Dee Garretson's Blog, page 3

30 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.

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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.

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

18 Days of Writing and Publishing Tips – Day 14 Don’t let these types of characters sneak into your story

Sometimes when a writer is so focused on developing their main characters, keeping the plot going and polishing the writing, they slip up and don’t spend enough time on making their secondary characters memorable enough, so that those characters end up as cardboard stereotypes. Writers often don’t even realize they’ve fallen into that trap, because the characters are so much a part of popular culture that they seem to fit the story. But fitting into expectations leads to average, and in today’s competitive publishing world, writing an average story is going to lessen your chances of getting published.

(I couldn’t think of the right kind of cat picture to go with this post, so a cat hunting out something to get rid of (a stereotype!) is as close as I could get.)

When I read one of those stereotypical characters, they really lessen the story for me. For example, I can’t stand when the mean girl in a high school setting is the beautiful blond cheerleader with a ponytail. I want a better villain than that. Granted, there is a reason those types show up in stories, because too many authors either remember those girls from high school or have seen too many tv shows and movies that also rely on the stereotype.

If it’s a high school villain who must be a popular cheerleader, make her a little quirky in her own way. Maybe she helps her father do taxidermy or she is a genius at math, anything that will surprise a reader. Quirky villains are more memorable and seem more real.

Another example that makes me groan is the computer nerd stereotype, either a skinny guy with ugly glasses or a heavy-set guy who also wears ugly glasses. For example, Jurassic Park does so many things so well in the storytelling, but I hate that they made the bad guy a nerdy slob who won’t stop eating. Again, there are people in the real world who fit the stereotype, but there are plenty of other real people who don’t.

And we can’t forget the jock who is a handsome jerk. If you’ve got one of these characters, you have to work harder to round them out so the reader will be able to remember long after they’ve finished the book.

I don’t have a handsome jock in my sci fi trilogy but I do have a character that somewhat fits that category. Quinn is the main character and Decker is his nemesis at the beginning of the story. Decker is bigger, stronger and older and likes to order Quinn around. The quirk that saves Decker from being a stereotype is that he is a musician, and wears a tiny musical instrument on a cord around his neck all the time, something like an ocarina. I also made the character not be a jerk around children, so that Quinn’s younger sister likes Decker.

Publishing is so competitive that anything you can do to make your stories more memorable will help, so look over your secondary characters and see how you can make them stand out.

Here’s my sci fi trilogy that started this series of posts. If you haven’t read any of the earlier ones on writing and publishing tips, Post 1 is here.

30 Days of Writing and Publishing Tips – Day 14 Don’t let these types of characters sneak into your story

Sometimes when a writer is so focused on developing their main characters, keeping the plot going and polishing the writing, they slip up and don’t spend enough time on making their secondary characters memorable enough, so that those characters end up as cardboard stereotypes. Writers often don’t even realize they’ve fallen into that trap, because the characters are so much a part of popular culture that they seem to fit the story. But fitting into expectations leads to average, and in today’s competitive publishing world, writing an average story is going to lessen your chances of getting published.

(I couldn’t think of the right kind of cat picture to go with this post, so a cat hunting out something to get rid of (a stereotype!) is as close as I could get.)

[image error]

When I read one of those stereotypical characters, they really lessen the story for me. For example, I can’t stand when the mean girl in a high school setting is the beautiful blond cheerleader with a ponytail. I want a better villain than that. Granted, there is a reason those types show up in stories, because too many authors either remember those girls from high school or have seen too many tv shows and movies that also rely on the stereotype.

If it’s a high school villain who must be a popular cheerleader, make her a little quirky in her own way. Maybe she helps her father do taxidermy or she is a genius at math, anything that will surprise a reader. Quirky villains are more memorable and seem more real.

Another example that makes me groan is the computer nerd stereotype, either a skinny guy with ugly glasses or a heavy-set guy who also wears ugly glasses. For example, Jurassic Park does so many things so well in the storytelling, but I hate that they made the bad guy a nerdy slob who won’t stop eating. Again, there are people in the real world who fit the stereotype, but there are plenty of other real people who don’t.

And we can’t forget the jock who is a handsome jerk. If you’ve got one of these characters, you have to work harder to round them out so the reader will be able to remember long after they’ve finished the book.

