Michelle McLean's Blog, page 47

Mystery Agent Contest at Operation Awesome!

Welcome to December!!!



To kick off this lovely month right, we've got a brand new Mystery Agent Contest over at Operation Awesome. Here are the details:

All YA and adult subgenres except for Christian fiction, erotica, MG, and picture books.

Please include title/genre in the comments.

The first 50 one-line pitches posted will be considered.Mystery Agent will choose one winner.

The winner will have Mystery Agent's full attention when they send their full MS. Yep, you heard me right -- YOUR FULL MS! So don't forget, please have your manuscript ready to send before you pitch.

We will post when the 50 slots have been filled, so even if there are 50 comments, go ahead and leave yours unless you hear otherwise from us. We'll have actual comments or questions in there as well, so not all of those 50 comments will be entries.

Good luck to everyone!!!!

Blog Chain - What are Books to you?

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So, apparently I DID have something to post today...I just totally forgot LOL

It's my turn on the blog chain, and for this round, Kate wants us to fill in the blank:

Books are __________.

It's been really interesting reading everyone's responses. I sort of thought everyone would have the same answer and that hasn't been the case at all. Everyone has had wonderful posts on this.

For me, books are........an addiction.

Seriously. I crave them. I think about them ALL the time, whether it's about reading them or writing them. I dwell on the characters and worlds I've immersed myself in for long after I've closed the book. I dream about them. I could talk for hours about them. I let my house crumble around my ears when I'm in the middle of a good one. I carry one with me at all times. My house is bursting at the seams with them and I still want more! My dream is to have a huge library in my house, with rolling ladders to reach all the shelves :D

The second pay day hits, I go out and buy at least one new (or new to me) book. I have kept the library cards from every place I have ever lived (and I've moved a lot). When I don't have something to read, I go a little crazy. I'll buy books I'm not horribly interested in because if I need something to read and that's all that's available, I can't just walk away empty handed.

I'm seriously addicted....and I LOVE it :)

Be sure to check out Laura's awesome answer from yesterday, and stop by Shaun's tomorrow to see what books are to him :)

How about you? How would you fill in the blank?

Getting Back into the Groove

Okay, so we were supposed to get back to our regularly scheduled blogging as of yesterday, and here we are on Monday morning and I've got....nothing LOL

I think my brain is on turkey overload or something. A combo of too much good food, too much time off of writing (the longer I go without writing, the harder it is to get back into it), a destroyed house that is squashing what little creativity is trying to break free, and two kids who have been on vacation going on 7 days now and have been cooped up in the house due to weather.


How do you find the drive to write when everything in life is conspiring against you? 

I know breaks are good and life gets in the way but, if this goes on any longer, I despair of ever writing again.....help :D

Back to Our Regularly Scheduled Blogging :)

Hope everyone had a wonderful holiday! My house is destroyed...and my kids are home for another two days before heading back to school....at this point it would be easier to move :D Though we did get our Christmas tree up this weekend. Since we were in the middle of moving last Christmas, we didn't get to do the big tree with all the trimmings, so I am enjoying getting everything all Christmased up :)

But, vacationing children and their destructive tendencies or no, tomorrow the routine must begin again...or I'll never get back into gear LOL

OOooo how did everyone do on NaNo!!? 

I'm over on the OA today - stop by and say hi! :)

Happy Thanksgiving!

It is hard to fight an enemy who has outposts in your head. — Audre Lord 
So don't feel bad when the voices start screaming at you :) Okay, that had nothing to do with Thanksgiving, but I thought it was funny LOL I'm going to take the rest of the week off - I've got family coming in and not only is tomorrow Thanksgiving, but it is also my birthday :D So I'm going to have fun with my family and just chillax for a few days :)I hope everyone has a wonderful, safe holiday! I'll see you bright and early on Monday!

Tutor Tuesday - How to Write a Memoir

We haven't done a Tutor Tuesday in a while, and since I've been in a haze of non-fiction lately (editing my author proofs for my book (squee!!!! done!!!!) and organizing my blog tour, etc, I thought I'd revisit a few tips on how to write a little non-fiction.

Most writers I know or have met, who write NF along with fiction, are memoir writers - or would like to be someday. Writing a memoir isn't that much different from writing fiction - you still want to pull the writer into the story, you are usually trying to make a point with what you are writing, etc. With the one huge, glaringly obvious difference that a memoir is TRUE, as opposed to our less true fiction works :)

Writing a memoir takes a lot more effort than just recording the events of your life as you recall them happening. Here are just a few tips to get you started.

1. Pick a theme 

The difference between an autobiography and a memoir is the focus of the narrative. An autobiography is the telling of someone's life. A memoir focuses on the theme (or themes) of that life (or episode in the life). Think of what you are writing about. What is your message? What is going on? What is the moral to your tale? Are you writing about your life as a cautionary tale? Was your life changed by one spectacular event? What events in your life led up to that?Picking a theme helps narrow your focus so that you don't get distracted with stories that have nothing to do with that theme.

For instance, if I was focusing my memoir on how I am the unluckiest person in the world who ended up winning the lottery, I'd choose to share events in my life that illustrate that. Share unlucky episodes, anecdotes, and events that led to me winning the lotto. I would steer away from writing about my first puppy or my first car or my high school graduation…unless those events helped to support the theme I want to get across.You want to tell the story of your life…but a lot of stuff happens to us in the course of a lifetime…you need to find a way to narrow that down and trim a bit of the excess.

