Jacqui Murray's Blog, page 163
July 29, 2013
10 Tips for Thriller Writers
Before I give you tips, let’s discuss what a thriller is. According to International Thriller Writers, this fiction genre is characterized by:
…the sudden rush of emotions, the excitement, sense of suspense, apprehension, and exhilaration that drive the narrative, sometimes subtly with peaks and lulls, sometimes at a constant, breakneck pace.
Thrillers must include:
a plot that is high-concept
a hero who is clever, superhuman and flawed
a goal that involves saving the nation/the planet, never something like ‘find myself’
a climax that is shocking
world-class nasty villains
stakes that are high, action that is non-stop, and plot twists that are smart, often, and unexpected
If this is your genre, here are some tips for excelling at it:
Your ‘high fives’ should be followed with a chair in the face
Better yet: Set up the High Five and have the hero trip the antagonist instead
Characters should be like sharks–always moving.
Like the SEAL slogan (you know the one), the hero’s easier day should always ALWAYS be yesterday
To the antagonist, understanding patriotism, morals, responsibility is akin to smelling the color yellow
The antagonist can imitate someone being reasonable, but never deliver. That trait is buried deeper in his soul than Machiavelli’s conscience
Thrillers have none of what Oprah calls ‘life defining moments’ unless they involve a gun or knife, or maybe a fist fight
Action is tighter than a knife fight in a phone booth
By the climax, the hero’s chances of survival should include slim, none, and you’re kidding
Bowing to the inevitable is not a position that comes naturally to your hero
If you’re looking for a book on writing thrillers, try James Frey’s How to Write a D*** Good Thriller (click for my review of it).
This is my genre, so I like writing about it in WordDreams. Here are a few more articles I’ve written about this genre.
5 Great Websites for Thriller Writers
Writers Tips #81: 11 Tips on Writing Thrillers
10 Basic Ingredients (Plus 8 More) of a Successful Thriller
Thriller Writers: These Books Are For You
Jacqui Murray is the author of the popular Building a Midshipman , the story of her daughter’s journey from high school to United States Naval Academy. She is webmaster for six blogs, an Amazon Vine Voice book reviewer, a columnist for Examiner.com and TeachHUB, Editorial Review Board member for Journal for Computing Teachers, Cisco guest blog, IMS tech expert, and a monthly contributor to Today’s Author. In her free time, s he is the editor of a K-8 technology curriculum, K-8 keyboard curriculum, K-8 Digital Citizenship curriculum, and creator of technology training books for how to integrate technology in education. Currently, she’s editing a thriller that should be out to publishers next summer. Contact Jacqui at her writing office or her tech lab, Ask a Tech Teacher.
Filed under: thrillers, writers resources, writers tips Tagged: thrillers
July 26, 2013
Book Review: Eye for an Eye
Eye for an Eye
by Ben Coes
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Ben Coes’ latest Dewey Andreas thriller, Eye for an Eye (St. Martin’s Press 2013) is the best in the series. With each book, Coes proves why his name belongs with the likes of Brad Thor, Vince Flynn (such sorrow over his recent death), and Ted Bell (I wish he’d get another book out there) rather than the new guy on the thriller block.
This is a heart-wrenching story filled with action, violence, clever deductions–everything we’ve come to expect from Coes’ Andreas series. But, in this one, we get more–a peek into who really is Dewey Andreas. When we see this quintessential warrior picking wedding china with his fiance, it’s clear how the man who opened this series, who knew little about life other than how to fight and kill–had always claimed it was what he was intended to do–has changed. He’s becoming human, pausing to consider the needs of others, beginning to believe there is life outside of guns and international madmen who want to destroy the civilized world and the isolation Andreas has known most of his adult life. On a pre-wedding South American ‘vacation’ trip with his fiancee, that fragile belief is ripped away by a powerful foe from Andreas’ past, intent on vengeance. Where normal humans would crumple under the emotional weight, Dewey returns to the hind brain self he knows best, trusts implicitly–
“Anger fueled with sorrow, hatred, and every other dark force that had ever completed any man to kill …washed over him like a storm tide… Every step for the rest of his life…would be scarred by that pain which now coursed through him … It was that time he’d come to recognize, that crucible that alone was Dewey’s, a gift and a curse; the moment of the warrior.”
