Pictures for Chosen

I'm 2.75 hours ahead on my 2.5/40, with 98 hours, with 74.5 hours spent on planning, writing, and editing in just under 40 days. Not awful at all. I'll probably post one last (?) update next week.

As for writing...here are a few pictures I took as inspiration for my work in progress (formerly and perhaps currently titled "Chosen: Bonnie of Sheshack").





What was that, anyway?



It's actually an agave in bloom, right by a huge tree. Looks pretty unearthly.



It's amazing the difference sunlight makes.







It was a windy day and the leaves were moving, so the trees almost looked alive. I feel like some of that came through in these later pictures!









OK; back to work!

Story Jenga

Sorry if this is kind of loopy; I'm pretty sleepy.

The 2.5/40 is going fine; I'm at least 1.75 hours ahead as of Tuesday night. (Except, I'm strongly considering more or less reverting back to my previous draft of Chosen: Bonnie of Sheshack. That would mean more or less ignoring most of my painstaking outline/snowflake. There's a whole lot of passion in that earlier draft, though I've of course made some good changes...hm. JENGA!)

So if you're not aware, Maggie Phillippi and I have been editing "The Healer and the Pirate." We're through with Draft 2 and editing our way to Draft 3. Then, God willing, it will be one quick read-through and then we'll likely put it out as an eBook.

ANYWAY. We're having some troubles with what I call Story Jenga. You ever play Jenga? Where you have to pull out wooden blocks and if you pull the wrong piece, the whole tower collapses? That happens a lot in my writing. I make a change somewhere and those changes affect later parts until I end up making major revisions throughout a chapter, or even farther. Kind of like going back in time and smashing a butterfly.

Frankly, when it happens in "The Healer and the Pirate," I've gotten to the point where I just type JENGA! to Maggie.

The Arizona Ren Faire has a large Jenga tower for kids to play with. I couldn't find a picture of it, but here's a stack of French fries and I think a plank of fish. If you took the wrong fry down, I'll bet it'd topple.

Interestingly, the Internet says that "Jenga" is actually Swahili for "build." And I do think that often times, these changes that result in story collapse can eventually make the story stronger. But it sure is annoying to pick up all those pieces.

Eeeeeeeee (or, juryrigging Macbook keyboard for those who are fiscally conservative with their own funds)

My 2.5/40 is going OK. Enthusiasm is waning but I'm still being more productive than I was before I started. (And my writing partner Maggie has been a SUPERSTAR the last couple weeks in working on The Healer and the Pirate!) As of Tuesday night I'm 5.5 hours ahead (need 60; at 65.5). I'll be surprised if I don't "spend" that difference during this holiday weekend, though. 16 days to go!

Onward!

This is NOT computer repair advice; at best it is going to let you eke a little more time out of your Jurassic MacBook. Perform any of this at your own risk.

So I ordered my 1st generation MacBook right about the time they came out in May 2006. (That means it's about my laptop's 5th birthday. Happy birthday, MacBook!) It's served me fairly well through most of that time. Aside from the initial outlay, expenses have been low. Out of pocket, I've had to replace the battery twice, and I bought a replacement key for the keyboard for something around $5. I've had numerous FREE repairs from the Apple Store, in and out of warranty--1-2 top keyboard/wrist rest/casing replacements, 2 new hard drives, and a new power plug. I always feel like I'm not cool enough to even go into the Apple Store. I don't know if it's because my laptop is a very early MacBook or if they have something in their databases saying I'm going to be famous someday (cough) but until the last battery replacement, they've taken pretty good care of me.

But my computer is getting old and tired. There are numerous cosmetic issues now, including cracks (one of which is now covered by Scotch tape). Personally, I am more concerned that when I jostle it the wrong way or press way too hard on a key, it randomly restarts. (That may be fixable by opening it up and making sure everything is seated properly--but getting inside could also be the thing that knocks aside something delicate and kills it for good. So I'm putting up with that "quirk" for now.)

Just as annoying as the restarts, the keyboard is starting to go. (I'd like to say that as a writer, I'm proud of that. But honestly, it was probably more chatting and Facebook than actual writing that did it.)

The keyboard issues started, unsurprisingly, with the "e" key, in July 2010 or earlier. It got to the point where it missed probably every fifth time I typed an "e." Not wanting to buy a new (expensive!) keyboard assembly, I figured I was looking at hooking up an external keyboard forever anyway. With nothing to lose, I popped off the key to investigate.



(It's very easy to pop off a key on the EARLY Macbooks, at least; I can't speak for later ones. Just pick a corner and gently pry. If that corner doesn't work, try another corner. I don't know if I'd try it on the oversized keys like tab, shift, space bar, etc.)