2. Make it conversational 

You gotta make it interesting. Don't drone on and on about your less than stellar childhood – make the reader feel like you are speaking directly to them. Pull them into your narrative, make them feel what you were feeling, experience what you experienced. Put them in the story.

3. Use your senses 

This is a good way to draw your readers in. When you write a scene, think about your five senses. If you are describing a trip to the beach, what did you smell? What color was the ocean? What sounds did you hear? Could you taste the salt on your lips? Did the hot sand burn your toes, or did it feel cool and silky?

4. Ground your story in the real world 

This seems like a given, but when you are writing about personal experiences, you are (naturally) focused inward. Add details to your narrative that help place what is happening to you in the real world. Things like cultural references (what movies were playing, what songs were popular, etc), modes of transportation (were wood paneled station wagons littering the roads, or was everyone driving a hybrid?), popular clothes fashions (shoulder pads and teased hair or bell bottom jeans and long, shaggy hair?)….these types of details can be woven into your memoir to help set the setting.

5. Be ethical when writing about living people! 

This one can be tough, and it is completely up to you if you will use real names or not. But consider how your story may affect those you include. Telling the world that your sister had an affair might be great for your story, but how will it affect your sister? In my opinion, changing the names of the major players in your narrative don't adversely affect your memoir in the slightest – and using the real identity of someone who would prefer to remain anonymous could hurt you (and them) much more than it could help your book.Again, this is only my opinion, and this is a subject that can get really touchy, but if your sister's affair is something you need to include in your book (maybe it is what broke up your own marriage, etc), I don't consider it dishonest if you change your sister Patty to your cousin Susan – the event is the same, the results are the same, the STORY is the same. Changing a few details to protect someone who has no choice over your freedom of speech is not, in my opinion, dishonest.

Now, saying you were a drug dealer that lived on the streets when in fact you were raised in a million dollar mansion in Beverley Hills is another thing entirely. Changing the facts and events of your life is dishonest…that isn't a memoir, that is a fiction novel. But changing a name or two…making a sister a cousin…you aren't changing anything that affects the outcome of your story. Just think long and hard before you include someone that might not want to be included. You have the right to tell your story, but they have the right to keep their lives private if they wish.

6. Above all…KEEP IT HONEST! 

As we just discussed, fabricating the facts of your life doesn't do anyone any good (as some writers have discovered). When you label something a memoir, you are making a sort of promise to your readers that what you are telling them is the truth, that the events that you are sharing really happened. If the events of your life aren't enough on their own and you need to fabricate experiences to complete the story…then do what you wish, but don't call it a memoir – call it fiction, because that is what it is.

Will you get hauled into court and called a fraud if you couldn't remember that it was raining the night you fell overboard into the sea so you said it was a clear night? Probably not. It's a small, insignificant detail that doesn't affect the outcome of the experience. Are you being dishonest if you say you fell overboard when you've never set foot on a boat in your life? Yeah. You are. Don't do that. :)

Now, these few tips are just the bare basics of memoir writing. For more detail and specific How To tips, you might want to find a book or two on memoir writing. I recommend Judith Barrington's Writing the Memoir: From Truth to Art, to start you out.

There is also a chapter in my upcoming book on writing narrative essays (which can be a sort of shortened version of a memoir), along with tips on how to take your writing up a notch.

Have you ever thought about writing a memoir? Or have you written one? Narrative essays (like Chicken Soup for the Soul stories)?

NaNo Fail

Ah, my dear NaNo,

We had a good run, you and I, but alas, it was just not meant to be. I don't regret a single moment of our time together. We made it longer than any other NaNo year I've ever been with, and have over 20,000 beautiful new words to show for it. But sometimes, life and more important deadlines just get in the way. It's no one's fault. We just....drifted apart. We wanted different things. I know you wanted what was best for me and our manuscript, but your unwillingness to be flexible was a problem I just couldn't overcome. And that's not your fault. It's not you, it's me. If I could have stuck to what you wanted, the result would have been amazing. All I can say is, I did my best. I'm sorry it wasn't enough.

We had some amazing times together, and the words we created are well worth the stress and near panic of every looming word count goal. I'll still think of you, from time to time, especially when I'm shredding our precious creations.

And this doesn't have to be goodbye forever. Maybe, once we've taken a break, stepped back and given each other some space and time, maybe we can try again.

We'll always have November.....

Best regards,

Michelle

On the OA today with the fabulous Christine Fonseca - com...

On the OA today with the fabulous Christine Fonseca - come say hi!

Friday Funnies with a bit of Music :)

Some funny videos for your Friday :D (language warning: the first says the "a" word :) )

A Lot of Words Thursday :D

Crowding is what Keats meant when he told poets to "load every rift with ore." It's what we mean when we exhort ourselves to avoid flabby language and clichés, never to use ten vague words where two will do, always to seek the vivid phrase, the exact word. By crowding I mean also keeping the story full, always full of what's happening in it; keeping it moving, not slacking and wandering into irrelevancies; keeping it interconnected with itself, rich with echoes forward and backward. Vivid, exact, concrete, accurate, dense, rich: these adjectives describe a prose that is crowded with sensations, meanings, and implications. 
But leaping is just as important. What you leap over is what you leave out. And what you leave out is infinitely more than what you leave in. There's got to be white space around the word, silence around the voice. Listng is not describing. Only the relevant belongs. Some say God is in the details; some say the Devil is in the details. Both are correct. ... Tactically speaking, I'd say go ahead and crowd in the first draft — put everything in. Then in revising decide what counts, what tells; and cut and recombine till what's left is what counts. Leap boldly. 
— Ursula LeGuin
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