ve had my share of false hopes hung on half-finished projects.  I’ve written five novels that will never see the light of publication, but I did finish them. Making myself finish those stories taught me something about myself and also about my own writing process. I found ways to tunnel through obstacles and I learned to devise techniques to keep myself inspired and the project on target.

 

What Happens When Inspiration Fades?

Whether writing a short story, novel, or screenplay, most writers seem to share a heightened sense of enthusiasm that inspires them to work hard in the earliest phase of a project. Unfortunately, few writers keep fingers to the keyboard when inspiration fades. When the muse withdraws, even then, they must still keep typing words, figuring out plot twists, imagining powerful dialogue, creating verisimilitude, and dreaming of how to push the story forward. Perhaps you’ve experienced  the “sagging middle” of a book.  It often occurs before quitting.

 

What Are Your Reasons for Quitting?

The reasons for quitting on a project are seemingly endless–no time, need to make money, lack of enthusiasm, loss of inspiration or interest, or your project is too similar to another. Some writers fear not being able to sufficiently lift their project out of mediocrity or they fear the opposite, dizzying success. Perhaps you are listening to an inner critic that tells you that the work isn’t good enough or will never sell. The voice of the inner critic has to be silenced when it’s the voice of the creator you need and want to hear.

 

When Your Project Demands Your Unique Voice and Vision . . . Write

My  own moral imperative is to finish what I’ve started. My ideas . . . your ideas are just as important as the next person’s. The inspiration for your particular story didn’t tap someone else on the shoulder and whisper,”write me . . . give me form.” It chose you. Quitting is not a good habit; finishing what you start is.

At one time or another, I’ve experienced all of the excuses for quitting. But I believe my reputation as a writer is only as good as my word. I feel honor-bound to do what I have promised, whether that promise was made to an editor, agent, and publisher or to myself.

 

What Message Does Completion Communicate?

Finishing what you start communicates to publishing professionals that you have staying power. It shows that you know how to complete a project, and that is huge! Why do you think first novels must be completed before being considered by an agent or publishing house? Those professionals need to know you can reach “the end.” They have to know you can pull the plot all the way to finish, orchestrate character arcs, and deliver a satisfying conclusion. They have to believe that you know what you are doing in order to invest in you, the writer.

 

What Will Be the Future of Your Project?

Once you have finished your project, you get to decide how to deliver it as your gift to the world–that is, through conventional sources (like traditional publishing companies) or to release your project as an e-book on your website or on Amazon.com or elsewhere. Through e-publishing venues, you might even decide to release your book in chapters (for sale). But for all those options, you have to finish.

 

Discover the Gifts

That brings me back to my opening–I just finished my first mystery. Will it sell? This, I do not know. What I can tell you is that I have an agent, and we both believe the project has a good chance. When I started this book a year ago, I wasn’t even sure of some of the plot twists and the ending, but here I am with a completed, polished manuscript. I am now writing two new book projects. Both evolved from that initial mystery. Just imagine what gifts your story might hold for you.

BLOCKING–LAYING OUT THE BEATS OF YOUR STORY

Novel writers can benefit greatly from an understanding of the blocking process, used by screenwriters. A really good story will take your reader on a fictional heart-stopping ride, flying along as if on a high-speed bullet train, rising and falling, until your story finally crescendos in a climax and slows with a satisfying conclusion and denouement.

 

If the term “blocking” is unfamiliar to you, it might be because it’s a word used more in the world of screenwriting than in fiction writing. Blocking means choosing which beats of a story best reveal what happens and then arranging the beats in a way that provides the greatest drama for your story.

 

Paul Lucey, teacher, screenwriter, and author of Story Sense (McGraw Hill 1996), concluded that blocking is one of the two master skills that screenwriters must have. Dr. Lucey noted in his book that the other is the ability to imagine both characters and scenes in the mind until the characters through action and dialogue in scenes become interesting and entertaining.

 

Characters with contrasting personalities when in the same scene tend to create conflict, rising tension, and drama. When characters have different needs and desires and want different outcomes for situations, they can take the plot in different directions.

 

The plot of the story rises and falls as a result of the scenes, each having a beginning, middle, and end. Scenes can be filled with varying degrees of tension. Scenes can create story questions, present choices, push forward or pull back or shift the direction of the story. Once you know the beats of your story, you can decide the best way to write those beats into scenes.

 

So how do you block out the beats? It’s pretty simple, really. Think about all the incidents involved in the totality of the story you want to tell. Now create a master list of those incidents.