Anyway, beneath the key, there's a kind of inverted silicon (?) cup. I've heard it called a "nipple," and it does look like the nipple on a baby bottle. When you depress the key, the top of the cup touches the metal (?) connectors beneath it, causing a key strike. Fascinating, huh?

But as the keys get worn out, the cups start to break down, which prevents the top of the cup from touching the connector when pressed.

I'll start with the easy fix.

I've got a key now ("t") where the cup is permanently depressed/probably cracked most the way around the top. That caused the key to be permanently depressed, which felt "mushy" and if I recall correctly, prevented quite a few keystrokes from registering. This little trick actually seems to have fixed that problem outright.

1) Remove key.
2) Cut out a small circle of thin cardboard/thin plastic/etc. (I used an old insurance card, somewhat thinner than a credit card.)
3) Affix the circle to the underside of the key with double-stick tape.
4) Pop key back on and test.


Cleaning gunk out of key before replacement is optional.

Hopefully, the key will be elevated so that it's closer to flush with the other keys. My "t" key is now actually a bit taller than its neighbors "r" and "y", but I haven't noticed any problems since the fix. So if your key is depressed, this is a quick and non-intrusive fix--you can very easily undo it. Absolute WORST case I can think of is if you somehow broke your key and/or the hinge, you could buy a replacement on eBay for a few bucks.

But again, this is just informational, not advice on how to fix your computer. ::shifty eyes::

Unfortunately, on my "e" key, the cup was basically detached. Recall how the cup works--the silicon/etc. has to touch the metal beneath to trigger a keystroke. So if the cup is nearly or fully open at the top, when your key presses down, there will be no result at all.

This is NOT what you want the "cup" to look like.



The fix I found for an "open cup" is kind of hit or miss. I would only use this if the "t" repair above is unsuccessful.

1) Remove key.
2) Cut a small piece (no more than a few millimeters long) from a clear hair elastic band. Using a toothpick or other thin implement, tuck that little piece into the open cup. (I believe I used Scunci clear elastic bands like these. I have not tried regular rubber bands.)
3) If you haven't already, cut out a small circle of cardboard/thin plastic/etc. as above. Again, if you haven't, affix the circle to the underside of the key with double-stick tape as above.
4) Pop key back on and test.
5) If the key still doesn't register correctly, remove key and rearrange the elastic band in the cup. Repeat steps 4 and 5 until the key works adequately.


This is the open cup with some clear elastic in it (and also the broken top of the cup thrown in, I believe).

This is not a 100% fix by any means. But it brought my "e" key up from "intolerable" to merely "annoying." On a good day I'm not even sure if my typos are the fault of the keyboard or my fingers!

Maybe once a month, the "e" key starts missing a lot because the elastic band inside has drifted. (I actually realized I had that problem when I started the blog today. I don't remember the last time it happened.) To fix the problem, I have to pop off the key and move the elastic around until it's in a good spot. It took 2 or 3 tries this last time. But aside from quick adjustments, my "temporary fix" has been keeping my laptop on life support since at least July 2010.

(The VERY best fix, in theory, would be to replace the broken silicon cup altogether. You can order replacements online. Unfortunately, the instructions I read said to use superglue to affix them. The sensor area is UNDER the hollow silicon cup, so there would be little margin for error. Given that a slip could be the difference between a laptop with an iffy "e" key and a laptop with a dead "e" key, or worse, I'm sticking with the temp fix.)

Yes, I AM saving up for a new computer. 5 years is a pretty good lifespan for a laptop, and this one's got some serious problems. But being cheap fiscally conservative with my own funds, I'm still trying to get a bit more use out of it before it dies.

So anyway, if you notice any missing "e"s in my blog, now you know where they went.

Enchilada, Miscommunication and 2.5 for 40 update

Thought this story was kind of funny.

For lunch Tuesday, I had a Lean Cuisine Chicken Enchilada Suiza. What is that, exactly? Google says that "Suiza" refers to the creamy sauce...but it also says "Suiza" means "Switzerland." Swiss Chicken Enchilada? Really?

Note to self, ask Spanish speaker for translation before purchasing low-priced, suspicious-sounding "Mexican" food made by a company from Switzerland. (To be honest, I've eaten worse, though. 2.5/5 stars.)

Anyway, you have to cook it for 9 minutes at 50% power. Those instructions worried me--I struggle to tell that microwave to cook for any time that doesn't end with :00 or :30. So I tried to hit power level, and the microwave said no, I needed to choose the time first. After an error or two I managed to enter the time of 9 minutes and got to the power level entry screen. I entered 5.

What did it say?

PWR LVL PLS

I'd evidently done something wrong, but at least it was politely asking me to input the power level, please. So I hit 5 again. Nothing happened, and it just flashed at me. I gave up and hit start, with no idea if it would turn my food to ash or what.

Even after I hit start, it STILL said PLS!

Only then did I realize the microwave wasn't being polite. It was displaying Power Level 5 (PL5).

