Dee Garretson's Blog, page 2

Sometimes You Have To Put Away The Book Of Your Heart

If you haven’t heard the phrase “the book of my heart,” it’s a manuscript writers talk about when they are referring to a story they felt they just had to write, one that means more to them than anything else they’ve written. Some of these do get published, but many languish unloved except by their creators. I have one of these. It’s gotten no love from editors and agents have been lukewarm on it. I might revise it some day and try again, because I’ve realized a few important reasons why I’m the only one who thinks it’s special in its current form

I chose to put in things in that were important to me, but I derailed the story with some of them. Their importance doesn’t shine through in the overall picture, and in some cases they drag the story down. I broke my own rule of ‘Focus on the Story’ not on myself.

These stories in particular need some very critical readers to weigh in on readability. If a story is that close to you, it’s very hard to look at it with an editorial eye, no matter how good you are at editing your own work. And if you get critiques you don’t like on it, you have to take a deep breath and really consider what’s being suggested. It’s often tough to cut and slash at a manuscript like this but if your goal is to get it published, it can be a necessity. If the story is important to you the way it is, then of course it’s okay not to change it. The desire to be published often conflicts with the desire to write a particular story. It’s up to each person to decide. And my story? Now that I’ve written it and it’s been put away for a couple of years, it will be easier for me to go back and edit. I’ve moved on, you might say. Like an old love, I still am fond of it, but there are many more stories to focus my heart on.

Saving Mansfield Park Board Game – For the Love of Jane Austen

I’m excited! Because I’ve been burned out on writing for a bit, and to keep myself from climbing the walls turning this gray stay-at-home time, I’ve been occupied designing a Jane Austen-inspired board game called Saving Mansfield Park. I’m going to do a Kickstarter very soon to turn it into a reality. The game doesn’t require any knowledge of Jane Austen, though it’s a lot more fun for her readers.

The short description of the game: Franny Bertram, the great, great, etc., granddaughter of Fanny Price and Edmund Bertram has purchased the dilapidated remains of the once great estate of Mansfield Park. She intends to restore it but she doesn’t have enough money, so she’s called on friends and acquaintances to help her find some valuable antiques in the cluttered rooms that she can sell. Several of the descendants of Miss Austin’s characters have arrived to help search. But money is not Franny’s only problem. The ruthless great, great, etc. granddaughter of Caroline Bingley is on her way to purchase the place if Franny can’t make the next mortgage payment. It’s a race to see who can find enough items to save the house before Miss Bingley makes it through the front door.

Here’s the longer version:

Mansfield Park has fallen into terrible disrepair. Franny Bertram , the great, great, great, etc., granddaughter of Edmund Bertram and Fanny Price, has taken out a mortgage and purchased it, intending to turn it into a bed and breakfast all while restoring it to its former glory. However, at the moment she has only managed to refurbish two rooms for guests and is open for limited business. She is the resident manager, cook, maid and house restorer, living in a servant’s room on the upper floor with her rescue pug, named Pug.  The only other inhabitants besides the occasional guest, are a ghost or two from Miss Austen’s time and a cranky swan who hangs out in the reflecting pools in the front garden.

Much of the house is still very cluttered with the accumulation of decades of items, most of it too damaged to be of any value. Franny knows she can turn the house into a successful inn but she is lacking the necessary funds, and just recently, disaster has struck. A storm ripped off part of the roof and the temporary patch is not enough to keep the water out. Without an emergency repair, the house may have to be condemned and torn down. The temporary patch has used up all of Beth’s funds and she is now behind on the mortgage payment.

In hopes of saving the house, Franny has decided to look for a partner to go into business with her. Just when all seems lost, a proprietor of a small antique shop contacts Franny. He has a list of items he wants that will give her enough money to tide her over.