Andreas does ‘what he does best’ and spends the next three hundred pages bringing to justice the man who is responsible for destroying his dream. It doesn’t matter to our hero if that means his death as long as the score is evened and his internal pain ends.This is the man we met in all prior Andreas novels, the one who took a back seat to the human who fell in love with Jessica. Because of a Chinese politician named Fao Bang, the warrior is back.
It never ceases to amaze me how well-plotted Coes’ stories are, no matter their intricacy, no matter their temporal disparity. I wish he’d share how that’s done. Does he use a fifty-page draft or let his characters lead? Whichever it is, plots and subplots are interwoven seamlessly. His characters are believable, their voices strong, dialogue crisp and organic. There is never a spot in this story where I thought he wasted my time (a tragic no-no for thrillers) or confused me. No errors that spoil the story.
I recommend this entire series be on the Must-read list for every thriller fan.
Jacqui Murray is the author of the popular Building a Midshipman , the story of her daughter’s journey from high school to United States Naval Academy. She is webmaster for six blogs, an Amazon Vine Voice book reviewer, a weekly columnist for Examiner.com and TeachHUB, Editorial Review Board member for Journal for Computing Teachers, Cisco guest blog, IMS tech expert, and a monthly contributor to Today’s Author. In her free time, s he is the editor of a K-8 technology curriculum, K-8 keyboard curriculum, K-8 Digital Citizenship curriculum, and creator of technology training books for how to integrate technology in education. Currently, she’s editing a thriller that should be out to publishers next summer. Contact Jacqui at her writing office or her tech lab, Ask a Tech Teacher.
Filed under: book reviews Tagged: book review, thrillers
July 24, 2013
5 Must-have tools for Writers Conferences
UPDATE
It’s summer, time for teachers to recharge their cerebral batteries. That could mean reading, going on field trips, spending time with online PLNs, or taking calls from family members who usually end up at voice mail. For many, it means attending conferences like ISTE June 23-26th and NEA July 1-2 to learn how the heck to integrate technology into their lesson plans.
If you aren’t a veteran conference attendee, you may wonder what you should bring. That’s a fair questions considering learning is no longer done sitting in auditoriums nodding off to the wisdom of a guest speaker behind a podium. Now, you might be asked to scan a QR code and visit a website, access meeting documents online, interact digitally, or use a backchannel device to share your real-time thoughts with the presenter. Besides a toothbrush and aspirin, what should you take to your upcoming conference? Here are five tools that will make you look and act like the Diva of Digital:
Google Maps
Some conferences take multiple buildings spread out over several blocks, and depending upon the number of attendees (ISTE last year had about 20,000), your hotel may not be around the corner from the Hall. Bring the latest version of the Google Maps app on your smartphone or iPad, complete with audio directions. All you do is tell it where you’re going, ask for directions, and Siri (the voice behind the iPhone) will lock into your GPS and hold your hand the entire way. If friends are looking for a Starbucks or Dunkin’ Donuts near the conference, Google Maps will find one. If you want Chinese, use an app like Yelp to find one patrons like.
Conference App
Most educational conferences have one. I find these more useful than the conference website. They are geared for people who are manipulating digital device one-handed, half their attention on the phone and the rest on traffic, meaning: they’re simple and straight-forward. Test drive it so you know where the buttons are, then use it to find meeting rooms, changes in schedules, updates, and (as the ISTE conference app proclaims):
Stay up-to-date on conference news, updates and social media.
Browse conference sessions, speakers and exhibitors.
Build your conference schedule online or in the app and sync with all your devices.
Discover new contacts and introduce yourself via the attendee messaging center.
Review all program content with individual surveys of each session.
Download a PDF of the final printed program.
Find recommendations for local restaurants and activities
Play the mobile game
iPad or netbook
Don’t attend a conference with a paper and pencil–really. You’ll stand out like Windows at a Mac convention. And they won’t have a pencil sharpener anywhere. Almost as bad is using one of those big clunky laptops. Instead, bring a Chrome, netbook, tablet PC, or iPad. They’ll do most everything you need–access websites, take notes, email friends, text colleagues, scan QR codes, post blog updates. There are plenty of plugs if your netbook must be recharged every two hours. Join the crowd around the outlet. Make new friends.