 

Dr. Lucy notes that the blocking doesn’t come until after you have not only the basic idea for your story and the other elements: theme, concept, conflict, problem, etc. The plot beats can take the form of a list, an outline, or prose.

 

What you want to avoid is a flat plot where nothing really happens, the characters are happy, and life is wonderful. Conflict creates drama. How much better it is to create conflicts with villains who are tightly wound or problems that are not easily solved or characters who are on a collision course.

 

Try plotting a story using the blocking method and see if it works for you. The three-act story structure that movies and television shows follow works well for novels, too. Likewise, a good rule of thumb to follow for a novel is to write three scenes per chapter with major action-packed or tension-filled or “big” scenes scattered appropriately along your rising and falling plot line. When you know where you are going with your story, it’s easier to work with the plot. And blocking is a great tool.

 

 

 

 

 

 

REACHING MY GOAL

Someone I respected and loved long ago told me that there is a multitude of great starters but not so many great finishers. After hearing that comment, I never again started something that I didn’t finish, especially a book. I’ve had published nearly two dozen of them, albeit in the mass market nonfiction category.

During my young adulthood, I wrote five novels (too verbose, too complicated, too uninteresting, too long) that mercifully will never see publication. I was young and didn’t have the advantage of the life experiences that I now have. In 2011, I started a mystery, a genre in which I had never written. I felt pretty confident I could create three-dimensional characters. I believed I could make my dialogue sing. My settings came alive. I understood theme, and knew how to create a sense of verisimilitude. But I saw plotting as my Achilles heel.

Mastering the plotting of the mystery presented a vertical learning curve for me. It was like a complex puzzle that I assembled and then disassembled to create a compelling narrative that would read like a roller coaster ride. So I started the story with a brainstorming map that became an outline of scenes. This project wasn’t just about writing a story, it had to present a complex and complete little puzzle for my readers to solve.

In November 2011, I realized that starting the project would be easy. There is an exhilaration in every new beginning that propels you forward.  I wrote away, submitting pages every couple of weeks to my writer friends for a critique. One of them lobbied hard to get me and our other workshop writers into Camp Nano this summer. It’s a virtual camp during the month of July where you set a goal to write a certain number of words for your novel (so do your cabin mates) and you all try your hardest to achieve the goals you’ve set.

I set a goal of 10,000 words. Easily attainable if you’re not doing a thousand other things like I am. On July 1, we started typing our stories. My goal was to finish what I had started in 2011, the mystery.

Today, I did finish. I typed the words, THE END (after posting 18,000 words; my novel is 65,000) and retreated to my garden to enjoy what was left of the rest of the day. Tomorrow I start the rewrite and polish, confident that I will finish it, too.

 

FINISHING A NOVEL

Someone I respected and loved long ago told me that there is a multitude of great starters but not so many great finishers. After hearing that comment, I never again started something that I didn’t finish, especially a book. I’ve had published nearly two dozen of them, albeit in the mass market nonfiction category.

During my young adulthood, I wrote five novels (too verbose, too complicated, too uninteresting, too long) that mercifully will never see publication. I was young and didn’t have the advantage of the life experiences that I now have. In 2011, I started a mystery, a genre in which I had never written. I felt pretty confident I could create three-dimensional characters. I believed I could make my dialogue sing. My settings came alive. I understood theme, and knew how to create a sense of verisimilitude. But I saw plotting as my Achilles heel.

Mastering the plotting of the mystery presented a vertical learning curve for me. It was like a complex puzzle that I assembled and then disassembled to create a compelling narrative that would read like a roller coaster ride. So I started the story with a brainstorming map that became an outline of scenes. This project wasn’t just about writing a story, it had to present a complex and complete little puzzle for my readers to solve.

In November 2011, I realized that starting the project would be easy. There is an exhilaration in every new beginning that propels you forward.  I wrote away, submitting pages every couple of weeks to my writer friends for a critique. One of them lobbied hard to get me and our other workshop writers into Camp Nano this summer. It’s a virtual camp during the month of July where you set a goal to write a certain number of words for your novel (so do your cabin mates) and you all try your hardest to achieve the goals you’ve set.

I set a goal of 10,000 words. Easily attainable if you’re not doing a thousand other things like I am. On July 1, we started typing our stories. My goal was to finish what I had started in 2011, the mystery.

Today, I did finish. I typed the words, THE END (after posting 18,000 words; my novel is 65,000) and retreated to my garden to enjoy what was left of the rest of the day. Tomorrow I start the rewrite and polish, confident that I will finish it, too.

