Sydney Salter's Blog, page 9

Making a Cheryl Klein Book Map

I'm attending Scholastic editor Cheryl Klein's Master Class this coming Saturday, so this week I'm doing homework (I secretly love homework). We have to make a map of our book. I spent too much time yesterday trying to make a chart using Word--but I couldn't get the little boxes big enough, yet small enough with margins large enough, and I know that some scenes are much shorter than others--I needed flexibility. So I went to the office supply store (I secretly love office supply stores) and bought legal sized paper and pens in fun colors.

Here's my blank map:



The categories are: scene#, pages, total number of pages (I combined these into one little box); when the scene occurs; the setting; characters (I assigned my main characters colors and listed them by name); what do they want in this scene; the action in the scene; change that occurs in the scene; revision notes.

I'm going to box my map after I write what is needed for each scene so I won't have to cramp complex scenes or take up too much space for short scenes.

Here are the first five scenes all mapped out:


Here's what I've done so far--it's one long document. Now I just have to finish writing those final few chapters. I'm SO close, but probably won't quite finish the whole manuscript by Saturday.

As the sticky notes indicate, I've already targeted several parts of my story to strengthen during revision.   I also realized that I suffered a bit of Middle Fatigue, writing too-short, underdeveloped chapters in the middle of the book. Time to lengthen those too!

Can't wait for the workshop. I've already learned a lot doing the homework.

Making a Cheryl Klein Book Map: Step One

I'm attending Scholastic editor Cheryl Klein's Master Class this coming Saturday, so this week I'm doing homework (I secretly love homework). We have to make a map of our book. I spent too much time yesterday trying to make a chart using Word--but I couldn't get the little boxes big enough, yet small enough with margins large enough, and I know that some scenes are much shorter than others--I needed flexibility. So I went to the office supply store (I secretly love office supply stores) and bought legal sized paper and pens in fun colors.

Here's my blank map:



The categories are: scene#, pages, total number of pages (I combined these into one little box); when the scene occurs; the setting; characters (I assigned my main characters colors and listed them by name); what do they want in this scene; the action in the scene; change that occurs in the scene; revision notes.

I'm going to box my map after I write what is needed for each scene so I won't have to cramp complex scenes or take up too much space for short scenes.

I'll show you how it goes!

Blogging Elsewhere

Today I'm over at YA Outside The Lines with a love letter, of sorts, to NaNoWriMo: http://yaoutsidethelines.blogspot.com/2012/11/thank-you-nanowrimo-sydney-salter.html

Rare 7th Grade Photo Sighting

Today I spoke to the fabulous students at Union Middle School in Sandy, Utah. I showed them this photo of me from 7th grade.



I felt all nose--100% NOSE! 
Many years, and a few more nosey experiences later, I was inspired to write My Big Nose And Other Natural Disasters.
Thanks again to all the great students, teachers, and media specialists at Union Middle School.  

I'm Having An Affair...

A few weeks ago, I started sneaking around, peeking at my ex-WIP, leaving my current WIP to wonder where I'd been all day. Why hadn't I opened it's file? Am I seeing someone else? Is that--lipstick?!?!!?

I'm having an affair with my abandoned manuscript.

Is it because things got tough with my new manuscript--like the day I realized that I'd need to rewrite 20,000 words because I'd rambled off in the wrong direction, following a whim? Yeah, that's part of it. 80 pages is a lot of deleting. My ex-WIP is all mapped out, planned and plotted. Maybe it will be fun to write those last few chapters?

Also, my sixteen-year-old daughter keeps calling me a quitter for not finishing ex-WIP. She likes the story much more than I did while writing it. Because writing it was HARD for me. I eked out words, slowly, painfully. I doubted so much. But maybe it's not so bad...

And it isn't. I've never followed the writing advice, even when Stephen King said it in On Writing, of setting a manuscript aside before revising. Now I see the value of putting space between the emotion of drafting a challenging story (this is hard, so it must be bad) and reading it again months later (ooh, this part is good, but that part could be better).

I'm having fun, even sneaking off for a bit of revising on the weekends. I love my ex-WIP! Sorry, current WIP, you're going to have to sit in the drawer for a little while longer. Maybe you could talk to one of Stephen King's manuscripts and learn about being a bestseller?

Learning From Other Genres

People often say that if you want to write in a particular genre, read 100 books in that genre, and I really like that advice. But I also think there are advantages to breaking free from your genre and learning what another has to offer. 
Last weekend I took a class about writing Collage Memoir from Paisley Rekdal who teaches in the MFA program at the University of Utah. While I do write in a journal every night, I'm not quite sure why, since my life is usually pretty dull. I read, I write, I cook, less often I clean...I watch soccer, drive carpool, chat with friends, watch TV, bad Reality TV...
ZZZZ.
So it was interesting to discover that I do have interesting things to say as Paisley guided us through a series of readings, followed by writing exercises. Collage writing combines personal writing, poems, photography, art, fiction--or even "found language" from news articles, etc. 
I actually came up with a few essay ideas that I'd like to pursue. And I added several unusual books to my ongoing To-Read list--books I never would've heard of otherwise--like Understanding Comics by Scott McCloud which provided the starting point for the class. Talk about a different genre! 
Best of all--I found myself jotting down note after note about ways I could use collage writing techniques to develop characters in my novel and move the story forward in unique ways. So, if you're looking for a way to pump some energy into your writing, try taking a class outside of your comfort zone. It'll spark your imagination for sure!  
Thanks Writers@Work for sponsoring the class! 