An iPad or netbook enables you to stay connected with the rest of the world while immersing yourself in learning. As you attend meetings, you can stay up on emails, check social networks, send materials to colleagues not attending, handle emergencies that won’t wait until you return to your home base. Apps you’ll want installed are:
Skype (for face-to-face conversations)
a scanner (for paperwork, business cards)
a voice recorder like QuickVoice Recorder
a book Reader (Kindle, iBooks, other)
some sort of drawing program like SketchBoard
apps for Twitter/FB/G+/LI–or whatever your social media of choice is
an expenses tracker like Easy Expense Tracker
Yelp
Many of these can be used on an iPhone, smartphone, or iPad. Check before downloading to be sure it serves your needs.
Note: Early after your arrival, make sure you know how to access the conference Wifi. This should be free to attendees. And, always ask presenters where you can find their digital notes or copies of their presentations online. Many/most make that available either through the conference or their own professional websites.
Evernote
You need a way to keep a ToDo list, take quick notes–textual, visual, digital, movies, voice memos-and collect everything in one spot that’s accessible from all digital devices. The FREE Evernote app does that. It’s quick to install and intuitive to learn. In fact, use the conference to learn how to use it by doing–you’ll have lots of opportunities for taking all manner of notes.
Business Card app
Have some method of digitally transferring business card to new friends and colleagues. There are many options:
NewCard–create your own personalized business card app to share with new contacts. This app is free while in beta, so grab it soon
OneTouch Business Cards app–FREE–Create your own professional mobile-business card in just a few seconds
ScanBizCards app–FREE–this one scans paper business cards into a directory–very cool. If you choose NewCard or OneTouch, you still need this one
Bump–this paper business card scanner works by bumping your colleague’s iPhone or iPad
Look around when you’re there. See what people are using that makes their experience better, easier, more efficient. Share it in the comments below.
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Jacqui Murray is the author of the popular Building a Midshipman , the story of her daughter’s journey from high school to United States Naval Academy. She is webmaster for six blogs, an Amazon Vine Voice book reviewer, a weekly columnist for Examiner.com and TeachHUB, Editorial Review Board member for Journal for Computing Teachers, Cisco guest blog, IMS tech expert, and a monthly contributor to Today’s Author. In her free time, s he is the editor of a K-8 technology curriculum, K-8 keyboard curriculum, K-8 Digital Citizenship curriculum, and creator of technology training books for how to integrate technology in education. Currently, she’s editing a thriller that should be out to publishers next summer. Contact Jacqui at her writing office or her tech lab, Ask a Tech Teacher.
Filed under: Journalism, writers resources Tagged: WRITERS CONFERENCES
July 23, 2013
Tech Tip for Writers #60: How to Add Shortcuts to the Desktop
Tech Tips for Writers is an (almost) weekly post on overcoming Tech Dread. I’ll cover issues that friends, both real-time and virtual, have shared. Feel free to post a comment about a question you have. I’ll cover it in a future Tip.
Q: How do I create a shortcut on my desktop so I can find my programs easier?
A: Maybe it’s to your writing program or to the WIP. Whatever it is, it wastes precious writing time (and sometimes we get only 30-60 minutes between activities to get a scene started/edited) to drill down through layers of files to click-click-click to the one you need.
There are two ways to do that:
click on the icon on the start button and drag and drop it to the desktop, or
right click on the icon on ‘all programs’ (click start button, then select ‘all programs’ at the bottom) and select ‘send to’, then select ‘desktop (create shortcut)’
That’s it.
This is a great tool for students so they can easily access the programs they use most often. If you have fourth grade or up students, let them do this themselves. They’ll feel empowered and they’ll add shortcuts you didn’t consider.
Jacqui Murray is the author of the popular Building a Midshipman , the story of her daughter’s journey from high school to United States Naval Academy. She is webmaster for six blogs, an Amazon Vine Voice book reviewer, a weekly columnist for Examiner.com and TeachHUB, Editorial Review Board member for Journal for Computing Teachers, Cisco guest blog, IMS tech expert, and a monthly contributor to Today’s Author. In her free time, s he is the editor of a K-8 technology curriculum, K-8 keyboard curriculum, K-8 Digital Citizenship curriculum, and creator of technology training books for how to integrate technology in education. Currently, she’s editing a thriller that should be out to publishers next summer. Contact Jacqui at her writing office or her tech lab, Ask a Tech Teacher.
