Piper Shelly's Blog, page 273
June 1, 2012
How I REALLY write
A recent blog post from my author friend Diva Jefferson put the idea in my mind to tell you about some weird habits of mine related to writing.
But before I give you greater insights, what’s playing?
Over the years, every writer will inevitably develop some habits (or quirks) that help him or her to get the best out of their minds and onto the page. Me, for instance…I tend to gesticulate. Wildly. Every time I have to speak some body in my novel, which is to help the reader to fully dive into the soul of a scene, I test all these gestures. Let’s take an easy enough thing, like frowning, pursing lips, arching one eyebrow (I really can do this by now, by the way, LOL), or chewing your lower lip. I just stop writing, stare at the wall over my laptop and do this particular thing. Then I analyze how it feels, which muscles are involved, which other parts of your face move, too. At this point I shall note it’s a good thing I uninstalled my webcam a long time ago.
The more complex a movement is, the more I have to experiment to be able to write it authentically. Such as glaring at someone over your shoulder. Lifting your hands in surrender, maybe with a mocking “oh-wow”. Or grinding your teeth and clenching your fists instead of actually giving in to the impulse and strangle someone. You know how this looks—no? Then close your eyes, feel yourself into such a situation…and act.
I’m always thankful for the days where I’m home alone, without the annoying audience of my family to watch me play my own marionette. Then again, it probably wouldn’t stop me. Thank God, no one thought about secretly placing a surveillance camera in my writing office. Yet. It certainly would be a ratings hit on YouTube.
Another odd habit of mine is going through dialogue lines the morning after I wrote them. Not weird you think? Well, I tend to do it on my way to work, and I usually speak them out loud. Okay, half aloud. I mumble them. Yet, sometimes I’m so deep in thought that I don’t notice other pedestrians. Now, what would you think if you passed a woman in the morning, who comes without a companion and suddenly says things like, “You fight like a girl.”…”Well, duh! I am a girl.” All I can do in those situations is walk on a little faster and lower my head to hide this annoying blush.
But at the end of the day, it’s all good, because it helps me to be a better writer. And, frankly, writer or not, there are a lot of weird people out there with funny quirks. Sometimes you just have to go with the crowd not to stand out. 
Happy writing!
Tagged: writing
May 18, 2012
In addition to my playlist
What’s it with writers and music? I don’t really know how to explain, to be honest. But I will try.
What’s playing?
It’s like every story has its own song. Sometimes the song comes first, and with it the idea to a fantastic plotline. Other times you have a book outlined in your head, and while you write it you come across this awesome song, that just fits the hero or heroine perfectly. There is no real rule for it. It’s a bit like the what-came-first/egg-or-chicken thing.
Important about this is, that most writers need music for inspiration. Like me. I’m one of the worse cases, actually. I can’t get anything worth reading on a page without having a good song that drives me. Once I’ve found that piece, I’m listening to it over and over. Most of the time it starts with a complete day doing nothing but listening. And during those relaxed hours, I form a plot in my mind. I picture the characters, let them do certain things at the right parts of the song, like when there is a crescendo, or something. Even their traits and flaws come with the right music.
It happened that I had this beautiful idea for an archangel trilogy. But apart from a good first chapter, I couldn’t write it. I sat at my laptop for weeks, months even, forcing myself to spit out the words. But in the end it was all rubbish. And I just knew why. I started looking for the right song to it, but nothing would capture me. It’s very frustrating when you have a story in your head and you can’t get it out because of a simple lack of music.
However, it happened only yesterday that I listened to an old song I had saved on a playlist. And there it was. Suddenly. Finally. I could hardly believe it, but I felt like dancing on the table. I’d found Gabriel’s song. And since that moment, I actually wrote two and a half chapters. Impressed? You should be. *winks and laughs*
And now go find the right song to motivate you to do whatever you want to do tonight.
Tagged: writing
May 15, 2012
Easy reading is damn hard writing
What’s playing?
If you’re a writer like me, you know the bad side of the business just too well. Tough critiques. Imagine you sit days and days at your computer, or as in my case at my laptop, and pour your soul into a new project. Then send it off to your friend or critique partner, and they tell you, Sorry but your storyline is shit. Frankly, it feels like they’re calling your kids ugly. And I would know, because that’s exactly what happened to me this week. Granted, she didn’t use such ugly words, but the message was quite the same.
We writers love to please our audience. We invent amazing plotlines, with unpredictable twists, maybe some heart-wrenching romance, and a good deal of action. We live for that one moment when someone walks up to us and says, Hey, your book is fantastic. I couldn’t put it down until I was done with the very last page. But to get there is walking on a rocky way. And harsh critiques are as sure a part of that way as are moments of success. So if you ever get a tough critique for your ms, don’t be offended. Take a closer look. Analyze what went wrong, and where it went wrong exactly.