 

CAMP NANOWRIMO

 

 

At 4:00 p.m. Pacific Time today, I logged into Camp Nanowrimo and officially became a “camper,” meaning I promise myself and my cabin mates to crank out 10,000 words (or more) during the month of July.

Imaginary marshmallows and hot chocolate aside, this is serious stuff. I wrote a novel during the last Nanowrimo I participated in, and I am using the camp to polish that work for publication. Having my cabin buddies cheering me is one factor that I think could ensure my success. Another is having the one-month deadline. I thrive on deadlines and finishing what I start is a point of pride. So I’ll give this month over to editing and polishing my manuscript to high gleam.

I count myself fortunate to have known my cabin mates for years. A few years ago, I moved across the United State to the opposite coast. I have since moved back, but my friends call different parts of the country home. Yet, our love for each other and our deep respect for the mysterious process of writing has served as a bond to keep our group connected. We found a way to maintain our friendships and work on our favorite writing projects via virtual meetings.

Even if we didn’t sign up for the camp together, I believe it would still be worth participating in the camp. You can choose to be cabin mates with others based on criteria such as age, genre of your project, or by similar word count goal.

What could be more fun than spending a month in a virtual cabin writing your heart out with other campers doing the same. I suspect there will be campfire stories, S’mores, and maybe even some sing-alongs, all virtual, of course. But the words on the page that you produce could spell success when your Nano novel is published, as many have been. I hope to see you around Camp Nanowrimo in July. It promises to be grueling, but also loads of fun.

 

 

Camp NanoWrimo

 

 

At 4:00 p.m. Pacific Time today, I logged into Camp Nanowrimo and officially became a “camper,” meaning I promise myself and my cabin mates to crank out 10,000 words (or more) during the month of July.

Imaginary marshmallows and hot chocolate aside, this is serious stuff. I wrote a novel during the last Nanowrimo I participated in, and I am using the camp to polish that work for publication. Having my cabin buddies cheering me is one factor that I think could ensure my success. Another is having the one-month deadline. I thrive on deadlines and finishing what I start is a point of pride. So I’ll give this month over to editing and polishing my manuscript to high gleam.

I count myself fortunate to have known my cabin mates for years. A few years ago, I moved across the United State to the opposite coast. I have since moved back, but my friends call different parts of the country home. Yet, our love for each other and our deep respect for the mysterious process of writing has served as a bond to keep our group connected. We found a way to maintain our friendships and work on our favorite writing projects via virtual meetings.

Even if we didn’t sign up for the camp together, I believe it would still be worth participating in the camp. You can choose to be cabin mates with others based on criteria such as age, genre of your project, or by similar word count goal.

What could be more fun than spending a month in a virtual cabin writing your heart out with other campers doing the same. I suspect there will be campfire stories, S’mores, and maybe even some sing-alongs, all virtual, of course. But the words on the page that you produce could spell success when your Nano novel is published, as many have been. I hope to see you around Camp Nanowrimo in July. It promises to be grueling, but also loads of fun.

 

 

DEEP FREEZE YOUR NOVEL

If your novel has been written and rewritten and still isn’t working, consider “deep freezing” it. You want to send the novel out when you can feel proud of the work you’ve done, and if it isn’t ready, don’t send it. Put it away for a while.

After weeks or months of not reviewing and reworking it, you could find that when you return to the material you have a fresh perspective.

Distance from the novel enables you see it anew. You’ll notice if it has momentum. You can see how and where the words sing on the page or slow the narrative. You might observe problems with the plot, discover a cardboard character, or find weak or excessive verbiage, cliches, and clunkers. With a fresh perspective, you’ll possibly see places where the dialogue–that you once believed was inspired or even brilliant–does not ring true.

With your new, fresh perspective,  review your story for the following:

Character–Important story characters will be three dimensional

Dialogue–Must ring true for the character who speaks it; ensure the dialogue patterns of your characters differ (otherwise, they sound the same); also, invest your dialogue with subtext to get the most out of it (the words themselves or the way the words are spoken reveals information about the story or the character who is speaking)

Plot–Great plots often include twists

Pacing–You can speed the pacing of a scene (and increase tension) by using monosyllabic words in short sentences or slow pacing with longer sentences using polysyllabic words

Tension–Each scene will have some element of tension that rises and falls, creating momentum; if your story departs from the problem your main character is facing, the story will lose its tension and dramatic momentum

Momentum-Without momentum, the story stalls; you might add momentum by inserting into your narrative a ticking “clock” to exert pressure upon a character to do or achieve something against the constraint of time

Narrative hills and valleys–Hills are points of high dramatic tension and valleys are brief periods of relief before the next scene’s rising tension ensues

Texture–Use specific details to add textural layers to your character or story

Show; don’t tell–Avoid telling the reader something when you can show it; for example, instead of  telling the reader that “the man had ugly fingernails”  help the reader to see the character’s nails as “ragged, stained brown by years of tobacco use”

By taking the time to let your novel cool off before tackling the review and rewrite, you will find it easier to massage the material into leaner, stronger, and more compelling prose that lifts your story into the realm of extraordinary–what readers want.

