Stranger than fiction

What do we mean when we say that life is stranger than fiction. We mean that if I were to put the specific real life event into a book the reader would have a difficult time believing that the event could happen. The "stranger than" event would intrude into the willing suspension of disbelief and shatter the fourth wall. Sometimes the sense of disbelief comes from the converging of too many coincidences. Sometimes that sense is because the events seem so unusual to be true.

I've written before about the picture at the top of the post. The apparently homeless guy with a solar panels, a cell phone and a computer out protesting in front of an embassy in Washington, D.C. His situation stretches the bounds of what we're willing to accept as "real." I could write a whole thesis on why this is the case, but then this would be a very different type of blog.

Let me share my "stranger than" moment from last week.

The boys and I were driving home on Friday when we passed an airplane on the highway. Not flying above it. But on it. Think about that for a moment before scrolling down to the picture.

I have Bobby to thank for the picture since I was driving.

Apparently, someone had taken the plane apart (presumable at rivet points) so it could fit on the trailer. The wings were strapped to the outer panels of the trailer. Unfortunately, we didn't stay close enough to it in the traffic for me to do all of the mental gymnastics to envision the reconstructed plane. I still think all the parts weren't on the trailer although the landing gear could have still been inside the tail section of the truck.

Stranger than fiction.

For my second "stranger" moment this week I was shopping at a high end grocery store. Now this is one of those places where you will spend $200 a week for basic staples. On one of the shelves near the check out was a magazine with the following cover title: "Making Do With Less." Making do with less?  The store sells $1,000 bottles of wine for the love of Pete.  Geez. Let's put it this way.., if you were in that store shopping you weren't making do with less. Seeing the article was just surreal. 

"Stranger than fiction" moments can work in stories but a lot of groundwork is needed to make these very real moments seem "real." in the fiction context.

In the first case, the man with the solar panels, I'd have to develop some fairly detailed backstory that would have to be conveyed to the reader to explain the apparent contradiction between being homeless and having the disposable income to buy several solar panels, a computer, cell phone and cell phone/ internet plan. If I could convince you he could be real than I'd have a fairly amazing character to work with for my story.

I think I'd have to show you the plane being taken apart and loaded by someone with the knowledge to do so without harming it before you'd buy into the idea that a plane could be transported on a boat trailer. After all, I was watching it drive down the highway and still did a double take.

Stranger than fiction moments give us an opportunity to add depth to our story and address some of the odder things that happen in our life. So, I'm actively trying to figure out how I can insert these moments into my story. I think I have a role for my solar powered friend in my current WIP, Schrödinger Effect.  It's going to take me a bit to figure out what to do with the plane. Still, it will be SO worth it.

Stay tuned and I'll let you know how the journey goes.

Avoiding 5 Writing "Mistakes"

I recently finished editing New Bohemia: Just One Night and am waiting to get it back from the first beta reader. Waiting for those comments is always nerve wracking. Instead of obsessing, I thought I'd share some editing tips I've learned from my "mistakes" along the way. The list below contains some of the things I check my work for before I end the first stage of editing.

1. Don't have disembodied body parts.

I owe my education on this one to Celina Summers, Head Muse at Musa Publishing. It was something that I'd never considered before she pointed it out. Now I can't ignore when it happens. I tend to make this "mistake" when I'm trying to vary sentence structure and not constantly start the sentences with a pronoun or proper noun.

What do I mean by disembodied body parts? When there's no person attribution and the writer uses only the unattributed body part to function as the sentence's subject. 

So, the sentence, "Fingernails scraped across the chalkboard" falls into this category. Really, the nails did it by themselves? They weren't attached to fingers and those fingers weren't attached to a hand? Unless, you're reading a zombie novel and the parts really can act without being attached to someone, it's probably better to write "Her fingernails scraped across the chalkboard." 

2. Watch out for unintentional distancing in the narrative.

My first editor at Musa, Jennifer Ayers, pointed this out to me. It was one of those face-meet-palm moments because it's brilliantly simple once you know what you're looking for.

One of the main benefits of a third person point of view (POV) is it creates a connection between the reader and the character. When we create distance between the reader and the character we run the risk of losing the reader's interest and having her put the book down. Unintentional distancing is a type of POV violation or redundancy.

You create distance with a sentence like: "Bob felt the coarse texture of the rough spun wool under his fingers."