Because Franny is overwhelmed with renovations, she doesn’t have time to look for the items herself, so she has put out a call to friends and acquaintances to help. As an added incentive, she’s decided the first person to fulfill the proprietor’s list will get a share of the profits once the bed and breakfast is fully operational. Because a previous owner turned the library into an exercise studio, most of the library’s books are stored in the attic. Franny hopes there are some complete sets of Miss Austen’s six major works somewhere in the piles and piles of books, so she is hopeful that if those are found, the sale of them will provide additional funds.

As the helpers arrive, another potentially devasting problem arises. Miss Caroline Bingley, of the Bingley Hotel and Resort Corporation, is on her way to the house to meet the banker who holds the mortgage, funds in hand to purchase Mansfield Park outright. Beth knows Caroline because they attended the same college, and she knows Caroline is ruthless in pursing what she wants.

It’s a race to see who can find the necessary items before Miss Bingley arrives on the doorstep!

More posts will follow with additional details. I’m really hoping to get this funded!

18 Days of Writing and Publishing Tips Day 18 – Big Mistakes I’ve Made (So Far)

Mistakes were made

I’ve made more than my share of mistakes in the twenty plus years I’ve been writing, but in terms of getting and staying published my biggest mistake in the early years was not working on new projects while trying to get an existing one signed by an agent or sold to an editor.

I put so much effort into my first book – which I’ve since gone on to self-publish after much more revision – that I couldn’t imagine putting any more effort into another book unless I had some indication that I could actually write well enough to get published. I spent five years rewriting and revising that book, sure I was going to hit on the magical right words to get it published. I came close a few times, but never quite hit it, partly because at the time I didn’t know how to write good query letters and I didn’t know enough about storytelling.

It was only when I wrote a different book in a different genre that I got an agent and then a publishing deal. But then I continued on with my mistake. I didn’t write anything new even though there were long stretches of time while the manuscript was with the agent and then with the editor. I should have been writing that whole time.

I would have improved my writing more quickly, I would have had more manuscripts to show the editor (I did get a deal for a second book, which was great, but I had to write it under a tighter deadline because I didn’t start it as early as I could have done.)

I’ve since learned that it’s much better for me and for my publishing future to keep working on new unsold projects in the waiting times for contracted work, even if it’s partial novels or novels that need major revision. It’s helped my writing, because with each story, I run into new problems and I have to consider how to tell a particular story. It’s also made me write faster, because I don’t fall out of practice. When I do school or Skype visits, I tell the students that writing is largely a craft, and talent isn’t the most important part of it. Learning to write well is like learning to play an instrument or a sport or another artistic pursuit. Most people aren’t good at it without practice.

So don’t make my mistakes! Write, write, write.

If you missed my earlier posts on 18 days of writing and publishing tips, post 1 is  here.

And here’s one of my books that I haven’t talked about much in previous posts, my upper Middle grade adventure, WOLF STORM in which young actors filming a movie on location in the mountains find themselves in an all-to-real adventure. (That’s my lovely little cat, Colette, who I miss every day and who was not happy wearing her wolf costume.)

Big Mistakes I’ve Made (So Far) Part 1 – 30 Days of Writing and Publishing Tips Day 18

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Mistakes were made

I’ve made more than my share of mistakes in the twenty plus years I’ve been writing, but in terms of getting and staying published my biggest mistake in the early years was not working on new projects while trying to get an existing one signed by an agent or sold to an editor.

I put so much effort into my first book – which I’ve since gone on to self-publish after much more revision – that I couldn’t imagine putting any more effort into another book unless I had some indication that I could actually write well enough to get published. I spent five years rewriting and revising that book, sure I was going to hit on the magical right words to get it published. I came close a few times, but never quite hit it, partly because at the time I didn’t know how to write good query letters and I didn’t know enough about storytelling.

It was only when I wrote a different book in a different genre that I got an agent and then a publishing deal. But then I continued on with my mistake. I didn’t write anything new even though there were long stretches of time while the manuscript was with the agent and then with the editor. I should have been writing that whole time.

I would have improved my writing more quickly, I would have had more manuscripts to show the editor (I did get a deal for a second book, which was great, but I had to write it under a tighter deadline because I didn’t start it as early as I could have done.)