Filed under: tech tips for writers Tagged: shortcuts, tech tips, writers tips
July 22, 2013
32 Tips for Science Fiction Writers
Science Fiction is not like writing a romance novel, or a thriller. You-all who claim this genre understand that. You are inventing a new reality. The story’s strength comes from being able to convince readers to accept your version as true–to willingly suspend their disbelief long enough to journey with your main characters.
Here are some tips (and in some cases, quotes–they all don’t share tips) from those who do it best. Let me know if you agree:
Isaac Asimov (author of I Robot)
Isaac Asimov’s reputed writing tips revolved around paying attention to plot, vocabulary, and information. SOAP Presentations discusses these in more detail–I’m going to move on to something more fun. Here are seven quotes that will give you a better idea what Asimov considered integral to good stories (for more, visit Writers Write):
Individual science fiction stories may seem as trivial as ever to the blinder critics and philosophers of today – but the core of science fiction, its essence has become crucial to our salvation if we are to be saved at all.
I write for the same reason I breathe – because if I didn’t, I would die.
From my close observation of writers… they fall into two groups: 1) those who bleed copiously and visibly at any bad review, and 2) those who bleed copiously and secretly at any bad review.
Science fiction writers foresee the inevitable, and although problems and catastrophes may be inevitable, solutions are not.
Writing, to me, is simply thinking through my fingers.
Those people who think they know everything are a great annoyance to those of us who do.
You must keep sending work out; you must never let a manuscript do nothing but eat its head off in a drawer. You send that work out again and again, while you’re working on another one. If you have talent, you will receive some measure of success – but only if you persist.
Ray Bradbury (author of Martian Chronicles and Farenheit 451)
I collected these from all over the internet, but Jim Denney at Unearthly Fiction has a massive collection you’ll enjoy:
Read intensely. Write every day. Then see what happens. Most writers who do that have very pleasant careers.
Stuff your head with stories, metaphors, poetry, Shakespeare, science, psychology, philosophy.
Stuff your eyes with wonder, live as if you’d drop dead in ten seconds. See the world.
Fall in love with movies, especially old movies.
Read dreadful dumb books & glorious brilliant books, & let them wrestle in beautiful fights inside your head.
I wish craziness & foolishness & madness upon you. May you live with hysteria & out of it make fine stories.
I have a sign by my typewriter that reads, DON’T THINK!
All of the good, weird stories I’ve written were dredged out of my subconscious.
Arthur C. Clarke (author of 2001: A Space Odyssey)
These, too, are pretty popular on the internet. For a long list, visit Writers Write:
End what you began!
Politicians should read science fiction, not westerns and detective stories.
I don’t pretend we have all the answers. But the questions are certainly worth thinking about..
The only way of discovering the limits of the possible is to venture a little way past them into the impossible.
I don’t believe in God but I’m very interested in her.
I’m sure the universe is full of intelligent life. It’s just been too intelligent to come here.
Frank Herbert (author of Dune)
There is no real ending. It’s just the place where you stop the story.
The gift of words is the gift of deception and illusion.
You don’t write for success. That takes part of your attention away from the writing. If you’re really doing it, that’s all you’re doing: writing.
The truth always carries the ambiguity of the words used to express it.
Deep in the human unconscious is a pervasive need for a logical universe that makes sense. But the real universe is always one step beyond logic.
The function of science fiction is not always to predict the future but sometimes to prevent it.
Robert Heinlein (author of Stranger in a Strange Land, Starship Troopers)
A lot of writers don’t publish ‘writing tips’, but you can get a lot out of their words. These Heinlein quotes told me as much about doing my craft well as the shelves of books I’ve collected:
Don’t handicap your children by making their lives easy.
Always listen to experts. They’ll tell you what can’t be done and why. Then do it.
If you would know a man, observe how he treats a cat.
In the absence of clearly-defined goals, we become strangely loyal to performing daily trivia until ultimately we become enslaved by it.
Thou art God, and I am God and all that groks is God.