Why? Because we're already in Bob's POV. So telling me that "Bob felt" takes me a step back. A "better" sentence might be "The coarse texture of the rough spun wool abraded his fingers." Why do I think that's better? The precatory language "Bob felt" is gone. Also, the second sentence is more interesting because it tells me more about Bob and the feel of the material.

3. Avoid talking heads.

There are days I wonder if I should have been a screenwriter. My first draft of a scene is generally mostly dialog. I don't fill in the character movements or blocking fleshed out. While "talking heads" scenes are fine in a first draft, there needs to be more detail before the first beta reader gets a look. Long stretches of dialog needs to be interrupted by action, even if that action is as simple as standing up,.

4. When you limit weak verbs, characters rarely just "stand up" or "walk."

Speaking of standing up, motion gives you a chance to show character. Whether a character eases down into a seat, perches on the edge or extends his left leg out straight ad stiff when he sits tells a lot about who he is or his emotional state.  There's a difference between a character who "danced" across the street, and another who "lumbered" across it. The words "dance" and "lumber" evoke different mental images. Did you see a female moving for "danced" and a male for "lumbered"? I did.

Verb choices matter.

5. Remember the setting.

I just finished reading 20 storied for Flash Fiction Online's slush pile. At a guess one quarter of those stories suffered from the White Room Syndrome. It is almost never appropriate to ignore the setting. It is almost never appropriate to set a scene in a white painted room with white furniture. Yawn. I've seen a character waking up in a fully white room work once in a story. Once. And that character woke up in a hospital cell in a futuristic Center for Disease Control Center.

Also, keep in mind that POV matters when describing setting. An interior designer will notice more and different details than a 5 year old when looking at the same room. But both will notice and mentally, at least, comment on the space.

I hope this was helpful, or at least interesting. Now I'll go back to waiting. Sigh.

Work In Progress Report

I realized the other day that it had been a while since I'd done a work in progress update, and thought it was probably time. So, here goes:

The King's Falcon (fantasy) -I finished editing in the wake of Dave Farland/ Wolverton's suggestions from his Novel ReWriting Workshop. One of my challenges on this one was that I needed to pull a plot line that hadn't started until after page 100 into the first fifty pages and blend it into the story structure better. Fingers crossed that I did this well since this story is currently out with an editor for review.

New Bohemia: Just One Night (Romance). The first draft is saved. I had a heart attack moment a while ago when I was posting this story in 1,000 word chunks to one of my writing groups. I hadn't realized that Word was pulling up the file from the remote backup device. So, when it opened on the screen the story only had 50,000 words rather than the 105,000 it should have had. Panic set in. About 20 minutes later I realized my mistake. Hands shaking, I saved a backup of the file and closed the computer for the night.  I haven't looked at this one in six weeks so it's about time to start edits.

Schrodinger Effect (Urban Fantasy Thriller). A wise friend, Lisa Scottoline, once said the difference between a murder mystery a thriller is in murder mystery someone is dead when the story starts, and in a thriller, someone dies after the narrative starts. By that definition, this WIP qualifies as a thriller. I tried picking at this story without the color wheel done, but kept having to stop to figure out the emotional resonance of what Vonna was seeing. So, I've finally finished my emotion color wheel, and outline. Now if I can keep the cat off my magnetic white board (although she's done some interesting things rearranging my outline), I should be able to get this one written. I'm about 5,000 words into it and so far so good.

Thanks for stopping by.

Editing versus writing

I'm currently editing two novels. It struck me the other night how fundamentally different the process of writing is from editing in one aspect. When I write a story, I'm always looking at my increasing word count. My goals are based on how many new words I add to the story each week. There's that moment of excitement when a story passes the "short" length and into novella. Then there's the sheer joy of crossing into novel length.

But then, I type "The End" and panic sets. One of the down sides to being a discovery writer is that I write long. Too long. I might have 50 pages before I figure out where the story starts. As I start to push the upper edge of genre appropriate word count. I start thinking about how much is left and how much I'll need to cut in the edit phase.

When I switch hats from writer to editor, I reverse the process. I have a minimum number of words I need to lop off. It's a bit disheartening when I start the process, but then just like the moment of watching the word count rise, watching it decline becomes a thrill. Not only am I  bringing the beast into genre acceptable limits, but I'm watching the story lines tighten, making my prose cleaner and meaner. Once I chip away excess words, I find themes I hadn't realized I'd written in.