I don’t have a handsome jock in my sci fi trilogy but I do have a character that somewhat fits that category. Quinn is the main character and Decker is his nemesis at the beginning of the story. Decker is bigger, stronger and older and likes to order Quinn around. The quirk that saves Decker from being a stereotype is that he is a musician, and wears a tiny musical instrument on a cord around his neck all the time, something like an ocarina. I also made the character not be a jerk around children, so that Quinn’s younger sister likes Decker.

Publishing is so competitive that anything you can do to make your stories more memorable will help, so look over your secondary characters and see how you can make them stand out.

Here’s my sci fi trilogy that started this series of posts. If you haven’t read any of the earlier ones on writing and publishing tips, Post 1 is here.

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18 Days of Writing and Publishing Tips Day 13: What about Backstory? Too much, too early will stop a reader, agent, editor….

Short post but important to getting an agent or an editor to say yes to a story: Backstory is the description of your character’s background and ordinary world, what you think the reader needs to know to understand the character and the story. Many inexperienced writers include too much backstory right away, bogging down the plot and often making the reader put down the manuscript, or worse, fall asleep reading it!

It’s hard to know the right amount and where to put it, so I’ve found it’s best to just go ahead and right it in up front in the first three chapters, and then in the revising stage, figure out what doesn’t need to be there, what can be told in a different way, or what can be moved to another place.

A reader is willing to be carried along in the story without knowing the whole history. Think of THE HUNGER GAMES. Much of the details about Panem, its history, and the games themselves are only revealed slowly as the story goes on, and some is never revealed at all.

You, as the writer, need to know the backstory, but you’ll discover the reader does not need to know as much as you. This is why after you’ve written the story and revised it, leaving in only what you think it necessary, get someone else to read it and ask them to tell you when they hit a confusing part. This is usually a sign you may have cut too much backstory.

Read some books that are similar to what you are trying to write, and as you read, jot down what you learn about the character and the setting, chapter by chapter. It’s a fascinating exercise. I’ve done it myself and have been surprised at the results.

I had to figure out how much backstory to include at what stage in my science fiction trilogy. Did I get the right amount at the right time? Hard to tell. The other thing about backstory is reader preference. Some want more upfront so they can better understand the story. Some want less so they can puzzle it out along the way. You can’t please all readers all the time.

If you missed my earlier writing and publishing tips posts, you can start reading them here.

30 Days of Writing and Publishing Tips Day 13: What about Backstory? Too much too early will stop a reader, agent, editor….

Short post but important to getting an agent or an editor to say yes to a story: Backstory is the description of your character’s background and ordinary world, what you think the reader needs to know to understand the character and the story. Many inexperienced writers include too much backstory right away, bogging down the plot and often making the reader put down the manuscript, or worse, fall asleep reading it!

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It’s hard to know the right amount and where to put it, so I’ve found it’s best to just go ahead and right it in up front in the first three chapters, and then in the revising stage, figure out what doesn’t need to be there, what can be told in a different way, or what can be moved to another place.

A reader is willing to be carried along in the story without knowing the whole history. Think of THE HUNGER GAMES. Much of the details about Panem, its history, and the games themselves are only revealed slowly as the story goes on, and some is never revealed at all.

You, as the writer, need to know the backstory, but you’ll discover the reader does not need to know as much as you. This is why after you’ve written the story and revised it, leaving in only what you think it necessary, get someone else to read it and ask them to tell you when they hit a confusing part. This is usually a sign you may have cut too much backstory.

Read some books that are similar to what you are trying to write, and as you read, jot down what you learn about the character and the setting, chapter by chapter. It’s a fascinating exercise. I’ve done it myself and have been surprised at the results.

If you missed my earlier writing and publishing tips posts, you can start reading them here.

18 Days of Writing and Publishing Tips – Day 12: Six Strategies for Procrastinators

If you have trouble actually starting to write, here are a few different strategies I’ve used to begin to get words on paper. Believe me, I never want to actually start writing. It’s a real effort to force myself. I’d happily just think about my stories forever without bothering to type in a word if that was an option.