Summer Fun & Giveaway with Mindi Scott

Please welcome Mindi Scott, author of Live Through This, for one last installment of summer fun. Leave a comment to win a copy of the book! 

What's your favorite summer memory? My summers were spent traveling with members of my dad’s side of the family. For a number of years, my aunt, cousins, and grandma, would stay for several weeks at my aunt’s vacation house in Ocean Shores, Washington. When I think of summer, that’s where my mind goes first.Ice cream or popsicle? What's your favorite flavor? I love Ben & Jerry’s Phish Food ice cream more than anything ever.What did you read last summer? I read bunches of contemporary YA novels and even a couple of YA novels that fall more into the fantasy realm. About the book:From the outside, Coley Sterling’s life seems pretty normal . . . whatever that means. It’s not perfect—her best friend is seriously mad at her and her dance team captains keep giving her a hard time—but Coley’s adorable, sweet crush Reece helps distract her. Plus, she has a great family to fall back on—with a mom and stepdad who would stop at nothing to keep her siblings and her happy.

But Coley has a lot of secrets. She won’t admit—not even to herself—that her almost-perfect life is her own carefully-crafted façade. That for years she’s been burying the shame and guilt over a relationship that crossed the line. Now that Coley has the chance at her first real boyfriend, a decade’s worth of lies are on the verge of unraveling.

In this unforgettable powerhouse of a novel, Mindi Scott offers an absorbing, layered glimpse into the life of an everygirl living a nightmare that no one would suspect.



About the author: Mindi Scott is the author of Live Through This and Freefall. She lives near Seattle, Washington, with her drummer husband. Please visit her online at mindiscott.com.


Please leave a comment to win a copy of the book!

Contest Winner!

Congratulations!!!!



Karen is the winner of Ten by Gretchen McNeil. Please contact me with your mailing address! 

Blogging Elsewhere

Today I'm over at YA Outside The Lines. Our monthly theme is fear!

http://yaoutsidethelines.blogspot.com...



Just for fun here are my three most irrational fears:

1. Jello



2. Grasshoppers



3. If I'm walking across a bridge, I worry that I will somehow dig my car keys out of my purse and throw them into the water below. How weird is that?

Summer Fun & Giveaway with Gretchen McNeil

Technically, summer ended a few days ago, but, hey, the weather is still warm, so we've got one more installation of Summer Fun with Gretchen McNeil. Please leave a comment if you'd like a chance to win your own copy of Ten!What's your favorite summer memory?Hot summer days at the beach in Clearlake with my cousins. As an only child, it was fun to feel like I was a part of a large family!Ice cream or popsicle? What's your favorite flavor?  Ben & Jerry's Chocolate Therapy.What will you be reading this summer?  I just finished DEMON EYES by Scott Tracey, then I'll be reading THE TURNING by Francine Prose and TOUCHED by Corrine Jackson!
ABOUT THE BOOK
And their doom comes swiftly.
It was supposed to be the weekend of their lives – three days on Henry Island at an exclusive house party. Best friends Meg and Minnie each have their own reasons for wanting to be there, both of which involve Kamiak High’s most eligible bachelor, T.J. Fletcher. But what starts out as a fun-filled weekend turns dark and twisted after the discovery of a DVD with a sinister message: Vengeance is mine.
Suddenly, people are dying and the teens are cut off from the outside world. No electricity, no phones, no internet, and a ferry that isn’t scheduled to return for two days. As the deaths become more violent and the teens turn on each other, can Meg find the killer before more people die? Or is the killer closer to her than she could ever imagine?
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Gretchen McNeil is an opera singer, writer and clown.  Her YA horror POSSESS debuted with Balzer + Bray for HarperCollins in 2011.  Her follow up TEN – YA horror/suspense about ten teens trapped on a remote island with a serial killer – will be released September 18, 2012, and her third novel 3:59, sci fi doppelganger horror is scheduled for Fall 2013.  Gretchen's new YA contemporary series Don't Get Mad (Revenge meets The Breakfast Club) begins Fall 2014 with GET EVEN, followed by the sequel GET DIRTY in 2015, also with Bazler + Bray.
Gretchen is a former coloratura soprano, the voice of Mary on G4's Code Monkeys and she sings with the LA-based circus troupe Cirque Berzerk.  Gretchen blogs with The Enchanted Inkpot and is a founding member of the vlog group the YARebels where she can be seen as "Monday."
  Please leave a comment if you'd like to win your own copy! Contest ends on October 3, 2012.