So if I ever say something stupid or offend you, I apologize in advance. The microwave and I don't even understand each other, and I don't understand my lunch.  And people are a lot more confusing than machines and frozen meals.

Onward! To my surprise and delight, my 2.5 for 40 is actually going well, thank God! I worked pretty hard last weekend, especially Saturday (8 hours of writing and planning!). By Sunday I was caught up. It's hard for me to make the time to work during the week, even though 2.5 hours isn't really that much--it's still a big chunk of my time once I get home.

Totaled, up through 10:30 PM Tuesday, I've got 14.5 hours on Chosen/Bonnie Greenfield, Priestess of Plants/whatever that WIP is going to be titled, and 18.5 hours (!!!) on Kinyn/The Healer and the Pirate. Have also been more conscientious about my prayer and Bible reading time. For 17 days, I should have 42.5 hours and I've got 43.75 hours. I'm actually AHEAD...and trying to get farther ahead. I've got a few family get-togethers and the like in the next few weeks. I'm hoping to put in a lot more work this weekend too, to get ahead for those things that might come up later. (Like not having any time to write during lunch this Wednesday. Little things like that tend to throw me off.)

I'm not sure it's quite accurate to call the 2.5/40 a "tithe" per se, except in the sense that "tithe" means "tenth." I'm spending most of the time working on things that, eventually, might earn me a small amount of money. But it is still really refreshing to have this time devoted to accomplishing things that I think matter to God.

When I'm through the 40 days, I'll compare it to NaNoWriMo.

Writing Wednesday - Isolation

My 2.5 for 40 was going great until last weekend. With Mother's Day, I didn't spend much time working (or praying). So I'm between 3 and 4 hours behind the 25 hours I should be at as of the end of Tuesday night.

But when it comes down to it, I've done over 7 hours of editing Kinyn, over 7 hours of planning and writing my newest novel, and almost daily Bible reading (got off-track one day). That's not too bad for 10 days, but I'm going to try to "catch up" this weekend.

One thing I will say--today we celebrated a (wonderful) co-worker's birthday at lunch, so I wasn't able to write. That threw me off for the whole evening. Not an excuse, but kind of a warning....sometimes changes in schedule can cause challenges.

Another writing post I drafted while on vacation! How funny that it's about focus.

---

So while stuck in a small seat along with like 130 (?) of my closest friends, with absolutely no Internet or even cell phone, and while being kicked from behind by a child sitting in someone's lap, I accomplished about 1.5 hours of planning for my novel. Unfortunately, I was in the air for about 3.5 hours. It got boring so I ended up stopping. I probably could have WRITTEN for longer but I find planning so draining and dull...but if I hadn't brought a book along I reckon I would've done another hour of planning (or, perhaps, started writing a new novel or short story!).

Takeaway? I am (and maybe you are) most likely to get work done when it becomes the most appealing option. I love writing, but honestly, I love going down Internet rabbit holes more (that's bad). I also love typing to friends and family more (that's fine--people are more important than books--but still needs to be monitored). But I strongly prefer writing fiction to my day job. So it is comparatively easy to get some writing done in the lunch room every day. On the other hand, when I was unemployed I initially got LESS writing done, because goofing off is more fun than writing.

That's why I adore writing with Maggie. I can combine my love of writing with my love of 'hanging out' with a friend online. And together we wrote the best book I've ever had a hand in.

How do you get motivated to write?

Writing Wednesday - Retyping

How's my crazy plan going? So far I've done 2.75 hours of editing on Kinyn and 3.5 hours planning my next project. Not bad.

This section typed on my cell phone a month or two ago:
---
I struck upon this trick by accident. I never bring my laptop to work. One lunch break, when I wanted to edit my Step 3 (?) of my Snowflake for Chosen, I only had a handwritten copy. With my scrawling, the handwritten copy is not condusive to editing! I had written it quite a while ago, but lazy evening (and weekend!) Julie didn't type it for lunch Julie to edit.

Long story short, I was lacking motivation, so I typed the whole thing on my not-entirely-dumb phone (Samsung Comeback) and emailed it to myself. And as I typed on my thumb keyboard I had plenty of time to think about each sentence. If a plot idea was stupid, no way was I going to take the time to type it out by thumb! Whereas when I pencil-edit a typed draft, I might hesitate to change things around too much (more retyping!) and evwn when I make changes, sometimes I miss typing them in later. So I ended up with a stronger outline than when I started. It also felt more 'fun' because it was more like texting than work (90+ percent of what I write by hand is related to my writing which, while fun, is still work).

So again, the main takeaway seems to be to do something a little different if you have to. I think my challenge with Chosen is that I wrote this novel already, 1.5 times at least! So it's hard to keep planning interesting.