So, right now I'm in the process of taking a 130,500 word behemoth back down to something closer to 110k. Three thousand words to down, seventeen thousand to go. Oh yes, and did I mention I wanted this edit complete before I leave for Superstars Writing Seminar on Sunday (May 12)?? Well, I do. So it's back to work for me.

As always, thanks for stopping by.

Looking Forward (Not Resolutions)

Last week was a week for looking back, recalling those good old days, and launching into the new year without the last year's baggage. If you can figure out how to make this work, please let me know.

This week is all about the future. In the upcoming year, I'm scheduled to attend three writing seminars: Superstars Writing Seminar - Colorado - May; ThrillerFest - NYC - July; and World Fantasy (WFC)- Brighton, England - October. I may try to sneak down to DragonCon or up to Balticon (more likely) since they are relatively close to me, but family, workload, time and money will dictate whether I make those two. WFC will mark the fourth time I've been out of the United States, and the first time my kids will leave the country. Come the fall, my oldest will start high school. How in the world did that happen?

My goal is to finish the current WIP this month, with a submission to my publisher in March. I've committed to writing 50,000 words on a new story in the next four months. I need to have this one completed and ready for submission by ThrillerFest (July). I also want to finish the re-write of the novel I took to Dave Farland's Novel ReWriting workshop by the end of February, with submissions starting in May.

Then, of course, there's the family time. I also want to spend more time at the pool with the kids and get my garden planted this year. Last year I managed to get the garden beds ready for planting, but changes in my law practice ate up all my "free" time this past summer. 

Speaking of my law practice, I need to finish setting up my new office in Fairfax. I want to grow that law practice in 2013 to the point where I can justify having a full time associate (junior lawyer) or paralegal.

So, 2013 looks to be as busy as 2012, and that's just the stuff I know about. I can't wait to see what 2013 holds. I hope you join me for the ride.

Work in progress update for November

 

With the first two major fall holidays past, thoughts turn to the dying of the light, and the old year. While 2012's not over yet, it's been a heck of a ride so far. I expect December will keep pace.

I'm still experiencing transition pains with the new law firm. I (read that as my very manly husband) moved from the basement office where I was squatting into my new office on the second floor this weekend. That means Matt had to carry my very heavy (so he tells me) furniture up two flights of steps. For some reasons houses built before the Civil War don't have elevators.

New Bohemia was my NaNoWriMo novel this year. I added the 30,000 words I wanted, but like most discovery writers, I learned I was still 20,000 words from that magic phrase "the end." So, December's goal is to get that done. I did write nearly every day in November so NaNo was a sucess even if I don't get to put that little banner up.

Apollo Rising, which released on September 10, 2012 from Musa Publishing, is free on Amazon from December 3-5, 2012.  Please check it out. This is the buy link if you want a free copy and are reading this during the promotion period.

I've rewritten 130 pages of Falcon, the novel I took to Dave Farland's rewriting seminar. If my estimate on New Bohemia is right, I should be able to get half of Falcon rewritten by the year's end.

So, that's my plan for the rest of 2012. What's yours?

NaNoWriMo - Status update

I have a love/hate relationship with NaNoWriMo. For those of you who don't know, NaNoWriMo is National Write a Novel Month. Every November, writers, professional and amateur, sign to write 50,000 words or more in the month. So, technically, it's not a full novel. Heck, for epic fantasy, it's a half novel. The point isn't as much as completing a novel in a month as it is to get motivated and write. A lot.

I love the idea and the competition, even though it's just myself I'm competing against. I hate the idea that writers should dedicate themselves to this lofty goal for only one month a year. Evan Braun did a great post on being a professional writer all year-round on the Fictorian's site under the title: The Year-Round Professional so I won't replow that ground.

In it's own way, NaNo teaches us how to be a professional writer. To get to 50,000 words, you have to spend some real BIS (Butt in the Seat) time. Sometimes hitting 50,000 words is easy. Other times, not so much. This is my third year participating in NaNo. The last two times, I hit or surpassed the 50,000 mark. After rewriting, I probably only wrote 30,000 usable words each time. But that's nothing to sneer over.

This year I wanted to take a different approach. I knew I was going to lose five or six writing days because I was attending the World Fantasy Convention. Rather than a modest 1,666 words a day, I need to average closer to 2,000 to catch-up. Every day I missed after, and I've missed some, meant my needed daily word count average is closer to 2,500. Knowing that this year was going to be a challenge, I cheated.