I’ve since learned that it’s much better for me and for my publishing future to keep working on new unsold projects in the waiting times for contracted work, even if it’s partial novels or novels that need major revision. It’s helped my writing, because with each story, I run into new problems and I have to consider how to tell a particular story. It’s also made me write faster, because I don’t fall out of practice. When I do school or Skype visits, I tell the students that writing is largely a craft, and talent isn’t the most important part of it. Learning to write well is like learning to play an instrument or a sport or another artistic pursuit. Most people aren’t good at it without practice.

So don’t make my mistakes! Write, write, write.

If you missed my earlier posts on 30 days of writing and publishing tips, post 1 is  here.

And here’s one of my books that I haven’t talked about much in previous posts, my upper Middle grade adventure, WOLF STORM in which young actors filming a movie on location in the mountains find themselves in an all-to-real adventure. (That’s my lovely little cat, Colette, who I miss every day and who was not happy wearing her wolf costume.)

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18 Days of Writing and Publishing Tips – Day 17 Mentor Movie and the usefulness of prologues (sometimes)

I posted about how valuable mentor texts are for my writing here, and will do more, but I also wanted to post about mentor movies. There are certain movies that have taught me so much about storytelling, and when I’m in a slump, I rewatch one or more of them.

Apollo 13 is one of them. The movie is an adaptation from a book by Jim Lovell, one of the astronauts on the mission. William Broyles Jr. and Al Reinert did the screenplay. The film tells the story of the mission that nearly cost the lives of the astronauts, when an explosion onboard depletes the oxygen supply. The mission becomes one to figure out how to get the astronauts back to Earth before their air runs out.

Most of us aren’t going to write stories so dramatic, but there are takeaways from watching it that have helped me in my stories.

First, the opening. I hate to get into debates about prologues, because the people who hate them will not budge, but here’s my view: It depends on the story! I’ve used them in two of my books, and will probably do so again. If you need something that really sets up the tone of the story or foreshadows what is going to happen, prologues are an excellent way to do that.

The opening of Apollo 13 is a prologue, a sequence using actual news footage and images of the horrific fire on Apollo 1 when the astronauts were rehearsing the launch procedures. All three astronauts died. It works in the movie because it immediately reminds viewers of how dangerous it is to be an astronaut, even when they aren’t actually in space. Even if we didn’t already know the plot of the movie, we know something bad is coming, and that in a suspense/thriller story is important. That tiny trickle of dread will only grow stronger as the story progresses.

The next scene is a party at one of the astronaut’s houses where they are all gathered to watch the moon landing of Apollo. This is an inspired bit of storytelling. It shows the astronauts’ ordinary world, making them seem like real people, and manages to impart a lot of information along the way. I suspect there was some debate over putting this scene first. I’m sure there was a push to set it at NASA because that would be the cool setting, but it would have made most readers feel removed from the main characters.

I’m a big fan of chapters starting in the character’s ordinary world, and then using some event to let the reader know something big is going to happen soon. This happens in Apollo 13 when we see Marilyn Lovell, Jim’s wife, talks about how nervous Neil Armstrong’s wife must be. There is also a mention that of the astronauts’ main concern – they are afraid future missions will be cancelled due to budget cuts before they get to go. This is a useful technique of dramatic irony. The viewer (or reader) knows something much worse than this is going to happen. It’s like you wish you could get into the story and warn the character.

I could go on and on about some of the latter parts of the movie and what works so well, but I think I’ll save that for a later post. I encourage everyone to take a look at this movie-I didn’t even realize exactly how broad of an appeal it had was until the time my daughter came into the room when I was watching it-she must have been about ten and not really interested in many adult movies-and she sat down and watched it all the way through, enthralled.

Happy watching !

 

30 Days of Writing and Publishing Tips – Day 17 Mentor Movie and the usefulness of prologues (sometimes)

I posted about how valuable mentor texts are for my writing here, and will do more, but I also wanted to post about mentor movies. There are certain movies that have taught me so much about storytelling, and when I’m in a slump, I rewatch one or more of them.