I don't know how broadly retyping with thumbs can be applied. With a full manuscript, it would take ages...and would likely introduce a substantial number of typos. But with a page-long outline it doesn't take long, and the outline's plot almost certainly trumps form. I found it worthwhile, but I'm not even sure I'd do it for a 4-page outline.
---

So, what do you think? Not TOO many typos... Looking back, I still think it's good advice, but I'm not sure I can take the time with my 7 (!) page outline, which is where I am now.

Writing Wednesday - Tucson Festival of Books - Space Travel and Spacefaring Societies

On the writing front, still plotting, probably making some MAJOR changes to the outline for a novel. Even potential changes to who dies, and/or when! I've already written the NOVEL 1.5 times but I'm going to give it one more try! It will be interesting to see if I can write with an outline.

The next panel I saw at the Tucson Festival of Books was Space Travel and Spacefaring Societies, with Catherine Wells, John Vornholt, Timothy Zahn, and David Weber. Again, me attending the panel reflects an interest in a topic more than an endorsement of the authors (though I am reading one of Wells' novels right now--the middle book in a series, I think?--and find it interesting and a surprisingly good use of omniscient POV).

If you're particularly interested, an audio recording of the whole panel appears to be up at Bloomsite . Since that's available, and since I'm tired tonight, I'll just hit a few things I noted. The panel kind of wandered, so there was talk about technology, but not so much about space travel or spacefaring societies!

David Weber made a good point that boiled down to, humans are going to keep doing the same things they've always done, but technology lets us do more of it, faster.

As for actual talk about space travel, Catherine Wells discussed tesseracts and wormholes (real wormholes being the size of a pinhole, but you need an excuse). She suggested you hint at technology but don't get into details.

Timothy Zahn said that you could use any drive with any name (even "Fred's Transport System") to get from here to there, but the limits and constraints must be clear to play fair with readers.

David Weber said that before starting a novel, he writes an essay laying out the universe, including what's in their technology toolbox. He said you must include limits and understand the logical implications of any changes you make to the system. For instance, we need an economic reason to go into space before we will do so. And faced with the NEED to do it, we will find medical and technological advances to help us through space travel. All technology used in telling a story is a plot device, and if it is not used to push the story forward, it's a weak story. Weber also makes an interesting argument (more than once during the festival!) that science fiction stories for modern societies are like fairy tales in a non-technological society.

Zahn and Weber both mentioned "Threat evokes response." Zahn noted that once technology is out of the bottle, you can't stuff it back in. But he suggested that you can hand-wave away technology problems when you assume there's a better mouse. In other words, logically, airplanes might be piloted by drones if the technology existed, but if you want humans in the planes, then create jammers so that the droids can't function.

And my notes failed me here but one of them said that the best way to convey future societies is don't call attention to them at all.

Writing Wednesday - Characterization

My writing updates...I'm trying something new. I'd tell you about it, but Louis Sachar said he doesn't even tell his WIFE when he's writing, let alone what he's working on until the draft is done. But I'm snowflaking it, and it has some ties to "Flight from Endwood." I didn't do any of that "take an hour" stuff (I just did it), but I'm about in the middle of Step 3.

So at the Tucson Festival of Books on the University of Arizona campus, the next thing I did was actually try to get some money from the ATM (my bank's was out of order!) and then I hurried in to the Student Union and jumped into the shortest food line I saw (Chick-fil-A). Mmmm!

Then the next panel I went to was a workshop titled "Characterization: More than Six-Pack Abs and Batting Eyelashes" by romance authors Judy Duarte and Pamela Tracy.  (I'm not particularly familiar with the authors; I attended for the topic.) 

Despite the title and the fact that it was labeled as "romance" there were quite a few writers present who didn't write romance, so that was interesting. Pamela Tracy writes inspirational suspense--I wish I would've looked up ACFW members who were at the Tucson Festival of Books, but I don't know how I would've done that without looking up about a hundred names...

Anyway, Judy presented first. She noted that romance has gotten a bad reputation based on people who read a 1970s romance, or they think it's formulaic. She said the goal was creating characters to engage the reader and making the reader yearn for a happily-ever-after. And the way to achieve that is to wound your character. All characters must learn and go through a character arc. (In romance, both leads have arcs.)

A good thing she noted is that people don't make changes in life until they're uncomfortable--something must really go wrong, and you must force them to change.

She noted you could wound a character using their childhood, events closer to the present, and even a physical wound (though that should also have emotional components). 

In short, something needs to wound your character, even if they don't know there was a wound there. 

You can use backstory to wound characters and make them sympathetic.  Movies (the example she used was "While You Were Sleeping")--can start with backstory.

You need a goal (what), motivation (why) and conflict (why not).  That's pretty common and is mentioned in the Snowflake Method (though Randy Ingermanson flips motivation and goal--I think I might like Judy's order better).