Before you scowl. I haven't really cheated. I picked a story that was almost finished. I need about 30,000 words to reach "happily every after." If I hit that point, I'll consider myself a winner. Even if NaNo doesn't. If I finish New Bohemia: Just One Night, I have another novel that I can work on for the other 20,000. So, I'm not that upset that I'm at 16,000 words. I'm halfway to my real goal.

Okay, back to my point. While I can bust 50,000 words in a month, I've done it before from when I was even further behind, my super secret goal is to write 30,000 words I can keep. The writing is slower for my attempt, which is why I'm hovering closer to 20,000 words than the 36,000 I "should" have. So, no tricks for me. No describing a meal in excruciating detail, a suggested tip for making up word count. Honest words. Good clean words. Well, not "clean" since this is erotic romance, but you get the point. So, how am I doing?

 

“I don’t want to think. If I think, I won’t be able to do this. Please make me warm. Stop me from thinking,” May said.  

"Oh fuck, May.”

When Pete rolled his eyes, she sank her teeth into his neck.“That’s sort of the point." 

But I'm being a little dishonest with you too. I'm a competitive SOB. You don't get to be a good trial lawyer without being competitive. I hate to lose. I'm pushing for 50,000 words across two stories.

There's a point I made that I want to circle back to. I said I "should" have 36,000 words written by now. Why did I put should in quotes? Because "should" means nothing. Writing means everything. NaNo is just one more reason for me to sit down at my desk (or in bed), break out the computer and write.

If you're participating in NaNo, I wish you fast fingers and a prolific muse. You can write 50,000 words in 30 days. See you at that finish line.

What's in a name - part II - odd writer's block.

I've written about the importance of names on this blog before (-> here <-), but in working on my current WIP - New Bohemia - I noticed something else about names.

 Now, a bit about how I write to put this in context. I don't outline. My attempts to do so have failed. When I start a story, I usually know my main characters, their history, and their major story arc, and the ending. While I don't outline, I do a lot of pre-writing (a David Farland term, or at least one I learned from him). I spend a lot of time imagining a scene before it ever hits a page.  When I don't have a character's name or a detail I need to research I use "XY" as a placeholder. During the first round of edits, I search the document for "XY" and fill in the missing information. Using XY instead of a character name has never been a problem. Until now.

But in working on New Bohemia, I had to write a scene where a character (May) gets a phone call that changes the direction of the story, and places another obstacle between her and happily ever after. Now, I knew who was making the call, what her history was, how she was going to impact the rest of the story, the reconciliation needed between the two women, and what she had to say during this particular call. What I didn't have was her name.

The story languished for two weeks without more than a few words being written each time I sat down to work. I couldn't figure out why. It wasn't really writer's block. I knew what I needed to write, and most of the dialog. So why was this so tough?

Turns  out, I couldn't write because the character, who is a fairly major one, didn' t have a name. But I didn't realize that yet.

First, I chalked up the inability to progress on exhaustion. The day job was frantic and the kids were back in school adding another dimension of crazy to my life. Sleep had climbed up higher on the need list after all. Still, catching up on sleep and wrestling control of my docket didn't get me writing again.

Figuring I was missing knowledge I needed for the following scenes, I paused and researched avalanche rescues, and whether an entire town has ever been lost to an avalanche. Turns out there was a large avalanche, triggered by an earthquake, that flowed into a town. Thirty-four people died. It was a horrible, and unexpected disaster. Now, I had a real world basis for my catastrophe. Content, I sat back down at my keyboard.

And. . . still nothing.

Fine. Maybe, I'll flip through Sherrilyn Kenyon's Character Naming Sourcebook and  see if I could fill in some of those XYs while I pondered the full stop in my forward momentum. I knew my character was from Wales but had grown up in the household of Indian natives living in England. So, I flipped to page 381 of the book where Welsh names start. About twenty minutes later, Tegan Brice was born, or at least named.

Guess what? I finished that scene, the first one she appeared in, half an hour later. Having a name let me fill in other details that I hadn't considered yet.

So, what's in a name? Sometimes everything.

Dave Wolverton/ Farland's Novel Rewriting Workshop

This week I'm attending David Farland/ Wolverton's Novel Writing Workshop in St. George, Utah. During the week, I'll take my WIP - The King's Falcon - and try to iron out the last bugs. King's Falcon features an older version of Falcon from Lightning Strikes  in  Paths Less Traveled. Now working as Queen Sabryna's agent, Falcon's latest mission runs her afoul of a mage king, and thrusts Falcon ever closer to her own unwanted and abandoned throne. 