Apollo 13 is one of them. The movie is an adaptation from a book by Jim Lovell, one of the astronauts on the mission. William Broyles Jr. and Al Reinert did the screenplay. The film tells the story of the mission that nearly cost the lives of the astronauts, when an explosion onboard depletes the oxygen supply. The mission becomes one to figure out how to get the astronauts back to Earth before their air runs out.

Most of us aren’t going to write stories so dramatic, but there are takeaways from watching it that have helped me in my stories.

First, the opening. I hate to get into debates about prologues, because the people who hate them will not budge, but here’s my view: It depends on the story! I’ve used them in two of my books, and will probably do so again. If you need something that really sets up the tone of the story or foreshadows what is going to happen, prologues are an excellent way to do that.

The opening of Apollo 13 is a prologue, a sequence using actual news footage and images of the horrific fire on Apollo 1 when the astronauts were rehearsing the launch procedures. All three astronauts died. It works in the movie because it immediately reminds viewers of how dangerous it is to be an astronaut, even when they aren’t actually in space. Even if we didn’t already know the plot of the movie, we know something bad is coming, and that in a suspense/thriller story is important. That tiny trickle of dread will only grow stronger as the story progresses.

The next scene is a party at one of the astronaut’s houses where they are all gathered to watch the moon landing of Apollo. This is an inspired bit of storytelling. It shows the astronauts’ ordinary world, making them seem like real people, and manages to impart a lot of information along the way. I suspect there was some debate over putting this scene first. I’m sure there was a push to set it at NASA because that would be the cool setting, but it would have made most readers feel removed from the main characters.

I’m a big fan of chapters starting in the character’s ordinary world, and then using some event to let the reader know something big is going to happen soon. This happens in Apollo 13 when we see Marilyn Lovell, Jim’s wife, talks about how nervous Neil Armstrong’s wife must be. There is also a mention that of the astronauts’ main concern – they are afraid future missions will be cancelled due to budget cuts before they get to go. This is a useful technique of dramatic irony. The viewer (or reader) knows something much worse than this is going to happen. It’s like you wish you could get into the story and warn the character.

I could go on and on about some of the latter parts of the movie and what works so well, but I think I’ll save that for a later post. I encourage everyone to take a look at this movie-I didn’t even realize exactly how broad of an appeal it had was until the time my daughter came into the room when I was watching it-she must have been about ten and not really interested in many adult movies-and she sat down and watched it all the way through, enthralled.

Happy watching !

 

30 Days of Writing and Editing Tips – Day 17 Mentor Movie and the usefulness of prologues (sometimes)

I posted about how valuable mentor texts are for my writing here, and will do more, but I also wanted to post about mentor movies. There are certain movies that have taught me so much about storytelling, and when I’m in a slump, I rewatch one or more of them.

[image error]

Apollo 13 is one of them. The movie is an adaptation from a book by Jim Lovell, one of the astronauts on the mission. William Broyles Jr. and Al Reinert did the screenplay. The film tells the story of the mission that nearly cost the lives of the astronauts, when an explosion onboard depletes the oxygen supply. The mission becomes one to figure out how to get the astronauts back to Earth before their air runs out.

Most of us aren’t going to write stories so dramatic, but there are takeaways from watching it that have helped me in my stories.

First, the opening. I hate to get into debates about prologues, because the people who hate them will not budge, but here’s my view: It depends on the story! I’ve used them in two of my books, and will probably do so again. If you need something that really sets up the tone of the story or foreshadows what is going to happen, prologues are an excellent way to do that.

The opening of Apollo 13 is a prologue, a sequence using actual news footage and images of the horrific fire on Apollo 1 when the astronauts were rehearsing the launch procedures. All three astronauts died. It works in the movie because it immediately reminds viewers of how dangerous it is to be an astronaut, even when they aren’t actually in space. Even if we didn’t already know the plot of the movie, we know something bad is coming, and that in a suspense/thriller story is important. That tiny trickle of dread will only grow stronger as the story progresses.