Questions:

• Who is the character at the beginning? What is the wound, and how did he or she get it? How does it drive him or her?
• Who is the character at the end? How has the wound healed? What will drive the character in the future?

In short, know your characters and their backstories.

Pamela had some additions (I recall her saying more than I have notes on; hmmmm.) One suggestion was that when you're stuck, you can perhaps treat the setting as a character (like in "Gone with the Wind"). You should have things that come between characters, as a wedge.

I may be butchering Pamela's diagram concepts now; I forgot to email her to get the information from the handout, and the workshop was more popular than anticipated so they didn't have enough. But I have notes of her saying Term + Class = Distinguishing Characteristic. Characters tend to move through classes, but the term stays the same.

So for Cinderella, her term is always "Cinderella."

But her class changes:

Beloved daughter
Grieving stepdaughter
Abused
Beloved by all others (in Ever After, this is everyone around her; in Disney's story, it's the mice and the fairy godmother)
Princess

For romance, the hero's journey can mirror or correspond with the heroine's (like Prince Charming starts out as beloved as well).

It sounds maybe ridiculously simple, but I just sketched an outline of the characters of my co-authored romance novel The Pirate and the Healer and they followed this formula pretty well.  I tried for one of my other WIPs, Bonnie of Sheshack (working title), and it was interesting but a little harder.

Near the end she asked, How do you make a book so compelling that the reader remembers the characters' names? Theme and detail about characterization will make them real.

So how do you introduce that needed backstory?

Judy said there shouldn't be a "dump," like the book starting with someone sitting in an airplane, thinking. Rather, it's best to give a little bit at a time, like an onion. She noted one way to figure it out was to go through a published book and mark the backstory to see how it was revealed.

Pamela added to make sure the book is recent--I think she said published in the last 3 years or so, as the amount of backstory readers want has changed over the years. (She's absolutely right; it's amazing how much introspection is common in old novels.....even ones from the 1990s.)

Judy did note that in one story, she had to put a lot of backstory right at the beginning to make sure the character (who appears to be a deadbeat dad) was likable. So in that case, the reader needed to know the character's motivations.

Anyway, it was a lot more informative than I made it sound; I just took really bad notes. More next week!

Writing Wednesday - The Tile Method?

OK, so I continue to struggle with the Snowflake Method. I'm not sure if it's because it doesn't work for me, because we never see snowflakes in the southern half of Arizona, or because I actually wrote one entire draft (and about 1/3 of a substantial rewrite) before I actually sat down to try to plan how I was going to do the third (and, God willing, close to final) draft.

For myself, Step 3 seems to be the hangup (to date). Sure, I have my novel envisioned (more or less) in 5 sentences, which is basically the story told from the lead character's POV, since the novel is first-person. But to tell that same story in 5 sentences from the point of view of each of my other characters? Characters who may or may not be present during every significant scene? I eventually got paragraphs of some sort done for everyone, but with very a substantial amount of overlap. In other words, the paragraphs are really boring and not very insightful.

Then I had an idea. Why not do a timeline or a grid explaining what happens during each major plot point that the main character goes through?

That...actually led to a repeat of the overlap problem!

So out of sheer boredom and desperation, I ended up writing what major thing a character does or experiences in each major segment of the novel. Once I had one segment written out, I realized that if, read in the right order, it sounded almost like a story. So I numbered the events in order before proceeding to the next major plot point. While the end got cramped and muddled, I got the first 3/4 figured out more solidly than I'd anticipated, and even figured out the ending. It also helps greatly if you want characters to have parallel or mirrored journeys.

Don't look TOO closely if you don't want spoiled, but otherwise, thank you, cell phone camera and sloppy handwriting!


So the more I think about it, the more I doubt its usefulness in any story that's not clearly anchored by one main character. But once I was done I was able to go and fix some of those weak "5-sentence character journey" paragraphs to be...somewhat less weak. If I find it helps me long-term, I'll try plotting out a well-known story and post it up here at some point.

Still, it's also quite possible that the real lesson was that if you're stuck, try something different...or just sit there bored until your subconscious works it out. Me, when I see little blank squares I just want to fill them in, but a blank sheet of paper is more intimidating.

Writing Wednesday - Too Busy

So I've made distressingly little progress on my snowflake. Like, about 2 hours' work in a week. Granted, I did a LITTLE more thinking in my head on top of that, but still. That's IT??? Still on Step 3 (quick telling of the story from each major characters' POV). But I'm planning to go through what I wrote on Step 3 one more time and then move on to Step 4 (expanding the paragraph summary you wrote of your novel into 5 paragraphs).