Write mostly dialogue at first. I use this strategy most often. It’s easier for me to envision people talking, and then if necessary, I throw in a descriptive sentence to help the dialogue make sense. I don’t worry about writing pretty sentences at this point. I’m basically laying down a framework. This also have the benefit of keeping the plot moving. I like to write fast-paced stories and this way I don’t get too bogged down in extra description in a place where dialogue could have been used instead.Write any scene that inspires you. You don’t have to write in order. I wrote most of GONE BY NIGHTFALL in pieces because I couldn’t decide on the order I wanted events to happen. I used Scrivener for some of it. Scrivener, if you aren’t familiar with it, is a writing software that helps keep track of different scenes and different characters. You can get it for a free trial and it’s worth checking out to see if it helps your particular writing method.If writing dialogue doesn’t work, describe the setting of each scene first. Sometimes having a clear picture of the characters’ surroundings makes the dialogue flow better and you can figure out how they are interacting both with each other and with the surroundings in the scene.Tell yourself you only have to write 100 words and they don’t have to be good ones. 100 words is manageable, and you might find once you have those down, you can write more. If you can’t, walk away and come back later to write another 100 words.Record yourself telling what happens in scene as if you were describing it to a friend, then play it back and see what you can use to actually put into words.Keep expanding out from your outline, sentence by sentence until you’ve built a scene. Check out the Snowflake Method by Randy Ingermanson. He describes a step-by-step process that many use, if not to write a whole book, to at least get part of it done.

If you’ve missed my other writing tip posts, check out post 1 here.

And here are the books in my sci fi Torch World series, for which I used all these strategies to actually finish:

30 Days of Writing and Publishing Tips – Day 12: Six Strategies for Procrastinators

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If you have trouble actually starting to write, here are a few different strategies I’ve used to begin to get words on paper. Believe me, I never want to actually start writing. It’s a real effort to force myself. I’d happily just think about my stories forever without bothering to type in a word if that was an option.

Write mostly dialogue at first. I use this strategy most often. It’s easier for me to envision people talking, and then if necessary, I throw in a descriptive sentence to help the dialogue make sense. I don’t worry about writing pretty sentences at this point. I’m basically laying down a framework. This also have the benefit of keeping the plot moving. I like to write fast-paced stories and this way I don’t get too bogged down in extra description in a place where dialogue could have been used instead.
Write any scene that inspires you. You don’t have to write in order. I wrote most of GONE BY NIGHTFALL in pieces because I couldn’t decide on the order I wanted events to happen. I used Scrivener for some of it. Scrivener, if you aren’t familiar with it, is a writing software that helps keep track of different scenes and different characters. You can get it for a free trial and it’s worth checking out to see if it helps your particular writing method.
If writing dialogue doesn’t work, describe the setting of each scene first. Sometimes having a clear picture of the characters’ surroundings makes the dialogue flow better and you can figure out how they are interacting both with each other and with the surroundings in the scene.
Tell yourself you only have to write 100 words and they don’t have to be good ones. 100 words is manageable, and you might find once you have those down, you can write more. If you can’t, walk away and come back later to write another 100 words.
Record yourself telling what happens in scene as if you were describing it to a friend, then play it back and see what you can use to actually put into words.
Keep expanding out from your outline, sentence by sentence until you’ve built a scene. Check out the Snowflake Method by Randy Ingermanson. He describes a step-by-step process that many use, if not to write a whole book, to at least get part of it done.

If you’ve missed my other writing tip posts, check out post 1 here.

And here are the books in my sci fi Torch World series, for which I used all these strategies to actually finish:

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18 Days of Writing and Publishing Tips – Day 11 Character Development or Average characters shouldn’t be totally average

You can find lots of character development works online. Here’s a simple one of mine. Basically a character development sheet is something to fill out to build a character that seems like a real person, with likes, dislikes, hopes, fears and a background that adds something to the story.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, some of the aspects of your character’s personality will play into the plot, especially things the character fears or struggles with. The fun thing about building a character is the possibilities are endless, so don’t limit yourself to average even when you are writing an ordinary character.

For example, think carefully about your character’s hobbies and interests. Hobbies and interests are a good way to develop an immediate hook or quirk that a reader will remember.

I’ve found that means I pick something slightly unusual. For example, I would not pick running, going to the gym, or practicing an ordinary sport as the character’s main hobby. I know if I was reading a book with those things listed, it wouldn’t help me build much of a picture of the person. Now if they liked archery, or karate, that’s a little more unusual, and I’d remember that. And if they spent their time skateboarding, and also trying to teach their cat to skateboard, I’d definitely remember that.

Let’s say you have a character who likes to read. That’s fine, but make it more distinct. Maybe they also collect every printing they can find of THE HOBBIT, or maybe they have stacked all the books in their room to build a little book fort. Those sorts of things really add to the basic hobby and again, help the reader see the character.