The next scene is a party at one of the astronaut’s houses where they are all gathered to watch the moon landing of Apollo. This is an inspired bit of storytelling. It shows the astronauts’ ordinary world, making them seem like real people, and manages to impart a lot of information along the way. I suspect there was some debate over putting this scene first. I’m sure there was a push to set it at NASA because that would be the cool setting, but it would have made most readers feel removed from the main characters.

I’m a big fan of chapters starting in the character’s ordinary world, and then using some event to let the reader know something big is going to happen soon. This happens in Apollo 13 when we see Marilyn Lovell, Jim’s wife, talks about how nervous Neil Armstrong’s wife must be. There is also a mention that of the astronauts’ main concern – they are afraid future missions will be cancelled due to budget cuts before they get to go. This is a useful technique of dramatic irony. The viewer (or reader) knows something much worse than this is going to happen. It’s like you wish you could get into the story and warn the character.

I could go on and on about some of the latter parts of the movie and what works so well, but I think I’ll save that for a later post. I encourage everyone to take a look at this movie-I didn’t even realize exactly how broad of an appeal it had was until the time my daughter came into the room when I was watching it-she must have been about ten and not really interested in many adult movies-and she sat down and watched it all the way through, enthralled.

Happy watching !

 

18 Days of Writing and Publishing Tips – Day 16 The best advice I ever got

 

I was lucky to have Barbara Lalicki at HarperCollins as my first editor. She had edited Beverly Cleary’s books as well as many other established authors so I was very intimidated to open my first edits from her. Barbara was meticulous. She even called me one Saturday after we’d already finished the page passes of WILDFIRE RUN to discuss one word (!) she wasn’t sure fit well.

I learned so much about writing from her. The absolute best advice she ever gave was the little comments on the first couple of edits of the book. I’d see this penciled in (she edited by hand) “Make it bigger” at various scenes throughout the book.

“Make it bigger” meant more dramatic or more interesting or both. I whisper that to myself now as I’m editing a draft, considering whether I’ve developed each scene to its maximum potential. Most times I haven’t, because like many writers, I push to get a draft done, sometimes taking the easy way out and writing scenes that are too standard, too expected, and too undeveloped.

I found this in my sci fi trilogy – I had a short outline necessary to sell the trilogy, but once I started writing it, what seemed fine in the outline turned out to be flat in storytelling terms. I went through the whole book and made scenes bigger. I also did this with my YA historical coming out next year, GONE BY NIGHTFALL. It’s set during the Russian revolution so lots of drama is happening all around the characters, but the main character was on the sidelines too much and the middle was dragging. I added in one scene which changed the whole feeling of the middle, but I didn’t figure this out until four drafts in.

I guess the moral of this story is ‘don’t take the easy way out’ and once a draft is finished, you often can still find ways to push the story further to make it better.

Write on!

Here’s the cover of GONE BY NIGHTFALL, coming out January 21st, 2020. (I love this cover!)

If you are interested in my other writing and publishing tips posts, post 1 is here.

 

30 Days of Writing and Publishing Tips – Day 16 The best advice I ever got

Characters  – how many to introduce when, names,

Assume people will be reading your manuscript who are not from your culture

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I was lucky to have Barbara Lalicki at HarperCollins as my first editor. She had edited Beverly Cleary’s books as well as many other established authors so I was very intimidated to open my first edits from her. Barbara was meticulous. She even called me one Saturday after we’d already finished the page passes of WILDFIRE RUN to discuss one word (!) she wasn’t sure fit well.

I learned so much about writing from her. The absolute best advice she ever gave was the little comments on the first couple of edits of the book. I’d see this penciled in (she edited by hand) “Make it bigger” at various scenes throughout the book.