While I don't like writing down plans, I DO like thinking about problems, and I haven't even been doing much of that lately. I think most of the problem is my own human nature, to get caught up in distractions. I taught Children's Church last Sunday and the lesson was on Mary and Martha (Luke 10:38-42). The lesson itself was about putting God first (something I'm not particularly good at). And that made me think the lesson was to do MORE for God--spend more time reading the Bible, praying, etc. Which is a good thing, of course. But in this day and age I do wonder if Satan loves to see us so caught up on Facebook, in Internet rabbit holes, etc., that both our quiet time with God, and our quiet time to think, all get pushed by the wayside. Statistically I've read that we have MORE leisure time today than any generation before us. (I'm not sure that's entirely true; farmers would be completely busy during the harvest and planting, but when the snow came there wouldn't be that much to do. But most women, excepting the ones who had a ton of servants, probably do have a lot more time to themselves. Every time I get annoyed at having to do a load of laundry, I imagine how angry my great-grandmothers would probably be to know their descendant was whining about having to move clothes from the washer to the dryer....

I do think just sitting down and THINKING was a lot more fun before I became a grown-up, and also before the Internet. I still remember when I was on the school bus or even sometimes in class, I'd daydream adventures that I could later write down. (Too bad many of those would qualify as Rescue Rangers fanfiction and thus could never be salable!)

Then in high school I'd sketch on the top margins of my notes and by college the sketches had even turned into comics. (Speaking of which, I was just thinking of that very comic lately...maybe someday I'll turn it into a novel. Hmmm.)

Anyway, now between my busy job (and there's always work I can be doing there) and the millions of rabbit holes that are the Internet (and the wonderful people who populate it), I just haven't been taking as much time to be creative. I think I need to try to carve out more time to just sit and think and listen. Easier said than done, but I'd better try.

Writing Wednesday - Snowflake in Phoenix

No writing this week, but some planning. I'm slowly working on that snowflake for my new (OK, rewritten) novel. The idea behind the Snowflake Method is to start with a one-sentence description of the story, and work from there. My current step 1 of the snowflake says:

Brought to a world of magic, a high school girl battles the god who wants her for his priestess.

That's subject to change (i.e. get phrased better).

I have a paragraph-long summary of the plot (Step 2) and now I'm working on Step 3, which is where you explain the characters' storylines.

The Snowflake Method itself states that you should spend 1 hour on Step 1, 1 hour on Step 2, and then 1 hour for EACH character's storyline in Step 3. I spent over an hour on Step 1 (still not satisfied), and something in the ballpark of an hour on Step 2. But for Step 3, I just can't sit down and think about one character's story for a full hour, at least not since I already know 2/3 of the story quite well (it's just the last third that I'm really fuzzy on). For myself, I think it's better to run through that stage fairly quickly, and then double back once all the characters' stories are established. After all, I'm likely to come up with some ideas as I write each storyline, and what affects Bunfa may affect Kelar, and so forth.

The novel is young adult and was called "Chosen: Bonnie of Sheshack." Now I'm wondering if "Bonnie Greenfield, Priestess of Plants" might be better? Or maybe I just like the "P" noise since it sounds like "pirates...."

I also went to the VNSA Book Sale and got a (tiny) book on trees and an (equally tiny) book on flowers. I was born and raised in the desert so I know mesquites and palo verde and saguaros agave and ocotillo...but very, very little about plants that require larger amounts of water to survive.

So I'm (slowly) working!

AND, I ordered Charles Denson's Coney Island Lost and Found. I had a Groupon for Barnes and Noble, which I bought using the referral credit I got when my mom signed up. So my out-of-pocket cost, including tax, was less than $8. Not too bad! I'm hoping to eventually plot and write another novel with Maggie, set on, you guessed it, Coney Island.

Writing Wednesday - Just Do It

I FINALLY FINISHED FLIGHT FROM ENDWOOD!!!

The last chapter and epilogue were very, very difficult to write, because I had to close up a huge mess of plotlines as well as I could. It's a very complicated story that I'm just not a good enough writer to pull off at this point. Someday I'll revisit it, but I'm SO grateful that day won't be any time soon! You can read a little about it at my About Me and My Writing page.

So I have a co-worker who would like to write a novel, but he worries that he wants his novel to be GOOD. (One cure for that problem is NaNoWriMo. It's a great way to see that yes, you can write something if you take the pressure off.)

For most people, it seems, the first draft is really rough, and the edits come later. In other words, the art of writing is really the art of RE-writing. Even if you have a solid outline and a solid plot, you can always polish your writing to make it sparkle. But first you have to have something to polish!

Animation is the same way:



Even rough/imperfect drafts can be really beautiful, as in this line test for Beauty and the Beast. And if those rough drawings hadn't been done, the movie couldn't have been made.