What are some writing strengths Sci Fi authors do better than any other genre?
Jacqui Murray is the author of the popular Building a Midshipman , the story of her daughter’s journey from high school to United States Naval Academy. She is webmaster for six blogs, an Amazon Vine Voice book reviewer, a weekly columnist for Examiner.com and TeachHUB, Editorial Review Board member for Journal for Computing Teachers, Cisco guest blog, IMS tech expert, and a monthly contributor to Today’s Author. In her free time, s he is the editor of a K-8 technology curriculum, K-8 keyboard curriculum, K-8 Digital Citizenship curriculum, and creator of technology training books for how to integrate technology in education. Currently, she’s editing a thriller that should be out to publishers next summer. Contact Jacqui at her writing office or her tech lab, Ask a Tech Teacher.
Filed under: writing Tagged: genres
July 19, 2013
Book Review: Interrupt
Interrupt
by Jeff Carlson
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
I am an armchair paleoanthropologist, so any novel that even hints at early man gets my attention. What a rich time in human history, when nature ruled and man–without the ferocious mammalian tools of claws, ripping teeth, and thick skin–survived thanks only to that most ethereal of body parts: the brain. Man’s ability to problem solve–create tools, plan ahead, devise an effective hunt–meant the difference between life and death. I so love watching people invent solutions to problems they have never before faced.
When Jeff Carlson’s latest book Interrupt (47North 2013) showed up, I grabbed it and wasn’t disappointed. It is a perfect mix of science, mystery, and non-stop action, not to mention a fresh plot on a timely topic. In a nutshell: The US is simultaneously zapped with electro-magnetic pulses from the sun and a Chinese attack. With all electrical equipment and defenses knocked out, the country struggles to protect its people from the deadly effects from the Sun as well as defend our shores from a probable Chinese attack. What no one expected was that the Sun’s electromagnetic radiation would also short-circuits parts of the brain causing anyone exposed to it to revert either to the mental state of an early Homo sapien–more like Homo habilis in brain functions, lacking creativity and higher-level thinking skills–or for about one in ten, a Neanderthal with fundamental hindbrain instincts that required each individual put life and procreation of the tribe above all else. Once again, as so often in man’s evolutionary history, civilization’s survival depended upon the mind’s ability to solve unimaginable problems.
Sound far fetched? Yes, but not as ‘science fiction’ as you might think when you consider that mtDNA (the other DNA every person carries inside their cells, inherited from mothers) links us to ancestors as far back as 100,000 years ago. Neanderthals lived as late as 25,000 years BCE. It stands to reason that, given the right set of circumstances, those traits could be activated.
There are some beautiful scenes in the book, too, of the world as it might be without the noise and clutter of a ‘civilized society’:
“He felt hunger. He tasted blood and roots. Friends were constantly around him, and danger, and with each step he walked a balance between those two states–sometimes safe, sometimes at risk. Sometimes he increased the risk to himself in order to protect his companions, but never was there a deliberate thought. He did not consider his choices. He acted.”
Perfect. This is an original book that you’ll need to set an evening aside–or a cross-country plane ride. You won’t want to stop reading.
Jacqui Murray is the author of the popular Building a Midshipman , the story of her daughter’s journey from high school to United States Naval Academy. She is webmaster for six blogs, an Amazon Vine Voice book reviewer, a columnist for Examiner.com and TeachHUB, Editorial Review Board member for Journal for Computing Teachers, Cisco guest blogger, Technology in Education featured blogger, and IMS tech expert. She is the editor of a K-6 technology curriculum, K-8 keyboard curriculum, K-6 Digital Citizenship curriculum, creator of technology training books for middle school and ebooks on technology in education. Currently, she’s editing a thriller that should be out to publishers next summer. Contact Jacqui at her writing office or her tech lab, Ask a Tech Teacher.
Filed under: book reviews Tagged: book revew, early man, paleoanthropology
July 17, 2013
I love Words
I love words. I subscribe to all sorts of Word-a-days. I adopted an arcane word–utible–and attempt to use it weekly (daily turned
out to be non-utible. Please get angry if you use words they don’t understand. Even the members of my writer’s group pushed back on me). I love finding new words that say exactly what I mean. How about abecederian. Make a guess at what that means and you’re probably right. It rolls off your tongue like it’s meant to be.