A long time ago when I was a ghost writer for a man writing his autobiography, he talked about his parents but I had a hard time pulling something from him that would make his mother distinctive until finally one day he just happened to mention that she was very short and wore high heels all the time, even when she was cleaning. That stuck in my head and I used it in the book.

For some more examples, in WILDFIRE RUN, Luke, the main character, is very active and has done African drumming in school, so he drums on everything, tables, walls, etc., when he is nervous. Stephan, in WOLF STORM, is very good at imitations, especially actors from old movies. Mina from ALL IS FAIR, writes silly plays for her and her schoolmates to perform. Quinn, from my Torch World sci fi series, wants to study explore new places to discover new species, so he’s always drawing pictures of specimens he finds as practice and he also builds contraptions to catch them. These are all ordinary people, but their hobbies may make you remember them more than a character doing something more mundane.

As with fears, the hobbies or interests you pick should help the main character out in some of the difficult situations they will face. That’s why outlining to decide upon the major difficulties is good to do before you make a final decision on all aspects of the character. Not everything will be used, but if something helps them out, it will make sense to the reader and make the plot more believable.

30 Days of Writing and Publishing Tips – Day 11 Character Development or Average characters shouldn’t be totally average

You can find lots of character development works online. Here’s a simple one of mine. Basically a character development sheet is something to fill out to build a character that seems like a real person, with likes, dislikes, hopes, fears and a background that adds something to the story.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, some of the aspects of your character’s personality will play into the plot, especially things the character fears or struggles with. The fun thing about building a character is the possibilities are endless, so don’t limit yourself to average even when you are writing an ordinary character.

For example, think carefully about your character’s hobbies and interests. Hobbies and interests are a good way to develop an immediate hook or quirk that a reader will remember.

[image error]

I’ve found that means I pick something slightly unusual. For example, I would not pick running, going to the gym, or practicing an ordinary sport as the character’s main hobby. I know if I was reading a book with those things listed, it wouldn’t help me build much of a picture of the person. Now if they liked archery, or karate, that’s a little more unusual, and I’d remember that. And if they spent their time skateboarding, and also trying to teach their cat to skateboard, I’d definitely remember that.

Let’s say you have a character who likes to read. That’s fine, but make it more distinct. Maybe they also collect every printing they can find of THE HOBBIT, or maybe they have stacked all the books in their room to build a little book fort. Those sorts of things really add to the basic hobby and again, help the reader see the character.

A long time ago when I was a ghost writer for a man writing his autobiography, he talked about his parents but I had a hard time pulling something from him that would make his mother distinctive until finally one day he just happened to mention that she was very short and wore high heels all the time, even when she was cleaning. That stuck in my head and I used it in the book.

For some more examples, in WILDFIRE RUN, Luke, the main character, is very active and has done African drumming in school, so he drums on everything, tables, walls, etc., when he is nervous. Stephan, in WOLF STORM, is very good at imitations, especially actors from old movies. Mina from ALL IS FAIR, writes silly plays for her and her schoolmates to perform. Quinn, from my Torch World sci fi series, wants to study explore new places to discover new species, so he’s always drawing pictures of specimens he finds as practice and he also builds contraptions to catch them. These are all ordinary people, but their hobbies may make you remember them more than a character doing something more mundane.

As with fears, the hobbies or interests you pick should help the main character out in some of the difficult situations they will face. That’s why outlining to decide upon the major difficulties is good to do before you make a final decision on all aspects of the character. Not everything will be used, but if something helps them out, it will make sense to the reader and make the plot more believable.

30 Days of Writing and Publishing Tips – Day 10 A Simple Character Development Worksheet

You can finds lots of character development sheets online to help you build a complete character and I wanted to post one of mine. It isn’t as elaborate as some, but if you’ve read my previous posts, it’s probably clear that I let the story (and the characters) develop somewhat as I go and I don’t use too much planning as a way to avoid writing, which can be a very easy trap to fall into. This is something I use to get started, knowing it might change along the way:

Character Name:

Age:

Gender:

Sexuality:

Introvert, Extrovert or somewhere inbetween:

Physical Characteristics:

Preferred type of Clothing:

Would never wear:

Hobbies:

Interests:

Skills:

Bad at:

Afraid of:

Pet peeves:

Thoughts on religion:

Thoughts on politics:

Family:

Thoughts on family members:

Past history of family:

Friends:

Enemies:

Past Traumas:

Past injuries or illnesses:

Favorite foods:

Disliked foods:

That’s it. Use and adapt as needed. If you’ve like to start at the beginning of my tips posts, start here.