I hate to see anyone not write just because they're worried it won't be good enough. Frankly, some authors have become fabulously wealthy with novels that critics (and fellow authors!) don't consider to be remotely well-written. And I think the best way to learn to write is to just do it (and once you're strong enough, solicit feedback). I learned more about writing for publication from six months of giving and receiving critiques on Critique Circle than I did from my Creative Writing degree. And Critique Circle currently costs as little as $0 a year (free membership; $49.00 a year for some excellent perks; $89.00 a year for no ads).

Now, all that said, it's easy to give advice and much harder to follow it. I struggled with those last two chapters because I was afraid they wouldn't tie up the story satisfactorily. Yup; I fear they're not good enough!

Still, the best advice is, just do it.

If you write, you will eventually have a manuscript. 500 words a day for about 7 months will give you 100,000 words (the very HIGHEST word count most beginning authors should strive for). Unless you have exceptionally short chapters, one chapter a week will give you a novel in well under a year.

Of course, as I found out through NaNoWriMo, if you just start writing with NO plan, you may end up with a story that's incredibly hard to edit. (Especially if time travel always creeps in to your stories, like it does into mine.)

One brilliant idea for conceiving a book is the Snowflake Method. The basic concept is, start with a little kernel of a story idea, and then build on it until you have a coherent storyline. Eventually you'll get a detailed plan to write your novel! As a bonus, you'll end up with an outline you can use when pitching your work to editors and agents. From the site:

There is no reason to spend 500 hours writing a wandering first draft of your novel when you can write a solid one in 150. Counting the 100 hours it takes to do the design documents, you come out way ahead in time.

I actually attempted to use the Snowflake Method before I started "Flight from Endwood" in 2006. It didn't work so well, but I was pressed for time and didn't pause to actually think through how the story would actually work. I ended up plotting a romance for two characters (Edwin and Miss Liang) and they had absolutely no attraction. Had I actually considered my Snowflake more critically before I started, though, I might have saved myself literally years of edits, and might have a pitch-able novel right now.

But I'm going to try the Snowflake thing with my next project (Chosen: Bonnie of Sheshack). That's another novel that I wrote and substantially edited about a third of...but I'm going to get working on it in earnest presently, and get something out there. Still, I'm not going to rush it before I get a very solid outline in place.

Anyway! I think I'll celebrate the completion of my manuscript by the adding of chocolate to milk. :)

Winning Wednesday

So winning refers to something that was "luck" (or Providence), not anything to do with writing skills. Be warned!

And for my writing progress report...could be worse. I did finally finish the last full chapter of Endwood (just need to complete the epilogue). I probably should have split the ending into two pieces but I really didn't want the story to continue too terribly far after the climax. I'm SO looking forward to being done with it!

So I joined American Christian Fiction Writers a while back and sometimes people will post about when they have agents or editors on their blogs. So someone at Seekerville posted on ACFW about how they were having a costume party and invited everyone to come. I'm not sure if they mentioned a giveaway or not, but I didn't notice. I just wanted to dress my avatar up!

So the real story is that Tina James, senior editor of Love Inspired Historical and Love Inspired Suspense, was announcing they are printing four Historicals a month instead of two. Since I've never actually wrote historical romance (or any historical fiction without a major speculative element) I'm not sure if that's relevant for me or not, but squee! Historical clothes!

So I posted.

Aside from sewing the ribbon on the hat, this is all items I found at Ross and/or TJ Maxx. I do love making historical and fantasy costumes, but I suppose that's a story for another time. Anyway, I chose to dress in 1920s garb because if I WERE to write an outright historical, I reckon that's when I'd set it. And I love the Coney Island pictures, LOL.

Anyway, long story short, I was just outright SHOCKED to have won a contest that I believe was just a random draw. Really? I don't know how many entrants there were (well over 200 comments but some were from the same people). And I won four books? Shipped from the Senior Editor at the one Love Inspired line I could ever imagine writing for??? I didn't even know there were four books to win!

I used to believe in, if not luck, then things just happening randomly. But after going through Beth Moore's study of Esther, I'm not so sure. It's pretty much impossible for my mind to wrap around how every single little thing (as small as misplacing my keys and taking a minute to find them) could happen for a reason, but it certainly wouldn't be outside the range of God's power.

At any rate, winning four books is a lot bigger deal (and more unusual!) than losing my keys. A little part of me is wondering--maybe I should try a historical romance?

Another historical outfit I made (perhaps the most accurate, and completely made by me) is a 1770s dress. It would take so much work and research, but I believe people were getting into 1770s historical recreation in the 1920s...it seems to me that could be a very fun romance, with characters from a past era trying to recreate an even farther past era. And anything on Coney Island could be interesting (although I'm not so sure that would fly, given that the place used to be nicknamed "Sodom by the Sea"...).

Anyway. For now I reckon I will need to settle down and read them. I'll likely review them here, but I'm both a picky reader AND not much of a reviewer, so we'll see.

Oh right! In the comments from last week, I promised a picture of my phone, too.