I have a pretty good vocabulary. A first-grade student uses roughly 1,000 words. A college grad uses maybe 5,000-7,000 of the 50-70,000 in the dictionary. I’m at the upper end of the ‘college grad’ category not in my spoken language nor my written, but in my knowledge. I have a list of about five hundred fun words–those multi-syllable ones that so perfectly fit a situation, but who would ever come up with them.
I love finding authors who aren’t afraid to use those rarely-used words in their writing. Elizabeth George is one. Another is Ted Bell, creator of Lord Alexander Hawke and his merry escapades. I’m reading his latest novel, Warlord and to my joy, ran across one of my favorite words–demesne, as in personal domain and pronounced ‘demain‘. When I discovered this word several years ago, I attempted to use it in my conversation (something I always do to get comfortable with new discoveries). I’d walk into my backyard with my husband and tell him I was surveying our demesne. He didn’t know this word, so I spelled it and it became our joke to pronounce it phonetically–demesne (speaking the silent ‘s’).
What fun when I found this very word, used in context, in Ted Bell’s book Warlord, written as though it was just another word. But then, that’s Bell. If you haven’t read him, do it. He’s a wonderfully accomplished action-thriller writer not afraid to challenge his readers with interesting words.
For other posts on words, check these out:
Beautiful Words
Ten Favorite Words (Part I)
Ten Favorite Words (Part II)
Eight Favorite Words (Part III)
Ten Favorite Geek Words (Part I)
Seven More Favorite Geek Words
Jacqui Murray is the author of the popular Building a Midshipman , the story of her daughter’s journey from high school to United States Naval Academy. She is webmaster for six blogs, an Amazon Vine Voice book reviewer, a columnist for Examiner.com and TeachHUB, Editorial Review Board member for Journal for Computing Teachers, Cisco guest blog, Technology in Education featured blogger, IMS tech expert, and a bi-monthly contributor to Today’s Author. In her free time, s he is the editor of a K-8 technology curriculum, K-8 keyboard curriculum, K-8 Digital Citizenship curriculum, and creator of technology training books for how to integrate technology in education. Currently, she’s editing a thriller that should be out to publishers next summer. Contact Jacqui at her writing office or her tech lab, Ask a Tech Teacher.
Filed under: authors, words Tagged: beautiful words, Elizabeth George, Ted Bell, words
July 16, 2013
Tech Tip for Writers #59: Shortkey for the Copyright Symbol
Tech Tips for Writers is an (almost) weekly post on overcoming Tech Dread. I’ll cover issues that friends have shared. Feel free to post a comment about a question you have. I’ll cover it in a future Tip.
Q: How do you create the copyright symbol in Word?
A: It’s easier than you think. Hold down the Alt key and press 0169. Use the keypad with the num lock on–don’t use the number row. I could not get this to work until someone pointed out that you must use the keypad. Duh.
This not only works in Office, but lots of other places, ©–like WordPress. Cool, hunh?
Jacqui Murray is the author of the popular Building a Midshipman , the story of her daughter’s journey from high school to United States Naval Academy. She is webmaster for six blogs, an Amazon Vine Voice book reviewer, a weekly columnist for Examiner.com and TeachHUB, Editorial Review Board member for Journal for Computing Teachers, Cisco guest blog, IMS tech expert, and a monthly contributor to Today’s Author. In her free time, s he is the editor of a K-8 technology curriculum, K-8 keyboard curriculum, K-8 Digital Citizenship curriculum, and creator of technology training books for how to integrate technology in education. Currently, she’s editing a thriller that should be out to publishers next summer. Contact Jacqui at her writing office or her tech lab, Ask a Tech Teacher.
Filed under: tech tips for writers Tagged: copyright symbol, shortkeys, tech tips, writers tips
July 15, 2013
14 Writing Tips from Blogging
If you aren’t a blogger, you don’t realize how top-notch you must be to succeed in that field. You need a strong voice, a friendly style, and a command of all 7,486 writing rules itemized in tomes like Strunk and White’s Elements of Style. But in blogging, you only get a couple hundred words to capture an audience. Compare that to the thousands you get in a short story and the tens of thousands in a novel.