Although every good writing partner will tell you that critiques are totally subjective, and in the end it will always be your opinion that counts, your friends may have a point. In my case, she did. My CP made me aware of the lack of conflict in my script and the flat storyline. It was nice, she said, but it wasn’t perfect. So after swallowing hard at the punch in the gut she gave me with it, I spent a sleepless night, tossing and turning, thinking of new ways to approach the story. In the morning, I’d come up with a totally different plot. And I’m so happy now she called my plotline shit the other day, because that’s what I needed to make it perfect.
Read what I mean in the new opening of GABRIEL. I’m always happy to hear what you think.
Tagged: writing
May 4, 2012
The road to publication
Believe me when I say it was one of the toughest things in my life.
What’s playing?
I’d just put down Lisa Jane Smith’s latest book (I can’t be sure, but I think it was Reunion of the Vampire Diaries) when I came up with the idea to write my own fantasy novel. But I was only eighteen, just recently graduated from High School, and I’d never taken any curses on the craft. So what did I know about writing?
Learning by doing became my device. I took paper and pen, sat under a tree and started to write the first few lines. Yeah, right, a pen! Can you believe the first draft of my book was hand-written? Jeez, I don’t even want to think back to that time. I didn’t have a computer then. I didn’t have the internet to give me easy access to information. And when I couldn’t think of the right translation for a word (note that I’m Austrian, English isn’t my first language), I actually used a common dictionary. But these things changed by and by.
On my first computer, I typed what I’d already written into the sketchbook, but I wasn’t a fast typist then. It kind of took ages to write one page, and I almost stopped, when frustration overwhelmed me more than just once, and thought about returning to pen and paper. But now I’m happy to say I endured. And then one day, my husband came home with the prettiest present imaginable. He gave me a laptop. I can’t thank him enough for that.
From then on I could write wherever I wanted, sit outside in the garden or just in the light flooded kitchen and was no longer bound to the small makeshift office in a corner of my bedroom. My writing-time dramatically increased with that option, and soon I had the finished draft of a paranormal romance. YAY go me! Let’s publish it. Right?
Oh, so wrong.
Never before had I heard of anything like a Literary Agent, a synopsis, or worse, submission guidelines. Google became my best friend during those hard weeks of learning. I sat another month to piece together a synopsis and what I thought was a good query letter. I think I queried far over seventy agents after that, and know what? Apart from one partial request, it was all form rejections. In the end I faced the fact that I had spent a nice amount of money on a copy editor, who failed to tell me that my book was all but submission ready.
I kicked things through the room, I whined about the unfairness in the business, and in the end, I simply cried. But then I had to make a choice. Give up and find another hobby? No. Never. Not me. If I can honestly say there’s one thing I am, then it’s stubborn. I had this strange idea of becoming a writer, and I would go through with it till the end.
So I started again. From a different angel this time. I contacted published authors and found a nice few who were willing to share their experiences with me. Shout out! to Karen Docter, who made me understand the importance of being part of a good critique group. I acted on her advice and joined RWA and its special chapter FF&P, where I found another handful of people who became invaluable in my writer life. I’m still unspeakably thankful for the day I met Melissa Stark and Zrinka Jelic.
When I got the first critique for the opening chapter of my book, I thought I was going to break down crying again. Because, let’s face it, a tough critique is like calling your baby ugly. But when I was over the fist shock, I understood the meaning of this possibility. I’d found my first audience as a writer, and there I could see firsthand how readers reacted to my stuff.
I tried to revise my novel on their suggestions, but in the end I found it easier to re-write the entire book. I remember that one weekend when I suddenly heard the voice of my heroine in my mind, and words came out non-stop. Writing became fun again, and my CPs loved the story. They cheered for the hero and heroine which was the greatest motivation of all.
And when I was done with the story this time, I knew it was ready to go out. I was cautious with my query letter, tried to keep it in a voice that reflected the heroine’s, didn’t give away too much at one time, and, for once, stopped going with the main stream. I’d found my voice, my style and my courage again.
When the last time I queried half the marked, this time I chose carefully who I was going to query. Only about fifteen agents and no more than a handful of publishing houses. Want to know that happened? Three agents were interested, and two publishing houses made me an offer straight away. When Lauri from Black Opal Books sent me that actual e-mail, I sat stunned for a second, then skipped through the house, screaming my head off… Valentine’s day, 2012. I’ll never forget that moment.
So yeah, that was pretty much it. We negotiated the contract, and finally I signed. It’s an amazing feeling to place your signature onto a publishing contract; an experience I wish to every aspiring writer out there.
There was only left to choose a good title for my novel, a pen name I could live with for the rest of my life, and creating an enticing cover which would reflect the mood of the story. But these are troubles I will talk about some other time…
Tagged: publication