“Make it bigger” meant more dramatic or more interesting or both. I whisper that to myself now as I’m editing a draft, considering whether I’ve developed each scene to its maximum potential. Most times I haven’t, because like many writers, I push to get a draft done, sometimes taking the easy way out and writing scenes that are too standard, too expected, and too undeveloped.

I found this in my sci fi trilogy – I had a short outline necessary to sell the trilogy, but once I started writing it, what seemed fine in the outline turned out to be flat in storytelling terms. I went through the whole book and made scenes bigger. I also did this with my YA historical coming out next year, GONE BY NIGHTFALL. It’s set during the Russian revolution so lots of drama is happening all around the characters, but the main character was on the sidelines too much and the middle was dragging. I added in one scene which changed the whole feeling of the middle, but I didn’t figure this out until four drafts in.

I guess the moral of this story is ‘don’t take the easy way out’ and once a draft is finished, you often can still find ways to push the story further to make it better.

Write on!

Here’s the cover of GONE BY NIGHTFALL, coming out January 21st, 2020. (I love this cover!)

[image error]

If you are interested in my other writing and publishing tips posts, post 1 is here.

 

18 Days of Writing and Publishing Tips – Day 15 Be Brutally Honest with Yourself

In trying to get published, it’s important to be honest with yourself about your writing ability. Yes, you need self-confidence to keep going in the face of years of rejection, but you also always need to keep a check on the ego and realize what ways you can improve. Many times a rejection is because a story just wasn’t right for an agent or editor, but other times it’s because the writing actually needs work.

The way I motivate myself to work on my writing is by reading my mentor texts. I couldn’t write publishable books without them to inspire me. Even now, nine years since my first book was published, I go back to certain books and authors to reread their work to know how I should push myself to be a better writer. I admire several different writers, all for different aspects of writing technique.

This post is about my mentor texts for setting and description. Description is one of my two areas of writing I need the most work on and that I struggle with in each book.

The books I go back to when I’m feeling particularly frustrated or when I want to give examples of great description in a writing talk are the first three books in Mary Stewart’s Arthurian saga, THE CRYSTAL CAVE, THE HOLLOW HILLS, and THE LAST ENCHANTMENT. I don’t write fantasy, at least not yet, but the genre doesn’t really matter in this type of mentor text. Here are two paragraphs from the prologue of THE CRYSTAL CAVE:

It was dark, and the place was cold, but he had lit a small fire of wood, which smoked sullenly but gave a little warmth. It had been raining all day, and from the branches near the mouth of the cave water still dripped, and a steady trickle over flowed the lip of the well, soaking the ground below. Several times, restless, he had left the cave, and now he walked out below the cliff to the grove where his horse stood tethered.

With the coming of dusk the rain had stopped, but a mist had risen, creeping knee-high through the trees so that they stood like ghosts, and the grazing horse floated like a swan. It was a grey, and more than ever ghostly because it grazed so quietly; he had torn up a scarf and wound fragments of cloth round the bit so that no jingle should betray him. The bit was gilded, and the torn strips were of silk, for he was a king’s son. If they had caught him, they would have killed him. He was just eighteen.

I think this is just brilliant. I can imagine the scene perfectly and feel the damp atmosphere, and the fire ‘which smoked sullenly.’ Stewart is particularly good at evoking sound in her descriptions: water dripping, and even though the bit is not jingling, describing the muffling of it makes us hear what it might have sounded like unmuffled.

The other brilliant part of her descriptive ability is to impart information about the character and the plot in unusual ways: The bit was gilded, and the torn strips were of silk, for he was a king’s son. If they had caught him, they would have killed him. These two sentences are full of both information and tension, and just amazing.

If I seem to be gushing, it’s because I am gushing. Stewart was one of the first writers I really studied when I was trying to figure out how to write. If you aren’t familiar with her books ( they were published in the 1970s) they are in most libraries and still in print to purchase. Be forewarned, some of the later editions have really cheesy covers. Don’t let that turn you off! The ones in the picture below are fine but I’ve got some editions with covers that make me cringe.

If you missed my earlier writing and publishing tips posts, post 1 is here.