I was a novelist before a blogger and I understood that styles differ, so when I started blogging, I stumbled on TimeThief’s One Cool Site. That became what Oprah would call a ‘life defining moment’. In a day when common sense isn’t always so common, she had it. I learned about the importance of headings, good content, brevity, and proper grammar. As the months passed, the surprising by-product of becoming a better blogger was I became a better writer. I found myself incorporating her hints into everything I wrote. I even taught them to my 3rd-5th graders. Of course I did–they were cogent, pithy, and effective.
She recently posted ten tips about writing. Now, her audience is bloggers, but as I read them, I found they summarized the essential elements that go into novel writing. See if you agree:
“The main rule of writing is that if you do it with enough assurance and confidence, you’re allowed to do whatever you like. (That may be a rule for life as well as for writing. But it’s definitely true for writing.) So write your story as it needs to be written. Write it honestly, and tell it as best you can. I’m not sure that there are any other rules. Not ones that matter.” – Neil Gaiman’s 8 Rules of Writing
“People who think well, write well. Woolly minded people write woolly memos, woolly letters and woolly speeches.” – 10 Tips on Writing from David Ogilvy
“Work of section in hand, following plan of section scrupulously. No intrusions, no diversions. Write to finish one section at a time, for good and all.” – Henry Miller’s 11 Commandments of Writing & Daily Creative Routine
“Use plain, simple language, short words and brief sentences. That is the way to write English–it is the modern way and the best way. Stick to it; don’t let fluff and flowers and verbosity creep in.” – Mark Twain
“Paragraphs are almost always as important for how they look as for what they say; they are maps of intent.” – Stephen King
“Give your readers as much information as possible as soon as possible. To hell with suspense. Readers should have such complete understanding of what is going on, where and why, that they could finish the story themselves, should cockroaches eat the last few pages.” – Kurt Vonnegut’s 8 Tips on How to Write a Great Story
“Find a subject you care about and which you in your heart feel others should care about. It is this genuine caring, and not your games with language, which will be the most compelling and seductive element in your style. I am not urging you to write a novel, by the way — although I would not be sorry if you wrote one, provided you genuinely cared about something. A petition to the mayor about a pothole in front of your house or a love letter to the girl next door will do.” - Kurt Vonnegut
“Two kinds of writers. Those who think this life is all there is, and want to describe everything: the fall, the battle, the accouchement, the horse-race. That is, Tolstoy. And those who think this life is a kind of testing-ground (for what we don’t know — to see how much pleasure + pain we can bear or what pleasure + pain are?) and want to describe only the essentials. That is, Dostoyevsky. The two alternatives. How can one write like T. after D.? The task is to be as good as D. — as serious spiritually, + then go on from there.” – Susan Sontag on Writing
“If you get stuck, get away from your desk. Take a walk, take a bath, go to sleep, make a pie, draw, listen to music, meditate, exercise; whatever you do, don’t just stick there scowling at the problem. But don’t make telephone calls or go to a party; if you do, other people’s words will pour in where your lost words should be. Open a gap for them, create a space. Be patient.” – Hilary Mantel
“One that works for me every time is to focus on the positive intention behind my writing. What is it that I want to communicate, express, convey? By focusing on that, by getting into the state that I’m trying to express, I find that I stop worrying about the words – just let them tumble out of their own accord.
It’s a great strategy for beating writer’s block, or overcoming anxiety about a particular piece of writing, whether that’s composing a formal business letter, writing a piece from the heart, or guest blogging somewhere ‘big’…” – Joanna Young
“There’s a sureness to good writing even when what’s being written about doesn’t make all that much sense. It’s the sureness of the so-called seat of an accomplished horseback rider or a sailor coming about in a strong wind. The words have both muscle and grace, familiarity and surprise.” – Anne Bernays
“If there is a magic in story writing, and I am convinced there is, no one has ever been able to reduce it to a recipe that can be passed from one person to another. The formula seems to lie solely in the aching urge of the writer to convey something he feels important to the reader. If the writer has that urge, he may sometimes, but by no means always, find the way to do it. You must perceive the excellence that makes a good story good or the errors that makes a bad story. For a bad story is only an ineffective story.” – Six Tips on Writing from John Steinbeck
“Both running and writing are highly addictive activities; both are, for me, inextricably bound up with consciousness. I can’t recall a time when I wasn’t running, and I can’t recall a time when I wasn’t writing.” – Joyce Carol Oates
What do you think? Has blogging made you a better writer? If you’re struggling with writing, have I convinced you to try blogging?