The workshop is intensive, and even had homework. The ten of us had certain books on editing, story craft and outlining to read before we arrived. We also had to review the first 20 pages and 10 page outline of the other writer's books. We'll spend the morning in "class" and discussing the stories, and the afternoon working on our homework assignments. This week is likely to be exhausting, fun, and hugely helpful. 

I also turned in the edits for Apollo's Rising, which releases from Musa on September 10, and I'll post a bit more on that later this week.

That's it for now. I'm off to class.

Work in Progress - July 2012 update

So, it's that time of the month again; time to reflect on the month passed and set goals for the present month.

Last month was one of the greatest periods of upheaval I've had in my life. Not only was I changing law firms but I was in court 2-3 times a week during that same time. All my stuff, other than critical case files, are still at the old firm. We're scheduled to move them on Wednesday.

Work demands limited my family and writing time. My July goals were:

(1) revamp my law practice;
(2) get feedback to another writer;
(3) edit New Bohemia; and
(4) write another 30K words on Flashes of Life.

How did I do? Fair.

I'm still working on integration at the new firm. A large part of this traces back to my limited time in the office. I think I already have more working hours in the office this month than I did all last month. Law firm transition is still a work in progress.

I have my notes typed up and should be sending out the e-mail to the other writer tonight. A few days late, but still - done.

New Bohemia needed a revamp because I realized my main character isn't who I thought it was. I have a love/hate relationship with characters who rebel. Anyway, the revised story is back up to 35,000 words, and still likely to be a novella. My goal is 750 words a day, 5 days a week, which should let me finish it before the writing seminar this month (more on this in a second).

I didn't touch Flashes other than to have a few more scenes play out in my head. I need to get them down, but I have to finish NB first.
At the end of August, I'll be attending David Farland's novel rewriting workshop. The novel I'm taking with me, The King's Falcon, which features Falcon from Paths Less Traveled. I have something off on the pacing and for the life of me, I can't quite nail it down., so instead of making changes that  might actually harm the story, I'm seeking professional help, ah, I mean, workshopping it. I'm planning to submit the novel to Musa Publishing after the seminar. Anyway, the workshop has "homework." I need to  read the synopsis and first 20 pages of novels of the other attendees. We'll spend part of the seminar discussing the material so I need to comment on the materials. The seminar is limited to 12 students, as of right now, there are 8 of us. I've read through the material from 3 writers. Four more to go. My plan is to read two sets per week. If you click on the link you can see that the workshop is fairly intense, but I'm hoping to blog from it at least once that week.

Apollo Rising, releases on September 10, 2012 from Musa Publishing. I'm waiting for comments back from my editor so I can start the final editing process. Since my due date is August 10, I expect to spend most of this week in edits.

So, that's how I plan to spend the dog days of summer. How about you?

Work in Progress Update - June 2012 roundup

So, after a weekend without power for many in my area and a shift in the day job, I'm finally getting a chance to catch-up.

Being an unemployed (sort of) lawyer is an interesting thing. My old firm of nearly 5 years chose to break apart for, effectively, irreconcilable differences. I opted to join another firm rather than stay with one of the new firms rising from the ashes of the old. Before making that decision, I contemplated going solo. One of the many weird things about being a lawyer, is if you have clients you really are never "out of work." When my new firm asked me if I planned to take a few days off between the companies, I laughed. I was leaving the old firm on Friday, and had court set for Monday. So, no, no time off.

The shifting of my day job means I haven't done any substantial new writing for the last 4 weeks. Not even my lousy 250 words a day. Grr.

The Jack Gorman anthology comes out on July 20 and it's consumed the little writing time I've been able to scrape up. We were sent a draft cover for the anthology, and our first rounds of edits. All those are in.

The other projects are stalled. My erotic novella New Bohemia, Just One Night awaits editing. The Noebco Effect, which is a novel with Vonna from Flashes of Life in the Paths Less Traveled short story collection sits at about 20,000 words. I also need to get beta comments back to another writer on his novel.

Still, things could be a lot worse.

Last month saw my first royalty payment and two short story collections in print.

For July, my plan is to:
(1) revamp my law practice to match my new firm's mode of operation,
(2) get feedback to the other writer;
(3) edit New Bohemia; and
(4) write another 30,000 words in Flashes of Life.

Sure, I can do that. Stay tuned and watch me.