 

TO OUTLINE YOUR NOVEL, OR NOT

Every writer eventually settles on the way of writing that works best for him or her, whether working from stream of consciousness or an outline. For new writers of novels, working from an outline might be a less frustrating than writing as a stream of consciousness. Now this seems counter-intuitive, doesn’t it? But think about the problems of going the distance, of actually finishing the book when you start the writing process with just a character or a setting or a critical situation, using creative imagining alone to push the story forward. If you don’t know where the story is going or how it ends, you might write a whole lot of material that won’t hang together as a compelling story.

Every story has a beginning, a middle, and an end and there must be some sort of conflict and rising tension. Also, there must be story questions that get answered and new story questions that will be raised. It is easy to get off track when you do this work as a stream of consciousness. The storyline gets muddled. When the writer loses focus and direction, the reader gets confused.

One way to outline a novel is create at least three scenes for each chapter. Once you have done this preliminary work, you can add more scenes if they are needed. The outline becomes the skeleton on which you will flesh out your story. It means you do a lot of the hard thinking that goes into a compelling work of fiction ahead of the actual narrative writing. The outline enables you to keep your story on track. A quick glance at the outline and you can see the types of scenes, where the dramatic action is in the story, how the roller coaster of fiction that you are writing is rising and falling, how and when your protagonist’s character arcs, and when the story climax occurs.  Looking at the outline, you can decide which scenes to plant clues (especially important in writing mysteries), add details of foreshadowing, or decide whether or not you need one or more subplots.

The stream-of-consciousness method of writing is a great way to push through a block, to lift a sagging middle of the book, or to flesh out a character. Most stories are driven by characters. If you don’t know what a character is going to do in a particular situation, try a little gestalt therapy. Ask him about himself  and type in the first thing that pops into your head. Keep asking questions and typing answers until you know everything there is to know about this character. But go beyond the eye color and the reason for the muscular build or lack of it. Make your character talk to you about his inner world–motivation, fears, hopes, dreams, and feelings of abundance and lack. Are his wants and needs in conflict or are they the same? What drives him to do what he does?

If you are new to writing, experiment with both methods of writing and see which works best for you.

Copyright November 10, 2011 by Meera Lester

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k. What does he need. What does he want. Are they the same or Most stories are driven by the characters.

OPENING THE TAP

Ideas for great projects like novels, scripts, and nonfiction books drift into a writer’s thoughts periodically, often when it’s least expected. But ideas are fleeting. A smart writer will jot them into a journal as soon as possible. Later, when creative fire has all but gone out, you can leaf through those journal pages to re-ignite that creative spark.

Generating ideas for fictional characters and conflict for a novel can be daunting. As Annie Dillard noted, “On plenty of days the writer can write three or four pages, and on plenty of other days he concludes he must throw them away.” Still, writing fiction opens the tap. Think of your writer’s mind as a garden hose. When you open the spigot, sludge might flow out initially but what follows is clear. The following tips can help you start the flow.

1. Write a character sketch for a character with a secret, a character with a broken heart, or a character with no conscience. Or, choose a character deeply in deb to the mafia or some unsavory individual.

2. Write a  couple of paragraphs about a setting where your story could take place. Perhaps the setting is futuristic, inhospitable, romantic, exotic, or historical. Create ambiance using words. What does your setting look like? What is the temperature? How does it feel, smell, and taste (salty sea spray, for example)? What sounds are heard in your setting? Is it light or dark? What is the source of the light?

3. Write about conflict. Will your story pit man against man, man against the System, man against Nature,, or man against himself?

Often the simple process of sitting down at your computer or notebook and letting your thoughts flow about a character, setting, or conflict can generate an entire concept for a novel or work of short fiction.  Give it a try and see for yourself. And . . .  if you are serious about wanting to crank out your great American novel, participate in Nanowrimo. November is “write a novel in a month” at Nanowrimo. See, http://www.nanowrimo.org/