Jacqui Murray is the author of the popular Building a Midshipman , the story of her daughter’s journey from high school to United States Naval Academy. She is webmaster for six blogs, an Amazon Vine Voice book reviewer, a columnist for Examiner.com and TeachHUB, Editorial Review Board member for Journal for Computing Teachers, Cisco guest blog, IMS tech expert, and a bi-monthly contributor to Today’s Author. In her free time, s he is the editor of a K-8 technology curriculum, K-8 keyboard curriculum, K-8 Digital Citizenship curriculum, and creator of technology training books for how to integrate technology in education. Currently, she’s editing a thriller that should be out to publishers next summer. Contact Jacqui at her writing office or her tech lab, Ask a Tech Teacher.
Filed under: authors, blogs, writing Tagged: blogging, writing
July 12, 2013
Book Review: Kind of Cruel
Kind of Cruel
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Sophie Hannah’s thriller Kind of Cruel (Putnam 2013) never lets up. From the opening scene when Amber Hewerdine–an insomniac going to a hypnotist as a final gambit to end her sleeplessness–is arrested in connection with a murder, to the final surprise ending, the story wraps mystery into plotline into psycho-drama. We readers scrabble frantically to figure out the origin of the words ‘kind of cruel’ and whether they are the fulcrum to who killed two seemingly unconnected women. In the usual British way, the characters are difficult and acerbic, hard to like thanks to their lack of social skills, but intriguing because of their intellect. For example, Amber Hewerdine is cranky, opinionated, and judge-jury to everyone she meets, but unlike Ellie Griffiths’ Ruth Galloway, is literarily saved because she is just as hard on herself.
The story’s voice is as confusing as the plotline. We sometimes see the world through Amber Hewerdine’s eyes, in first person present. Other times, we jump into another character’s head (Amber’s sister-in-law or one of the detectives or another pivotal individual including the narrator) and switch to third person present or past. Then, there are times we are in an unnamed point of view, this always identified by italics–actually two fonts of italics (this we finally figure out half way through is the hypnotherapist whose character ties all the disparate story threads together). This final viewpoint provides the psycho-analysis of motives, tie-ins, backstory where needed, and an insider perspective on a complicated and tightly-woven plot.
But that’s a lot of switches and caused me no small bit of confusion. I never could quite relax into the story.
One piece that will appeal to many readers is the comparison of homemaking styles between Amber Hewerdine and her sister-in-law Jo Utterly. The former is haphazard but loving, while the latter is Martha Stewart. Who c an not hope that Jo will get her comeuppance in the end?
One other noteworthy piece: This is supposed to be from Sophie Hannah’s detective series starring Charlie Zailer and Simon Waterhouse. When I started the book, I was excited in hopes I’d find another character-driven thriller/mystery series I could munch my way through. Well, yes, they are in this story, but events do not revolve around them as you would expect from series characters, nor do we spend a lot of time with them. The one scene where we get to know them as a married couple–and discover some of their relationship oddities–I found myself wondering how they could survive emotionally for the next book (if there is a next).
Over all, good read if a bit confusing.
Jacqui Murray is the author of the popular Building a Midshipman , the story of her daughter’s journey from high school to United States Naval Academy. She is webmaster for six blogs, an Amazon Vine Voice book reviewer, a columnist for Examiner.com and TeachHUB, Editorial Review Board member for Journal for Computing Teachers, Cisco guest blog, Technology in Education featured blogger, IMS tech expert, and a bi-monthly contributor to Today’s Author. In her free time, s he is the editor of a K-8 technology curriculum, K-8 keyboard curriculum, K-8 Digital Citizenship curriculum, and creator of technology training books for how to integrate technology in education. Currently, she’s editing a thriller that should be out to publishers next summer. Contact Jacqui at her writing office or her tech lab, Ask a Tech Teacher.
Filed under: book reviews Tagged: book review, murder, thriller