If you want your Samsung Comeback to also look a bit like EVE from WALL-E, here's the photo.

I modified a page to print a paper EVE mask (of all things) I saw online, then shrunk it to a 240 height so it looks nice on the inner flip screen (I suggest you set your phone to "Black theme"--Menu, Settings, Display settings, My Theme, Black theme for the Comeback).

So, have you had anything recent happen that might be Providential?

Collaborative Writing - The Long Awaited Part 2

So updates on my own writing...I had a vague hope of finishing Flight from Endwood before the new year. That didn't happen, but now I'm cheering for the end of January. So I am buckling down and trying! I'd love to start a new collaborative project, too, but we'll see....

Speaking of collaboration! So a few weeks ago I said I'd share some things I heard at a panel on collaborative writing. Never mind the timeline I said I'd get that information out to you. Here it is now!

In November 2010 at the (secular) Tuscon Sci-fi/Fantasy/Horror convention, there was a panel on co-authoring with Michelle M. Welch, John Vornholt, and Jeff Mariotte. Some collaborated while under contract; I'm not sure any of them necessarily wrote a novel with someone quite how we did, without even having it sold yet. (Note that these writers are not necessarily--I'd go so far as to say not likely--Christians, but that doesn't mean they don't know some good techniques.)

A couple reasons for collaboration might be to have fun with a friend, and sometimes utilize different points of expertise. Overall, as I may have already mentioned, the goal of collaboration is for the finished product to be better than you could do yourself.

Random points they offered:

*Get a detailed outline first so that you know where it's going (this is beyond important if you're collaborating with one person writing some chapters and some people writing other chapters, etc.)

*Collaboration is very good for comedy--if you find something funny, someone else may not find it funny. But if TWO people think something is funny, then maybe other people will find it funny too!

*Distance is no longer an issue in collaboration, as it comes down to words on a page. You used to have to mail floppy disks (!) back in forth, but now you can collaborate in essentially, or even literally, real-time (see Google Docs etc.).

*Collaborating can be easier with a tight deadline (I think the logic there was that with a tight deadline, you both have to work, and you won't quibble about the small stuff).

*If an argument arises between the authors, try just scrapping the scene and writing something else.

*MAKE SURE WHOEVER SENDS TO THE EDITOR SENDS THE RIGHT VERSION! (One of the panelists had been working on a collaboration and the partner who sent the final copy out sent a previous draft. Since I can see myself doing that, I thought that was a good thing to note.)

They vaguely mentioned you need to agree who gets the final draft, etc., which I already knew from reading up on collaboration before we started.

And that...was about it. I thought I had more info, but sometimes short and sweet is best!

NaNoWriMo

I did NaNoWriMo this year, hoping it would help me either rediscover my enjoyment of writing, and/or give me a good dose of "just shut up and get it done"--either of which I could use for my novel "Flight from Endwood" (which, itself, was my NaNoWriMo, circa 2006). I was also looking forward to just WRITING for a change.

The basic concept itself was something I believe God gave me in Disneyland in June--though the execution did not go as expected. I had no idea my favorite character would be a human-looking robot! The entire thing will need rewritten from the ground up, and will probably need to be given a coherent plot. It's a pretty good candidate for if I ever try outlining.

Some people are impressed that I wrote 50,000 words in 30 days, but honestly, some of those same people could probably do the same thing if they just pushed aside all notions of quality and let the characters run wild. Such as...

“Erie sent me here to help,” Harris said.

“But you’re not...” Antonio trailed off. “Señor Papa--what do I do?” His face lit up in a slow grin, and Harris worried. He handed Harris an earpiece radio. “If you see anything amiss, I need you to tell me. This is set to broad to me, top priority.”

He smiled. “Did you want to arm me?”

“Not at this time.” Antonio looked around the vast hangar, now empty, almost as if scanning. He touched a panel and a closet door slid open. Antonio entered and rummaged for a few moments. “Yes. This will do. You must wear this.”

He handed him a black helmet, half the size of his torso, and furry with dust. No--furry with fur. “What’s this?”

“Your uniform,” Antonio said. He pulled out a huge black jumpsuit, made of fur, with a violet skirt around the waist and--no--a tail.

“I can’t wear that!”

“It’s climate-controled, with three views through the cameras. Señor Papa is sure a pilot such as yourself will have no difficulty navigating.”

He shook his head. “Did you have to pick a lady cat?”

“It is a good size for you,” Antonio replied with a smirk, looking down at him--he was a good foot taller than Harris. “And there are precious few of these suits left, for obvious reasons.”

“Because they’re horrible?”

Antonio frowned. “Because technology has greatly improved. Will you wear it?”

Oh yes. I don't know how it happened, but I went there.

Didn't get much of anything done today, except for a tiny amount of cleaning, and making some oven-baked potatoes which were quite good.